The Second Hundred Years Ch. 04

"Like I said, he was a damn good horse," Jim repeated. "You know when I went to claim Chante, Iron Buffalo tried to get me to give him Sampson instead of those other two horses. He was a good judge of horse flesh and knew what a fine animal Sampson was."

Jim laughed. "I guess I would have given him up to get Chante but it would have been a real tough decision."

Two weeks later they were watching TV and saw a show about a dude ranch in Colorado. It was a working cattle ranch but people paid to come and work like 'real' cowboys. The owner said they still raised and sold cattle but the income from the 'dudes' was substantial.

The next night as the three sat in front of the fire place, Jim was a little quiet. Staring into the fire Jim asked, "William why isn't the Eagle's Nest a cattle ranch anymore?"

"Well...After John and Ellie were killed in that car crash, I just didn't have the heart to keep it going. Lewis had his own life in St. Louis and I didn't want to bring a bunch of strangers in to work the place." William looked at Jim for a short moment and said, "Sometimes I wish I'd kept on raising cattle."

"Why don't we start it up again?" Jim asked, looking at William and Lewis. "I mean there's three of us now and even if we hired some help, it'd still be our place."

Lewis smiled; he had been wondering about making Eagle's Nest a real ranch again. "I'm willing if Grandpa, I mean William, is. But maybe not in the same way you're thinking."

"What are you talking about?" William asked.

"That show last night about the dude ranch in Colorado gave me the idea. We could do the same thing here at Eagle's Nest. Our weather is better than in the high country of Colorado so we could have a longer season and run more 'dudes' through the place."

"How do you figure?" William asked. Jim was interested too.

"We could split the herd and move half of them up into the high pasture in the spring," Lewis replied. Both men nodded and he continued, "At midsummer we could drive the other half of to the high country, so that's two trail drives. Then in the fall we could drive the whole herd back down to the valley."

William and Jim nodded their understanding. "That fall drive would be a big drive and we could have more of the 'cowboy wannabes' on that one," Lewis smiled, proud of his idea. "We could have three sets of wanna be cowboys during our season instead of just one like that place in Colorado."

"You've been thinkin about this some," Jim said. Turning to William he said, "Sounds like a good idea to me."

"That part of the herd that spends the whole summer up in the north pastures will be fatter than the others. Those are the cattle we ship to market," Lewis suggested. Laughing he added, "We'll use the cattle to make money two ways."

"It's gonna take some money to get up and running," William said. "First we have to get cattle." He thought for a minute. "The ranchers around here usually cull their herds to keep from overgrazing the land. They normally do it in the spring so they don't have to feed the animals all summer. We can buy those culls at a reasonable price."

Jim had been listening as William and Lewis discussed the way to start their business. "Y'all are forgetting something," he told them. Both men turned toward Jim with a questioning look.

"Unless you plan to bed down the 'dudes' in the house here, you're gonna need someplace for them to sleep." Jim could see by the look on their faces that they hadn't thought of what to do with the people once they got there. "And if you don't want them sitting around the table in our kitchen and them being underfoot, you're gonna need someplace and some way to feed them."

"I don't think we can afford the expense of building a hotel for them," William said. Lewis nodded his head in agreement.

"You youngsters are thinkin about it all wrong. Those people want to play at being cowboys so let em sleep and eat like cowboys," Jim explained. "We'll build a bunk house that'll sleep about twenty or so in bunk beds; we can even put in one of those new fangled bathrooms. At one end of the bunkhouse we can attach a covered Ramada for cooking and eating. It won't have walls but the roof will protect the dudes from the rain."

"That'd be a cheaper way to go," William agreed. "But something like that would still be costly."

"Not if we did a lot of the rough work ourselves," Lewis suggested. "There's that big stand of Ponderosa Pine over near the creek. We could cut the trees to build a log cabin type bunkhouse and reduce our expenses."

"Have you ever built a log cabin?" Jim asked, not sure the boy knew how much work was involved.

"No I haven't, but you have Great, Great Grandfather," Lewis teased. "I heard the story of how you build the original part of this house and pretty much by yourself too."

Jim laughed. "Well, we could cut enough trees over the winter and start building in the spring. That is if the weather doesn't get too bad. We can work in a little snow and cold but rain would stop us from hauling the logs out. It shouldn't take more than 50 trees or so and with all three of us cuttin and felling trees we should be done in 10 to 12 days."

William grinned. "Shouldn't take us more than two or three days; depending on how far we have to go for the right size trees."

Jim looked at the aggravating grin on William's face. "How do you plan are doin the cuttin that fast? You gonna bring in a crew? I thought the idea was to cut back on spending money we don't have."

"I'll show you in the morning," William replied. "And no, I don't plan on bringing in anyone to help. He grinned again at Jim. "We got a good start on a plan tonight. Let's call it a night and start fresh tomorrow."

During breakfast the next morning, Jim tried two or three times to get William to explain his statement the previous night.

"I'd still like to know how you plan to do all that cuttin in just a couple of days."

"I'll show you after breakfast Jim." The three finished breakfast and cleaned up the kitchen. "Grab a coat and follow me down to the barn," William suggest to Jim. Lewis tagged along with them but he already knew what William was going to show Jim.

They entered the barn and William led them over to a storage room under the loft. "Remember us telling you that a lot of things had been invented and made while you were sleeping?" William asked and when Jim nodded he continued. "Well this is one of those things."

He opened the door, went inside the store room, and returned carrying two 30 inch chainsaws. "These are called chainsaws Jim. With these we can cut a two or three foot diameter tree down in about 5 to 10 minutes."

Jim hefted one of the saws as William handed it to him. He fingered the cutting edges on the chain and moved it back and forth looking puzzled. "Don't see how these little sharp edges can cut better and faster than an axe or a buck saw."

William picked up the other saw. "This is going to be loud, you might want to put your hands over your ears," he explained. He pulled the cord and started the saw with a loud roar from the two stroke engine. Walking over to a stack of firewood he quickly cut through one of the bigger pieces. Then William shut the saw off.

Turning back to Jim he said, "See what I mean? This works pretty much like the truck and the ATVs; just on a smaller scale."

"We've got a small one that can be used to trim the branches off the downed trees," Lewis added. "Two of us can cut while the other one trims. Then we can hook up the truck to the logs and pull them over to the building site."

"That's almost unbelievable," Jim said. "It took me a full day to cut and trim two trees when I built this house."

"Got another surprise for you when we get the trees cut," William told him. "We'll rent a big saw and square up the logs. It won't leave cracks when we build the walls and we won't have to stuff them with mud and grass like you had to do."

"And just anybody can get these....chainsaws," Jim said.

"Anybody that can afford to buy em. I bought these when we added the kitchen, the den, and the back bedroom onto the rear of the house."

"Well I'll be damned," Jim remarked.

Lewis motioned to Jim and led him to a grove of trees near the barn. He gave Jim a quick but thorough lesson using the chainsaw; stressing the safe use of it.

That evening the three resumed their discussion on setting up a sort of dude ranch. The major problems were still the cost. Finally Lewis stepped in.

"We could get a loan using Eagle's Nest as collateral," he suggested. "Problem is it's going to take a couple of years before we're going to see any money coming back to us. William's pension and my disability check can cover us for a while but if we run into a rough patch the ranch could be at risk." He looked at William and Jim adding, "Maybe we ought to draw in our horns and start out slower."

William looked thoughtful for a minute. "Before we go off halved cocked, we should go to the bank in Prescott and see what the loan officer has to say. Maybe we won't have to risk the ranch or can set something up with a balloon payment in five years or so. We need more information before we make any decisions."

He turned to Jim, "It'll take us about two hours to get to Prescott. Then we'll have another hour or so with the banker and two hours back. Think you're strong enough to spend all day out gallivanting around?"

"I reckon so. Don't know anything about bankers so I can look around town or wait in the truck."

"Maybe so, but you've got good common sense and might think of something we miss. No, I'd rather all three of us meet with the loan officer. Besides, this place is as much yours as ours; maybe more," William replied. "But it might be a good idea not to mention your recent...err...nap Jim. "Tomorrow suit you both?"

It was just after 10 AM when William pulled his truck into a parking place on Whiskey Row in Prescott. Jim had been bug eyed from the minute they'd came to the outskirts of the city. Lewis chuckled to himself; Jim's head had been moving back and forth looking at modern day Prescott. His neck is gonna be sore tomorrow.

William was driving his personal truck, a Ford 3/4 ton crew cab, as opposed to the ranch work truck that Jim had ridden in before. He and Jim rode in the front with Lewis in the rear seat. This allowed Jim plenty of room to look around as they made their way into Prescott.

"This is Prescott?" Jim asked. "It was a nice size town in my day but this is the biggest place I've ever seen."

The Randals walked around for about an hour visiting the shops lining Court House Plaza. Jim spent time reading a few of the historical plaques the city had erected.

"They changed the courthouse," Jim said in surprise. "It was just built in '87. Why would they.....Oh, that was over a hundred years ago. I keep forgettin."

As the three men walked around Court House square Jim saw Whiskey Row for the first time. "At least there's something I remember. They still call it Whiskey Row?"

William smiled. "Yep, it's still Whiskey Row. But it's not like it was back in your day. People drive in from far away just to say they had a drink or walked down Whiskey Row."

"In my day if a man went to Whiskey Row he was looking for a drink or a woman. Sometimes both," Jim said grinning. I think they...." Jim stopped talking and stared at the two young ladies walking down the sidewalk toward him. Then he looked around at some of the other women in the area.

Lewis looked at him with concern. "What's wrong Jim? Are you alright? Jim....Jim?"

He finally answered Lewis. "Yeah, I'm fine. I've never seen women dressed like that." Jim turned back to watch the girls walk away. The two young ladies were wearing skirts that were just above their knees and short sleeve blouses.

"Sorta takes all the magic and mystery away when everything is right there in the open," Jim said shaking his head. "I don't know that I'd count that as an advance from my day."

William chuckled. "I understand Jim. The women in my day would have never shown their knees and their blouses were buttoned up to the neck. Now they'd be considered old fashioned."

"I'm surprised you haven't seen the way women dress on TV," Lewis said.

"The only things I've seen on the damn stupid babble box are what you call the History Channel and that Discovery thing. I never watch those news programs because I don't understand half of what they talk about."

At noon they had lunch at The Palace Saloon. It was one of the historical buildings on Whiskey Row. After lunch before going to the bank they stopped and bought Jim a Stetson; he'd been wearing one of Lewis's ball caps. As they walked to the bank they passed a ladies clothing store. In the window was a mannequin showing the latest in bikini styles. Jim stopped and stared again. He turned to William and then Lewis and then back to the store window.

"What the blazes is that?" He questioned. "I never saw anything like that even in my bedroom."

"That's what a lot of women wear swimming now days," William answered. "In fact that one has more cloth in it than some. Surely doesn't leave a lot to the imagination."

Jim shook his head and looked at William and Lewis with a small mischievous grin. "If Chante had worn something like that, we'd never got out of the house. Lot of work would have been put off." William and Lewis laughed loud enough for people to turn and look at them.

"Guess it's time to get down to business," William said when he stopped laughing. "Our appointment with the bank's loan officer is a 1."

Arriving at the bank they were escorted into the office of Simon Rutledge. There was a name plate on the desk that gave his name and title. The title was "Vice President, Loan Department". Lewis smiled to himself. The man looks like a banker, he thought.

Rutledge was about 45, short and rotund. He wore glasses and a three piece suit. William thought his smile of greeting was less than sincere. He didn't trust him. Jim just grinned.

"How may I help you Mr. Randal?" Rutledge asked still smiling. William turned to Lewis and motioned for him to talk for the Randals.

"Mr. Rutledge we'd like to explore the possibility of obtaining a loan. We need to know the terms such as interest rates and repayment schedules."

"You have collateral?" Rutledge asked. Lewis nodded and the banker asked, "How much do you want to borrow and what will the money be used for?"

William and Lewis had discussed the amount they would need to get the dude ranch up and running. "I don't believe why we want the money is relevant Mr. Rutledge, considering our collateral. The amount is one hundred thousand."

Rutledge was a little put out with Lewis's admonishment concerning the end use of the money. "And what is this collateral?" He asked.

"We'd take a mortgage on our ranch; Eagle's Nest."

Looking at William Rutledge asked, "And you are the owner this ranch? There are no liens on the property?"

William pointed to Lewis. "The boy is the owner of record and there isn't anything owed on the place."

The banker nodded and typed commands into a computer on his desk. "Let's see, your ranch is just over 1000 acres. I believe we could loan you that amount using the ranch as collateral."

"I'm sorry Mr. Rutledge; I didn't make my meaning clear," Lewis said. "We don't expect to take a mortgage on the entire ranch. I thought maybe a hundred acres or so would be sufficient."

Rutledge shook his head. "I don't believe a hundred acres would be acceptable to our board."

"Sir, Center Corp has made a standing offer of 3 million dollars for Eagle's Nest. I realize that the property probably isn't worth that much, at least from a bank's point of view. I also realize that Center Corp offered such a large amount trying to money whip us into selling. But I do think Eagle's Nest could be valued as high as 2.5 million."

"Well.....Possibly," Rutledge admitted. "But I don't think....."

Lewis interrupted the banker. "You can't expect us to put up a property worth that amount for a hundred thousand dollars. Based on the value suggested, one hundred acres is worth two hundred thousand. Twice the amount of the loan should be enough collateral."

Rutledge hemmed and hawed for a moment. Finally he said he would check with his board and give them a call. The three Randals left the bank less than optimistic. Walking back to the truck, Jim turned his head to look at several more women and the way they were dressed. Each time he'd smile and shake his head.

As they drove out of Prescott, Jim turned to look at Lewis in the back seat. "What did you think of that Rutledge fella?"

Lewis hesitated, smiled, and replied, "I think Mr. Rutledge was more interested in showing us country bumpkins how important he is than in helping us do business with the bank. The man didn't impress me too much."

Jim chuckled. "That's what I thought too," Jim confessed. "He was all puffed up with hisself until you put him in his place Lewis."

"You surely did put him in his place son," William added.

"You sounded like some highfalutin big shot," Jim said impressed with Lewis. "Never heard you talk like that."

"No need to with normal folk. It's just that with a pompous ass like Rutledge you have to cut em off at the knees." Lewis laughed. "It was fun to see his face fall when I told him we wouldn't be using the whole ranch for collateral."

The men laughed and talked about the things Jim had seen on his first trip to a big town. As they pulled off the main highway onto the secondary road that led to Eagle's Nest, Jim got serious.

"We may be goin about this dude and cattle ranch thing all wrong boys," he told them.

"What do you mean?" William asked.

"Well instead of doin all of our plans at once, maybe we should just start with a cattle ranch," Jim replied. "When we start makin a little money with the cattle, we can look at startin the dude part. That way we don't risk Eagle's Nest if we have a bad season."

William stopped the truck, turned in the seat to look at Jim. Glancing over his shoulder at Lewis he said, "Like I said, common sense. I said you'd see something we missed, now didn't I?"

"I just thought maybe we ought to tighten up that noose we're throwing out there," Jim replied smiling at William's compliment.

"Let's get home and get supper," William suggested. "We can talk about revising our plan this evening."

********************

The seasons were changing and spring was coming on. The nights were still a bit nippy but not the deep bone chilling cold of winter. The three Randals were now able to take their coffee out onto the porch and talk.

"I was figuring about 50 thousand for building expenses and another 50 thousand for cattle," William said. "We'll have to come up with money for horses if and when we start having paying guests. The dudes will need horses to play cowboy. Besides ATVs and trucks are fine but sometimes there's no better way to work cattle than using horses."

"Yeah, I'd like to see you try to rope a calf ridin one of the ATVs," Jim said laughing. "A calf would probably laugh hisself sick watchin you."

After the men stopped laughing, Lewis said, "I heard some men at Cole's Corner talking last week. They said a fella named Benson was wanting to get out of the cattle business. Said he wants to raise quarter horses."

Lewis looked at William and Jim. "I think we ought to go have a talk with this Benson. We just might get a herd and be able to ship some of them this fall."

"That'd be Josh Benson. He and his family moved in about three years ago" William told Lewis. "But what we use for a grubstake? I've only got about a thousand cash."

"I can add another two thousand," Lewis replied. "We may have to start out small and build the herd."