A little more Camping

We've done a few more short camping trips, leaving camp set up because we still have more to do. I think we are about 3/4 of the way done gathering the mountain. We ship our first group of 700 out tomorrow, and the first truck has already arrived here at the ranch this evening (he'll just sleep here until we're ready to go in the morning).

Sounds like we may have the help of a helicopter to gather the last 1000 or so cows, so that should be a big help. On the last camping trip, Sue ended up getting stepped on twice by horses, and kicked by a cow. It was a rough day for her, and she is still limping days later, however she seems to be improving. We've tried to "keep her down", but that really is more difficult than it sounds.

We have a few more pics from camping, and some corral work down at Whitehouse. You'll notice

Brian has a new pair of chinks on (they are like chaps, but these only go just past your knees). One of the buckaroos that is here now, Ty, works in his family's saddle shop also. He made this pair for Brian and brought them back with him after going home for a few days last weekend. We think it is pretty neat to have something like this, handmade, by somebody you know and worked with. They probably won't stay this white for long, but they will be well admired by us over the years.

Camping

We've done our first two small camping trips. The first trip, 2 days, we camped at/near the "tie

shack". I mentioned it in an earlier post but this time I have pictures! We actually didn't stay in the tie shack, we just slept on the ground a few hundred yards away, near the horse corrals. I set up the "kitchen" in the bed of the truck, and kept it pretty simple. We had gone out just a few days after the heavy rain, so the roads were pretty muddy, and we ended up getting stuck more than once on our way up.

One of the horses, Casper, got really sick the first day and spent several hours in what looked like a near death experience. He'd fall over, stand up, pant, flail, stop breath, start again.....he ended up surviving the night and getting back to the ranch the next day. After seeing a vet, turns out he likely had an allergic reaction to something. It was no fun watching him struggle though.

Our second camping trip was for 3 days, and went well. We set up the wall tent, and have a

little more official camp set up. The guys leave from camp each morning and gather cows and push them down the valley, then the last day they pushed the ones that had been gathered previously all the way down to the meadows around the ranch. We came back to the ranch for 2 days (and had a day off!) and are heading back up to camp this afternoon for a few more days.

(we left camp all set up, I just brought the food back so the mice wouldn't devour it).

Here are a few pictures from camping and the guys practicing their roping in the evening.

Seasons Change

When we came back to the ranch after the labor day weekend, so many things felt different. Everyone else who lived at the upper end of the ranch (Squaw) is now gone, so its just Brian and I. It is freezing at night, the garden is over, and just yesterday it was cloudy all day, then rained in the evening and all through the night. Today is the first day in a long time we are dealing with mud instead of dust.

The thoughtful part of me has been thinking about deserts, and how so much of the time there appears to be little or no life. Although it has its own beauty, sometimes you have to look for it, or at least be able to appreciate something different than what feels like normal.

Much of that can parallel how we feel in our own life when we are in a "desert". Things seems so deserted and bare, and desperate for life giving water. But what I'm reminded of is that even in the desert there is beauty; and even when things seem so desolate, there is seed under the surface that only thrives in the changing seasons that are unique in a place like this.

This afternoon we rode the quad around one of the meadows to close some gates because the

guys brought the first 400 steers down out of the mountain alltoment. I collected this "fall" bouquet while we were out. The meadows are irrigated, so that explains the cattails, but the bright maroon/rust colored flowers are already pretty dry, and were growing in amongst thick grass that looked a lot like wheat.....wish I would have had my camera out there with me. It was really beautiful.

Crossing 11 mile, take 2

We did the 11 mile, yeah! It was a 14 hour day (from wrangling horses to being back at the ranch at the end of the day)......Here's the blow by blow: (if you read the most recent post about our first attempt, "cattle drives", this one will make more sense).

As normal, we were up at 4:00am and I made breakfast "to go" while Brian loaded horses. We stopped off at Upper Clover on the way down the valley to pick up one of the new buckaroos Tye, then headed to Lower Clover to meet everyone else. It was about 5:40 before we started heading out to the meadow, 6 people on horseback and myself and Dick on quads. There was a pretty good buck off before we were even out of the front yard, but no big injuries so the morning pressed on.

The cows had all been staged the day before in the last meadow before the open 13 mile crossing (that's called 11 mile for some reason) so it was a little easier to get them going. This first picture I took about 6 am, still gathering the 1200 cows up and pushing them through the last gate. I thought it was a beautiful sunrise. The other one is of Sue and I, sitting on the quad about the same time.

In general, the day went pretty well, just long. It was 7 am by the time the last cows

were lined out, and then it was just a long walk/ride for everyone. We were blessed by a cloud cover all day, and temps in the 60s for the most part. It actually sprinkled a few times. There was quite a bit of wind though and it really blew the dust up. This next pic is what our visual was like at least 1/2 the day. Often we couldn't see more than 15 or 20 feet in front of us. By the end of the day, everyone looked as is there face had been powdered with light brown---but my teeth never looked so white!

We took Sue with us, and she did great. She rode on my lap or on the seat right behind me a lot of the day, but we'd have her unload and help chase the cows when there was specific work to do, or some that were out of line. I was so amazed at

the instinct she has to keep the cows herded together, when to bark, when to back off....you'd think we had trained her really well! We didn't want to wear her out on her first big move which is why we had her ride with me a bunch. She seemed fine though, and often times she jumped off my lap when she saw some cows to chase, even when we didn't tell her too. (bad dog) Also, anytime she heard Brian whistle, she was sure he was calling her and off she'd run. During stretches where she was on the

ground with the cows, she'd go back and forth between Brian and I to make sure one of us didn't need her. After yesterday, she's shown she is ready for helping gather in the mountains. Sue will be a big help to Brian so he doesn't have to ride the horse up into the rocks because she'll go up there for him.

The day took a little longer than expected. There was a batch of calves that filtered their way to the back of the herd as the day progressed, and they really had to be pushed on. Brian was at the rear of the group, and arrived at the end of the crossing (we were going to Whitehouse at the bottom end of the ranch) about 1 1/2 hours after I did. We had to move them across active railroad tracks, so my job became standing and watching for a train as the cows worked their way into the ranch. (and closing the gate if a train was coming) For the last half of the day, many of the cows were walking single file, so we we're stretched out over about 4 miles from front to back, and there was an almost 3 hour delay between the ends.

For the most part, everyone was in good spirits, thankful for the cool weather, and ready for food and a shower. We hadn't eaten since our eggs about 4:30am.

There are 2 new single buckaroos here for October and November that just arrived over the weekend. They said they are pretty much living on Spam and PB & J, so we invited them up to our place for tacos and had a good evening.

We were supposed to start camping today, but it rained all evening and through the night. I think its the most rain we've had since we've been here....felt a little like Oregon! So the guys drove to the mountain allotment this morning, and will make the commute back this evening. The plan is to start camping tomorrow when things are a little drier, and we won't set our selves up to be sleeping in wet gear all week.