We also preg tested our heifers by ultrasound to see who gets their big girl tags and will be having their first calves next spring. I have to tell you...out of the first 20 heifers that were tested, we had 7 "open" or unbred cows. It was tense, to say the least, and I was nearly in tears as I wrote their numbers on the sheet on the clipboard. But then it picked up and eventually we ended up with 13 open heifers out of 113, the rate of 10% being average on any given year. My little heifer, Violet, was bred! 78 days with a bull calf. I know I sound like a little kid when I tell Dr. Beck "That's MY cow.", grinning as big as you please, but it's truly thrilling to hear that call "Pregnant" from him. You might not believe it, but it's almost as exciting as seeing double lines on the little stick for your OWN pregnancy. (There are about 50 of my 64 readers that will not understand that, but at least 10 of them that do.)
All this means that we've had our hands on every cow and calf on the place...with the exception of the 150 pairs to do this Saturday, but they're not our cows; we run a cousin's cows in exchange for pasture lease, basically. But still...every one of our cows, we've handled, examined, shot, sorted and moved this week. And they're looking good. Today I cried a little....mostly because I was tired and frazzled and thought I'd really messed up a gate, but more because I see a lot of hard work coming to fruition in these girls (and babies). For as hard as it is calving in March, loading half frozen calves in the pick up to haul to the heating box, it's more than doubly gratifying to be moving them through the fall grass, seeing the big, soggy calves trotting along beside their moms.
In other news, my friends Myron and Ada Pentz from Perth, Australia have sent me some really good literature about the land down under! I finished "Melbourne" by Sophie Cunningham
and feel a real need to take a tour of that city with book in hand in order to fully appreciate it. I read it every evening last week, underlining words I was unfamiliar with and marking references that I want to read up on. Some of the more fascinating things are that right now, as we're doing our fall work on the ranch, the folks in Australia are doing their spring planting. New Year's celebrations are in the middle of summer, sort of like our Independence Day celebrations. The book walks through the seasons and areas of the city, exploring history and culture on the streets of Melbourne. It also gets into "footy" which is Australian football, which is JUST as big to them as NFL is to us...I mean, me. Sophie grew up in Melbourne, so the book is very personal in some places...she writes in a professional, journalistic style, but occasionally reminiscences sneak in to make the book read more like her own diary. Good stuff.
and feel a real need to take a tour of that city with book in hand in order to fully appreciate it. I read it every evening last week, underlining words I was unfamiliar with and marking references that I want to read up on. Some of the more fascinating things are that right now, as we're doing our fall work on the ranch, the folks in Australia are doing their spring planting. New Year's celebrations are in the middle of summer, sort of like our Independence Day celebrations. The book walks through the seasons and areas of the city, exploring history and culture on the streets of Melbourne. It also gets into "footy" which is Australian football, which is JUST as big to them as NFL is to us...I mean, me. Sophie grew up in Melbourne, so the book is very personal in some places...she writes in a professional, journalistic style, but occasionally reminiscences sneak in to make the book read more like her own diary. Good stuff.
I read about 89 pages of "From Strength to Strength" tonight while sitting on the deck with a cocktail, watching the clouds go to pink, listening to the prairie ease into evening. It's an autobiography of an amazing woman who ends up ranching in Northern Australia, after marrying an American who had big dreams but nothing to substantiate them. In the book right now, she's just survived a typhoon on a sailboat in Red China waters with her husband of 4 months and his man servant Ernesto...she's dying of what I recognize to be morning sickness and they're unsure what to do about the leaking bow, besides stuffing her wedding dress in the hole. It's a dandy!
I'll try to get some pictures this week for you. Really, you should see how green and lovely it is here since the rains,,, Which makes me think of Ian Tyson's song "Since the Rain"...click on the title of the song and enjoy!
