the jefe

people are always asking about the nick name jefe. in my life ive had a few nick names, slim, big d  waddie and some I don't wanna repeat!! my mother in law had some good ones!!   15 years ago I was runnin a ranch and had some latin American types rebuilding a fence line through some realy rough, rocky country.  they had to camp in some real  isolated , in accesable country in order to be on the line at day lite every day. and anyway I don't think they want to be much accesable. but then I didn't ask why either. these boys did a bang up job and were woth a lot more than the boss was paying. one of the "boys" was the father inlaw of the the other, a young man in his 20 s. of coarse at the age your mouth sometimes becomes your enemy.
    every other day or so I would go by their camp a horseback to check on their progress and see if they needed supplies.  I had already spent a week packing t posts and barb wire to the fence line so all I had to worry about was food.  they were a good half mile from a windmill for water and a spring was runnin close by.  this one day as I rode through camp I saw they had a pot of beans slow cookin on a bed of coals and the empty bag close by. I made a mental note for more beans.  about a half hour I could hear gilberto(the father in law) singing a camp song . I topped out a ridge and they were below me on a slope so steep that they had to hold to the wire as they drove new t post.  my horse slid down to where they were at and found a half way comfortable place to stand. after the obligatory bueno dias   I started to ask what groceries I needed to bring the next day. before gilberto could answer the son in law blurted out why didn't I get down and help! I showed him my right hand and told him that hand only handled leather bridle reins and nylon rope!!  he turned his back and went back to work. gilberto shook his head and told him in Spanish  BECAUSE HE IS THE JEFE!!  at that gilberto gave me his grocery list and went back to work.  the name stuck from there on. that young man was one of the best men I ever had work for me. never whinned or turned down a job. to this day when I see him he calls me jefe!