I was raised on a sheep and cattle ranch. We had 600 cows, not counting calves or bulls. We had 4000 sheep with a partnership with Jack Shumway. Dad and Jack started their partnership about 1954. Our ranch was on the Oregon High Desert. It was a dry land operation, which means we did not have rivers, streams or lakes. Our water came from wells that were 250, 500 and 640 feet deep. Jack Shumway had irrigated property in Powell Butte. He also had a dry land ranch at Evans Wells, which is about 10 miles west of Millican. Jack had property in the Grandview area. I don’t know if any of that land was private property, or if it was all lease land from the United States Forest Service.

The ewes were lambed out in about a month on Jack’s ranch on the west side of Powell Buttes. The property is presently owned and operated by Brasada Ranch as a rural housing development. While the ewes were at Powell Butte they were sheared by a shearing crew. The crew consisted of 8-10 professional shearers. My grandfather was a professional shearer and he ran the crew and provided a propane powered generator to make the electric shearing machines run. Each shearer would average about 100 sheep a day, some a little faster and some a little lower. Shearing means the wool was removed from each ewe in a single piece. Yes I can shear, but I never could shear as fast as a professional, which included by father.

Once the ewes were sheared and had produced their lambs they were separated into four bands of sheep. Three of the bands were made up of ewes that produced twin lambs. The other band was made up of ewes that had a single lamb. I can recall some heated exchanges over single lambs vs twin lambs. Jack wanted singles and dad wanted twins. Jack’s logic was at the end of five months the single lambs would weigh between 5 and 10 pounds heavier. Five months is when the lambs reached market weight and were sold. Twin lambs weighed around a 100 pounds each. Single lambs weighed 105 to 100 pounds. So the twin band of lambs were about 200,000 pounds. The single band of lambs would be about 105,000 pounds.

Once the ewes and lambs were broke into bands a herder was selected. Each herder had a horse and at least 2 dogs. The herder was furnished with a small camp trailer. For every two bands of ewes there was a camp tender. The camp tender contacted their two herders at least once a day. The camp tender had a water truck that could haul between 750 and 1200 gallons of water. Each truck was configured to haul water troughs, and each trough would hold around 150 gallons of water. Contrary to popular belief, the sheep only needed water once a day.

Since Jack’s ranch in Powell Butte was utilize for irrigated crops in the summer, the sheep were trailed to summer, fall and winter grazing. Three of the bands were trailed (walked) to the forest lands north and west of Sisters, Oregon. This project was not as simple as it sounds.

First a band was moved to lands just east of Redmond, Oregon. This was cross country and took a day to get to Redmond. The sheep were watered, using the troughs, and bedded down for the night. As the sun came up the next morning the sheep were trailed through Redmond using Highway 97 and then Highway 126. Dad would lead the band with his pickup. He would call the ewes and they would follow him. In the rear came the herder, leading his horse and accompanied by his dogs. There were additional folks to help with the move. I was often an additional. Cars and trucks coming into the head of the band were stopped by Dad and encouraged just to sit still for a few minutes while the sheep moved around and past them. Vehicles coming from behind were met by an additional. The drivers of the vehicles were instructed to follow the additional, but not to blow their horns. The drivers had to stay pretty close to the additional so the sheep would not get between the additional and the vehicle. The drivers that knew more about themselves and sheep often made the mistake of blowing their vehicle’s horns. Two things happened. First the startled sheep stopped and bunched up around the horn blowing rig. Now no forward motion was made. Second the additional quit trying to help with the rig. The additional usually just stood there until all of the sheep got past, then had a talk with the driver and started over. The impatient driver usually stretched their delay from 5 minutes to 15 or 20 minutes. It did not pay to curse an additional either. Somehow they would forget about escorting the rig.

The sheep were kept moving and not allowed to graze on lawns or in flower beds. I have seen some interesting women. I’m certain the commotion of the moving sheep awakened them out of a dead sleep. Then to their horror their were 3000 sheep walking past their flowers and grass. Out of their houses they flew on a mission, usually in their night wear and slippers. Each carried a tool of some sort, either a mop or a broom. I learned to be respectful and polite to these women. To laugh at them or be rude could result in a thrashing by a mad woman and her broom. The sheep were trailed down the highway to Cline Falls. There was a bridge across the Deschutes River. The sheep were pushed across the bridge and up the hills on the far side. Once clear of the river canyon, the going became easier. The sheep were allowed to bed down for their morning naps. Once they rested a couple hours they were encouraged to continue. However, they were now walking beside the highway and not on it. They continued west until they reached Buck Horn Road. They went down Buck Horn Road until they reached the Lower Bridge area. Then west on Lower Bridge Road until the irrigated pastures were left and then north and west toward Squaw Creek. The main push was over once the irrigated lands were past. West of Squaw Creek was the spring sheep range.

The sheep were never allowed to remain in the same place two days in a row. The herder’s trailer and the sheep’s water were move daily. The sheep would spend a month or two on the forest lands north and west of sisters. When the lands began to dry, the sheep were trailed back through Redmond and back to Powell Butte. The sheep were moved through the area towards Bear Creek Buttes and then onto the summer ranges. That consisted of the Evans Well area and its National Forest lands, our ranch and its National Forest Lands.

I think I was involved in trailing sheep through Redmond when I was the ripe old age of about 10. I was an old hand at getting rigs through the sheep, and being polite to the broom wavers. I do recall one incident. We were coming back towards Redmond when we got caught in a lightning and hail storm. I had just gotten the lesson at school to stay out from under trees during a lightning storm. I was terrified that lightning would hit a tree and kill some sheep. I was busy getting pelted by hail, and yes that hurt, but I was getting sheep out from under the juniper trees. Dad found me and put me in a pickup for my safety and the safety of the sheep.

In the Bear Creek Butte area we had terrible trouble with coyotes. I think one year we lost a couple hundred lambs trailing through there. That was with Dad and the herder trying to keep the coyotes away from the sheep. The Bear Creek Butte area obviously was not sheep friendly. That is where I saw my first wild horse. I didn’t know there were wild horses in the area, but there was at least one. It came into the sheep making all sorts of noise and scattering the band. It attacked the camp horse. All I recall is the noise and the poor camp horse screaming in terror. No I don’t recall the ending of the episode.

One year we trucked the sheep from the Sisters area to the ranch at Brothers. Yes it made the move quicker, but it was a nightmare. First we had to cross the truck scales in Sisters. The weigh master was not friendly. As we stopped on the scales the sheep shifted forward. This made the front half of the truck too heavy. The man was going to write a big over weight ticket. The truck driver said something to the effect, of just a minute. He backed up and slammed the brakes. Now the sheep were shifted back..We went over the scales within the limits. The weigh master was rather pissed. We were flagged around the scales after that. On the desert we put up a chute to unload the sheep. Danged things would not walk from the dark trailer interior to the lighted chute. We open side doors on the trailers for ventilation. Danged sheep began jumping out. They jumped from the top deck to the ground. Probably in excess of 10 feet. They would hit the ground and roll. No broken bones. However it was terrifying and helpless to watch. I don’t think we trucked again.

After the lambs were shipped in August the ewes were mixed into two bands of 2000 ewes in each band. They were kept on the desert until October or November. The ewes were trailed back through Powell Buttes to the Culver and Madras areas for the winter. The ewes were kept on the irrigated pastures from around October to sometime in February. It was sort of fun to be present when Dad would negotiate a lease of pasture and notice the farmer had a stack of hay. If the stack hadn’t been sold he would simply purchase the stack. We supplemented the pasture land with hay. The pasture and stack arrangement worked well for the farmers and the sheep operations. After the winter pastures the ewes were trailed back to Powell Butte to start the next year.