D e s e r t E x p o s u r e 
January
2008
Voice of a Ranch Woman
Page: 3So, on my cards, I could put the name of that flower. Because I'd seen it in this book. Then Jerry also bought me a book about the Weeds of the West.
In my study of the flowers and weeds, one time I asked Grandpa McDonald, "Grandpa, have you ever seen this flower?" And I showed him this red four o'clock. And he says, "No, I've never seen that flower growing."
I think the reason he hadn't was because when he went out among nature he was usually riding horseback. And he was going faster, and he was up higher, and so he didn't see this pretty flower I'd seen.
I felt happy that I knew something Grandpa didn't know.
You find out pretty quick on a ranch you don't ask too many questions. They just expect you to see what's going on. I'd ask them a little bit about what things were. They knew about the gramma grass. They knew that was good feed for the cattle. And they knew the sideoats, and of course in the spring the filaree is real good cattle feed.
But you just don't ask too many questions. Because ranchers just expect you should know it.
So I was just excited that I knew the name of something that even Grandpa didn't know.
Even now, I'll ask Jerry, "What is this grass?" There's all different varieties of gramma grass.
But now I'm finding out some of the names of things that Jerry doesn't know, too.
I've also found out that most of the things in nature, most of the things that grow, are beneficial. But there are two kinds of locoweed that grow in the spring that are like dope. It's like cocaine or marijuana, and of course we don't like the cattle eatin' those.
What it does is it makes them crazy. We had a migrant worker here one time who chewed on a little bit — and the blue loco isn't as strong as the rattleweed, but he chewed on a little bit of that, not for very long. And pretty soon he was going nuts, running, and his dad had to get him and tie him up until that stuff wore off.
It's a hallucinating drug that's in 'em. But the rattleweed — that's the one that grows in a circle and the pods on it you like to step on it and pop 'em. And that's like cocaine, and usually cattle won't eat that. But if they do, it does eventually kill 'em.
Because what happens is — it's kind of like Granny's dementia — what was it this rancher said? He said, "An old cow on loco, she goes in for a drink and she starts drinkin' when she starts into the corral, before she ever gets to the water trough, and by the time she gets to the water trough she's already full, so she doesn't get a drink. She just turns around and goes back."
It just makes them crazy and it makes them where they don't have any control over their muscles. And they eventually do die.
If a horse ever gets on loco, they're dangerous to ride. Because they just think crazy.
But most everything's beneficial. Mesquite is a good food. But the oak trees, I love the oak trees.
My very favorite plant is the blackjack oak, because it's such a big, majestic tree. For some reason, I've got to find out about this, but the blackjack oaks, there's no mistletoe grows in a blackjack oak. It's killing a lot of these white oak trees, but it's not in the blackjack oak trees.
In Colorado, the oaks lost their leaves in the wintertime. It's colder up there. But down here, these oaks are evergreens. They keep their leaves all winter long.
Except, when it's been a really dry winter, they'll lose their leaves, to protect themselves.
And they won't get those leaves back until it rains.
That's the only time they lose their leaves for a period of time, is when it's been really dry. So all these trees will look dead.
But you let that rain come in, and then all of a sudden they start putting out their leaves again.
My prayer tree is a blackjack. It's a little baby blackjack oak.
This New Mexico sky is absolutely gorgeous. You walk out there and you see the Big Dipper every single night. You see the North Star. When I leave Granny's, I see the Morning Star. And I see the moon. There's nothing like this New Mexico sky. It is crystal clear.
You look up there and you just go, "It was no accident that all this was created. This was created by a loving Heavenly Father that has an order to all things."
Jerry taught me about sundogs. A sundog is a little splotch of rainbow in wispy clouds. That's the sun shining on those clouds and it's got just a little bit of moisture in it. A sundog is a sign of rain, that it's going to rain. After the rain, you see the beautiful rainbows.
And you know, after it rains, water will wash into this old dirt tank and put water in it, and then the frogs will come out and they will croak all night long. There's nothing to sleep better to than to hear those frogs croaking. You'd think that would keep you awake, but it doesn't.
After the rain, the insects — after the first big rain you will see little red velvet rain ticks. You don't see them before, nor after, just right after a big rain.
Everything comes out and everything is so happy. Granny used to say, "It's just like Heavenly Father took a washrag and washed the earth's face and made it all clean again."
It all belongs to Him. It's not ours, really, you know. We're just stewards over it, and we want to take good care of it.
Ranchers are the greatest environmentalists there are. Because they take good care of the land.
They are aware of it and they love it. They love it with all their hearts.