| OCR Text |
Show 42 The Grouse Creek Cultural Survey January finds the pace of life in Grouse Creek lowered with the temperature. Most cattle are wintered on the desert range-an area encompassing about a fifteen-mile stretch along the Nevada border. Some ranches, lacking allotments on the desert, keep all their cattle on their feed lots. The rancher's work at this time entails feeding the hay produced during the summer. The daily feeding routine is handled by the men, often aided by their children. When the number of cattle to be fed is small, they use trucks, and when the herd is large, tractors and rubber-tire wagons. Periodically the ranchers take their horses to the winter range and ride out to check their stock. Doug Tanner describes winter as a time of trying to pull the cattle through, to "keep them alive until spring." The cycle of ranching in Grouse Creek has been followed for nearly one hundred years. Although the amount of mechanization has increased, the horse remains essential to the craft. As Max Tanner said, "You aren't going to get 'em [the cattle] in any other way." The ability to move cattle on horseback remains a crucial facet of Grouse Creek work. "Brush riding," as the cowboys call normal work riding to distinguish it from the rodeo variety, involves a solid sense of animal behavior. Doug Tanner's explanation of the use of spurs reveals some of the techniques of working cattle from horseback. '"^r - s | -7 ~* rr y , 7 . • • ' . ' . . '-,,:. ^ " '* : ' ' - . - •. •• 7- - ' 7-. V- ; -7 "' :-? • . Max Tanner moving cattle in Cotton Thomas Basin. (Tom Carter; GCCS TCB-25589/15) |
