THE OLD RANCHER

An old rancher who lived alongside the road in Chihuahua, Mexico.

Over a period of twenty years, Lloyd drove throughout Mexico giving away Spanish Bibles. On one of his trips west through Chihuahua he remembers an overnight stop that was very interesting and heart warming.  He and his traveling partner Miguel had an impromptu visit with an old rancher who just happened to live along the road they traveled.

Always looking for things of interest along the way, Lloyd and Miguel saw the old man standing outside his house visiting with a neighbor. They stopped and introduced themselves and received a warm welcome to sit and talk, to share and to spend the night.  It was a great experience.

The rifle was needed to run off wild animals.

The man’s name is long forgotten.  He showed the travelers around his small ranch and he began by showing them his old rifles and handguns. A true frontiersman, he and his wife had lived there many years and had depended on what they could raise from the land. There weren’t many people around them, probably few government authorities. As with all early pioneers, they were on their own and had learned to defend themselves.  He showed Lloyd where a mountain lion had recently tried to kill one of his calves in a nearby pen. Fur and hair was still clinging to the rough places on the fence.

The hand guns he used were interesting.

Since the old man had recently lost his wife, he was so glad to have company that he showed them many other things, including his small quaint cache of dried meat. The beef was still attached to the bones. It had been dried that way and it would be used later as jerky or stew meat.

Bundles of bones with dried meat.

Since Lloyd and Miguel were in a sparsely populated area and it was late, they decided to spend the night at the man’s small ranch. The next morning they were treated with a warm filling drink called Atole. Atole is traditionally made with finely ground parched corn flour,  water and/or milk and seasoned with raw cane sugar, cinnamon and vanilla. People throughout Mexico enjoy Atole for breakfast on cold mornings or as a late night snack.

Lunch on most days was served on the hood of the Jeep.

There were old gold mines in that area, barely in operation, that once had been huge thriving works in a town called Oro. Large cranes and towers with cable cars crisscrossed the barren landscape, but the mines were closed to travelers and the curious.

Lloyd and Miguel left the old rancher, thanking him for an interesting and entertaining stay at his home. A few years later Lloyd stopped to see his interesting friend, but learned that he had passed away. Even though several years have come and gone since that brief encounter with the rancher in Chihuahua, the memories are still  special and vivid.  

People in Mexico were blessed when they received  Spanish Bibles, and Lloyd was blessed by the hospitality and diversity of the people he met. We are both glad that he took many pictures. 

“For I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in.”  Matthew 25:35