A COWBOY'S STUDY...ON WATER

A COWBOY’S STUDY ON WHAT IS WIDELY 

KNOWN AS “COMMON SENSE” THE SITUATION

By Gene Kammerzell (c) 2018

A few weeks back when I came home from Sunday Meet’n at Cowboy Church I discovered my corral gate was open and my prize Paint Mare was miss’n. She was real nice, papered n’ all in my name. Someone surely had to take her ‘cause I remember snapping the chain lockin the gate on Saturday night. Then there was last Fourth of July. Me & the Missus decided to get away fer a couple of days and went over to Steamboat to take in their rodeo and party with the mountain cowboys a bit. When we got home the first thing I saw was that my hay stack had shrunk. I just put up 1400 bales of grass in mid-June and I’ll be jiggered if at least half of it wasn’t missin. And before all of that, we went down to the Stock Show in Denver, mainly to see the draft horse pullin contest. When we came out of the arena and walked over to where I had left my Ford F-250, all that was still there was a little pile of broken glass and my pick-up was gone. And the capper to all of this is that the state engineer red tagged my irritatin well and said that I had to come up with a whole bunch of new water to augmentate it or else I can’t continue to pump it. Now, to me this makes no sense, no how. See’n how that there well was included in the property deed when my Pa bought this place back in 1936, and that it had been dug in 1920 and put to good use then and ever since, I figger it was bought, paid for and a part of the place. Shucks that well was a pumpin and a part of this here place since before Colorado entered into the interstate compact with Nebraska.

WHAT’S HAPPENED SINCE 

Well, my uncle Wilber went to the auction over in Ogalla last week, and guess what? Here came my prize mare with my brand on her left hip. It sure enough was her alright. So he called over the Brand Inspector and told him my mare was stole a couple of weeks back and the proof was the brand right there on her rump. Well the Brand inspector called the county sheriff and they arrested the two who brought her there and took the forged bill of sale as evidence. My neighbor down the way a bit with a dairy asked me if’n I wanted to sell him some more hay for his calves. He said that the calves were sure doin good on the first batch they paid cash for from my cousin. I told him I had no cousin in the hay business and had been wonderin where 700 bales of my spring cut hay went. Well, I’ll be darn if the New Mexico State Patrol didn’t call and ask me if’n I was amissin a turquoise Ford F-250 with Colorado plates on it. They said they found it down by Albuquerque run plum outa diesel. I told him yer dad burn right I’m a-missin my pick-up. It’s been plain hell trying to get into town and buy groceries with the John Deere and I want my pick-up back! Ever tried hauling around yer Border Collie on the back of yer John Deer on a 3 point cultivator tool bar? Aside from being at the short end of a bunch of bad luck, I think the worst thing was the takin away of my well water. I come to find out that some fellas down east of here hired a slick talkin lawyer and whipped up one big whopper of a story about them being in a hurtin way all because me and my neighbors were pumping water they’ve laid claim to. I’m here to tell ya that theys noth’n but lying claim jumpers. I got my court decree fer the well & all and I can prove to ya what I’m a sayin is true. They was outta water down there way back in the 30's, long before most of the wells up here were punched. Shucks there’s been many atimes upriver here that the river’s run dry too and no one’s to blame. If’n there ain’t no water, there ain’t none. Period. So how come they thinks they’re special? HOW THINGS ENDED UP Well, I got my dandy mare back! She looks a bit thin from all the travelin she’s been doin, but otherwise she’s in good shape. I pressed charges in Nebraska for the stealin of my horse and those crooks are gonna be locked up fer quite a spell, seein how transporting stolen livestock across state lines is a pretty big deal. Forging a livestock bill of sale got em into even bigger trouble. My neighbor who bought my hay from the fellas who stole it in the first place happened to be taken pictures of his kids with their show calves, getting ready for the fair and accidently snapped a picture of one of the guys in his truck and got his license plate number. Sheriff Cook used that picture along with my neighbor’s story and caught up with these guys way down by Wray, fixin to the same thing again. Seems that when Sheriff Cook’s deputy was puttin on the handcuffs the guy fell against his truck door, knocking the door panel loose and out popped about 10 pounds of Mary Jane. Seems that these boys were wanted all over in the South West and I got to collect enough reward money to pay me back for the hay they stole. Then there is the story about my pick-up. Since it was a turquoise Ford F-250 they seem to be kinda rare, not too many around. Seems those guys used my pick-up to rob a bank in New Mexico. Being turquoise, quite a few people paid attention to it when it was parked outside a motel in Carl’s Bad. After the New Mexico Patrol found my Pick-up along side the road, and having eye witnesses seein it at the robbed bank, the patrol put an advertisement on TV. Video Cameras at the motel identified the robbers. They were wanted in Arizona and now they are in one of Sheriff Arpaio’s desert tents wearing pink panties. I’ll betcha the folks who got robbed don’t think these guys look too tuff now! 

NOW FOR THE COMMON SENSE (OR THE TOTAL LACK OF IT) 

Now, if horses, hay, pick-ups and water are all property, just why is it that the sheriff can take care of the thieves of my horse, hay and pick-up, but not my water? They have no Horse Court, no Hay Court, and no Pick-up Court, but there sure is one Water Court. So what’s the difference, all them things being my property that was stolen? The sheriff can handle horse thieves, hay thieves and pick-up thieves, but not water thieves? Looks to me like we need more justice like the sheriff sees it. Either you are in the right or the wrong - no in between. No belly achin can wiggle you off the hook if you are in the wrong. Man-up, stop snifflein, complainin, bitchin and moanin. If you missed the boat when yer neighbor was workin to get ahead and paid to punch a well accept it. You can still get ahead if yer willing to work for it. Just stop thinking someone else owes you what they worked to get. I got legal proof I own the right to use my well water. It came with my deed and again with my court decree. Those guys a belly achin all got into the water line way after we up here settled our land and developed our water. Looks to me like they all is jealous over what we made of ourselves and now they reckon that by throwin a fit they can claim what is ours fer themselves. They got slick suited big city lawyers making double talk arguments to judges that don’t know a irrigatin shovel from a manure fork. And it seems that 9 times outta 10 the judge buys into the load on the manure fork. All I can see is that Water Court is just one more thief in a whole pack of thieves. Whinin, belly achin claim jumpers or slick suited lawyers a helping the claim jumpers or judges buyin into ashoveling manure makes no difference. No matter which way a crook looks through the jail house bars, from the inside or outside, in my book a crook is still a crook, and ya can take that to the bank!