The shape of a working day.
You'll do most of these. You'll skip a few. The wranglers run on weather and cattle — the schedule is a suggestion the land usually overrules.
Cookhouse coffee
Pot's on by five. Wynn cooks bacon, biscuits, and fried-egg sandwiches under a kerosene lamp. Eat what you can — you won't see food again until noon.
- Coffee, biscuits, eggs, bacon
- Boots on by 5:40
First saddle
Walk to the corral in the dark. Wrangler hands you your bridle. You'll learn to throw a saddle in three days — until then, they'll do half the work and judge silently.
- Bridle, saddle, cinch check
- Wrangler-supervised first day
Herd check
Ride out to wherever the herd settled overnight. Count, look for limps, look for cuts, look for the calf that wandered. This is the work that makes a ranch a ranch.
- Cattle count + walk-around
- 3-4 mile ride out
Range lunch
Cookout under the cottonwoods at the south wash. Beans, biscuits, dutch-oven cobbler, coffee from a fire pot. You sit on a log. The horses graze. Nobody hurries.
- Range-cooked from a chuck box
- One hour, sometimes two
Skill block
Back at the corral. Roping a stationary calf-dummy first, then a moving one. Knot-work in the tack room when it rains. Fence-mending if the fence needs mending.
- Roping, knot-work, or fence-mending
- Optional — nap if you want
Shower & porch
Hot showers. Bourbon on the cabin porch — we put a bottle out Thursday. The wranglers rinse off in the bunkhouse and meet you at the long table at 6:30 sharp.
- Hot water, soft towel
- Bourbon Thursday only
Bunkhouse supper
Long table. Family-style. Roast, mash, greens from the garden, peach pie if it's July. No phones. No menu — you eat what Wynn made. Wine is on the table.
- Family-style, no choice menu
- Wine + iced tea + lemonade
Fire circle
Out at the stone ring. Booth tells the same story he told last year. Wynn brings the fiddle Tuesdays. The stars get loud. Bed when you want — the cookhouse coffee starts again at five.
- Fire ring, fiddle, story
- Bed any time after 9
