It's a Hard Rain that's Gonna Fall

Chapter 1 – Before the Deluge

We don't get a lot of rain in central Texas. Oh, we get a decent amount, but it's not what anybody would call a lot. That's why the floods in 1885 were so unexpected. They almost destroyed the ranch, and we lost a lot of livestock to go along with it.

I'm Bart Maverick and, along with my brother Bret, I own the B Bar M Ranch. No, we don't raise steers. We specialize in cross-bred horses. Arabians with Criollos, Arabians with Mustangs, the cross-bred with the Mustangs, and just about anything else we can get our hands on. We've gotten to be pretty well known over the years, and I tell you, it's a better way to make a living than when we were gamblers, roving all around the country. We were young and carefree, following the profession that our father and Uncle Ben had practiced before us. There were too many nights we slept on the ground, too many towns we were run out of, and too many jails we saw the inside of. When I finally got tired of it and settled down, it was in our hometown of Little Bend, Texas, smack in the middle of the state. I bought Uncle Ben's land when he moved to Baton Rouge, and the process of building the ranch got started.

Bret played poker a little longer than I did, but when he finally married and wanted a place to live, it was on ranch land. Then we both commenced to raisin' families, mine bigger than his, and eventually Pappy, a returned Uncle Ben, and cousin Beau moved to the ranch. Good thing I had the foresight to buy a lot of land. Pauly Wilcox, my wife's business partner, supervised and participated in most of the building. Me and Bret helped with the corrals and the cross-breeding barn, but Pauly and his crew were responsible for building most of it. We finally had Pauly build himself a house on the far corner of the property. That makes it easier for him and my wife, Doralice, to work together. They've invented a lot of things that make all of our lives more functional around the house.

Oh, I almost forgot about Dandy. My good friend Dandy Jim Buckley had Pauly build him a house on the far corner of the ranch, away from all the barns and corrals and houses. I call him my friend because him and Bret go at it like cats and dogs. So Bret won't claim him as a friend, although they can get along when they want to and have worked together on many occasions. After it was finished Dandy bought the land and the house from us.

We've had some great times and some not so great times around the ranch. But we've got a good bunch of guys working with us, especially Lucien, our foreman. Lucien Walters had been hired away from the ranch he was workin' on in El Paso when me and my oldest daughter Maudie went out there to buy some Criollo horses. Lucien had turned out to be a grade A cowboy, and the second smartest thing Bret ever did was make him the foreman.

We had another real standout, too, in Lee Patterson. He was just learning the horse business, but he was bright and caught on quick. I'd hoped that Benny, Cousin Beau's son, would be the young man to step into the number two spot, but when he went off to buy his own ranch Lee stepped in. I could see what he was gonna be when all was said and done, and I just hoped and prayed that he didn't want his own ranch, too.

And it's not just the men. My oldest daughter Maude is as involved in the horses and the ranch as anyone here. She was the one who had the idea to cross-breed the blue roans with the Corollas, and then cross-breed the result of that with the Arabians. We ended up with a unique and top of the line sturdy horse. Maude is determined to run the ranch one day, and I have the feeling she will. Beauregard, my oldest boy, has absolutely no interest in ranching, and Bret's sons are much younger.

Like I said before, Beau's son Benny would have been another logical choice to take over the B Bar M, but he was determined to have his own ranch. After a lot of struggle, he finally made his dream come true, and he's happy being his own boss, with all the ups and downs that come with it.

But nothing that we'd ever faced in all the years we've had this ranch prepared us for what was to come.

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