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Bulldozers.

Article Excerpt
Five of them, unannounced at our gate on a Thursday morning, right after I'd noticed that one of our heifers was calving and needed attention. My brother, Mitch, had left for the Fort Worth livestock show the previous night with our show cattle. We were down a person, a cow was in trouble, and that day I'd intended to be at Ojo de Agua, one of our other properties. Already the day was not going as planned, and it was only eight in the morning! What were bulldozers doing at the ranch?

"We're here to clear brush" was the answer. "We told Mitch we were coming." (Ah, the usual family miscommunication.) After a frantic call to my brother and a conversation with the bulldozer supervisor, I clued in: They were here because of the seismic permit. You see, about six months ago our family was approached by an oil company wanting to conduct a geophysical exploration, or seismic survey, on our ranch. A survey like this helps a company determine if there's any viable oil and gas under your land....