The Peripheral Sur

by Bart Key

  Chapter 16

  Return to Idaho

  On my way back from Europe one time, I suddenly got a hair and decided to stop at my hometown which I hadn’t visited since the sale of my grandparents’ mercantile store. That’s where I went first just so I could walk through its many familiar aisles and take a trip back in time. After that, I dropped into a nearby watering hole for a beer and ran into one of my former high school classmates. As we chatted away, he happened to mention that one of the larger ranches in the area had recently come on the market. This struck a chord. So after finishing my beer and wishing my friend well, I walked to the office of the realtor I had worked with when I sold my grandparents’ house. He was in and confirmed what my friend had said. On an impulse, I called Cory at the airport and told him to take the plane back to Santa Barbara. I would call in a couple of days to be picked up. The next morning my realtor and I drove to the Bar 7 ranch where we were met by its owner, Henry. He invited us in and over lunch proceeded to tell us the history of the place which he had inherited from his father. Back then the ranch was much smaller but over the years Henry and his wife acquired a couple of adjoining ranches making the Bar 7 one of the largest in the county. About a year ago, Henry’s wife had passed away and, being in his early seventies, he realized he needed to slow down. As his kids had no interest in ranching, he decided to sell it and move to a very small spread he owned close to town where he could spend the remainder of his days living quietly with his horses and dogs.

  After lunch, we climbed into his pickup and he showed us around. Not far from the house was a large horse barn. We stopped and went inside where he introduced us to his barn manager, Roberto, a quite friendly young man who showed us around stopping occasionally to tell us about one horse or another. As we were walking back to the truck, Henry mentioned that Roberto had a gift of easy communication with horses and hoped to stay on as barn manager when the ranch was sold. Next, we drove past the bunkhouse, where the unmarried hands lived, as well as several small houses where his married employees and their families lived. Further down the road were two smaller bunkhouses, a small barn and a couple of larger corrals. Henry explained that these were facilities used by the Idaho State University rodeo team for training each year. This last year, a sophomore on the team had won first place in the collegiate finals of the male saddle bronc riding competition. Henry hoped that perhaps the new owner might want to support the team also by allowing use of these facilities.

  When I returned to Santa Barbara, I engaged a ranch consultant to render a quick report on the Bar 7 including its estimated value. I also asked for an evaluation of the ranch’s potential for raising bison. After reviewing her report, I called Henry and told him I was prepared to make an offer for the ranch but wanted to make sure first that he was okay with selling it to me. He should know that my intention was to keep all the current employees on the payroll at least for the present and that I would be delighted to continue allowing the rodeo team to practice at the ranch’s facilities. Should he accept my offer, I would also like him to consider managing the ranch for up to another year while I found a replacement. After briefly considering my offer, Henry accepted. About a month later the ranch was mine. The first thing I did was arrange for construction of a proper runway fairly close to the ranch house. While expensive, I wanted to be able to fly directly back and forth to my new ranch. As we were approaching the ranch for our first landing, I asked my pilot to circle the ranch at a low altitude so Cory and I could observe it from above. It was beautiful. When we landed, Henry met us and drove us to the ranch house. He recently had moved his belongings to his new place and would now be commuting back and forth during the time he would continue managing the ranch. All of its employees now knew about the sale and were quite happy with the news that I wanted them to stay on.

  As a kid, I had ridden horses occasionally but was not in any sense a seasoned rider. I intended to change that and asked Roberto for his help. He introduced me to Mara, a gentle Chestnut mare with a good disposition. Roberto taught me how to saddle her up, how to mount and ride her and how to feed, water and groom her. Over time Mara and I would become very attached. Whenever I was in residence at the ranch now, the two of us would spend many an hour riding its rangelands. This allowed me to become familiar with all of its natural boundaries, fence lines, water resources and areas where the cattle grazed from time to time. The ranch was as beautiful from the back of my horse as it was from the air. One of its special spots was a small forested area which adjoined a national forest.

  After becoming comfortable in the saddle, Roberto asked if I had any interest in joining him for a three-day pack trip into the mountains of the national forest. I jumped at the opportunity. Ever since I had begun spending time backpacking in the California mountains, I had developed a passion for being in wilderness areas and would look forward to doing the same from the back of my horse. About a week later, Roberto packed a mule with necessary provisions and we set out. It took me all of fifteen minutes to realize that traveling by horseback had the decided advantage of being able cover much more territory than when trekking. Our first night we stayed in an old, but well-maintained, cabin located at the very edge of the Bar 7 within its forested area. Nearby was a small corral for our animals. After unpacking the mule and tending to the horses, Roberto and I took a quick dip in the cold water of a small pond downslope from the cabin. That felt so invigorating after having spent several hours in the saddle on a sunny day. Our second night we stayed in another cabin deep inside the national forest which was located next to a small lake. This cabin was much nicer than our first as it could be accessed by a four-wheel drive vehicle. During our journey, Roberto and I got to know each other and started up a friendship. Roberto was in his late twenties, still single and very proud of his Hispanic heritage. He loved caring for horses and always talked to them like friends. After we returned, he introduced me to another horse, a black stallion named Will, who was younger and spunkier than Mara. He too would become my personal horse. I could tell that Mara was jealous when I saddled up Will that first time so I gave her extra attention in the hopes that she would understand I wasn’t going to abandon her.

  Near summer’s end, the rodeo kids were scheduled to arrive for training. One of the kids, Luke, showed up a day early because Henry, who drove him to the ranch, had a sudden family emergency which he had to attend to. While Luke was attending to his horse, Henry apologized for arriving early and hoped that it would be okay if Luke stayed in the men’s bunkhouse for a night since the team’s bunkhouses were not yet quite ready for occupancy. I assured Henry that Luke was welcome to stay with me in the ranch house and, besides, it would give me a chance to meet him as I understood he was the collegiate champion Henry had bragged about. After Henry had left, there was a knock at the door and, when I answered it, a young man stuck out his hand in greeting and introduced himself as Luke. I was instantly impressed with his bearing and self-confidence. As I showed him to his room, I mentioned that I was about to start my daily work-out regimen and then take a long swim in my new lap pool. He was more than welcome to join me. He jumped at the chance commenting that staying in good shape was an essential part of his preparation for rodeo competition.

  •

  I was a little embarrassed being the guest of the new owner. But Sur made me feel at ease from the moment he answered the door. His house was incredible. I had never seen a private swimming pool up close before, let alone one inside a house. His workout facilities were top of the line as well. After we had finished our workouts, we stripped off the sweats and hit the pool for forty laps. After returning to my room and showering, I walked down to the kitchen where Sur was preparing dinner. He opened a beer for himself and offered me one but I politely declined as I was in training. After helping him clean up after dinner, I hit the sack early knowing of the hard training sessions ahead.

  I arose early the next morning and found Sur already in the kit
chen making breakfast. Afterwards, we walked to the horse barn where Roberto was busily going about his morning chores. He and I had become good friends as I had worked for Henry at the Bar 7 during summers for the last several years. Sur proceeded to say good morning to both Mara and Will. He decided to saddle up Will that day and asked if I wanted to join him on his ride. After saddling up my special buddy Champ, Sur and I rode the ranch together for the rest of the morning. When my fellow teammates began arriving later in the day, I moved into the team’s male bunkhouse.

  For the next two weeks, the team trained hard every day. Much of that time Sur was absent from the ranch. But we always knew when he was coming or going because of the jet noise. When he was around, he would always come to watch some of our practice sessions. My coach told me that he always asked about how I was doing and my prospect for repeating as champion. The day before we were scheduled to return to our campus to begin classes, Sur asked if I would drop by for a minute before leaving.

  •

  From various conversations with Luke and Henry, I had learned that Luke was going into his junior year and was majoring in agribusiness with a minor in animal sciences. He had grown up on his family’s small ranch and when he was just fifteen, his dad had died suddenly of a heart attack. Then his mother passed away from a long illness when he was eighteen. In order to pay accumulated medical expenses, the ranch had to be sold. As Luke had excelled academically in high school, he was awarded a tuition scholarship to his university. He struggled constantly however to scrape together the money needed for the remainder of his college expenses. It helped when Henry employed him during the summers.

  Luke’s parents had been good friends of Henry and his wife and when Luke was just a youngster, Henry had observed his excellent horsemanship skills. When Luke started college, Henry suggested that Luke try out for the rodeo team. He did and not only made the team in his freshman year but in his sophomore year was recognized as the top collegiate saddle bronc rider. And did he ever look the part. Luke was ruggedly handsome having a lanky build, light brown hair and ruddy complexion. He walked and talked like you suspected a younger cowboy would. Outdoors, he was never without his western hat and I would wager that the ladies fought over him. And saddle bronc riding? You’d have to be crazy to do that. It made me think of Jeremy on a surfboard sometimes. Until I saw Luke in action on a bucking horse, I had no idea how much coordination, balance and strength it took to stay in the saddle for the required minimum time. And I was shocked when I learned that if the cowboy should touch any part of the horse or his body with his free hand, he could be disqualified. To top things off, at the end of a ride, the rider had to jump off the bucking horse and try to manage some kind of safe landing. Anyone who excelled at this sport had to be an incredible athlete and possibly crazy to boot.

  When he dropped by the next morning and joined me for a cup of coffee, I made him a proposal. I would pay all of his college expenses not covered by his scholarship provided he maintained good grades and worked the next summer for me at the Bar 7. I also would provide him with a truck and horse trailer so that he could get around on his own. When he graduated there was a distinct possibility that I might have a job waiting for him at the Bar 7. Luke clearly was caught short by my overture. But he quickly regained his composure and gratefully accepted. After he had left, I thought to myself that maybe, just maybe, I had found myself a new lieutenant.

  •

  When I returned to campus, I was exhilarated. With my financial concerns now erased, I could concentrate even more on my studies. Sur knew that my curricula included various courses on the raising of livestock. He told me in confidence that he wanted to become a pioneer in the raising of bison within their natural environment and thought that perhaps I might consider taking any courses that might prove useful for such an endeavor. I would do that. I was elated also that that I would be working again at the Bar 7 next summer. To top everything off, Sur mentioned to me that he would have no problem with my continuing to compete as a member of the rodeo team my senior year. And compete I did, winning the bronc riding competition again in both my junior and senior years. Sur and Henry were in attendance at both finals.

  After winning my junior year, I met up with Henry and Sur outside the arena to join them for dinner. As I greeted them, one of the female contestants I knew from another college walked by smiling and asked if I wanted to get together later. I begged off politely but the expression on my face must have given me away because Sur and Henry both broke out laughing. I laughed then too and commented that the tournament did still had one more day to go. We all laughed again. Being a rodeo champion definitely has its advantages when it comes to attracting women. Suffice it to say that, during my last two years of college, my social life just got better and better as it included lots of fun times being naked with my lady of the moment.

  Sur was kind enough to invite me to join him over Christmas break during each of the next two years. The first time was at the Bar 7. He warned me in advance that I would be one of the chief cook and bottle washers as he was hosting a Christmas Eve dinner party for the ranch staff and their families. When I arrived at the ranch a couple of days before Christmas, Roberto couldn’t wait to introduce me to Angelina, his new bride, and also proudly announced that he was soon to become a dad. Sur and I saddled up each day and rode the Bar 7 mostly along snow-covered ranch roads. Sur would ride Mara one day and Will the next. They obviously both adored him and he them. On the afternoon of the day before Christmas Eve, Angelina and two of the other ranch wives arrived in the afternoon and took over Sur’s kitchen. With Sur and I assisting, preparations were made for the staff dinner party the next day. We moved all the furniture back in the great room and set up rented tables and chairs.

  On mid-afternoon of Christmas Eve, everyone started arriving. All the kids, of course, headed straight for Sur’s pool with Roberto and me being the assigned lifeguards. The youngest kids played in the shallow end naked as jaybirds. The older kids, being more modest, wore swimsuits or underwear. Back in the great room, Sur bartended for the adults. An hour or so later, everyone sat down for Christmas Eve dinner. Sur had asked me to say the grace. I think he figured that anyone who was a bronc rider had to be religious. There was some truth to that. Everybody then proceeded to stuff themselves with turkey and all the trimmings including apple pie ala mode for desert. Later, when everyone had cleared out, the two of us worked until midnight cleaning up. The next day we both got up a little later than usual being a mite hungover. It was a quiet and white Christmas day. During our ride that morning it was snowing lightly and the effect was mesmerizing. The next day, Sur returned to Santa Barbara and I hung out at his house until it was time for me to drive back to college. Thinking back, it was clear that Sur wanted to be sure that everyone at the ranch took note of our close relationship.

  The following year, I spent several days of the Christmas holiday at Sur’s Wild Beach retreat. Being a country boy, it was the first time I had ever been to any beach let alone one as wild and isolated as this one. Like most of the Bar 7, there were few signs of civilization anywhere within view. The weather was sunny and hot and a welcome change from the wintery weather in Idaho. Trunks, sneakers and t-shirts became our standard attire. Our first day there, Sur took me on a walking tour along the beach pointing out things of interest including a spot where he noted that the surf was perfect for body surfing. He patiently showed me how to walk out into the surf, turn and wait for a good wave and then leap into it swimming furiously until the wave grabbed hold of me as it headed toward the shore. Once I got the hang of it, I didn’t want to stop. On Christmas Eve, two of Sur’s buddies, Jeremy and Cory arrived. They were quite the pair. They constantly tossed funny, outrageously raw barbs back and forth. Jeremy couldn’t wait to tell me two or three of his off-color cowboy jokes. I told him a couple I knew too but had to apologize for not knowing any surfer jokes. He laughed and told me a few of those he knew as well.<
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  From the moment he arrived, Jeremy was on constant lookout for good surf. When he finally spotted what he was looking for, he shouted “surfs up” and the three of them grabbed boards and paddled out. I watched them in amazement as they rode the waves. All three were quite skilled especially Jeremy. Each time one of them hooked up with an especially large wave and rode it for a long distance, he would yell out his joy. It reminded me of how I yelled when riding a bucking horse. Only in my case, I landed on the dirt.

  On early afternoon of Christmas day, Miguel joined us. He was attending college in California but had stayed in the nearby village overnight to visit with some of his high school friends. Miguel was a good surfer too and also a joker much like Jeremy. That evening while we were sitting under the palapa watching the sun go down, a joint was lit and passed around but I abstained. As a rodeo team member, that was verboten. And besides, I had tried it in the past and just didn’t like it all that much. There was however plenty of beer. Later, Miguel got out his guitar and entertained us with his hysterically funny and ribald songs. On our last day, the surf was what they called flat so we all played volleyball and then some incredibly competitive rag football. The beer flowed that day too. We joined in song again that evening and this time I entered into the fray with some of my raunchy fraternity songs.