Kelley McCreery

Today was a milestone for me. I finally got to saddle up next to a good ole friend, Kelley McCreery. Our history goes way back to cattle drives and brandings in the southern Big Horns during the early 1980's. I wasn't much help back then, being all of about 4 or 5. But those memories are burned into my mind. Well today, we set out to drive cattle once again. 

Kelley and his wife Nadine have deep roots in Campbell County. Today, they manage their family ranch land by running another outfit's yearlings.

Kelley and Dad were friends in the oil field. He'd come up and spend time with us in the mountains. 

July brandings were the highlight of his year back then, as it was for all of us. He'd take the week off from moving drilling rigs and help the Lungren family trail cattle up the Cherry Creek stock drive and brand the calves when they got to the summer range. 

Kelley left the Worland area in the mid 80's and I hadn't seen him since. I knew he was living back in Gillette, so I kept my eye out for him. One day, in the spring of 2021, I spotted him in at Lula Belles. I knew him in an instant and it didn't take him long to connect the dots back to another time. Since then, we get together every once in a while and trade stories.

Today, a Lungren/McCreery duo teamed up once again. When the National High School Finals Rodeo are in town, Kelley and Nadine supply the yearlings for their team penning and cutting events. This requires them rounding up 1-2 cattle pots worth of cattle each morning to provide the contestants with fresh cattle. As providence would have it, I was able to help them round up a 1200 acre pasture and push some 650 yearlings through the gate and into the next lot. The Canada smoke is starting to roll back into the lower 48. 

For a special occasion such as this I busted out my new chaps. I was planning on riding Chief, but he didn't take the bait into my catch pen this morning, so I took my big steed Mollie. 

Campbell County prairie is so interesting. There are these little mounds all over the country. Most of them have scoria at the top, indicating to me that they were once smoke flues for a burning coal seam. I'd like to learn more about their geology. 

Then out in the middle of things, you'll find astroid looking rocks that sit there like they've fallen out of the sky. 

Slowly we started to get the yearlings bunched up. 

Water in prairie pasture is everything. These days, instead of relying on reservoirs, guys have drilled wells and pumped water to a storage tank on a high point where they are able to gravity feed water to tanks all around the area. 

Yearlings are fun to chase when they are going in the right direction. But it doesn't take much of a glitch to scatter the scene and make you start all over again. 

We met up with Kelley's son Pat and his posse of riders, who were cleaning house from the other end of the pasture. 

Once gathered together, the big rush began. 

Hole in the wall gates are not easy to trail through. Fortunately this experienced crew of cowboys was one thought ahead of the girls and made them turn before they could think otherwise. Another well job done. 

Long live cowboys.

My heroes have always been cowboys, and they still are it seems. Kelley inspired me as a kid and he still does today. Keep up the Good work, partner. The world could use a few more cowboys like Kelley McCreery. 

Mind in the Middle

One buck at a time, sweet Jesus!

           https://youtu.be/09JB_IB3dnI         

WYO Rodeo

Summer time is rodeo time. This year William and Cassidy, and Kurt and Leah, invited me to join them in Sheridan for the annual Wyo Rodeo. Good rodeo. Good time. 

So fun. I love these Catholic Cowboys.

The rodeo starts out with four heats of the Indian Relay Race. Wild. The Wyo Rodeo is the world championship race for these boys. 

It was cool to see Lefty Holman crack out. This dude is smooth. In fact, he makes bronc riding look so easy that I think he actually gets less points than deserved. You could balance a wine glass on his cowboy hat as he rides these buckers. 

Ira Dickinson is a Wyoming Catholic Cowboy from Rock Springs. This ride, on Burch's Lunatic from Hell, was pure poetry. Nice ride cowboy. You should consider the priesthood. 

Afterwards, the kids took to the town. Yee haw!

Looking good. 

But before I left, I used up my Kings Ropes gift certificate that the St. Matthew's parish staff gave me for my 5th year priestly anniversary to help buy me some new chaps. After all, I think leather represents 5 years. 

Super fun time. The rodeo was good, but the company was better. The world needs more Catholic Cowboys! Thanks y'all. 

Providence

Nothing can happen outside of God's will.

           https://youtu.be/Wjyz0NPg7QE         

Type

Jesus and the Church are the fulfillment of the types. 

           https://youtu.be/U8Nr117jCOk         

Sacramentals

... are holy reminders. 

           https://youtu.be/4-0yfwRggtg         

Trust

Trust is putting faith into action right here, right now.

           https://youtu.be/PUnBdDIuKkE         

 

Humble Humanity

To be humble is to be human.

           https://youtu.be/5kURyPQVji8         

Family Fun

It's a small world, and an even smaller Church. Inside the Church we’re all one big happy family. Some of us just haven't met yet. Well, today we met a fellow Father in the Church, Bishop Dan Mueggenborg from the Diocese of Reno. He's here visiting some of his flock, Bud and Mary Lou Flocchini, on their ranch north of Wright. 

Kelly and I introduced him to a Catholic Cowboy Mass. He seemed to fit right in. 

Afterwards we went back to the ranch for dinner. John cooked up some of his famous Swiss Chard. 

While Mary Lou fried us up some zucchini flowers.

The main course was Bison tenderloin. 

Let's dine.

Salute!

Good stuff. The family of God is wide and varied. We may be from different states or from different cultures, but our Catholic faith unites us all. I love it. Meeting new members of the Church is like discovering new brothers and sisters. No better way to get to know each other then over a meal. First the sacred banquet of the Mass, and then at an Italian feast back at the ranch. God is good. On to the next one! 

Haying

Our little corner of hay finally produced well enough to bale. It's a grass/alfalfa mix, but the alfalfa has a stronger presence. She's thick though, and will serve well our part-time ranching purposes. 

I've chosen two forms of haying that no one wants to help out with, hand-line and little square bales. I jetted back home a couple weeks ago and pulled off the 40' joints of hand-line. 

Then Dad windrowed it. Beings Worland has been getting so much unexpected rain, he had to rake it a time or two. 

Once he baled it up, I came back home to pull it off the field. 

Mom cooked us up a good ranch breakfast. 

Then Dad and I went to work. He drove...

While I stacked.

About 100 bales. Good hay, but discolored from the rain. Cows will enjoy it through.

Once loaded I headed it back over the mountain to Campbell County. 1st gear up. 1st gear down. 

Help wanted.

Hobby ranching is a lot of work. I wouldn't have it any other way though. It's the work that makes it fun. Special thanks to Dad for putting up with me and for putting up my hay. Now I just have to haul it to the corral and stack it. Any takers? 

Plasma Cutter

Today's generation of welders prefer a plasma cutter to a cutting torch whenever possible. I'd have to agree. If it's near by, it is generally worth the effort of hooking up and using when you are looking for a precision cut. 

My brother Luke bought me this Hypertherm 45 when I graduated from seminary. There are other good brands out there, but Hypertherm has plasma cutters dialed in. 

They take a pretty good air compressor to run. It's also best to run a regulator keeping it under 150psi and a filter to ensure for clean air. 

Our project this was to build two flanges for Dad's new irrigation pump. I had some 3/8 plate around so we went to work.

Anytime you can scribe the holes and perimeter for accuracy go for it. Here we used a bent nail to get a basic template. 

The marks were super faint so we then outlined them with soap stone. 

Ready to cut. 

Often it takes a quick second for the arc to penetrate the metal. But if the sparks keep flying in your face you might have a bad tip. 

When you change a tip on a plasma cutter you have to change the electrode dilly at the same time. 

Money.

Here's a little tip: when I blow holes I start the arc in the middle of the marked hole, so that if you loose your chalk line you always have a reference point to work around. 

The cool thing about a plasma cutter is you can cut any kind of metal that will conduct electricity. Here we cut this 4" steel nipple in half to weld on to our plate. 

When your working with something that is going to involve pressure I always prep the surfaces as best I can. Of course, remove the paint from the nipple, but also the new metal sheen that comes on the plate. 

Tack weld it in four corners, but not right where the holes are, because they are already gonna be close to the bolt head. 

Then go for it. I don't start or stop a weld on top of a tack weld or a hole. And when I overlap the other end of the weld, I always run over the top of it to ensure a good seal. 

One beauty of plasma cutters is that they don't produce a lot of slag, and what they do produce is easy to remove. I don't run the grinder on top of the slag, but just underneath it so that it, more or less, pops off. 

One of the greatest features of plasma cutters is their low heat. In a project like this where the mating surface is important, you really have to watch for warping. The little curling that occurred here will not impact our final application.

Time to install. We built two of these threaded flanges, one 3" and the other 4". We then placed a gasket in between the surfaces as we bolted it up. 

Giddy up. 

Mission accomplished. This could have been done with a cutting torch and I suppose we could have ordered some new flanges on Amazon and had them delivered to the ranch. But what fun would that have been.  With the right tools and a little bit of savvy, we had a couple of pump flanges built in no time. It would have been hard to do as smoothly, though, without a plasma cutter. They may not get used everyday. But when you need them, they are great to have on hand. Hopefully Dad will come around to this modern means of welding. But you know what they say, it's hard to teach old cowboys new tricks. 

Forgiveness

Our sins and the sins others have inflicted upon us, cripple us. Forgiveness sets us free.

           https://youtu.be/NosoFp5GxvM