A man asked me a year ago to draw him a sketch of a set of pens that he was wanting to build.
I lost his phone number so I will give my opinion on what I like. First thing if I have a sorting alley that is 10 feet then I want a gate that is 12 feet wide going into the sorted alley or a pen. Then if you can throw that gate before the wild thing gets there and it will hit on the other side and won’t go all the way around.
Also, if you have a kid holding the gate the 12-foot gate in a 10-foot alley might keep him or her from getting’ their teeth busted out. Also, the same is true if your wife is holding the gate. However, the rancher sitting beside me that just got a divorce said, “On the wife you might want an 8-foot gate.” And I will never build another square pen. If you will slant those alleys or pens then cattle go in and out a lot better than a square pen because they can get down the alley. Also, you are not as apt to knock a hip down. Also, on the outside part of pens where you are bringing cattle in, I want all these pens straight but slanted toward the gate giving you another angle to trap cattle easier.
I asked a friend of mine what kind of beer he liked. And he said, “An opened one.” Then I asked him where he first met his wife. And he said, “At a family reunion.”
Today I was in a shoe store that sells shoes only and nothing else. A young girl with green hair walked over to me and asked, “What brings you in today?” I looked at her and said, “I’m interested in being a refrigerator.” She looked at me with that deer in the headlights look.
Editor’s note: The views expressed here are the author’s own and do not represent the view of High Plains Journal. Jerry Nine, Woodward, Oklahoma, is a lifetime cattleman who grew up on his family’s ranch near Slapout, Oklahoma.
