Johnny Cash and A Long Day

Today was also long. My bosses left yesterday and left just ol’ me in charge…they figured a week’s experience was enough…not!

Amy, the past apprentice, is in charge (of me). She is going to be around for another couple months, potentially.

Yesterday and today was packed full of important activities. Yesterday, I woke at 5:30 to get started on chores and to plan our agenda for the day. We sorted open cows from the herd, which took about an hour and half. We went up to the corrals after breakfast when the herd was heading for water. We were able to sort most of them out of the herd when they were drinking. About four of the necessary 27 (includes some calves) animals were a little harder to coax into the corral, but we were able to get it all done without moving the whole herd into the corral.
The most exciting activity of the day came after lunch. Amy grew up with horses and one of her goals is to make me comfortable with the ranch’s horses. She taught me some basic safety with moving horses and then we saddled up. I feel comfortable around horses, but learning how to communicate with them on the saddle can be challenging. Mighty (aka the Old Man) can be a little stubborn about moving when cued, apparently. After I was up on the saddle for about 5 minutes, our fellow rancher and co-op member showed up to pick up some of his cattle, so we paused the horseback lesson.

A little while later, I got back up and headed out to the field to herd some bulls into the now pregnant only herd. We are consolidating the herds so we can ration feed better. Mighty was a bit slow, but we were able to help push the bulls up. It all went pretty smoothly until two bulls decided to duel. Mighty did not much like being around them, either did I. We kept our distance and later decided to leave them to duke it out. At about dusk we were able to push the two bulls into the herd.

Yesterday was very good and I enjoyed getting to know more about horses. I felt like a cowgirl for a while.
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Today was by far long. I started my day at 4:45, and it has yet to end, obviously.

Why I was up so early?

We needed to deliver a cow to the processor by eight in the morning. This meant performing chores, loading the animal into the trailer, and catching some breakfast before making the hour and half trip to the processor. We were able to accomplish all this and be back by ten. On our way back we stopped by a local coffee shop and had tea and coffee. I have found a new chai latte that I like. Woot!
After getting back and sorting the meat we picked up from the processor, we gathered our supplies for moving our impermanent corral-setup from a field 45-minutes south of us to another field. Amy designed this corral and it includes a Bud box (I could not find a good article on it to share). A Bud box helps with loading animals. Not traditionally used.

The good part of this move is that we did not have to do it alone. A ranch friend also helped us out. The corral was on his land and was being moved to another piece of his. He drove his frontend loader over too, which was a 1940s model American Haymaster. We loaded the cattle panels on it and then deposited them into an open-top trailer. The funny thing is, I was put in charge of driving this Haymaster. He wanted me to drive it. It was not like any tractor I had ever operated. It had no clutch! A child could have driven this, I’m sure. The main thing was not forgetting which lever did what. I loaded panel after panel until the trailer was full. We made two total trips. At the other field, we started the setup of the new corral. The purpose of moving this corral is so we can sort some animals on Monday and truck them off to another pasture.
We had a good day and accomplished a lot of work. I’m looking forward to a slower Saturday.

I like this Johnny Cash song: Get Rhythm

A Little shoeshine boy never gets low down
But he's got the dirtiest job in town
Bendin' low at the peoples' feet
On the windy corner of the dirty street
Well, I asked him while he shined my shoes
How'd he keep from gettin' the blues
He grinned as he raised his little head
Popped a shoeshine rag and then he said

Get rhythm when you get the blues
Come on, get rhythm when you get the blues
A jumpy rhythm makes you feel so fine
It'll shake all the trouble from your worried mind
Get rhythm when you get the blues





Haymaster photo I found online.