All in a Day’s Work
Trailing at sunrise…again. It was a breezy beautiful Thursday morning.
During the fire on Squaw Mountain, Patrick and I, with a little help from a wonderful neighbor and friend, got our cattle out of the meadows on Squaw to the safety of the meadows closer to home.
Now it’s time to truck them to the Laramie Plains to join the rest of the cattle and graze for a couple of months until the calves are shipped to their new owners. These girls have done a lot of re-locating in the past 2 weeks.
The rising sun gave to beautiful silhouettes of Mark and Phil as they crossed the bridge guiding the cattle up the hill.
Once we got closer to the corral, Mark stood guard to make sure the ladies didn’t turn and go the wrong way. They needed to aim for the open gate at the sunburst.
Phil made sure they didn’t run down the fence line. And I… took pictures.
Once we arrived at the plains and loaded the cattle in the corral, we gave them time to mother up and then Mark and Phil led them over the hill to water.
It’s a long drive to the Plains from the ranch and we passed some smoking mountains. Yep, you guessed it. Earlier this week the volunteers were fighting a fire on a section of the plains. Lightning once again created a lot of smoke and flames. I didn’t go to this one so I don’t have much info. Patrick spent a full night and day at the fire until the feds arrived. This thing burned up Pole Mountain and got 50 yards from a ranchers home. Patrick is so ready for snow. I am too, but I’m just not ready for the hurricane winds that comes with it.
We stopped by the South Ranch for the guys to do, well, guy things. Count hay bales, take inventory of machinery, move horses, etc. I did my thing, which as you know, my thang is to find photographs.
This field is covered in Sowthistle. They look like dandelions but they aren’t. They are really sticky and when horses eat them, their mouths are covered in their sticky yellow juice.
Patrick says it’s Rosinweed but it doesn’t look that to me when I look in my Weeds of the West book.
Anyway, the bees like them.
Finally, we got home as the sun was going down. I drove the atv to the house and against the purple sky, I saw a group of bucks roaming the hilltops.
It was a good day and we got a lot done. Now, for a restful weekend…I hope.
Yours till the cow moooooos,
Leah
Love love love your stories. HOW do you get up in the a.m.? Is it knowing you’re needed? I’ve shut the alarm off and snoozed the past two weeks until late instead of getting up for “school time”. (:
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Girl please, the times I get up this early are few and far between. Please don’t let me fool you here. But Patrick worked a fire for 24 hours and then the next day had to trail the ladies. So, #1) I wanted to hang with him because I was grateful he was alive and #2) I knew he’d appreciate the help or at the very least, my company. Mornings are so beautiful and I often ask myself why I don’t get up with him more. And then I laugh and turn the alarm off. 🙂
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Glad the cattle are safe. The pictures are gorgeous, as always. Love the shots of the bee. Escaping through your photos is such a wonderful treat. Thank you.
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Thanks so much Lenore. I’m glad it’s an escape and I hear that often. It pleases me to no end that people come here to get away from it all, if only for a few minutes. Thank you again.
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Hello Leah..Mark and Phil might do the man’s work but you do the important bit..taking pictures for us to see. Just imagine your blog without pictures..not going to happen though.
Really enjoyed looking and reading and I hope that you have a restful weekend.
Any chance of getting another dog?
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