THE DREAMS

I always enjoyed cutting hay and considered myself pretty proficient on the swather.  It was quite challenging to cut right next to the fences and ditch banks.  It also gave me a lot of time to day dream.   I remember a particular day in mid-July, 1984.  It was a hot summer day and I was cutting hay on Uncle Daniel’s old place.  I was dreaming about having a ranch of my own someday.  My day dreams always included working alongside my parents and siblings.

When I had finally finished cutting the hay, it was late and I was tired and hungry.  It had been a long day in the hot sun.  I was glad mom had dinner ready.  She had made fried summer squash and hamburgers.  All I wanted was to eat, take a shower and hit the sack.  I knew that the next day would be long also because I would need to get up early and start baling with the dew since the first field of hay I had cut was on the old Goodrich place and it was getting a little too dry. 

I had no more laid my head on my pillow when I was out, sound asleep.  That is when it happened, the start of the dreams.  The first dream started out with me looking down on the most spectacular scenery I had ever seen:  stunning red rock cliffs, deep winding slot canyons, white Navajo sandstone capital shaped domes and lush hay fields, rich with water and thousands of acres of grazing lands. I had never seen anything like it!  All I could do was marvel at the beauty of this magnificent ranch!

The next thing I knew, I was awakened to the smell of bacon, eggs and fresh baked bread.  I jumped out of bed, got dressed and ate breakfast with Dad before he went to work.  The memories I have of eating those breakfasts with my dad mean so much to me.  That morning Dad told me he had ordered water for the Goodrich place.  That meant that we would need to get it bailed and hauled that day.  As soon as breakfast was over and dad had headed to work, I went right to work baling.

Thinking of the dream made it difficult to focus on baling. I have to admit my mind was quite preoccupied with the details. I wondered, could a ranch like this really exist?  What could this dream mean?  I kept running it through my head over and over and had some trouble keeping the old baler going.  I finally finished baling, around two o’clock or so.  It was the hottest time of the day, but it didn’t matter how hot it was.  My brother and I had to get the hay hauled.  We had another couple of loads left to haul when dad got home and he came out and helped with them.  We sure were glad for his help although I felt bad for not having it done.  That darn dream!  We finished the hay right at dark, but still needed to get our chores done.  We were pretty late with the milking and the old milk cows sure let us know.

After the chores were done and we had cleaned up for dinner, we were all pretty tired. I was excited to go to bed, because I was hoping the dream would come back.  After dinner I went right to bed.  This time I did not go right to sleep.  I guess the anticipation about the dream was too much.  I must have finally fallen asleep because the next thing I knew dad was waking me up.  That meant I must have overslept.  I got up tired and disappointed.  I had been looking so forward to seeing more of the ranch.  I wondered if I would ever have the dream again.  We talked for just a minute before Dad had to get to work.  He told me mom was already out setting the water.

     Tired or not there was a lot of work to do.  I grabbed some bell peppers for breakfast.  I loved bell peppers early in the morning.  They were crisp and half full of water.  I baled until evening then we hauled a couple loads while it was cool.  The baling was almost finished; it would take me around a half day tomorrow.  It would be nice to have it all baled, but we would need to get the hay hauled fast.  Mom would be watering right behind us and she took her irrigating pretty seriously.

     I didn’t have another dream about the ranch, for the rest of the summer.  Oh, I did not forget anything though!  I had ran it through my head so many times, I could tell you where every rock, tree and cliff were.

It was in October, the night before deer season and the day of dad and moms anniversary. This was the first year I was able to carry a rifle. I was so excited!  You see deer season was one of the best times of the year!  We all got together cousins, uncles, aunts and Grandpa and Grandma.  I loved hunting with mom.  She was quite the hunter, usually filling her tag.

I normally would be dreaming of deer the night before the hunt, but not this year.  We had all stayed up late talking.  I’m not sure when we finally got to bed.  I went right to sleep and that’s when the dream came.  Again, I was above some of the most spectacular scenery.  I was looking down on a big draw with aspen trees on both sides.  There leaves were golden brown.  I could see some riders pushing a herd of cows out of the aspens toward the big draw.  I could see nine riders they looked to be teenagers except the two in the back.  I could see that there was an older gentleman and a young boy.  I watched as they pushed the cows down the big draw.  I envied them.  I wished I was on a horse helping.  I watched them work together to get the cows off the mountain, down to the ranch just in time to do the chores.  They were dusty from head to toe but they were all smiling and happy.  I could hear them laughing and having a good time as they finished up the chores.

As I was listening to them talk, I heard a ringing. The young boy yelled, “Come on, Grandpa, Grandma has dinner ready.”  “Okay, tell your dad and uncles to hurry up.  We don’t want to be late.”  As they were walking to the house I could see what must have been the Grandma ringing a big dinner bell.  You know the kind that looks like a triangle? There was another woman with a young girl.  She must be the young boy’s mother.  The young girl looked to be around no older than two. They looked happy to see the guys.  I could see into the house that the table was set.  I could almost smell the food, it looked so good.  Not without a bit of water fighting, the guys all got washed up. They were all so happy; they were joking and talking about their day.  As they sat down the Grandpa asked one of the boys to say the blessing on the food.  As soon as the blessing was finished it was right back to laughing and talking about the day.  I thought I wanted a family like this one.

I was awoken by mom, “if you’re hunting with me you had better get up.”  I had such a pleasant feeling about me.  I’m not sure I have ever felt anything like it.  I was extremely hungry.  I guess it was from seeing all that good food in my dream.  It was a cool morning and as we stood around the camp fire eating breakfast and waiting for day light there was so much excitement.  I thought this is kind of like the dream.  Finally, it was time me and mom headed for her ridge. You see she had a ridge named after her, Wendy’s Ridge, that’s how good a hunter she is.

I got lucky and shot a four point buck not to long after day light.  Yes my head was pretty big for a while and I forgot all about the dream.  It only took a couple hours and the dream was back in my thoughts.  The people looked so familiar, but I was sure I had never seen them before.  The second dream made the ranch even more special seeing how much love there was on it.  I thought I would like a family like that.

I waited for the dream to return, but it was a long time before it happened.  It was Christmas Eve before I had another dream.  You see the dreams always came when I least expected them.  We had just finished reading the Christmas story out of Luke and opened one family gift.  We could always talk dad and mom into at least one gift on Christmas Eve.  I think they were just as excited as us kids. You see we had some fun traditions.  We would have Christmas in the basement.  All us kids would sleep in the back bedroom and Dad and Mom would sleep in the hall.  Usually, they would be the ones waking us up really early and we usually would not get to bed until quite late.

That Christmas Eve I was excited just like my siblings and had a hard time sleeping.  When I finally went to sleep, it was a deep sleep.  That’s when I had the dream again.  This time it took place in the ranch house.  All the same people were there, except for the Grandpa.  I could hear Christmas music playing in the back ground.  The young boy and girl were helping Grandma make Christmas cookies for Santa with much excitement.  The boys were joking, talking and having a good time.  I could feel the love and Christmas Spirit in the house.  Then there was a loud knock at the door.  The young boy and girl ran to the door.  As they opened the door there was a loud, “Ho-Ho-Ho, Merry Christmas”!   Their mom said, “Sit down over here Santa and have some milk and cookies.”  The family gathered around Santa. The little girl was first to sit on Santa’s lap.  “Ho-Ho-Ho, what do you want for Christmas?  The little girl motioned for Santa to lend her his ear.  She had a secret to tell him.  Santa lowered his ear to her.  She said, “Grandpa, I know it’s you but I won’t tell.  Can you tell Santa I want some pink chaps to match my boots?  Grandpa nodded yes and she hugged him.  She said in a whisper, “Grandpa, I love you.”  The young boy was reluctant to sit on Santa’s lap thinking he was too old.  Santa asked him to stand beside him saying “Ho-Ho-Ho, a young man your age is too old to sit on Santa’s lap.”  This made the boy feel better.  “What do you want Young Man?”  The boy whispered to Santa, “Grandpa, could you tell Dad that I am old enough for a twenty two rifle.”  Santa nodded yes.  “Ho-Ho-Ho, I better get going.  Prancer is probably getting yancy.  I would hate for him to leave me.”  Santa dashed out the door with a “Ho-Ho-Ho and a MERRY CHRISTMAS to all”!

With all the excitement Grandpa slipped back in the house unnoticed or so he thought. The young girl ran up to him and whispered, “Did you tell Santa, did you?”  He hugged her and said, “Of course, I did.”  They all sat around the fire singing Christmas carols, eating cookies and drinking hot coco.  Before the night was over the boys said, “Dad, Mom, we have something for you.”  The young boy and girl packed out a basket with two Australian Shepard puppies, a male and a female, both blue merles. Grandpa picked up the boy puppy and said, “You sure are a handsome fellow.”  Grandma was holding the girl puppy and said, “You sure are a beauty.”   The young boy asked, “Grandpa, when are you going to name them?”  “We just did Handsome and Beauty.”  Grandma said, “I think those are wonderful names and they will make a great addition to our family.  Grandpa said, “I think we may need these two since we will have three of you boys on a mission at the same time.”  The puppies looked like they were right at home.

I was awoken by Mom and Dad asking if we were going to sleep all Christmas day.  I think it was like three-thirty in the morning.  We had a great Christmas enjoying each other’s company.  Although I had so much to think about, I couldn’t keep the dream out of my mind.  What do these dreams mean?  Maybe they didn’t mean anything.  They have to mean something because they are so detailed and realistic.  I studied them over and over.  They were so beautiful and pleasant I enjoyed thinking about them almost every day.

Then I met a girl, oh not just any girl, but a really pretty girl.  We hit it off right away.  I sure was sweet on her so she called me Sweet Man.  She was so pretty that I called her Pretty Girl. We talked about everything and did everything together.  It was not long before I asked Pretty Girl to marry me.  Of course she said yes.  I did not tell her about the dreams until after we were married.  She fell in love with the dreams also.  We talked about them often and discussed what they might mean.  We were blessed with seven boys.  We had a nice home with a few acres and some horses.  The boys, Pretty Girl and I talked about owning a cattle ranch someday.  We looked at several amazing ranches.  I had never told the boys about the dreams, I did not want them to get there hopes up like mine and Pretty Girls.

I took a job driving truck.  I was not too happy about being away from my family.  The only good thing is that I got to travel all the back country roads. I thought I might just find that dream ranch.  Pretty Girl and I talked and figured this job might help us to reach our goals.

My travels took me from north to south and east to west.  I have seen many amazing ranches.  But I never saw any ranch could compare to that dream ranch.  I talked with Pretty Girl every night to see what she and the boys had been doing and told her of the ranches I saw.  We decided that we would only be happy if we found the dream ranch.  I often wondered if I was searching for a ranch that did not exist.  I just knew it had to be out there somewhere.  I was not going to give up, I had to keep looking.

After many months, I was ready to come home to my family.  We decided that I should keep going, looking for the ranch as I went.  A few months more and then I would come home.  I was on a run through southern Utah and had an impression to take a road that took me off route about hundred miles.  The road was a steep twisty mountain road. As I topped out and started down the other side that is when I saw the dream ranch.  It was just like my dream:  stunning red rock cliffs, deep winding slot canyons, Navajo sand stone capital shaped domes, lush hay fields rich with water and thousands of acres of grazing lands.

I called Pretty Girl, “I found it, Pretty Girl, I found it!”  “Where, Sweet Man, where? She asked.  We talked for hours and I tried to explain everything I could see.  I could hardly wait to get home and tell the boys about the dreams and let them know it was more than a dream!  That there was a ranch, it really exists.

We had a family meeting as soon as I got home. I told the boys all about the dreams, the ranch, the family and the love that they had for each other.  I told them that I would like us to have a ranch like the one in the dream and be able to run it as a family.  The boys were excited but asked why I had never told them about the dreams.  I explained to them that I did not know if the ranch really existed.  But I now know it does because I saw it. Now I had their attention.  “Where is it dad?”  They asked.  I told them it was in south central Utah.

We devised a plan to get financing; it proved to be much more difficult than we ever thought.  We exhausted almost every avenue we could think of.  With much disappointment reality set in.  A ranch of this magnitude was not cheap.  It was really hard to finally find the dream ranch and have no means to obtain it.  At least we had our family that was the most important thing.  I learned that it was not the ranch that made the dream special, it was the family.  The ranch will never leave my thoughts and I will keep trying to find a way to obtain it.

It was years later, in late spring, I was lying in bed studying for the final exam, meaning I was an old man.  Pretty Girl was sitting on the edge of the bed with her hands clasped around mine.  She leaned over and said, “Sweet Man, I’m sorry we never got that dream ranch.”  My eyes opened wide and I said, “Oh, but Pretty Girl, we did even if it was just in a dream.  Remember me telling you about the stunning red rock cliffs, the deep winding slot canyon’s, the white Navajo sand stone capital shaped domes, the lush hay fields rich with water and the thousands of acres of grazing lands?  It was the most spectacular scenery ever.  Remember the Christmas when Santa was there and they gave the Australian Shepard puppies, remember?   What about the cattle drives and how they all worked together?  Pretty Girl, it was the family, not the ranch that mattered.

About then I awoke, Pretty Girl had ahold of my hand saying in a soft loving voice, “Sweet Man.  Sweet Man.  Sweet Man, you and your dogs need to get up.  Your boys and grandson have already eaten and the horses are saddled.  Remember you told your granddaughter she was old enough to drive the cows to the mountain this year?”  I pulled Pretty Girl close, hugged and kissed her and told her I loved her.  I jumped up out of bed put on my duds.  I called to Handsome and Beauty, “Come on we have cows to move.”  As I was going out the door I clicked my spurs together, kissed Pretty Girl again and asked her to remind me to tell her about the final dream.

 

Written by Sweet Man-This story was inspired from real events and lots of dreams.  (The moral of the story is to never take what you have for granted and never give up on your dreams.)