Chapter 7

We settled into life at home fairly smoothly. The first thing we did was unload the cornmeal, flour, and salt beef into the house and that very night we had biscuits made from the flour, and plenty of them. We also had a roast cooked off one of the cows that had been attacked by wolves and had to be killed after it was injured. Jim and Johnny had already skinned it out and cut it up and so we had a feast. We even invited them in for supper since we had the new table and chairs and it made for plenty of room.

The carpenters had already finished the new bunkhouse and I needed to get a stove for it so they could cook for themselves. I took the freight wagon into town the next day to try finding a good stove and while I was at it I bought them a new coffee pot, plenty of coffee, and other staples for them to keep in the bunkhouse. I even stopped at a farmers house on the way back and made a deal for two hundred pounds of potatoes he'd just dug up. That should be plenty for the house and the bunkhouse for a while.

The very next morning we had a visitor just after the coffee was made. He was scouting for a small cattle herd and they were headed toward Ft Worth to sell their beeves. He had a hard luck story from the get go and said Indians had hit them about six days back and killed the trail boss and run off some of the stock.

I could smell a deal and so I asked him how to find the herd.

"It shouldn't be much trouble to find them, or what's left of them. They're only a few miles behind me." he said.

I saddled Red and headed out as soon as he took off. I found the herd and they didn't look to pretty good. They barely had enough hands left to keep them together. I rode up to the new main leader and he took time to talk. I asked him what he wanted for the cattle and I'm sure he knew they weren't worth top dollar.

We stopped and he had his camp cookie brew us a pot of coffee, While we drank it I made a deal for eight dollars a head and I'm sure he thought he had the best of me since he and I both knew they were only bringing eleven at the railhead now a days.

He agreed to drive them to my place and get payment there and so I helped just to make sure I got all of them there.

When we counted them into my place he didn't even count the newborn calves and I noticed there were a lot of 'em. It was unusual for him to have so many, but it wasn't unusual to skip counting them in with the paying cattle. After all, no regular buyer would even let them be loaded up since they would only die on the train trip.

I wound up with eight hundred and some grown beeves and I paid him off promptly. He was glad to get it and after spending the night in and around my barn they took off the next morning.

I had made one hell of a deal. The cows looked scrawny, but the grass I had would be the cure for that. Jim and Johnny had their work cut out for them watching this many though and they were quick to mention two other boys who needed the work. I had them go for the other two and before the day was out Bill and Frank had joined my crew.

The extra two hands were only really needed for the first few days to keep the cows lined out and in our fences. After they were settled down I had the guys swap off two with the cows and two out looking for more to buy every other day. It left two hands to watch the place and two to gather stock.

Just looking at the poor condition of the coats of the cattle let me know some of them needed worming, badly. I knew already no real anthelmintics had been developed yet, but I also knew of an old wives tale treatment that actually worked, somewhat.

After asking Jim and Johnny I found out there was one farmer who was raising some tobacco. I rode over to see him the next day and he was happy to take real money for what he had on the way up. He cut it all for me, with me helping, and I was only too happy to give him forty dollars for his whole crop.

The next few days were real work for Jim, Johnny, Bill, Frank, and me. We cut out the scrougiest looking cattle and penned them up putting out only the tobacco for them to eat. They liked it at first and then left it alone the next day. After a good watering they went back to eating it and the next day it seemed like they would shit forever.

I was well pleased with this action though since we could actually see the dead and dying worms in the runny shit they produced. We left them for two days with only water and nothing to eat and then we turned them out after marking them with some red paint I'd bought in town.

I had Jim, Johnny, Bill, and Frank keep their eyes peeled for any cattle who looked bad and who didn't have red paint on them after that.

They caught about ten more cattle up and we treated them too. I'll admit I wasn't so worried about the cattle, but I didn't want wormy cattle ruining my pasture by depositing worms for all my cattle to come down with. I saved the rest of the tobacco for future use and we called ourselves done with it for this bunch.

Of course that wasn't the last we had to do for or to the cattle. Almost none of the males had been casterated and by now they were big enough to give us trouble over the process. We had it to do though and so we got started. Luckily Jim had seen it done before and he knew how to work the ropes.

Casterating is called casterating since mostly the biggest part of the work is casting the cattle. In other words, roping and tying them up and then pushing them over to get at the particular organs which needed removing. Obviously the bulls didn't like this at all, but hey, they would gain weight faster without their balls. Anyone who doesn't believe this can have their dog casterated and see how fat the bastard gets later.

We had two hundred bulls who needed a nutectomy and about fifty calves. The grown bulls were the most trouble by far and also the least liked by Jim, Johnny, and the other boys I hired to help. Mainly they hated washing the bulls balls and surrounding area with soapy water before cutting them, but I insisted since I knew it would cut way back on later infections.

It took us two weeks to get done, but we did an excellent job. Not a single bull of bull calf came up with an infection and they were soon putting on weight and so were those we'd wormed.

Now that most of the hard work was done we merely kept the predators away and let the cattle gain weight. Lucy and Julie were glad enough the tough part was done because they found I was no longer worn out at the end of the day and had strength enough to tend to their needs again.

Lucy was the first to think she'd come up pregnant and after that Julie was hell bent on getting a dose every night. I took the time to explain their cycle to them then and laid out exactly what caused it and taught them when the best time for pregnancy to happen was. They didn't believe me about it at first, but I soon convinced Julie she'd be better off getting a good comeshot fourteen days after her period ended and a couple of days before and after. After all, I explained, I only had so much come to give.

I was saved from being fucked to death when she missed her next period entirely and sure enough it was the last one for a while. It didn't mean I thought we should quit entirely since I wanted to keep in practice.

About all we had to do for the cattle now was make sure they had plenty of water available and set out some salt for them to find easily. There was no such thing as a block of salt for cattle yet and so we had to buy loose salt and build little covered feeders for it. It was worth the effort though since our cattle did well.

Within three months the cattle were all fat and slick and we cut out all but the best three bulls and the smallest calves. We had barely any notion which the best cows were so we gathered most of them also and made up a traveling herd. I rode to Ft Worth to make sure there were still some buyers around and I found a good one. He'd just come on the scene and was upset since most of the cattle had already been sold without him getting his share of them. I told him I had eight hundred or more I could supply and I told him they were fat.

He told me he'd pay twelve dollars a head for them if they were as good as I said and I headed home to get them started.

It took us a day to get them gathered and then only two more to get them to Ft Worth to the stock pens. The buyer was more than pleased with them and he counted out $10,212 for eight hundred and fifty one head. I sent the boys on home, took the money he'd counted out and headed for Dallas and the bank I dealt with.

Of course it wasn't that easy and luckily the boys had hung close even thought I'd told them to head out. Two owlhoots were waiting for me when I came out of the saloon with the bag of gold. They approached me without guns drawn but they were insistant I should let them have the bag. I dropped it and went for the Diamondback in my shoulder holster.

It surprised them so much I was able to put three shots into one of their chest and the boys must have put twenty rounds into the other one.

I was robbing the corpses when the marshal came up and asked what had happened. I told him and he went off to look for someone else.

I found money belts on both of them and they were packed full of gold coins. The marshal returned with two men a little later and they identified the two as men who had robbed them also. We counted out the contents of the money belts and there was enough to return the other men's money and about a thousand dollars left over. The other two paid me five hundred each for the return of their money and once again I came out smelling like a rose. Hell, I'd made two thousand dollars for killing an asshole who was tryiing to rob me. I also gained his horse, his Henry rifle, and his outfit wich included a really nice and nearly new saddle. I was happy to pay twenty dollars to have him buried.

Naturally the boys all wanted to stay close to me for the trip over to the bank in Dallas. It was closed when we got there and so I paid for rooms for all of us in a hotel with a big vault for safe-keeping of customer's valuables.

We were up before the sun the next morning and we all went down to eat together. They served plenty and we ate all we could hold. It was still too early for the bank to open so we walked through some of the stores downtown to look around. I happened upon a place with six ten gauge greeners for sale and I bought them and in another place I found twelve Sharp's rifles in 50-70 and I had to have them too.

They were the carbines and not the regular long barrelled sharps, but the guns were known for their quality and their excellent accuracy. I don't know exactly why I thought today was the day to stock up on guns and ammunition, but we were here and the guns were available and I had the money and so I bought them.

After I got to the bank and opened an account I forgot about my money troubles. Especially the trouble of carrying it around for thieves to have a go at it. We finally mounted up and took off back for home.

I guess it was just a troublesome day. When we got home there were ten or twelve men riding around in front of the house firing their revolvers into the air. They had picked the exact wrong time to try it. We bailed off our horses and started picking them off with the new Sharps. They tried to leave after about eight of them were on the ground but I was up on Red again after them likety-split and he had no trouble bringing them into close range.

I guess they assumed we had all come after them because they didn't even look back. Of course they had no chance of out running Red and I finished clearning the saddles without them once even looking back. I guess they thought the devil was on their asses, and I think I was close enough to the devil to send them all to hell. I rode down to the last one I'd shot. He was the fartherest from me and he was still alive. In fact I was pretty sure a doctor could save him. Unfortunately for him no doctor was going to get the chance to.