This land is wild and unfenced. The Coe brothers' cattle and
the cattle of the homesteaders and ranchers roam the hills
freely -- mingling with the mountain lions, deer, bobcats,
foxes, raccoons, quail, rabbits, and squirrels that abound in the
hills -- thriving and growing fat on the lush grasses and
filarees, abundant acorns, and the many springs.
The Coe brothers' ranch expands. Land is taken up under the
1862 Homestead Act or purchased from homesteaders in the surrounding
hills.
Although life is pretty easy for the cattle, it is rough for the
rancher and his family. Isolated from civilization, they have
to learn to live with and from nature, or perish.
Everyone works. The women, children, and the men, side by side. There
is the vegetable garden growing, and the
fruit must be tended. Produce is eaten fresh or canned and stored for
the long cold winter. The chickens and turkeys have to be fed and the
eggs gathered. A small herd of dairy cows are kept and each child has
one of his own to milk, and there are a few extra that are taken care of
by Coe or one of the hands. As there is no refrigeration, the milk has
to be consumed fresh, the extra being fed to the animals. Butter and
cheese are made, the butter being salted to help it keep longer, and
stored in the stone storehouse in the yard.
Fresh meat is had only when a fat steer is butchered in the fall. Lard,
used for making soap or for cooking, is rendered, and the meat is jerked.
Mother Nature, though sometimes cruel, is gracious to those who know her,
and much of the Coe family's food comes from her kitchen. Deer meat
is always available, the venison eaten fresh, canned, or jerked in the
same manner as beef. In the spring, large and juicy red berries ripen
along the canyons. They are gathered and preserved into jellies or
sauces and fruit juices. The purple Elderberries are made into pastries
and puddings, sauces and Elderberry wine. There is hot or spiced
sarsaparilla tea, wild lettuce, and watercress. In the fall, there are
sweet and filling pine nuts, and in winter, large mushrooms are served
with hot Yerba Buena tea. And, although not rechewable, pine
pitch gum is far better than the store bought variety.
Public electricity never did reach the cattle ranches in the Pine Ridge
area. Light is provided by kerosene lamps, and the large brick fireplace
is the only source of heat. The ranch uses a tremendous amount of fuel,
and it takes two men working with a cross cut saw many days before the 20
cords needed to last the winter are cut and stacked. (Coe did purchase
an Oakland engine and placed a circular saw blade on the end of the
drive shaft, which somewhat lessened the task of cutting wood for the
winter.)
The cooking, in the large kitchen building, which sits south of the
house, is also done with wood. Different types of wood are used,
depending on the meal. In the morning, Manzanita is used, and breakfast
is usually ready in five minutes or so. With pine chips, lunch takes
about ten minutes to cook. For dinner, baking, and general heating, oak
is used.
For bathing, water has to be heated on the stove or over the hearth and
carried out to the bath house behind the main ranch house. (It wasn't
until after World War I that the house on Pine Ridge had a bath room
built onto it.)
People are polite and hospitable. Nothing is every locked. There is
always a huge pot of boiled coffee on the fire, and no guest is ever
turned away without a meal. Yet, the hills abound with mountin lions,
and even cattle could be dangerous. Everyone carries a gun, and no young
person is allowed out of sight without one.
Roan Durham Cattle, called shorthorn today, are not the easiest
cattle to work, especially on an open mountain range with so few fences.
These cattle are crossed with long-horned native cattle. Later,
Herefords were brought in. About 800 to 900 cattle were run at Pine
Ridge.
With so few fences, cattle from different ranches inevitably
graze together. So, in April or May, when the Coes have
their branding, cattle people from the entire area come to
help and to reclaim any cattle not belonging to the Coes. It takes about
30 men to gather the herd. As there are few fences, most of the work is
done in the open. Besides the branding, the young bulls are castrated
and all the calves ear marked.
Although the cattle roam the hills pretty much on their own, there is
quite a bit of care and management involved. The springs have to
be kept flowing freely. Cleaning out the debris that clogs the
pipes is a two-month job. Cattle also need salt, but there is no
such thing as the salt blocks used today. Rock salt in cloth bags has to
be hauled out with a pack horse and put in wooden boxes. Sections of the
ranch are planted with hay, which is harvested in the summer and stored
in the big barn for winter.
