For Old Times' Sake

 

For years, Randy's family has been driving under this canopy of cottonwood trees and taking cattle to pasture. It's a spring rite of passage for both cattle and man. 

The pasture on the Rattlesnake Creek has been in his family for more than 100 years. Today, Randy and his cousin, Don, are the latest in a long line of Fritzemeiers to use the pasture as a summer grazing spot for mamas and babies. 

Randy has been making this journey since he was a little boy. He rode shotgun as his Grandpa Clarence and his Dad Melvin delivered calves to the pasture.

The ground was purchased in 1900 by Albert Brinkman, a great-great-great uncle of Randy's, for about $4 an acre. Originally in a tract of 1,040 acres, 560 acres today remain in the Fritzemeier family. It has always been native pasture. 

This is an undated photo of Randy's Grandpa, Clarence Fritzemeier, with a bull. The back of the photo has written (in Randy's Grandma Ava's handwriting): "He looks like he knew he was going to be sold."

These babies were born in January and February. It's their first visit to this pasture along the Rattlesnake.

It seems like a good place to spend your summer vacation, especially if we get enough rain to keep the grass green and the Rattlesnake filled.

I can't complain about the working conditions either. The round-up a week ago came right after a rain, with grasses a brilliant green against the blue sky.

Picture postcard pretty, right?