Just yesterday Dad, Little J., and I went out to move our cows and calves. It has been very hot here so we got up before the sun, when it was still somewhat cool. After we walked out to the horses, saddled and loaded, we headed south to the cows. We started our ride horseback and slowly gathered all of the mamas and their calves. Then we pushed them up and down a few little hills before we came upon a closed gate. Dad dismounted and opened it, letting the cattle through.
Little J. and I had a hard time getting the last calf through...see, it just loved my horse and me so much that it couldn't go through the gate without the two of us. Yeah right, you might say. Well, Dad finally told me to walk through and let the calf follow me; with some pushing from Dad and Little J., it did go through.
We kept pushing them through that pasture until we came to another gate, and we left them in that pasture.
Next, we rode the horses towards the tamaracks, which by the way, is not my favorite thing to ride in. Dad had just gone by one branch and it spooked Little J.'s horse, who was in front of me. Perfect start to a trip through those over populating plants! So, we inched through, under, and around those things, only to come upon one which Paradise totally refused to go through. No matter how much I kicked her and clucked her along. Really, I didn't want to go through it either; the branches were so low and I had the thought of Paradise bucking and seeing me fly off of her nice, smooth back where the saddle sat. (I think I need to face my fears a little better.) Anyway, I came off-on purpose- and led her through, after breaking those scary branches in two.
We made it out of the 'forest' and rode a ways more; but next came the river, which I thought Paradise might happily cross with no problem. I am not saying that she caused a problem, though. She did cross it, but not exactly how I wished. She jumped it.
I got off to get a gate and we kept riding. We were now searching for 33 cows and their calves. We all trotted some and did a lot of walking. Finally, after searching most all of the pasture, we found--well, heard--the cows and shoved them into a corner to get a count. We got 29 cows out of 33, which wasn't too bad, but Dad had really hoped to get all of them. He kept searching.
By now the day was warming up and us two girls were getting sweaty by just holding the cows while they munched on their cud. Dad returned, but without cows. He opened the gate and we pushed the cows through, and with that, after closing the gate, we started the ride back to the pickup.
The rest of the ride was nice, a little walking on foot and of course on horse back, some trotting and loping, to add to that, and a rest at the gate between us and the pickup. We got home by noon and had dinner with an old western show.
As for animals, they are all doing well, even the cat that survived the coyote attack on him. Yes, he looks bad and really stinks, but he's alive and doing pretty good. My pigeon is growing like a weed and has some feathers now. The garden is slowly coming along, and we hope to plant the plants soon. It is still really hot, windy, and dry. There is really nothing we can do about the dryness of this land. The weather is depressing, mostly for the ranchers and farmers, but I think it has to have some effect on everybody. We have our swimming pool up and have been enjoying the cool, refreshing water, along with the dogs. I have trained my chicks to come when I call and they are also growing really quickly. They love having all of the different kinds of grasshoppers to choose from out here. There are a bunch! Here are some pictures to end the post. Have a great day. My view on the ranch... : )
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