The Ranch "Family" The "Cat Skinner"

The need for highly diversified skills in agriculture has always been a challenge. Dale "Arkie" Duncan  who had acquired his nickname because he was originally from Arkansas, was a very talented individual. He honed his skills of running a Caterpillar D6 equipped with a carryall scraper and dozer to perfection. He spent more than twenty years on the Plymouth Ranch moving soil to shape the landscape so that irrigated crops could be planted and managed in an efficient manner.
The emphasis in the 1950's and 1960's was to put more tillable and irrigable land into production on a nationwide scale. The USDA Soil Conservation Service (predecessor to NRCS) and associated agencies were encouraging producers to level their fields for irrigation, build and improve irrigation systems, straighten and clean river channels, and fill wetlands. The USDA provided cost share funds as well as technical services to farmers and ranchers to help accomplish these tasks. There were no computers, GPS, lasers, or self guided equipment. It took hours of hand labor to survey and drive stakes in 100ft by 100ft grids across the fields. The elevation at each of the stations (points on the grid) were taken by a surveyor with a transit level. The information was then taken to the office and with much hand calculation the grade sheet was developed. When the grade sheet was completed each of the stakes in the grid had to be marked. The points where soil need to be removed were marked with a red crayon and the points where soil needed to be added where marked with blue crayon. These marks were the guide for the operator of the Caterpillar and scraper.

Arkie would take the "Cut Sheet" as it was called and study it before he started to bring a field to the new grade and slope. He would make a plan in his mind of where the cuts and fills were and how to most efficiently move the material with a minimum of travel time. I loved to ride with him as the clanking of the tracks filled our ears and dust swirled around us. The controls were cable spools that supplied the lifting and lowering functions of the scraper. The operator's eye was what determined the cut or fill setting of the blade on the scraper. This was not an easy task because you had to look behind you 15 to 18 feet to see the scraper blade.  Arkie would allow me to "drive" the Cat by pushing my foot on a break pedal and pulling hard on the friction lever. The two levers over the right shoulder of the operator controlled the cables that ran to the scraper.

Arkie was a very slim small man. He had his room in the Bunkhouse and a place at the dining table at the ranch which were "His".  I remember that some of his family from Arkansas visited him just once while I knew him. He and other single men that spent most of their lives on the ranch were "brothers" in a way. I often still wonder about the loneliness that they must have felt at times. They read books and wrote occasional letters.

Dale "Arkie" Duncan    (1913-1972)


 

The Ranch "Family" : The Agriculture Building Blocks

My life has been filled with many wonderful people that formed a mold that shaped the "Who I am" today.

The years that passed during my journey to reaching the plateau of being a teenager were filled with people that had worked their entire adult lives on the Plymouth Ranch. The property had been purchased by my Great Grandfather and a couple of partners from Plymouth Land and Livestock Company, a company that had roots in Seattle in 1911-1912.

I realize that my parents, grandparents, and a few other relatives had the largest influence in my life until I graduated from high school. There were other influences that came from the people that worked on the ranch as part of the "ranch family"contributing their knowledge and opinions.

Gottfried Rolfs was the blacksmith that "owned the shop". The shop was his domain, his life, his working space, and his art gallery. It was a place filled with equipment and tools of the trade necessary to keep a ranch running.  The shop was very well equipped for the requirements of ranching and farming before the wide spread use of tractors and rubber tired equipment. Line drives that powered the drill press, drop hammer, large band saw, tire setter, and 4 ft diameter wet stone was mounted on one of the trusses. The system was typical for the era and allowed many machines to be powered by a single electric motor. The sounds of it running and the long fiber belts slapping together in a unique rhythm are all a memory now. There was a hitching rack and wood floor in one area close to the forge used for the horseshoeing.

The time I spent in the shop watching the iron being heated and shaped into gate hinges, gate latches, and other items such as branding irons was fascinating. Gottfried tried to teach me about his skills even though his tolerance for kids was somewhat limited. I wish I had learned more. The ability to recognize the importance of taking the opportunity to learn is something that is acquired over time. The sounds of the hammer pounding hot metal on the anvil had a definite cadence that still rings in my ears. I remember him forming horseshoes for the Belgian horses my grandfather still raised and trained to drive. He held up those very big hooves to trim, rasp, and install shoes even though he had a badly damaged leg. His place at the table in the cookhouse dining room was not to be taken, even in his short absence at times.

Gottfried worked on the Plymouth Ranch for more than 25 years, it was his ranch as much as anyones. He was born in Germany in 1902 and migrated to the USA alone and never saw his family again. He died in 1966. He enjoyed some hellacious days of getting drunk a couple times a year and smoked Lucky Strike cigarettes.  

The building still stands and is built entirely of brick. The walls are four bricks thick and sixteen feet high. The huge wood trusses are all built with 2"X12" (yes full 2"X12") that is clear (not one knot).

Sometimes I stand in the shop and just quietly enjoy the memories. M