The night was crisp and clear as the white smoke from the fire rose into the air like an ancient roman column. Everyone at Sock Monkey Ranch had put in a long, hard day sortin' and loggin' the cattle that Cletus "Tumbleweed" Baker had driven into the corrals.
Now it was time to sit around the fire, drink some hot coffee and let the warmth settle into their muscles and bones before they rolled up in their bunks and fell off to sleep.
"I need to get the stock tank and windmill over in the valley fixed before we can run any cows down there." Mike said. As the resident grease monkey at Sock Monkey Ranch, Mike keeps each piece of ranch machinery and equipment in top in runnin' order. "Once I get that done we shouldn't have any trouble with water on the south side of the range anymore."
Everyone was quiet for a while, enjoying the sound of the crackling fire, the cool wind in the trees and the hot coffee.
Suddenly Tumbleweed cleared his throat and said "I remember a time when we didn't have the luxury of windmills to fill the stock tanks. We had to haul water sometimes fifteen mile in our hats just to get the stock watered and happy."
Sidelong glances and amused grins passed between all of the cowboys...all except old Tumbleweed...he just kept lookin' straight into the fire.
Once again all fell quiet till Tumbleweed sucked air through his teeth and asked "I ever tell ya'll about the time I had to run water over the Rio Bravo Creek?"
They all shook their heads. Even if they had heard the story, they woulda been willin' to hear it again. Tumbleweed was just that good a story teller.
Dusty spoke up. "Didn't they change the name of the Rio Bravo to the Rio Grande? And isn't it a river instead of a creek?"
Tumbleweed nodded and replied with a straight face, "It is now."
Old Tumbleweed began "I was down Laredo, Texas way in the middle of August. Don't know how many of you've had the misfortune of being down there at that time of year but let me tell you, it's so hot the hens lay hard-boiled eggs and the birds use potholders to pull the worms outta the ground.
That year was especially hot. We was workin' hard at keepin' the stock watered, not to mention ourselves. Well, this old boy south of the border, Jacinto was his name, he offered to let us run a pipeline over to the CrossU where I was workin so we set to it.
We ran regular steel pipe, but I figured we could save money on joints if we used old tire tubes with pipe clamps instead...no reason it shouldn't work. So we get 'er all set up and the water starts to runnin' when I notice all the rubber joints were bulgin' out like they wanted to burst.
I squeezed one and the water shot out the end of the pipe like a bullet! Well, that was it then, all we had to do was train some of the young ponys we couldn't ride yet to stand there at each joint and when it got to bulgin' to much, they could just step on it a might and we'd have more than enough water in no time."
The others just sat and stared. Everyone knew there was no way to train a pony to step on a pipe when the rubber joint got too big. Heck, just the idea of it was obsurd, but if Tumbleweed was tellin' a story a body best not interupt if he or she valued his or her hair.
Tumbleweed continued "After a week or so I had me eight ponies all lined up to keep them make-shift joints from gettin' too big. The whole operation was going real smooth till the section that ran over the old Rio Bravo Creek got too big. See, the rubber we used from the old tire tubes was black...like an old black snake. And as ya'll know, the black snake is a natural enemy to the coral snake.
Seems that a little old coral snake wandered by and noticed that black piece of rubber swellin' up just about the time the pony noticed the coral snake. The pony stomped and snorted, frightenin' the snake, who took the rubber for a black snake, struck and punctured the rubber. Next thing you know, all that water rushed into the creek and musta drew out whatever underground water there was cuz quicker'n a shot the whole creek turned into a mighty rushing river. So they up and changed the name from the Rio Bravo Creek to the Rio Grande River.
I reckon it didn't work out exactly how I planned it, but we never did run outta water after that.
Well, guess I'll turn in..."
With that, Tumbleweed swaggered off to his bunk leaving 14 monkeys sittin' there dumb-founded round a dyin' campfire.
