I offer many thanks to Dave Anderson and Miles Childers for granting me access to the historic LX Ranch for Spring Gathering. My first visit was in 2005 and I was working primarily with still photography but getting used to recording video without the help of a tripod in most circumstances.
The video above was the first to be produced and exercise my primitive editing skills from the series. The LX was still hiring Ted to bring his chuck wagon out to feed the hands for two weeks. The camp moved after the first week and I made my appearance as the second camp was being set up. I wish I could have caught the chuck wagon getting rigged up too.
The Spring day turned out to be quite windy and discovered a remuda of horses belonging to the ranch were being brought in from a two-section pasture for sorting out. I just tried to find a stable location as quickly as possible and hang on!
Fresh Horses
I told Ted the cookie that I wanted to film him and his help making breakfast for the hands from the viewpoint of a fly on the wall as to what goes on He did fairly well though he did slip a bit. I would love to record more videos using this style of documentation. Just ignore me and the camera ok? ha!
I had plenty of time after breakfast to wander around the pasture taking photos of the wildflowers and landscapes while all the hands were out gathering up the cattle to be worked in the pens eventually that day. I also had to guesstimate where the incoming herd would approach and position myself where I was most likely to not miss much action.
I returned to the LX in May of 2019 and the whole Spring workup had changed. There was no chuck wagon (Ted Embry had passed) and no hands living out of cowboy tents. All the help arrived in trucks pulling horse and stock trailers did the work to be done and left to come back another day.
The pen work was split into three parts and I needed to operate the camera hand-held the whole time in order to shoot from different angles and stay safe inside the pen while not obstructing any activity.
2019 Spring Workup
I always hope to return to the LX or have opportunities to document how life plays out on other ranches and farms today for tomorrow's history in the American Heartlands. Contact Us
