What It Actually Takes to Keep a Texas Ranch Running

Welcome to This Week on the Ranch

My name is Connor McCauley, and as always, you’re seeing the ranch through my eyes — the perspective of a guy still learning what it means to become a rancher.

My teacher in all this is my father-in-law, Sam Harrell — mentor, fourth-generation rancher, and the man who built the place we’re fortunate to live and work on together. Three families call this ranch home: the Harrells, the McCauleys, and the Rices.

Through this newsletter, we invite you into the real ranch — not just the highlights, but the work that keeps everything going.

And this week was all about that work.

The Jobs Nobody Sees

Not every week is cattle drives and sunsets. Sometimes it’s maintenance — the behind-the-scenes jobs that quietly keep a ranch functioning.

The kind of work that doesn’t look exciting… until it stops getting done.

Moving a Cattle Guard

First up was cleaning out a cattle guard.

Sounds simple. It isn’t.

The guard is a massive steel structure set inside concrete, and the only way to clean it properly is to remove the entire thing. We pulled fencing aside, chained it to the skid steer forks, and slowly lifted several hundreds pounds of steel and concrete out as one piece.

Once it was clear, we swapped to the bucket and started digging. Months of packed dirt had filled underneath it, and it took about 10–15 full loads before we finally hit clean ground again.

Dusty work. Slow work. Necessary work.

Fixing the Water Tanks

Next came rebuilding the ground around the water tanks.

Over time, cattle wear the soil down, creating a ledge along the concrete edge that makes drinking harder — and sometimes unsafe. So we hauled dirt back in and rebuilt the grade so cattle could step up naturally again.

Right in the middle of it, I noticed something splashing that shouldn’t have been.

A calf had fallen into the tank.

What followed was part rescue mission, part comedy show — but we got him out safe and sound. If you want to see that moment, there’s a video linked below. Definitely one of those ranch days you don’t plan for.

Down Into the Canyon

One of the most unique parts of this ranch is its location along the edge of Palo Duro Canyon — and the work doesn’t stop at the rim.

I headed down alone to check fences and gates where weather and cattle constantly test the boundaries. Down there, I built my first gate completely from scratch.

It wasn’t perfect. But it worked — and out here, that’s what matters.

On the way down Bull Trail, I stopped after spotting some interesting rocks along the path. Curiosity won, so I grabbed a rock hammer and cracked open a few geodes. Most were ordinary, but one opened into a beautiful crystal interior — a small reminder that even on workdays, the land still has surprises waiting if you slow down long enough to notice.

The Less-Glamorous Job

Every ranch has work nobody volunteers for.

This week it was moving composted manure out of the pens to prepare for the next group coming through. Bucket after bucket, hauling it outside the fence line until the pens were clean and ready again.

Not glamorous — but absolutely necessary.

There’s a time-lapse of that process in this week’s video if you want to see how much effort goes into something most folks never think about.

The Work Between the Moments

Ranch life isn’t built on big moments alone. Most of it happens in between — fixing, preparing, maintaining, and showing up day after day.

While doing these chores, you notice things you’d otherwise miss: deer moving through the canyon, the wind rolling across the breaks, the quiet rhythm of a place that runs on consistency more than excitement.

The work may not always be flashy, but it matters.

And honestly, that’s where the real stories live.

Thanks for coming along for another week on the ranch.

— Connor