LIFE ON THE RANCH
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MARATHON 2017

10/22/2017

4 Comments

 
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Yesterday we headed to the winter range with the Gonder herd.  It's a 20+ mile cattle drive.  For some reason these cows feel the need to run up the bench, over the mountain pass, down and across the other side.   I feel like they are running a marathon.  Of course we discourage this behavior.  It's too hard on the cows to run that far.  
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The poor old girls ran up the bench and were already getting tired.  We stopped them for a breather before heading over the pass.

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I may have been parked in the wrong place, and Clay may or may not have gotten annoyed with me.  

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We recently hired a new cowboy.  Welcome to our team Orrin.
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Notice the white patches on the cows.  This is a paint mark we made when we preg-checked them.  Dave is hoping to be able to spot them from the plane.
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Clay stopped the herd at the top, we gave them a rest and had some lunch.  The next stop was my turn.  I waited for them at the gate.  
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You can see how hard the cowboys are working.  
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Coming down the bench.  Yep, I'm waiting at the gate.  I did a lot of truck chasing.
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Clay counted them through the gate.  He counted 160.  Little did we know we should have had 163.  Kind of a big oops on our part for not knowing this information before we left.  We were out 3 cows.  The cows must have taken a wrong turn somewhere in the trees and will turn up at some point.
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Headed across the hardpan.
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Tired cows, but they are on the home stretch.
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The water is through this gate.  They made it.  
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This cow's name is David, yes named after Dave.  She had a hard day.  She developed a hitch in her get-a-long.  She will be glad to just rest and graze.  I promise there is feed beyond the hard pan.
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The cowboys made it too. They even took advantage of this soft ground to do a little training.
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Both boys were riding young horses.  It was a good day for some training.
The three of us did pretty well.  I really wish we hadn't lost three cows though.
​  We all keep learning.
4 Comments
Cherie Palmer Garrison
10/22/2017 01:27:10 pm

Love following this blog. As always, thanks for sharing!

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Dan Hyland
10/22/2017 07:21:02 pm

Always nice to see what you folks are doing our west.

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mom
10/24/2017 07:55:55 am

As always enjoyed the words from you and the pics, perhaps you could totally explain hard pan, I have ridden on it and guess it is just where nothing grows, but wondered what you thought it was.

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Milly & Rick
11/6/2017 09:17:18 pm

So happy you are back, thank you..Love the pictures..Love the pics of Burbank, we really miss the time we spent there..thank you

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    Hi, My name is Tana.  I live in the high desert of Nevada, It is heaven on earth. 
     I am a rancher's wife and I want to share my story.

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