CLOVEN H. & EVA WALL

 

Across the Fence

 

By Arvord Abernethy

 

Did you ever wonder why small children are often called kids? If you were ever around a bunch of young kid goats early in the morning or late in the afternoon, you would understand. All they want to do is play, especially if you have just fed their mothers so they can be alone to play. They like to climb up on something just like a kid, I mean a child. Whether it is a leaning tree or something else, they like to challenge each other as to which one can push the other off.

 

Mary and I drove out to the C. H. Walls, Cloven and Eva the other afternoon and had an enjoyable visit.

 

While there we got to watch their stock dog, Sput, which is short for Sputnik, work the goats. As soon as Cloven and I started walking toward the field where the goats were, Sput’s interest began running high. He could hardly wait for us to open the gate.

 

Then he ran ahead looking back at us all along. Pretty soon Cloven gave the command “go around” and Sput tore out in a hard run to the outside of the flock. The goats were scattered from one side to the other on a 30 acre oat field and Sput in a dead run systematically got all those goats going to the center of the field.

 

Pretty soon some more came out of the Cowhouse Creek and when Sput saw them he brought them to the bunch. He went back to the creek and was gone for some time. Cloven decided that there was something wrong, so he got his pickup and we drove down there. In the scramble of getting up the steep bank of the creek, a kid had jumped into the shallow water and Sput would not leave it.

 

In a effort to get a picture of Sput working the goats up close, Cloven gave the command for him to bring them to us. He worked in a run from side to side and brought them right up to us. Since he was always in a run and also behind the goats, it was hard to get a picture. When Cloven wanted him to stop, he gave the command “wait” then Sput would lay flat on his belly until given another command.

 

Cloven said if he needed to move the goats even a long distance, he could give out the command to follow and he would bring the goats along as Cloven drove the pickup.

 

I haven’t seen many dogs working goats or sheep, but this was the best I have ever seen, and Sput did it with enthusiasm of a child at a picnic. Cloven trained him himself.

 

The benefits of having the goats could be easily seen as we drove around the place. The goats had kept down the sprouts and underbrush where clearing had been done and now there is a good clean pecan grove in places along the creek. They have also kept the underbrush cleaned up in the pasture, giving grass a better chance as well as giving the pasture a much better appearance.

 

Another benefit that probably came from the goats is a nice addition to their home. It is mainly a large, vaulted ceiling living room and a double garage along with another bath room and closets. There is a large mantle and hearth in one end of the room, but, instead of an open fireplace, they have installed a large wood-burning stove that will handle larger pieces than most stoves do. It was too late in the season when the room was completed, so they didn’t get to try out the stove.

 

Their home sits on a little rise making a beautiful view as one stands on the long porch of the original house, looking across a well kept lawn, on across the bottom fields to the woods along the Cowhouse.

 

The Walls also have a ranch over in Mills County where they run mutton goats and cattle. Cloven has recently purchased some donkeys that he has put with his goats to keep the coyotes away. You have heard of watch-donkeys haven’t you?

 

Both of the Walls spent most of their childhood out around Sweetwater, and after their marriage, moved to Oklahoma . They came back to the Evant country in 1962 and bought their present home on the Cowhouse in 1971.

 

They have three sons and a daughter. Charles is in the Air Force, Terry lives at Stephenville and produces rodeos, Ronnie taught school several years but switched to training horses, as he says that horses can’t talk back to him. Their daughter, Karen lives in Weatherford but teaches and coaches basketball at the Brock school there in Parker County.

 

  Shared by Roy Ables