Going to school at Brothers was an experience. It was a one room school with a single teacher, with grades 1 thru 8. We did have electricity and hot lunches at the school. Our parents bought cases of soup we kids heated them for lunch. Except for the kids that lived in Brothers, our family was the closest and we were 8 miles as a crow flies. Unless the snow prevented it Ron, Marilyn and I drove the back roads to school. Ron and I had many a fight over who got to drive home. I don’t think it was about driving I think it was about who had to open the gates.

In later years Marilyn, Ron, Lew and our families were camping at a State Park. The park featured an event where a lady was pretending to be a one room school teacher. Following the script she asked who had ever attended a one room school. The four of us raised our hands, so we ruined her talk. We answered questions for her.

We did not get electricity at the ranch until I was in high school. We did home work via a gas lantern. We had the outhouse up the hill. We did use a propane powered generator and banks of batteries part of the year. The generator went sheep shearing a couple times each year.

Let me introduce you to the Rats. Ron and Marilyn and I were from our family. Lew Constable was living at Brothers and his folks owned the store and ran the post office. Spud Rickman. The McCormick kids, three I think. The Monicals, two or three and 3-4 kids from the State Highway crew. Life was unforgiving. Spud was killed in a hunting accident when he was 15 or 16. He was my classmate. Another boy was drug to death by his horse, after I left the school. A cougar spooked his horse and bucked him off, except his foot got tangled in his Lass Rope.

Lets start with Spud. He was in a true sense all cowboy. He worked cattle on the Rickman ranch from the time he was old enough to get cow stomped. He was an excellent rider and broke ornery horses out for adjoining ranches. He did the rodeo thing. I never could get into that, I had no intention of being bucked off. Spud is the kid that roped an antelope. In the spring the nannies will run just in front of a horse to lure you away from their hidden kids. Spud could not resist. He shook out his rope and tossed it around the nanny. She did not play fair. When the rope got tight she reversed directions and got into the saddle with Spud. Spud got thrashed by the nanny and then his horse threw both of them off. Lesson learned by us Rats, never rope an antelope.

Then there were the Monical boys, Joe and Wayne. Not very big guys and they were about 5th graders. It was deer season and they were moving cattle. A big mule deer buck was in the cows. Since it was deer season, and the cows had been moved the Rats decided to capture their deer. They had a tag, but no rifle. First one roped the deer. The buck did not take kindly to the treatment and charged the kid’s horse. The other boy came to his rescue and also roped the deer. By keeping apart, and their ropes tight they had the buck contained. Well maybe not. They could not release the angry buck and they could not kill him. After dark they made it to their ranch house. The Rats were exhausted. Their horses and the buck were also exhausted, but the buck was still mad. They sat on their horses and cried for help. Their dad arrived. He sent the boys to the house and rescued the deer and the horses. Except for pride, no one was hurt. Lesson learned by us Rats, never rope a deer.

Then there was my family’s story of a badger being roped. It went down a hole and a team of horses could not pull it out. We were building fence on the forest boundary when a half grown badger came by. I had a rope in the pickup, so I proceed to rope the critter. I expected him to run to, and down a hole. Nope, I evidently was given bad information. The rope came tight and the badger charged me. I ran like mad and threw my rope over a tree limb and then pulled the hissing, growling and snarling badger off the ground. Now I could not get very close and he was really mad. My grandfather came by and his dog bit the hanging badger a few times. Now it was enraged. I was admiring my catch when Dad came by. He accused me of playing and told me to turn the badger loose. I pulled my pickup up beside the badger and by sitting on top the cab, I got him out of the rope. The badger kept me on the top of the cab for a couple hours. Lesson learned for Rats, never rope a badger.

The Monicals were around the 5^th grade, or younger. They were hauling hay when lightning hit the hay wagon, setting it on fire. Tough kids, they unhooked the tractor while the wagon and hay burned.

One other story, not ranch related. In Bend we had a skunk killing our homing pigeons. Dad told me to set a trap, and I did. The next morning a skunk was caught, and it was not happy. Dad was going to let me shoot the thing, and I did, but it wasn’t a kill shot. Dad grabbed the gun and killed the skunk. I got smell stuff all over me when taking the skunk out of the trap, I must have been about 10. I met a guy who was raised in the south. His brothers convinced him that if you grabbed a skunk by the tail it could not spray you. He tried lots of times and each failure he would be told what he did wrong. He finally came to the conclusion that they were laughing at him.