Two Grown Men Seven Ranch Hands And No One Has The Brain Cell
Chapter Summary: they got 10ft of fence line on the north side of the property that needs fixin and the cows are out, could the day possibly get any worse
(Chapter 2, of Ranch Work Is Hard But You Make It Easy)
Note: this ā” is Ike using sign language
āāāāāāāāāāāāāā
this day could not possibly get any worse was the first thing to come to Sam's mind when Noah came riding back to the house like a bat out of hell after leaving to go check the fence line
and Sam had a pretty good feeling that with the way Noah was running his horse he had bad news
"Sam" Noah pulled his horse to a stop "We got 10ft of fence down on the north side"
Sam ran his hand through his hair and sighed "What about the cows did ya see em when you was down there"
Noah climbed down off of Tumbleweed
"I seen a couple of em on the other side"
"damn, the others are probably over there to well I'll go get the boys and Lou, grab yourself a fresh horse and get Teaspoon" Sam put out his cigarette as Noah nodded and walked away Sam turned and walked into the ranch house
there were four things that Sam knew for sure when he walked in 1. Emma and Rachel were not home and would not be back for a while 2. he had to call Lou's name first beacause if he called them a boy and got the pronouns wrong he'd never hear the end of it, especially after last time 3. he was going to need everyone's help and that put him at risk of getting in trouble with Emma because Jimmy has only been back up and Working for a week after hurting his ankle and according to Emma and Rachel should not be doing any real heavy lifting 4. he was going to be real glad when Lou found their pronoun bracelets that had mysteriously went missing five days ago when Lou was in the shower
Sam thanks Cody might have had something to do with the pronoun bracelet situation since he loves to pull pranks on the others so much but now is not the time to worry about missing belongings, Sam stopped in the doorway of the living room and looked at the six ranch hands accumulated on the furniture and floor
"Lou, boys I need y'all to get your horses saddled and follow Noah back over to the north side of the fence line"
Lou was the first on their feet and out of the comfortable spot they seemed to have had on the couch "why did something happen?"
"we got 10 ft of fence down and the cows are out, I want y'all to ride down there with Noah and round up the cows, me and Teaspoon will follow in the work truck with everything we need to fix the fence"
"well what are we wait around here for let's go" Jimmy said while standing up and grabbing his hat
Sam shook his head as much as he wanted to tell Jimmy to stay home for Emma's sake he knew he needed him out there with the others so they could get this done faster
"just be careful with that ankle of yours okay Hickok"
"aw you don't have to worry about me Sam I'm good as new" Jimmy smiled and walked past Sam to make his way to the barn to get sundown
"Yeah I'll bet ya are" Sam yelled after him as the others also went to get their horses once Sam was sure the hands were getting ready to go he went to over to the work truck where Teaspoon was waiting for him
"Well Sam how bad is it?" Teaspoon adjusted the old battered hat on top of his head and hooked his thumbs in the straps of his pink suspenders
"I don't know Teaspoon all Noah said was the cows are out and we got 10ft of fence down" Sam grabbed two spools of wire and threw them into the back of the truck
"I'll get the tools, while you load up the posts" Teaspoon started rummaging through the shed next to the old truck
"thanks alot" Sam looked up as he heard Hooves thundering out of the yard and seen the hands headed towards the north "Well at least they should have the cows sorted out by the time we get there"
Teaspoon put the tools in the back of the truck as Sam loaded the last of the posts
"call it a hunch Sam but I think you might want to ride your horse out there, just in case them boys and Lou are having a bit of trouble getting them cows to cooperate"
Sam closed the tailgate "alright just be careful diving the truck the last thing I need is for Rachel to be mad at me because you got hurt"
"you don't need ta worry about a thing Sam for you see I am an expert driver" Teaspoon fixed the Hat on his head again
"sure you are" Sam got on Dusty and rode the horse next to the work truck Teaspoon was driving
Sam didn't worry too much about Dusty getting tired out while trotting along side of the truck, the old truck that they used to haul things around the ranch couldn't go very fast and you had to go slow and steady when driving it around anyway so as not to damage the truck
once Sam and Teaspoon got down to where Lou and the boys where Sam released right away that the day did in fact get worse
it should have been fairly easy to gather up the cows that got out they were used to people and used to being moved around
and to be far the cows weren't what was giving Lou and the boys trouble it was a calf, one little old red calf
now usually if you move a cow and that cow has a calf the calf will follow the cow that's just the way it works with mamas and babies doesn't matter if it's human or animal but not this this one
Sam doesn't know why it didn't follow its mama he doesn't know how one of the hands didn't see it he doesn't know why the calf doesn't want to go back inside the fence or why they are all having so much trouble trying to catch they damn thing
but what he does know is that if they don't get it back on their property soon and get started on fixing the fence all of them are going to be out here until well after nightfall and Teaspoon's laughing ain't helping
Sam kicked Dusty forward so he could help Lou and the boys after all it's one calf how hard can it be to catch
apparently it can be very hard to catch one very stubborn calf, 20 minutes it has been 20 minutes almost a whole half hour since Sam and Teaspoon got down to the others and they still haven't caught that damned calf
"you kids don't know nothin you're supposed to sweet-talk em"
"you gonna come over here and do that Teaspoon"
"why don't we just shoot the damn thing"
"no one is shooting anything Hickok"
"I agree with Jimmy let's shoot it"
"that's takin money out of our pockets Cody"
"the horses are getting tired"
"Ike's right we need a break"
"Jimmy it's heading your way!"
Jimmy set up in his saddle and got his rope ready the calf came running towards him and he threw his rope "I got'em!"
Cody slumped across the horn of his saddle
after a short a break with everyone getting made fun of by Teaspoon and another 6 or so hours they we're all dragging themselves into the house Sam was just happy that they got it all done and that he remember to leave Emma a note
Emma looked at all of them as they came walking in looking like they had to fight their way out of hell just to get there
"Well it's a little late but we made enough food for everyone and put it in the fridge cuz it took y'all so long to get back"
Sam walked up to Emma and kissed her on the top of her head "sorry Emma ran into a little trouble" "you always do Sam" Teaspoon assured the boys inside to give Sam and Emma time to be alone
meanwhile Jimmy and Cody had their arms wrapped around each other's shoulders and we're leaning on each other for support, Noah was carrying Lou, Kid was struggling to keep his eyes open and Ike was giving Buck a piggyback ride up the stairs
"aren't you kids going to eat?"
Jimmy lifted his head off of Cody's shoulder "no thank ya Rachel but not tonight we're to tired"
Cody nodded "yeah we'll eat in the morning"
Rachel set the towel she was using to dry the dishes down "oh alright but those of you that are awake better clean up before going to bed"
Kid stopped halfway up the stairs "we will"
"oh, before I forget Noah I found Lou's pronoun bracelets out in the chicken coop when I went to collect the eggs, can you give them back to Lou when they wake up" Rachel had three bracelets in her hand each bracelet was a different color and had a set of pronouns on it
"sure thing Rachel" Noah took Lou bracelets from Rachel and continued on up the stairs with the others
Noah and Ike dropped off their cargo in their respected rooms and waited in the line for the shower which didn't take as long as it normally would with all the boys being tired dirty and just wanted to go to bed the shower line actually moved a lot faster
once everyone was cleaned up and changed yes including Sam the occupants of the Lazy Lady Ranch House settled down for the night
so they could take on another long and hard day of work tomorrow
