When a broken water system, wandering cattle, and a handful of unexpected problems all hit on the same day, everyone on our ranch had to pitch in—even the youngest hands. It was a reminder that on a ranch, there’s always work for someone willing to learn, and today’s little helper often becomes tomorrow’s dependable hand.
He may not be old enough to fix a pump or haul a trailer, but he already knows what it means to lend a hand.
Some days, some jobs, and some outfits only need a cowboy or two to keep things running. The tractor has only one seat, and the pickup has only one driver. A job in the shop requires the master mechanic instead of a budding apprentice. You get the picture.
Then there are days that demand help from even the littlest and least experienced ranchers. All they require is a willing heart and able hands to be hired on for the job. Those sorts of days remind us of an important lesson about ranching: if you’re willing to help, there’s always a job for you.
Not long ago we had one of those days on our operation, an all-hands-on-deck sort of day.
It began innocently enough with one man heading out for a routine water check, another into town for some off-ranch business, and another climbing into the swather to knock down some hay. I joined The Rancher with a couple of kids, loaded up the pickup, and headed to the meadows to drop off a few pairs and do a quick ride through.
Our divide-and-conquer approach had the handful of us steadily checking things off the list. It didn’t take long, however, for the day to start adding its own to-dos in the most urgent ways. The first wasn’t unexpected, just moved up on the schedule.
The grazing association had purchased several heavy-duty custom panels that we’d hauled as far as the ranch. They still needed to be delivered to the proper allotments, and another rancher had volunteered to unload them. Since he was already hauling his own tractor, we needed a second driver to haul the panels. We hadn’t made it back from our cattle check, so my husband called our teenage son to step in.
It wasn’t much longer after he coordinated that move that his phone rang again. As if fate knew no one was home, a neighbor down the road called to say he’d watched a herd of cattle slowly make their way through a lazy stretch of barbed wire fence and into our roping heifers. As soon as he hung up, The Rancher called the range rider to let him know something was going on with the neighbor’s cattle and they needed checked on, stat.
No sooner had that call ended than the phone rang again. This time someone reported that the pump on the BLM range had gone out, and more hands were needed to troubleshoot the problem and haul water to the nearly empty troughs.
That call had barely ended when the range rider called back. He’d found the reason for the breachy cows. Their own trough had gone dry, sending them tiptoeing into our pasture in search of a drink on a hot summer day.
All of a sudden, we had more problems than people, and everyone was going to have to step in somehow.
Our son had a few minutes before he needed to leave with the panels, so he jumped on a four-wheeler to straighten out as many cattle as he could. One of the ranchers who was home headed straight for the BLM range to get the water system back up and running.
Not long after we arrived home, The Rancher climbed into the water truck to keep the troughs full until the pump could be repaired. That left me and the kiddos to take care of the wandering cows. Without a solid fence, we knew they’d hop right back over unless we helped them find another source of water. So we loaded up on bikes and pushed them through the brush to the nearest working trough.
We also had a second, smaller herd along the opposite fence that we figured had better be moved before the two groups mixed together. We weren’t convinced either herd would stay put, no matter how good the fence looked.
As we finished the job, I realized that when it comes down to it, everyone on our little operation can help get the work done. Young and old, experienced or not, there’s work that fits every set of hands.
My little cowboys and cowgirl weren’t fixing pumps or hauling custom panels. They weren’t stringing fence or troubleshooting tractors. But they could ride a bike through the brush, encourage a stubborn cow in the right direction, open and shut gates, and be another set of eyes when we needed them most. Their contribution wasn’t measured by its size but by the simple fact that it helped.
That’s one of my favorite things about ranching. There is always a place for someone who wants to learn. You don’t have to know everything before you’re invited to be part of the work. You start with the jobs you can do, and before long those small responsibilities become bigger ones. The little kid pushing cows on a four-wheeler becomes the teenager trusted to haul a trailer. The teenager becomes the one solving water problems, fixing equipment, or teaching the next generation.
A ranch has a way of growing people right alongside the cattle.
It reminds us that the value of a person isn’t determined by how much they can do, but by their willingness to do what they can. Every capable rancher was once the kid carrying tools, shutting gates, or trailing behind, hoping someone would trust them with a little more responsibility.
The work has a way of making room for those willing to show up.
Maybe that’s a lesson that reaches far beyond the ranch. Whether it’s on a family operation, in a community, at church, or in a workplace, there will always be moments when there are more jobs than people. In those moments, experience certainly matters, but so does willingness. A willing heart and able hands have a remarkable way of becoming exactly what is needed.
On the ranch, we don’t wait until someone knows everything before we let them belong. We hand them a job they can do, work alongside them, and trust that today’s helper is tomorrow’s hand.
