Things to do in Leakey
Life while in the Work Program at the Cooper-Maxwell Ranch was always interesting. It usually involved some sort of weird request, but always ended in lots of fun. The Work Program started in my driveway in San Antonio...
Dan and James were neighbors I had not met yet when they wandered up my driveway one Saturday afternoon in 2000. James lived 3 houses down from me and Dan was 2 houses down but across the street. Dan's family had just bought a used Club Car for use on the ranch in Leakey. They had been outside at Dan's house and heard me grinding away on my Datsun (then project car) in the garage. We got to talking about possibly welding on a rack to the front and rear of the golf cart. That's where it all started.
Over the years I built fences, feeders, installed rebar for a garage floor, welded up all kinds of contraptions onto multiple vehicles, chopped the top off a flipped truck (I wasn't involved, so don't ask!), etc...
But I think the most fun and possibly the most dangerous work we did was running chainsaws! Of course, we were always drinking...
Making Firewood
So, the original homestead house on the ranch had a trash tree grow up a little too close to the side of the house over the course of many years. The branches eventually covered a large portion of the roof, and the 30" diameter trunk was about 12" from the siding of the house. Buz (Dan's dad) asked one evening, around the camp fire, if we thought we could cut that tree down. We all raised a bottle and said "SURE!"
(I'd never cut a tree down before... )
The only problem in getting that tree down was another same sized tree that was no more than 20 feet away, and in the way of the fall direction needed to steer clear of the house. I think it was sometime in February (don't remember the year) that we cut the first tree down. It landed in the driveway like we wanted and took about 3 weekends to finally cut it up enough to clear a path.
(That's the original project Club Car, with racks, there left of the tree!)
So what are you supposed to do with a tree trunk that's a little too big for the chainsaw you're using? Make a bar table out of it, of course!
Later that Spring we made plans to get the target tree out of the way.
After felling the first tree, we got real optimistic about our abilities to cut large trees down. But there was still this nagging feeling about the trunk punching a hole thru the side of the house. It can't be that hard...
We gathered a handful of guys to help (beer and food for payment, of course). I "borrowed" a cherry-picker to help get some of the branches over the roof down in order to help swing the weight of the tree top away from the house. Some chains, ropes, come-alongs, chainsaws, we had a fool-proof plan! And we had cameras to document the whole fiasco!
With the trunk tied-off to a nearby Live Oak and the middle of the tree rope-tied to a nearby F350, James started cutting...
Here's two links to the bad quality video of the tree coming down. Same video, just not sure which will show up better in this post.
The biggest concern was trunk kick-back into the house. And it didn't fall where we planned. It went further left that what we figured, but we were able keep it off the house. Win!!!
Fun after the work - usually hunting
In general, the fun at the ranch in Leakey was usually getting to hunt. We hunted either whitetail or axis. Running around the ranch in the golf carts in (somewhat) silence was pretty cool and we got to sneak up on all kinds of animals. And usually not really dressed for the occasion!
James was really bad about this. He'd wake up at 9:30 in the morning, have a white t-shirt and shorts on, driving the golf cart in flip-flops, and run out to go pop an axis doe for the freezer! He'd even take the shot from the cart!
There were also many late nights driving thru the old-growth pecan grove looking for raccoons. That was always a favorite time of mine. Spotlighting trees, take aim on a set of eyes, pull the trigger on the 22-250, and then watch them reverse-swan-dive out of the tree with a big hole in their head. Great fun!
High-fives and cheers all around!
There was the hunt in January of 2006 that I remember pretty well (surprisingly). 2005 had been a rough year for me, especially work-wise. I had 5 W2's that year and not by choice! (Construction industry is not always your friend) So, to say I needed some quality time with friends hunting at the ranch was an understatement.
I had the Club Car and went out hunting in the "back 40" for an evening hunt. By 4:30, I had the first doe down and back sitting in the blind. By 5 pm, I had the 2nd doe! Dan said I could fill tags that weekend...
With the sun starting to set, I took the golf cart and headed back towards the main house, loaded down with deer on the front and rear racks. The blind I was at was way in the back of the property about 1/2 mile from the house. I didn't make it halfway before the batteries started to give out. Stranded at the back of the hay pasture, sun down, no cell phone (couldn't afford it), and, with still a long walk ahead me, I set out on foot with my 22-250 slung over my shoulder.
A little bit down the fence line of the pasture, I noticed some deer out in the middle. I had one more tag to fill...
We had a couple laughs about the events of that evening after getting everyone and everything back to the house. It ended up being a very long night cleaning the deer, but we had lots of Scotch on tap to help keep us warm. Thanks for the help James!
Family time
There's been lots of fun with all three families out there, too! Dan & Michelle and their kids; James & Julie and their kids; and Kerri, Lynden and me. We've shot tons of fireworks. We've fooled the kids into thinking the New Year had just rung in (it hadn't we just set the clock on the microwave two hours fast so they would go to bed early). Some daytime and late night swimming in the Frio River. And hundreds of camp fire conversations amongst us.
Time spent with all our friends, be it at the ranch or on our street (when we all lived there together) are some of those special moments you never forget. We may not all live within ear-shot of each other like back in the day, but we're all still close.
Also, if you ever get the chance to be in Leakey while they're having their rodeo (usually around 4th of July), go check it out! The parade is cool and the small-town rodeo is amazing! Take your kids and have a great time!
Life while in the Work Program at the Cooper-Maxwell Ranch was always interesting. It usually involved some sort of weird request, but always ended in lots of fun. The Work Program started in my driveway in San Antonio...
Dan and James were neighbors I had not met yet when they wandered up my driveway one Saturday afternoon in 2000. James lived 3 houses down from me and Dan was 2 houses down but across the street. Dan's family had just bought a used Club Car for use on the ranch in Leakey. They had been outside at Dan's house and heard me grinding away on my Datsun (then project car) in the garage. We got to talking about possibly welding on a rack to the front and rear of the golf cart. That's where it all started.
Over the years I built fences, feeders, installed rebar for a garage floor, welded up all kinds of contraptions onto multiple vehicles, chopped the top off a flipped truck (I wasn't involved, so don't ask!), etc...
But I think the most fun and possibly the most dangerous work we did was running chainsaws! Of course, we were always drinking...
Making Firewood
So, the original homestead house on the ranch had a trash tree grow up a little too close to the side of the house over the course of many years. The branches eventually covered a large portion of the roof, and the 30" diameter trunk was about 12" from the siding of the house. Buz (Dan's dad) asked one evening, around the camp fire, if we thought we could cut that tree down. We all raised a bottle and said "SURE!"
(I'd never cut a tree down before... )
The only problem in getting that tree down was another same sized tree that was no more than 20 feet away, and in the way of the fall direction needed to steer clear of the house. I think it was sometime in February (don't remember the year) that we cut the first tree down. It landed in the driveway like we wanted and took about 3 weekends to finally cut it up enough to clear a path.
(That's the original project Club Car, with racks, there left of the tree!)
So what are you supposed to do with a tree trunk that's a little too big for the chainsaw you're using? Make a bar table out of it, of course!
Later that Spring we made plans to get the target tree out of the way.
After felling the first tree, we got real optimistic about our abilities to cut large trees down. But there was still this nagging feeling about the trunk punching a hole thru the side of the house. It can't be that hard...
We gathered a handful of guys to help (beer and food for payment, of course). I "borrowed" a cherry-picker to help get some of the branches over the roof down in order to help swing the weight of the tree top away from the house. Some chains, ropes, come-alongs, chainsaws, we had a fool-proof plan! And we had cameras to document the whole fiasco!
With the trunk tied-off to a nearby Live Oak and the middle of the tree rope-tied to a nearby F350, James started cutting...
Here's two links to the bad quality video of the tree coming down. Same video, just not sure which will show up better in this post.
The biggest concern was trunk kick-back into the house. And it didn't fall where we planned. It went further left that what we figured, but we were able keep it off the house. Win!!!
Fun after the work - usually hunting
In general, the fun at the ranch in Leakey was usually getting to hunt. We hunted either whitetail or axis. Running around the ranch in the golf carts in (somewhat) silence was pretty cool and we got to sneak up on all kinds of animals. And usually not really dressed for the occasion!
James was really bad about this. He'd wake up at 9:30 in the morning, have a white t-shirt and shorts on, driving the golf cart in flip-flops, and run out to go pop an axis doe for the freezer! He'd even take the shot from the cart!
There were also many late nights driving thru the old-growth pecan grove looking for raccoons. That was always a favorite time of mine. Spotlighting trees, take aim on a set of eyes, pull the trigger on the 22-250, and then watch them reverse-swan-dive out of the tree with a big hole in their head. Great fun!
High-fives and cheers all around!
There was the hunt in January of 2006 that I remember pretty well (surprisingly). 2005 had been a rough year for me, especially work-wise. I had 5 W2's that year and not by choice! (Construction industry is not always your friend) So, to say I needed some quality time with friends hunting at the ranch was an understatement.
I had the Club Car and went out hunting in the "back 40" for an evening hunt. By 4:30, I had the first doe down and back sitting in the blind. By 5 pm, I had the 2nd doe! Dan said I could fill tags that weekend...
With the sun starting to set, I took the golf cart and headed back towards the main house, loaded down with deer on the front and rear racks. The blind I was at was way in the back of the property about 1/2 mile from the house. I didn't make it halfway before the batteries started to give out. Stranded at the back of the hay pasture, sun down, no cell phone (couldn't afford it), and, with still a long walk ahead me, I set out on foot with my 22-250 slung over my shoulder.
A little bit down the fence line of the pasture, I noticed some deer out in the middle. I had one more tag to fill...
We had a couple laughs about the events of that evening after getting everyone and everything back to the house. It ended up being a very long night cleaning the deer, but we had lots of Scotch on tap to help keep us warm. Thanks for the help James!
Family time
There's been lots of fun with all three families out there, too! Dan & Michelle and their kids; James & Julie and their kids; and Kerri, Lynden and me. We've shot tons of fireworks. We've fooled the kids into thinking the New Year had just rung in (it hadn't we just set the clock on the microwave two hours fast so they would go to bed early). Some daytime and late night swimming in the Frio River. And hundreds of camp fire conversations amongst us.
Time spent with all our friends, be it at the ranch or on our street (when we all lived there together) are some of those special moments you never forget. We may not all live within ear-shot of each other like back in the day, but we're all still close.
Also, if you ever get the chance to be in Leakey while they're having their rodeo (usually around 4th of July), go check it out! The parade is cool and the small-town rodeo is amazing! Take your kids and have a great time!
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