Chapter 11

“Mariana I want you to set up reservations in Corpus Christi, for all of us when school is out...

“Momma and Daddy, Mr. Swede, Miss Inga, and all the rest of us. We’ll all go on our honeymoon together. You can get in touch with Gloria Collins, the real estate agent down there and she’ll make the reservations for you, just tell her how many and to keep it quiet, that we’re surprising Ingrid and Gloria will take care of it for you.”

“That will be fun. I’ll get started on that right away.”

“Just don’t let anyone know about it, check for some good dates around the first of June and let me know what you come up with.”

“I will take care of that Lucky and you can pick the dates.”

“I knew you would, you’re as good out of bed as you are in bed.”

Mr. Swede and Ms. Inga came in the kitchen and Mariana jumped up to get them a plate and some coffee.

“Mariana, you sit your pretty little butt down in that chair! I can wait on Lars and myself. I’ve done this for years now. Besides you need to start eating right and taking care of yourself, and the baby.”

I was just as shocked as Mariana.

“You two can close your mouths. Ingrid talked to her Grand Papa and me yesterday and asked if it would be alright if Mariana has Lucky’s baby too when she does. Lars and I wanted to know if they were only planning to have one each and not twins.

Mr. Swede told her, “Mariana, you have been a member of the Johansson family since you came here, and you need to hire a cook and a housekeeper this week or my Inga and I will take you out behind the barn and spank that skinny little butt for you.”

Mr. Swede really shocked me. Ingrid really is having a huge impact on her grand parents.

“Yes Mr. Swede, I love you and Ms. Inga so much.”

“We love you too and we are so proud to think of you and Anna as our grand daughters, just like Ingrid.”

“Mr. Swede what are you and Daddy looking for today? Some investment real estate, or some more ranch land?” I asked as we ate our eggs, biscuits, potatoes and bacon.

“Lucky, your Daddy said this Barclay Ranch has one entire half-section that joins our land on the northwest corner, and that is where Big Creek comes into our place and feeds all of our water needs for the north pastures over there.”

“I see, so if we can pick that land up at a bargain, we’ll insure our water rights for years to come, as well as get some good grazing?”

“Yes Lucky. What do you think that land will go for over there?”

“Selling at auction, and with the price of land being down at this time, I’d say somewhere between $225 and $275 per acre, since it has the two big lakes and some good wheat producing acreage. Then too, we have to look at like this - it means more to us than anyone else who will be at that land auction. Since that’s our water supply for that entire northwest part of the ranch.

“Then we will buy all of it if we can get it for $300 or less, ya?”

“To protect our water supply, I would even go another ten to fifteen dollars, if that’s what it takes. Do you want me to go with you? I can get us some Hereford heifers at the next sale.”

“No, let me and your Daddy handle this one and see if we come out as lucky as you did with that last one. Red told me he’s already capped two gas wells and is drilling two more now. We will be pumping gas out of that land after everyone else said it was worthless.”

He laughed his big laugh and slapped my back.

“How many acres is in this piece of land you’re talking about, Mr. Swede?”

“The auction paper said 2,750 and that includes the two lakes. But Old Man Clay Randall told us that he would give us first refusal on his 3,000 acre ranch adjoining the Barclay Ranch if we purchase that one.”

“If you can get your hands both of those, we will nearly double the size of your ranch - this year alone. We need to see if Mr. Lewis will finance all of that for the same interest he gives us on our operating loan, and save our cash money, which will draw even more interest. We can probably make close to a quarter percent on our money by swapping notes like that.”

“Would it be worth it to switch and swap money like that?”

“Actually both ranches would pay for themselves as we go along, by planting wheat, then grazing cattle on it for a month in late winter, plus we’ll give the wheat a good dose of nitrogen to help regrowth after grazing, and we’ll get to harvest the wheat in the spring. We could possibly come out over $2000 ahead on each parcel. That way, the land wouldn’t really cost us anything except some labor and equipment, which we’ll write off anyway.”

“Lucky, I will leave this money making talk to you and Ingrid. We will buy both ranches if we can get even close to a bargain on them. We have the letter of credit from Mr. Lewis, so we will call you and him if we can make a deal on all that land.”

“Sounds good to me. If you happen to see Red at the auction, you may want to pick his brain like you did on that fifteen hundred acre parcel we bought from Mr. Landerman. According to the survey maps Red gave me, those two parcels of land line up on the same parallel as the Landerman farm.”

Ingrid has never been to an auction of any kind, so I asked her to go with me. This being a Saturday, with sunny skies and temperatures in the low seventies, there were a lot of folks at the livestock auction.

I signed up and gave them a copy of my bank letter. They gave me a sign with my number on it and I gave it to Ingrid.

“When I bump your arm, you wave that sign overhead so the auctioneer can see you.”

“Does that mean we are placing a bid for the price he’s asking?”

“Yes and you’ll have to listen real close and real fast, because he talks so fast you may miss a bid.”

“How many heifers are we buying today?”

“They will sell them in lots, and we’ll either bid on two or three lots, or one big lot to get what we need. I’d like to end up with at least a hundred head, and possibly a hundred and thirty if we can get a deal.”

“Are we going to breed these heifers to the new bulls you bought from The King Ranch?”

“Yes, and we’ll be able to start our own bloodline by using registered heifers and bulls.”

“My man is not only Lucky, he is a smart Cowboy. I want to learn all about the cattle business, even the breeding part.”

“Then you can help me when we put our tags on each heifer, then each of that heifer’s calves. That way, we can look back in our books and trace each calf to its momma and daddy, and keep our bloodlines pure.”

“Are all those cattle we saw in the pens purebred?”

“No, most of them were bred to the bull that happened to be close when the cow starts her estrus cycle, which usually lasts between eighteen to twenty-four days.

“How many cows can a bull breed in a day?”

“We go by a bulls age when we put him in a pen with some cows...

“A year old bull should cover as many as twelve cows per breeding season. A bull that’s a year and a half, can cover as many as eighteen cows in that same time period.

“Then, if we have a two year old bull, we’ll expect him to cover up to twenty-five cows per breeding season.

“A mature bull can cover twenty-five to thirty-five cows in a season.”

“So a big ranch like ours will have to have many bulls of different ages right?”

“Yes, but Mr. Swede has never had but a few registered bulls. He keeps the best looking bulls each season, then sells his older bulls at market.

“The bulls we have coming from King Ranch should last us many breeding seasons. We will have to make sure we tag each calf to show its daddy and momma, so we don’t breed a bull to its own offspring heifer.”

“I see what you are talking about. This will be easy if we set up the right system to keep the records and keep the right bulls with the right cows each breeding season.”

“Yes, and if you will help me set that system up like a chart, you can help me make sure we’re keeping our bloodlines pure.”

“Then we will need more fences than we have now, right?”

“Yep, which means we will need more labor pretty soon.”

“I’m sure Mariana can help us locate good ranch help.”

...”Here we go. The auction is about to start. Just be sure and wave your sign when I bump your arm with my elbow. Be sure and listen to the man tell the age of the heifers and how many is in each lot.”

“I love this part of ranching. Will we do this too, when we start breeding horses?”

“Yes and it’s even more fun then, because we’ll be best friends with each colt as soon as it’s born.”

“He talks so fast, I have to listen close. Tell me if I have this right. He said this first lot of fifty Hereford open heifers are twelve months old.”

“That’s exactly what he said. You’re gonna be good at this, I can tell. Hang on - if there’s anyway we can get our hands on this lot, we’ll pick up as many as another hundred head to match these, if they come through the chutes. I have a good feeling about these calves and our new bulls.”

When we walked out of the sale barn later, we had made arrangements for delivery of two hundred and fifty, pure-bred Hereford open heifers, from three different ranches.

We were about to get into our truck when a man yelled from behind us.

We turned around to see him hurrying toward us, waving both hands overhead.

“Hold up there, young fella. I wanted to meet you and your wife before you left the arena, but I never could catch up to you.

“My name’s Raiford Almiere, and that first fifty head you bought, came from my ranch. I got to tell you, I have never seen a young couple pick open heifers as well as you two did.”

“Thanks Mr. Raiford. Lucky Roundtree here, and this is my bride to be, Ingrid. This is the first auction we’ve attended together.”