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!