Laura's Poem

We were thrilled yesterday to receive from my brother, Allan Jones, a link to the Texas Standard Podcast which contains an audio clip of his granddaughter and my grandniece, almost-ten-year-old Laura McElhany, reading her poem, "Texas."  Texas Standard is collecting poems about Texas from listeners as a culmination to National Poetry Month.  Laura and her mother were listening to the podcast, and Laura told her mother that she was going to submit a poem.  (There was apparently a link on the podcast that allowed one to record directly on the website.)  Laura's mother thought nothing more about it until yesterday when she was driving along the freeway listening to the podcast and heard her daughter's voice.  Talk about a surprise!  Here is the link to the recording:

Texas Standard for April 28, 2022 | Texas Standard

https://www.texasstandard.org/stories/texas-standard-for-april-28-2022/

Laura's poem can be heard at minute 15 of the podcast.  Her copy of the poem is below, but you really need to listen to the recording to get the full effect.

 Congratulations, Laura, we love your poem and we're very proud of you.  

The Trials and Triumphs of Sheepdog Trialing!

West Texas, especially Friona, Texas, is a long, long way from Jonesboro, but the trip is one we won’t soon forget.  We left on Wednesday, April 6, RV in tow and dogs settled comfortably behind us in the cab of the Volvo.  Our destination was Friona, TX, for the Jake & Clayton Memorial Trial on the Frio Draw at beautiful Frio Draw Ranch.  

Hosted by Jill and Tommy Hefner, the trial honors the memory of their son and his best friend, who were killed in a plane crash in April of 2018.  

We took two days to make the trip.  The views weren't always scenic, but they were interesting.  

On Thursday afternoon parked the rig among a number of our friends’ coaches and trailers and got down to the serious business of watching and participating in sheep dog trials.  

Our parking space was close to pastures for some of Frio Draw’s sheep, and the dogs had a wonderful time watching them.  Rue ran to the fence whenever she could so she could be as close as possible.

They also had plenty of room for “ready-go” races.

Kota didn't participate in the ready-go races, but she did keep an eye on things in the RV, at least when she wasn't napping.  

On Friday, the last runs of the Open class were completed, and the Open Ranch competition began.  The weather continued to be a challenge, with a strong wind blowing in our faces and the dust swirling around the dogs and sheep. 

Cody and I drew what I consider the worst position in the trial…the first dog on the line in our class.  Forty-one dogs were entered, but scratches and no-shows brought the class size down to 31.  That’s still a lot of competitors.  However, of that number, I think only 13 teams received “numbers instead of letters.”  Thirteen dogs retired because they either couldn’t find the sheep or couldn’t move them around the course, and 9 were disqualified for “gripping” or for allowing their sheep to move off the trial field.  I was so proud of Cody.  He found his sheep, hung in there and finished 10th in his class with a score of 36 out of a possible 90 points.  

The sheep were beautiful dorper lambs, fat and sassy from the feed lot, and a real challenge for the dogs. 

Unfortunately, the lambs weren’t a factor in Bo’s first run.  He made a lightening-fast outrun, but never saw the sheep and received a DQ.  We had a day off on Saturday when the Open class had their second trial.  The wind was still strong and gusty, and if someone wasn’t sitting in a chair, it was overturned and had to be retrieved.  

We did have time to watch our friends run their dogs, to play with Jill's new litter of Dutch x Nan pups, 

and to enjoy a great dinner of Frio Draw lamb chops with all the trimmings, courtesy of our hosts.  

The second Open Ranch class didn’t start until Sunday morning.  Thankfully, my dogs were slated to run 12th and 40th, so I had some time to prepare and evaluate the course.  The trial field had been reoriented for our second run, so the outrun was with, instead of into, the wind (which was still steady in the 20s with gusts to 40 mph).  At least on Sunday the dogs had a better chance of hearing our commands.

Again, out of 41 dogs entered, 11 scratched, 7 were DQs and 6 were RTs.  Of the remaining dogs, I was thrilled with our performance.  Bo found his sheep and placed 13th with a score of 48.  His run was something of a cliff-hanger, though.  On his outrun, after allowing his sheep to go off line, far to the right of the fetch panels, 

he made a miraculous recovery and brought them through the gate.  You can clearly hear John's "Well, I'll be damned!" on the video he shot.  

Things went better after that, and Bo brought his sheep to the post, around the course and finally to a successful pen.  

Bo is an incredibly fast dog, and a challenge to run.  Almost before I can give him a command, he has covered another 20-30 yards.  I'll have to slow him down or be a better anticipator (or maybe both) if we're to be successful. 

Cody's second run was much better than his first.  He tied for third place in his class with a score of 61.  (We technically finished 4th because of tie-breaker rules, but I was, and am, ecstatic.)  Here are a couple of images pulled off the video John shot of our run.  

For our efforts, we received our very first check in an open ranch trial, and hope it is the first of many!  

As I said before, the wind and blowing dust were a challenge.  I love the sequence below of my friend Sandy Kieft and here dog, Elfa Fly.  During parts of their run, Sandy could hardly see Fly or the sheep for the swirling dust, but they finished the course, and beat out Cody and me for third place in our tie-breaker.  Good Job!

The Open and Nursery dogs were challenged as well.  Of the 48 dogs in Run 1, only 18 Open dogs finished the course.  In Run 21 of 47 received scores.  The Nursery dogs ran last, and fared somewhat better.  About half of that class finished the course.  We all learned a lot, though, and we and our dogs gained experience trialing in adverse conditions!  It will serve us well the next time.  

Here are some other photos of our friends and their dogs.  Because of the wind, I didn't take as many photos this trip as I usually do...and I'm still getting Texas Panhandle grit out of my camera. 😢

It was a long trip, 400.2 miles from the farm, but well worth it.  As I told Jill Hefner, the weather and the sheep were a challenge, but the competition and the camaraderie were second to none!  We can't wait to do it again.

And Now We Are Five

I grew up among cousins…lots of them.  A number on my dad’s side of the family, and a small group of six first cousins on my mother’s side.  We were, and are, the Cash Cousins, descendants of our grandparents, Port and Georgia (Punkin) Cash, and of their three children.  From Aunt Frankie and her husband, Watt Atwood, came my cousin Frances.  From my mother, Evelyn and father, Bob Jones, came my brother, Allan, and me.  And from the youngest, my Uncle Gene and his wife Lucille (Keck), my cousins Karen, Kathy and Kelly Cash.  

But now we are five.  Last Monday, April 4, a massive heart attack cut short Karen’s retirement and left the rest of us missing her and wishing we had spent more time together.  Almost as far back as I can remember, our childhood holidays were filled with gatherings of our three families.  We laughed, played, bickered, snickered and loved each other, spending more or less time together as our families grew and our paths diverged.  Many of these good times were during family reunions at the farm.  The pictures that follow are from some of those get-togethers, as well as from my mother’s (her Aunt Evelyn’s) 90th birthday party.

A celebration of Karen's life was held on Friday, April 8, in the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens Fragrance Garden.  The following piece was written by Karen’s younger sister, Kelly, and posted on Karen’s Facebook page.  

“If ever I should leave you, whom I love, to go along the silent way, grieve not, nor speak of me with tears, but laugh and talk of me as if I was there beside you.”  

                                           -A poem fragment found in her Aunt Evelyn Jones’ family Bible

Karen Cash was born in Houston, Texas on February 12, 1952, the first of three children of Dr. Charles E. Cash and Lucille Mathilda Keck Cash.  When Karen was around two, the family moved to Fort Worth, Texas.

 

Karen grew up on Crestwood Drive with a large group of neighborhood kids, riding bikes, playing kick the can and amassing large quantities of fireflies in jars.  Always the hard worker, Karen bought her first horse from teaching swimming lessons.  Karen always loved horses, and her first horse was an elderly dowager named “Princess” who could barely break a trot, and her second, Payoso, was a lively paint.  She was dedicated to improving her horsemanship throughout the years, and eventually was competing in national pole bending  events on a beautiful palomino named Tiffany at the Fort Worth Rodeo.  Our father would go with her to arrive at 5:00 am at the barns to muck out the stall and prepare for the day.

 

Raised in the Age of Aquarius, she was part of the Class of 1970 at Arlington Heights High School, and Sweetheart of the Fort Worth Horseshoe Club.  After two years at Sweet Briar College, she finished her Bachelor of Early Children Education at the University of Texas, where she also made lifelong friends when she pledged Kappa Alpha Theta.

Wanting to see the world, she signed on as a flight attendant with American Airlines and began a career mixing business and travel that lasted over 30 years.  Karen liked to ride fast horses, scuba dive the deep seas and drink espresso on the Orient Express.  She moved to Chicago and married John Kokernut McNeel in 1987.  Their son Bart Cash McNeel was born there.  She loved being a Mom to Cash and his friends.  She also organized a successful grassroots “Mom” movement to transition an abandoned park into a well-tended baseball field.

After Cash became a Jayhawk attending University of Kansas, she moved back to Fort Worth.  She loved her new life here, reconnecting with old friends, enjoying events like cutting horse futurities and rodeo, and walking the trails with her beloved yellow lab LuLu.  She became a Grand Aunt to her four young cousins and hosted many pool parties, cookie decorating holiday parties, and “No Reason” parties.  Karen loved a party! 

She had just found her dream “Volunteer Career” helping children learn the joys of riding at Camp Carter when she was felled by a heart attack in her home on Monday, April 4, 2022.  She is survived by her son, Bart Cash McNeel and his wife, Jenna McNeel, and sisters Kathy and Kelly Cash, and nieces/nephews Ian Cash Chisholm, Lee Cash Chisholm, Sunny Vanderbeck and Christian Vanderbeck.

In lieu of flowers, please donate to The Nature Conservancy’s “Plant One Tree” program at https://preserve.nature.org/page/83246/donate/1.

Thank you all for giving us the gift of your grace, support and friendship.

Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepard, I shall not want

He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me beside the still waters

He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. 

The Peace of Wild Things, Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world, and I am free.