Thread: Anyone know about ranching?

I need a suggestion for a problem. My characters (ranch hands) were supposed to do something as a group on a particular day but couldn't do it until the next day. I need a quick suggestion for a reason why. I intend to do more of my own research on ranching when I get farther into my book and need more detail, but this little bit is all I need for the next several chapters since they leave the ranch the next day for the cattle drive (something I've more thoroughly researched).

The ranch is a cattle ranch in central/north eastern Texas, March 1849.

What I'm looking for is something like trouble with a calf being born or an urgent maintenance issue that came up suddenly and couldn't wait. I'm just not sure if a calf being born would require at least 5 people to change their plans for the day.....and I can't remember off the top of my head if it would even be common for calves to be born in March...think so, but have to double check. Also, I don't know enough about ranch workings to know what sort of thing might come up that couldn't wait and would require more than a couple guys to fix it.

Any ideas? Even a tip on what to google would be helpful.
Thx!

ETA: Nope. Just checked my research notes. March would be late for a calf to be born. So that's out.

Stampede, or a break in the fence line where cattle got out. That would keep people occupied for a day. Riding the fence takes at least a day, and takes two people minimum, one goes left, the other goes right and they look for holes. Two more can be sent to the farthest side, and work back towards the others. If two go to round escaped cattle, one fixes the known break, and two more ride the fence, checking for more breaks, that's your 5 people down for a day.

1. A travelling brothel will pull ranch hands faster’n greased lightning.

2. Maybe they all came down with a bad case of belly-ache from too much bacon and beans the night before.

3. You could always watch some re-runs of Rawhide for ideas.

There were no fences in that part of the country in 1849. People could be killed for fencing part of the range. A stampede is a possibility, either by the cattle or by the ranch hands headed for the traveling brothel imported from Downunderland.

What if the cattle's electronic tags went on the fritz and the GPS info was all wrong? Maybe the ATV got a flat and.. No, more problems. Wrong century.

What about a roughneck causing trouble, or a posse forming to find an outlaw last seen heading to the ranch in question?

LOL You guys are too funny. Thanks for the ideas! I had considered the stampede idea briefly, but I'm already using it later in the book and don't want to be redundant. The brothel suggestion wouldn't fit with my characters, but makes a funny visual. As great as the fence down w/wandering cattle idea is, garza is right: This was free range country at the time. Fences were no-no's. Unfortunately, rustlers would require too much space in my plot line. I'm just looking for a quick excuse to get creative with my timeline here, so the rest of my story lines up the way I want it to. I need something that can be explained in no more than a paragraph or a few lines of dialogue. Guess I should have been more detailed about that in my original post. Lesson learned.

Meanwhile, my husband has suggested the idea of some cows being stuck in the mud. I did some google searching on that and I think I can see how that could take several men several hours to get them out. Also I can explain it briefly enough that I don't have to research the exact details of how they would go about getting them out. I imagine it wouldn't be too much different than the news articles of getting cows out of mud these days, minus the machinery. Basically it's a combo of slings, ropes, and getting something like mats onto the mud to help the cows get out. Something like, "We couldn't do it yesterday because so-and-so found a bunch of cows stuck in the mud left by Wednesday's rainstorm and it took the boys most of the day and a bunch of hard work pulling and coaxing to get them out. So we're doing it today instead." Only more eloquently worded, of course.

I figure even back then they wouldn't just leave the cows in the mud because cows were $$ on hooves.

Thanks again for the great ideas! (and good laughs!)

BTW - Isn't it crazy that I just spent several hours contemplating and researching something that will wind up being just one or two sentences in my novel? Yet it couldn't be helped as it was necessary for the story to continue in a logical progression. :\