From the Home Place

October 25, 2025

Let’s travel back sixty-plus years to a September morning, the sun is lighting a small glow behind the hills to the east of us, the air is crisp, and Mother Nature is just starting to wake up. My dad is holding the lead shank of a halter, the halter is on a colt that I rode for the first time the day before, and we are traveling south in a fairly nice swing trot. Dad will keep this youngn” snubbed for our first five miles, and if all goes well, he will turn me and my student lose for the rest of our fourteen-mile ride.

We are headed down south to start the annual cattle drive to Lusk. You see, we will pick up our first cattle at the Schamel and Johnson ranches, dumping these cattle onto the county road and starting the fifty-two mile journey to the north and east.

We will pick up a few more cattle three miles up the road at the Brownrigg Ranch, and then more from Ferguson, Sudberry, Smith and Orr ranches. Before we travel five miles back in the direction we started from, we will be trailing nearly one-hundred head of cattle ranging for weanling calves to yearlings and all sorts of old cows and bulls. If we are lucky, we will usually gain two or three more cowboys as well.

Sticking to the gravel county road, we will let the cattle mosey on north at a slow walk, picking their breakfast as we go along. Conversation is light among the hands as we attempt to keep all of the bulls separated from each other. When they get to fighting, there will almost always be fence to fix, and none of us have any desire, nor the tools for such a job.

An occasional rattle snake will be fuzzed out of his bed as we stick to the ditches as much as possible. After the morning jog south and now pushing cattle back north, my colt is starting to figure out what he was created for.

We gain cattle as we pass the Bass, Archey and Robinson ranches. By the time we get back to Meadowdale we are now pushing well over two-hundred head of cattle, and every cowboy can smell the fresh cinnamon rolls and coffee my mom will have ready for us within the next hour. We dump the cattle in our east-pasture and jog our horses to the barn. Each horse will get a scoop of oats and some fresh hay for their breakfast and then it’s a race to see which cowboy can get to the house first!

After eating a couple dozen of rolls and using two big pots of coffee to wash them down with, the cowboys will jump into a pickup from a couple of the ranches we traveled by earlier and they too will go back to their homes for a day’s work and a night’s rest. Day One!

An hour before daylight, the cowboys will all return to our place, catch and saddle their horse, and then head for the kitchen for more fresh rolls and coffee, a lot more! By daylight we will gather the cattle and head north. By now we have thrown our cattle we want to sell together with the bunch and off we go, once again just as Ma Nature is waking.

Johnson and Schaffer Ranches are first to add to our collection of cattle and cowboys. Then we gain more at the Smith, Blackmore, and Lamb places. We will usually gain a milk cow or two from Kennedy’s and then some more yearlings from my uncle Bud’s outfit. By the end of the day, we will have a dozen tired cowboys, tired horses and very tired cattle as we have traveled nearly twenty miles!

Our string of nearly two miles of cattle will dump into a pasture just south of Manville. Horses are brushed, watered and put into corrals with fresh hay. Cowboys will eat a pot-luck supper, having eaten sandwiches on the go for lunch. Bedrolls are rolled out in the barn and after a few stories recounting the excitement of the day, the snoring and (well we’ll leave that one alone) will begin. Day Two!

Now, let’s pause here for a moment for our theology lesson for the day. By the end of day two, we were really close to our destination, yet it was necessary to hold-up in a pasture for the night. Now remember, we have a thousand-plus head of cattle that have never been together before, but they are chosen for this journey. This holding pasture with cattle from a dozen different ranches are very much like a Christians journey to heaven. You will be put into a place with others who have also been chosen.

Grab your Bible and read the story about Lazarus and the rich man from Luke 16:1931. Follow that reading with Luke 23:43, 2 Corinthians 12:4 and then read Revelation 2:7. In each of these readings you will find “Abraham’s bosom or Paradise.” These are the biblical terms for what we Christians usually call heaven. However, just like the cattle in the holding pasture, Christians who die and leave this world, don’t really go to the final heaven, yet. They are gathered in a place called the “intermediate heaven,” or Paradise, while unbelievers are sent to Hades, neither group in their final destination.

Though this intermediate heaven will be amazingly wonderful, it isn’t the New Heaven nor the New Earth awaiting Christians (Revelation 21:1-8) as their final destination. Yes, you will recognize loved ones, but no one there will have their resurrected bodies as of yet. It will be a glorious place because Jesus will be with us there! Just remember, this isn’t the end of the story, yet.

Because of the lack of space, we will pick up this story tomorrow.

Waiting to reach our destination with you, Neal