More than I have ever seen in my life!

When we were first moving or thinking of moving to the Farm in St. George. I was with Dad on a visit. He took me way out south of town toward the Arizona strip. When we had gone what seemed like a long way we came across more sheep than I had ever seen in one place in all my life. I figure I started the 2nd grade when we moved to St. George so I must have been about 7 years old. We stopped and I couldn't figure out why we were there. Dad was always good at keeping me in suspense by not saying much about what we were doing. I think we were driving in an old red Dodge pickup and we stopped in the middle of this herd of sheep. We got out of the truck and were looking at the sheep or at least that is what I was doing and Dad started yelling. Pretty soon someone was yelling back. I looked up and here came an old man with a yucca stem in each hand using them as canes to walk. It was my grandpa Jones (James Simkins Jones). He was out there in the middle of nowhere herding sheep. That is about my first memory of Grandpa Jones and if my calculations are right he would have been about 84. He could really truck along over the rough terrain with those canes.
Ray reminded me of a sheep story that dad use to tell one of the few I remember. Dad was herding sheep and was down in the Cedar Pockets area where the freeway goes through now. I think he was herding what they called the dries. (sheep that had weened their lambs) Dad liked to herd the dries because once you got them settled down away from their lambs they were ready to rest and feed along slow and they stayed together pretty good on their own. Dad had the sheep bedding down somewhere close to the mouth of Sullivan canyon. During the warm spring days they would feed up the river and he would bring them back at night. Dad found a book in the sheep wagon a western. I never knew Dad to do much reading but he said he was walking along reading the book. He was on the North side of Cedar Pockets going up a ridge. He liked to get up above the sheep so he would be ready when it was time to turn them around and head back to camp. As he went up the ridge all at once he heard a buzzing noise first right in front of him and then all around him . He was surrounded when he looked up out of his book. He said here were rattle snakes in big balls all over the ground. More snakes than he ever saw in his life. He said the only way out was to walk back the same tracks he made when he walked in. He said he never did much walking and reading after that.