Early morning gather then sorted cows away from calves. Loaded calves on stock trailers, hauled to scale for weighing for the year’s paycheck. Coldest day of the year so far, but so thankful for good help from good neighbors!
Month: October 2017
Preparing to ship steer calves
Gathered and moved steer calf pairs to smaller holding pasture before shipping the next morning. Windy but nearly 80 degrees. Photo shows three generations – Ed, Jess and Sonny.
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Day of Recovery
We spent this day recovering from yesterday’s mistakes.
First we’d been short handed while moving pairs yesterday and missed a few pairs in the gather. Then we trailed through two pastures of cattle who were interested in our progress and wanted to join in. With only three of us riding, it’s really surprising we didn’t have even more trouble than we did.
Then last night all the weaned calves broke fences down and ended up in three pastures. That resulted in quite a bit of fence to fix this morning, plus one heifer with a chin full of porcupine quills to pull.
All ended well except that I lost my camera – and I wasn’t even horseback then!
Farewell to Mr. Peabody
Mr. Peabody and Sonny were sharing a story. He has told us his last but I’ll write one about him soon. I hope to honor Mr. P by living my life as he lived his – making everyone he encountered happy. The only character that I took from reality in my book Magpie Summer is the dog – he has a different name but his character is all Peabody’s. Thank you, my buddy, for sharing your life with us.
Horses at work
Videos and stills showing some of our fall work. (Hope it works right!)
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Happy 83rd!
Sonny’s 83rd birthday and he had a new experience riding with a war bridle. Looks like Sonny’s having a better time than Gumbo, but we moved some pairs and Gumbo adjusted with no problem. He did “spit the bit” when he drank at a water tank – Sonny dismounted fast to correct the problem!
Lucky in Work
Cattle didn’t cooperate at first yesterday since cows were after salt sage. After crossing a pass from east to west, they went north and south along the top and around the edges of the hills. It was too slick on the gumbo slopes to safely ride horseback so it was foot work to get them down. But then the sorting and trail to fall pasture was picture perfect. Windy, but…
Amidst the chaos in our country and the world, we are so lucky to get to work in this location in these conditions, even when things don’t go great. Our thoughts are with those grieving and suffering in Las Vegas, Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas…
Sandy Snider Stahl 