The Cow that Stayed Behind

We all have moments of total incredulity.  Sometimes those moments make you want to smack your palm into your forehead in disbelief and embarrassment.  And sometimes, after all that, you have to laugh a little at the whole thing, because that's all you can do.  We had one such moment last week--hence this blog post.

Betsy and I were sitting in our office, happily working away while snow and darkness fell.  My phone rang, I picked it up because it was my husband calling from Bridgeport to tell me what time he would be home to Smith.  We chatted a bit, and then he says, "One of those guys that does some maintenance on the Buckeye road said he saw a cow and a calf hanging out by the Hot Springs.  It's probably your cow because no one else puts cows up there.  I'll see you at 7, bye!"  I was speechless!  A cow?  I couldn't believe it.  I kept opening and closing my mouth like a fish (which is very attractive).  I looked up at Betsy.  "Soooooo.....there is a cow and her calf in Buckeye.  By the Hot Springs."  She looked like a deer in the headlights!!  "A...cow?"

At that moment, Jon came in out of the cold.  He was giving us and update on a calf that had just been born that day.  We both looked at him, explaining what we had just heard.  A look of utter disbelief crept across his face.  "Are you KIDDING me?" After the initial shock, he started to laugh.  Because really, what can you do?

We had gathered all (or what we thought was all) of the cows out of Buckeye and Eagle Creek way back in September.  One cow kept breaking back up canyon on our Eagle Creek gather, but the cold weather almost always drives the cows out of the high country before long.  Plus, we checked up there several times and saw hide nor hair nor tracks of a single cow.  So she must have really been hiding well to have lasted that long!

Megan, Jon and I decided to go up the next day to get her out before the next storm dropped another foot of snow.  Jon and I took horses; Megan drove. We stopped at the ranch to get some panels to help get the cow and her calf loaded into the trailer.

Megan drags a panel over to tie it onto the trailer.  I am taking pictures and watching totally helping!

 Jon tries to unknot a stiff rope so we can finish tying the panels to the trailer.

Snow!  At the ranch!   

Winter at the Circle H

The whole way up Buckeye, we were scanning the snow for cow tracks.  You'd think it would be easy to track a cow in relatively fresh snow, but when a million deer are using the Buckeye road as a migration freeway made it a little difficult.  By the time we got up to the Hot Springs, we found some cow tracks--not fresh, but cow tracks they were.  As we were driving slowly down the road, Jon was leaning out the window looking at the snow, Megan was trying to see in front of the truck--no cow yet.  I looked out the window on the passenger side, and there, under a huge pine tree, was the cow and her calf.  Once we spotted them, they started to leave, so we hurriedly drove ahead and unloaded the horses.  

It doesn't look that cold, I know.  But there was a breeze...and I'm a wimp.

See the snow blowing off the peak in the background?  We kept hoping the wind wouldn't come up while we were trying to get the cow. 

The cow is over yonder! That little black speck...see her?

I told you we saw her!  Those old tracks of her in the snow helped us find her.  

 Good thing Junior is tagging along.  He's probably a month and a half old.

The plan was for Megan to drive ahead and put the trailer up along a fence so we could use that to our advantage.  Jon and I drove the cow down to a little meadow where a spring had melted the snow and some grass was growing while we waited to hear from Megan as to where she was.

 The cow in the little meadow.  Jon is down there somewhere lurking in the shadows.  I was up here to keep her from escaping back toward the Hot Springs.

It was a BEAUTIFUL day!  

Megan finally called us up on the radio.  "Umm....I think you're going to have to send Jon up here to help me.  I'm stuck."  I rode down to where Jon was blocking the bridge and he rode up canyon to help Megan out.  I waited by the meadow, keeping an eye on the cow.  She was happy just to see some green grass in that little warm spring, so she stayed put.  I waited.  I tried to draw pictures in the snow with my horse's feet.  I made up limericks about the cow: 

There once was a cow who stayed

 Up in Eagle all Fall she played

     A storm drove her out

     No feed was about

Then the Hunewill's came to her aid!  

I ate a Lara bar.  I listened to the burbling of the Buckeye Creek.  I made a haiku for the cow:  

Skin and bones is she

Her calf is fuzzy and fat

Next time, join the herd! 

I may have been a little bored.  Now and then I radioed Jon and Megan to hear the progress.  I may or may not have made up some limericks about the cow being too dumb to come out with the rest of the cows...

The cow, grazing happily on some short, green grass. 

 Buckeye Creek.  And my horse's ears.  

Finally, Megan radioed that they were on their way.  She pulled up to the flat above the meadow and set the panels up so we could try to load the cow.  

 She took one look at the panels, the trailer, and us, and decided she was NOT going to cooperate.

 It was like a Merry-Go-Round.  We went around and around and around the trailer, with her not ONCE looking like she was even thinking about loading up.

\

Jon kept trying to rope the calf...

...but it was hard with all the brush.  Plus, neither the cow or the calf helped anything.

Finally, the cow decided she'd had enough.  She blew past Jon's horse, ran down the meadow, and was headed for the bridge.  I raced down the hill, flew across the meadow, and tried to block her from crossing the bridge and going into some thick trees where it would be much tougher to get her in the trailer.  As she got closer, she never let up on her speed, just closed her eyes, lowered her head, and pushed through my horse.  I had to lope my horse up a steep spot in the road just to get in front of her, and luckily, she was winded enough from running uphill that she stopped...but her calf didn't.  He took up straight up the side of the mountain and as Jon had arrived to hold the cow, I followed the calf.  This is where it all fell apart...

The calf circled up, up and around, finally dropping back onto the road and heading back to the meadow where his mother had been grazing.  The cow took off down the road in the opposite direction, headed toward the notch where we take the cows from the canyon down into the meadows.  She ducked and dodged through the trees, shoving through Jon's horse when he tried to block her.  He eventually got her turned and finally had to rope her to get her to stop before she did something really stupid.  He let her lay in the snow for a while to catch her breath while I brought the calf back up to meet them.  The cow was on the fight even more at this point, and when Jon let her up, she came right at his horse.  He dodged her, then roped her by the head...except she ducked at the last second and he caught her on her tiny, stubby horns.  

Plan B!  It's easier to control a cow if you have her roped by one hind foot.  If she tries to go the wrong direction--dally up, stop her forward momentum.  If she turns around to come at your horse--dally up, back her up, stop her forward momentum.  If she is going in the right direction--give her slack, let her go, and if she changes direction?  You guessed it--dally up, stop her forward momentum.  So, in I go, and get her roped.  

She didn't have a lot of energy after running around, so she was fairly easy to control.  Jon needed to get his rope off her so he could rope the calf and get him in the trailer, so we had to convince her that laying down was a good idea.  She was not impressed.

You can see my leg on the left side of the picture..and no, she isn't choking.  

Jon got the calf roped and rode towards the trailer, bringing him closer so that when Megan went to flank him, he wouldn't have to be carried quite so far to the trailer.  Just as Megan moved in to flank him, we had a stoke of luck:  the calf saw her and LEAPED away from her and into the trailer.  We closed the door of the trailer and Jon got in and tied him down so that he couldn't get out when we opened the door up to load his mother.  He laid the calf in a pile of hay that we brought to bribe the cow.  When Jon got out of the trailer, he kicked a bit of hay out onto the ground and the cow could smell it from where she was standing.

It smells so delicious...but I really don't want to get in!

She headed for the trailer, stopping only to go after Jon's horse (I kept her from doing any damage by dallying up and holding her while Jon's horse got out of the way), and then stood there at the edge of the trailer, contentedly munching on the hay.  Megan came around the back side of the trailer to see if she could push her in...and the cow went after her!  Luckily I saw it coming and stopped the cow with the rope.  Jon had to get inside the trailer and act as bait for her so she would load.  He batted at her ears and she tried to headbutt him...he did it again, so did she....and finally, she made a huge leap and then skidded to a stop at the delicious pile of hay.  Jon escaped out the side door and shut it with a bang before she followed him.  He went around the back of the trailer to the main door and was able to sneakily untie the calf so he could get up before the cow decided to muck him out inside the trailer.

 I tried to get a picture of the cow and her calf in the trailer, but she nearly smashed my hand.  I got this one while she was in between slinging snot at me and banging her horns on the trailer.  She is such a sweetie  You can see the devil in her eyes!

Megan drove down the Buckeye road while Jon and I followed.  We didn't want too much weight in the trailer on that slippery road, so we met her at the bottom, stopping for a photo op:

Bridgeport Valley is covered in snow.  And the sun is going down, so it started to get COLD!

Trotting down the Buckeye road...trying to stay warm and catch up with Megan & Company!

We were SO HAPPY to have gotten the cow and her calf out of Buckeye before the next big storm hit.  She is now in the corral, eating hay so she can get some of her energy and fat back.  But don't try to get close to her...she's still cranky.  

So that's it.  Our big adventure before Christmas.  Hope you all had a GREAT Christmas (or Hanukkah, or whatever holiday you celebrate).  We can't wait to hear from you or see you this coming year.  2013...it's gonna be a great one.

Until next time, dream of green meadows, fat cattle, shiny horses, and blue skies!

Blog neglect has been rectified!

I have been an absolute blog neglecter.  It’s true; here it is December 10^th and I haven’t posted anything in a month.  A month!  Terrible, terrible.  But it’s not as if I’ve been lounging, oh no.  I started a blog right after Thanksgiving and was all ready to post it, all I had to do was get the pictures and videos off my phone.  It hasn’t been a problem in the past—I have downloaded, emailed, Facebook-ed, and Twitter-ed pics from my phone before, but it has decided to go on vacation for the holidays.  I don’t know when it will return to full function (if ever!), so it has taken me ages to finally get these pictures.  The videos have yet to surface anywhere, even though I've downloaded them about a bajillion times.  Technology! 

Today's blog--new and notable things going on at the ranch:

• All animals are out of Bridgeport and down at our Smith Valley ranch as of November 30^th.  We hauled the last of the horses out just as a series of storms hit—we were leaving the ranch with the snow already obscuring the mountains and the hill to the south and west.  I don't know exactly how many inches of snow and/or rain we got, but it was enough to blanket the mountains in pristine white snow.  It's gorgeous.
  

Here it comes!  

Snow in Smith Valley on 11/10/2012, the day after the cattle drive.  So cold!!!

• We have had RAIN!!  And SNOW!  Why is this exciting?  This means lush, green meadows for you to ride in next summer as well as fat horses and cattle.  We get really excited about precipitation.  Really, really excited.  In fact, it's what ranchers talk about a lot of the time when they see each other.  So if you happen to see us away from the ranch and we get to talking with you, now you know why 9 times out of 10, we will say something about the weather.  I think it's hardwired into our brains...
    

The ranch in late October/early November, before the leaves blew off the trees and the snow came.

• We sent almost 200 calves over to the west side of the Sierras to get fat on grass over there.  Our growing season is different here so while we are grazing our cattle on last year’s feed and have to wait a few more months to get new grass growth, on the west side of the Sierras, they are already starting to get green grass…and green grass = happy, fat calves, and we get really excited about that, too!
  
• We have acquired 2 new mares and a new filly.  They are currently pigging out on some great hay and eating as much as they can hold—they were severely underweight and pretty neglected when we got them.  It was a sad story, but we hope that we can give them a better life where they never have to worry about where their next meal is coming from!  They are all very sweet and easy to be around and we have high hopes for them.  None of them have names yet and I will try to get some pictures of them when they are looking a little better.  They already feel much better since being on a consistent plane of nutrition, so it looks like it's all uphill from here.
  
• The Fall calving group of cows is nearly finished calving—which means we have about a hundred of the cute little buggers running around!  Before we know it, the spring calvers will start popping calves out like popcorn (bad image?  I like popcorn and calves, and they do sort of pop out...) and we'll be inundated with cute tiny bovines once again!
  
• The 2013 Newsletter is finished and will probably get mailed out around the first of the year--very exciting!  We hope you will like the changes we made to it this year.  Feedback is welcome and we would love to hear what you think of it!
  
• Christmas is coming...and I don't think I need to add too much to that.  It pretty much encompasses all that is the stress/shopping/joy of the last big holiday until next year.  

There are a million other little things that we have been doing, but you get the idea.  Winter is still a busy time for us, as it is for nearly everyone, I imagine. 

Shiloh & Company say hello on their last cold morning in Bridgeport until next spring.

Blair and Potter, satisfied after running the horses in!

I am madly working on the blog for the Cattle Drive, so this will just have to tide you over until I get it posted.    Until next time, dream of green meadows, fat cattle, shiny horses, and blue skies!

Not your grandmother's photography...

Well, hello there!  It's been a while.  We promise we haven't been sitting by the fire, reading the latest bestseller and drinking hot chocolate...really!  Today's blog is a little bit different than what would normally be posted, mainly because we are in the process of getting the ranch ready for winter.  We're draining cabins, stripping beds, hanging sheets in windows, hauling the last few cattle to Smith, and getting ready to move to a lower elevation for the winter.  Once that has settled down, be prepared for the ultimate cattle drive blog!

So.  Back to today's blog.  As many of you know, I got married this summer!  The photographer for the wedding was a friend of mine named KT Merry.  She also worked at the ranch as well, and some of you may remember her taking rides out and on occasion, riding Billy or Bob, one of the Percherons who pulled the hay wagon.  She is a wonderful person and I consider myself lucky to know her and to have had she and her kick-butt sidekick (her husband, Chad) photograph my wedding.  As you will see, she is a phenomenal photographer--words just can't do her work justice.  The pictures you see here are from our engagement session--you can see them on her blog here and  some of her other work here.  Please check her out--you won't be disappointed!

 

 

 

 

Thanks so much to KT Merry for letting me post these on the blog.  Perhaps there will be a post of wedding pictures later, but only if you want to see them!  I suppose I better get back to the real work.  The ranch isn't going into hibernation by itself...

Until next time, dream of green meadows, fat cattle, shiny horses, and blue skies!

6,180 miles of cow tracks, blizzards, and joy

 The inevitable fact of the matter is that at some point, there would be a blog about the cattle drive.  About the long days of watching the backsides of steadily ambling bovines.  About waking up at 4:30 a.m. just to get started early enough so you didn't have to finish in the pitch black.  About the days being deliciously warm for late fall, or sometimes bitterly, miserably cold and snowy; about the moments of excitement when a cow breaks back and heads for hell-for-leather to somewhere she definitely isn't supposed to be; about the bittersweet satisfaction of getting the herd through the last gate in Smith Valley.

 Day One:  Leaving the ranch!

 Rush hour in Bridgeport...

As many of you know, the annual cattle drive is a tradition for our family.  This year marks the 103rd year that we have been driving our cattle out of Bridgeport for the winter.  Historically, it wasn't just our cattle that were taken out of the valley and down to better winter ground.  Ranchers from all over the Bridgeport valley would join their cattle up and drive them to Smith Valley, then on to Mason Valley, and where ever else they needed to go.  While I can't be sure of the exact numbers, it seems like there would be a LOT of cattle because Bridgeport has such rich feed.

In this day and age, you seldom see a drive like ours.  It's much more convenient for cattle to be trucked to their destination--they don't wear out their feet, they don't drop too much weight (always better to have a fat cow going in to winter...or really, anytime!  We like fat cows!), and it takes a fraction of the time.  Add all that to the fact that there is more traffic on roads that are better maintained, houses are popping up along what used to be open country, and cowboys seem to be a dying breed and you can see how it's been easy for something like this to easily slip into a distant memory.

Yet we continue on--not stubbornly, I assure you.  We continue because we love the tradition.  I don't know that I can ever recall any member of my family saying, "You know, since it's going to snow on the drive this year, let's just truck them to Smith."  It would never even cross our minds--we have always done it rain, snow, sleet, hail, wind, or sunshine...and that's just the way it is.  And we will likely continue even though we may have to find a different route, or stop at a different ranch for the night, or take a few less or a few more cows.

The cows know when the hay wagon arrives...

It's a family event, too.  We have a small number of guests that come to help and many have been returning year after year.  These people (as well as our summer guests) become part of the family.  I (Leslie) was born on the day after the cattle drive and for as long as I can remember since then, my birthday has fallen some time during the drive.  When my brother and cousins and I were in school, we would always at the very least get to ride on one day of the cattle drive, often times two or three days, and as we got older, we would skip school altogether and go on the drive (best way to play hooky is to have a job to do!).

My cousin, Aspen, at 3 1/2 years, rode for a day on the drive (this was taken 5 years ago).  She's one tough cookie!

Until next time, dream of green meadows, fat cattle, shiny horses, and blue skies!