Cattle Round up continued

5/12/08
My Cowboy bringing in the "nice cows"



Joe, owner of "The Ranch"

Ok where was I? Oh yes lost my train of thought for a moment, (it was the Chaps! I admit I am weak) So we all had "chaps" on. I think mine weighed the most! I'm pretty sure they were lead lined!We headed out to find the cows, and three bulls. How hard could it be? I mean really, as long as no one has a coffee grinder! (I've seen City Slickers) I don't want you to think I am a city girl, I was raised in the country, even heated up water to bathe in! (Ok I need to save that for another post. Keep you hangin!!) I have just never had to gather cattle. Well turns out that the "Cows" don't all stay together. We found a few and moved them toward the direction from which we came. Then left them? Oh well I guess these cowboys know what they are doing? So we headed farther, up the hill. I was behind everyone with my camera, waiting for that perfect photo op. It was a beautiful day, sun shining, light breeze. No, "Mom he's touching me!", or "I had that first!" I think I like this cattle round up stuff. Trent went up a steep hill to see if any cows were hanging out. Joe (Owner of the ranch) went around another hill. It was me and my two boys 14 and 8 riding along, thinking, "this is nice, so peaceful, blue skies, nobody arguing over the last ..." Holy cowpies Batman! What if we come across some cows!? Nobody told us what to do? where to go? do we try and put them with the others, we left 200 miles away?! Ok so it wasn't 200 miles but it might as well been, I get lost coming out of the stores in the mall! What was I worried about? sheesh, It wasn't like we'd seen any for , ahhh Cows!! Ok boys here's the plan... give me a min... here's what we need to do... Ok what the heck do we do? Where was that Cowboy of mine anyway! What did he think I was a cowgirl? that deep inside was the instinct to know what to do when the time came? Well I wasn't going to let those slow elk know, I didn't know, what I was doing! We came around behind them and they just started movin! I don't know if they were going the direction Trent and Joe wanted? But hey they were movin! So we just followed. We hadn't gone far when there he was, my Cowboy, pushin a few cows down the other side of the hill he had gone up. "Good job guys" he said. Well Hello! It wasn't like we didn't know what we were doin! I mean come on they are just cows! (I think I just said that in my head) So now we had his 12 cows and our 2 cows,... what? Two can get pretty unruly!! AND they were BIG! Ok, well... one was big! BUT, the other one looked like trouble! He even tried to charge us, just look at the photo! Don't let those eyes fool you!




We were "herding" cows! Just following them, (they seemed to have done this before.) We met up with Joe a little while later, he had a few of those ol' cows too. We stopped at an old homestead Trent had been telling me about. We got the water and the "Rocky Mountain Water" out of the saddle bags. We all took a break. The boys and I had the water, I'll let you guess what the cowboys had! The view was pretty amazing. I don't know who used to live in the old homestead but they must have picked that spot for the view. It was beautiful. To wake up every morning, and see that sunrise out your window! And the sunsets! I can just imagine, awesome! We hung out for awhile. Joe told me how much he appreciated me letting Trent come to the ranch, What? I don't "let" him! "He is free to help you out whenever you need the help!" (As long as his chores are done!) Ha! Ha ! We laughed about that! Well, Trent didn't ...but deep inside I know he thought it was funny! DEEP inside! Trent rode off to pick up any straglers and Joe and visited. He really likes Trent,(Joe talking) " He is always ready to help, and knows what he is doing. Some of these guys come up here thinkin they are cowboys. You can't tell um nothin! They think they need to run around with ropes flyin and chase these cows! It ain't the movies! You gotta work cattle, slow and easy. You get more done in a day when you listen to the guy who's done this most all his life. Trent is a hard worker, he is respectful, and he listens. We like it when he is here and the kids too." Ohh! What a great thing to hear! I know how lucky I am, but to hear someone else compliment your family is priceless! -to be continued-