2. Cows have adorable chins.
3. And cheeks.
4. AND topknots.
5. But not snot. That stuff is nasty.
6. It's better to sweat like crazy in the corral than freeze down with icicles on your eyelashes and in your nose.
7. I'm always going to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I don't know why I try so hard to get it right. I mean, I could be in the pickup, three miles from the sorting operation and I'd STILL be in the wrong place.
8. Really, the "right place" is anywhere a person can't get run over by a cow or bull.
9. Or a 600 lb calf.
10. Which brings me to Daisy, the World's Most Beautiful Cow (OC 1); this year was her first bull calf, Cactus Jack.
11. I'm beyond pleased to tell you all that Mr. Cactus Jack turned out to be a real axle buster! He's going to make the 625 lbs easily by October 26th! Maybe by next week.
12. Even the Farmer had to admit she raised a great calf this year, but he said it was because the calf was standing next to such a sorry cow.
13. He also said it was probably because of an LO Bar Cattle Co. bull from last summer when Daisy spent 30 days in the neighbor's pasture.
14. Whatever.
15. "Bum calves never amount to anything..." is hard to swallow every year at calving, branding and weaning time for my very pragmatic, unsentimental, smart, rain-gauge-half-empty men of Langs Fork, Inc.
16. Three inches of rain and good sunshine making grass like June didn't hurt anything, though, this year. Holy moly, it's gorgeous here, now!
17. There's really nothing slower and more stubborn than a cow who's had enough pushing for three days.
18. Except 133 cows (and calves) that have had enough pushing for three days.
19. I can't hug the cows. Or the grass. Or even the men, because that sort of thing is just not done. But today I wanted to.
20. Except when I wanted to throw the cow paddles at them. All of them.
21. (I'm SURE the feeling was mutual.)
22. Throwing things, not hugging. If a cow could throw something besides dirty looks, manure from her tail, and snot, she'd throw sorting sticks too.
23. Someone forgot to buy Pendleton whiskey for the preconditioning/imminent retirement stress/planting/shipping month.
24. Also, frozen pizza.
25. Life is pretty darn good on the ranch, anyway.
4 comments:
This really may be one of the best posts yet!
I pretty much love this. A little story from one of my favorite days working cows, because I don't have my own blog ;). It was 2004. I had just helped elect a new US Senator, taking down a pretty established incumbent senator. I was feeling pretty darn cool. I went home for the weekend to help ship calves. It was me, dad, and the neighbor in the corral. I soon realized I was not as cool as I previously thought. In fact, I was pretty darn dumb, according to them, and constantly in the road. This also happened one Christmas when one night I met the President and two days later was feeding cows, but that's another story.
Enjoyed your post, haven't of Pendleton Whiskey.
Sara, I love your stories!
Today I was told (AGAIN) that I don't look like a rancher. When I was in Boston, they said rather disappointedly "But you look like one of us." As though we'll show up all Annie Oakley or something!
Thanks Traci and Calamity! (Pendleton is a Canadian type whiskey that makes Crown Royal seem like bathwater. It's a bad, expensive habit to form but I'm starting to see the value of having a stash for weeks like this. No matter how committed one is to staying on the wagon...)
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