Beautiful Weather

At 4:00am this morning, I thought there were fighter jets over the house! It was just a HUGE thunder and lightning show! It went on all day long. Was quite a show. It was hot! 90*. And we would have a flash rain here and there. That made it humid! Us "dry landers" don't do humidity! We are used to a dry heat. Real low humidity. We didn't get the cows moved. They'll still be there tomorrow. (*,*)  Made for a lovely sunset though.

Thunder heads building.

A gorgeous sunset.

I have quite the crazy poppy crop. Should have got a pic when they all were in bloom.

Gotta fix fence now

Ya know yesterday it took us half a day to get in and pour 8 bulls. That's after we dodged the rain and thunder and lightning! We still had 3 Hereford and 1 Angus bull to go play hide and seek with. We got home at 7:30pm! Took alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll day to get 4 bulls. We got the 3 Hereford ones located and to the corrals by 2pm. Went home grabbed some lunch and went to look for ole Angus boy. Got him located at the farthest spot away from anything! He wasn't there earlier! Went and got the ponies and off we went to gather him and about 50 pairs. Cows to the meadows and ole Angus boy to the corrals. Its suppose to get 100*+ next week! Cows don't like the heat. We will have to gather all the cows and put them on the meadows along the trees and creek. Oh the drama! 3 of the Hereford bulls left the corrals after they got poured. Like good boys they headed north to the meadow the bulls will be on all summer. But one bull decided to hang around and see who showed up. Yep. Ole Angus boy! The bellowing started. Head butts through the fence. All along the fence...As if we don't have anything better to do then fix fence. :) Got ole Angus boy in and poured and the pushing and shoving began! Bloody heads and all! All you can do is wait it out. If you get to close, serious damage can happen to you and or your horse or dog. These suckers are huge and quick. And they don't care who or what is in their way when they are fighting. And one of them cries uncle and runs off. You take one at a time up the creek. We did leave the Angus bull behind so he wouldn't get hurt. He would be the only Angus bull in with 12 Hereford bulls. Not good. Still have 11 bulls to get in the other group of cows. That should go smooth. HA! Gotta love those boys.

Playing hide and seek in this terrain!

The fight is on!

A start to the end

We headed out this morning to start getting the bulls out of the cows. We opened gates and closed gates and looked around to see where the bulls were and how many were there. We had a good number of bulls to start with. :) We got the horses in, the bull numbers in hand and then - - - the sky turned black! And it didn't just start to rain, it POURED! And POURED! and POURED! We hopped in the pick up and headed home. Made something to eat and waited for it to let up anyways. I don't mind riding in the rain. Its the threat of thunder and lightning that spooks me! It stopped by noon. We got 4/10th of an inch of rain in 3 hours! On top of the almost 2 inches this past week! We'll take it! :)
We got 8 bulls out in 3 different sets. If you push too hard on them, then all they want to do is run away! After the first group. We went and got the 2nd group and I got my trusty cowgirl Bandit. My little 40 pounder can make a 2000 pound animal behave! :) The first group we started out with 6 bulls and ended up at the corrals with 3! HA! Between the creek and the irrigation ditches, they know where the horses can't cross! Stinkers! That leaves 14 left to go! We should have all the bulls out by Thursday. We kept the bulls in the cows for 62 days. 



This is Patches. I think he wants to go back with the cows. Sorry buddy.

 



    Bandit getting him to leave.

   Out the gate they go. Thanks Bandit!

     I wonder if they make an anti depressant for bovine? He looks so sad!

Heifers - pelicans and the full moon

Every week we move our replacement heifers to another pasture. We have 4 pastures that we rotate them through. The heifers have now come to know the routine. They usually, and I use that term loosely. Head right for the gate. Today, they were in 2 big bunches. One group was along the creek and the other group was up by the water tank. I got the group by the creek, and Cameron got the group by the water tank. I got my group through the gate and went and flanked for Cameron. Got them through the gate. Heading back to the trailer, we saw some pelicans. They must be eating fish from the creek and lake. They are the most awkward looking birds. Not a very good picture. Its difficult trying to find them, then focus and shoot. While getting the birds to hold still :)
Sitting on the back patio, I got some pretty pictures on the full moon.

The group of heifers by the water tank.

 

Leo making sure the heifers go though the gate and not past it.

Pelicans.

Full moon from the back yard.

Stormy Sunset & A couple of Monkeys

This past few days have been quite stormy! Cool temps, breezy and well, I wouldn't call it rainy, I guess you could call it "sprinkly". :) 3/10th of an inch in 3 days! We'll take it. Had a few nights of thunder and lightning. Nothing that would start a fire. We are still a little green and wet here with the rain. Late spring weather can be so unpredictable. Heat, then cool, then heat until summer kicks in full force.

Then there's these cuties! It's no wonder we call them "the monkeys"! They like to climb up the screen on the French doors! They can go all the way to the top, then back down. They climb and jump on everything! There's mama Bandit making sure they don't fall! She is such a mother hen!

He did it!!!

On June 15, 2013 at 9:00am - my only child graduated from college cum lade! I could not be prouder of him. He is an amazing young man with the world at his finger tips now.
It was an amazing day. The celebration started at 9am sharp. They had two different graduations depending on your major. The one at 9am was for Social & Behavior Sciences and Social Work and Business and Public Administration. The other one was at 2pm for Science, Health and Engineering, also Arts, Letters and Education. Michael's girlfriend graduated at the 2:00 celebration. She had two majors. Philosophy and English. She graduated with honors, suma cum lade. 4.0 grade point! Smart young lady. Anyways. The kids walked onto the football field, called "The Inferno". It has red astro turf! Then they had a few speakers. Then the heat started to pick up. By the time it ended at about 11:00am, it was already in the 80's! We then headed back to our home. Family and friends started to show up around 4pm. we bbq'd burgers, hot dogs, had a few beverages and visited with everyone. We met Hannah's family for the first time at the party. :) Very nice people. They said that the 2pm graduation was hot, hot HOT! Poor Hannah was a little sun burnt!
We had a coffee can set out for the kids "road trip relief fund"! HA HA! We sent them too Oregon for a week to hand out resumes, check out U of O, and just take a deep breath and reflect on the past 4 years. They want to go to grad school at the U of O. Michael wants to get a doctorate degree and Hannah wants to get a PhD degree. Lordy! So, off they go to Oregon. Hope they have a blast!

The graduates.

Accepting his diploma! I was zoomed as far as my little camera would go! And his eyes are closed!

Me and my boy!

GO EAGLES!!!

Boys will be Boys

I'm sitting at the kitchen table drinking coffee and gazing out the window into the back yard, looking at all the little birdies at the feeders, the big kitties lurking around, Bandit taking care of her new kitty friends when the dust starts flying and the bulls are bugling. I look up and there are 4 bulls (that I can see anyway), flinging dirt and snot. 1 cow and a bunch of steers! HA! The bulls will be out of the cows in about 2 weeks. It looks like they got their job done when you have 1 hot cow and 4 bulls after her.

Yep, there's 2 bulls in that dust cloud!

The face off. After the dust settled. This is why we crop their horns.

One of the bulls walked off. But the other one kept the dust going.

In the meantime, the other bull walked off with the cow and steers. He turned around and was probably saying, " I got her, ya all can stop the power play".

Boys!!

Horse Shoes

Yesterday the horse shoer was out to put shoes and Cameron's and my horses. I had my camera with me. yea! We put the horses on the scale and Junior weighs in at a whopping 1365 pounds!! But then again, he is 16.2 hands. Leo weighed in at an even bigger whopping 1460 pounds!! But then again he is 16.4 hands. Big boys! A hand measurement is measured by turning your hand side ways and starting at the ground of their front foot, you go all the way up to where their mane ends by their back. So with Junior that would be 16 times. Or, an easier way is take a tape measure and go from the same places and how ever many inches that is you then divide by 4. They consider "a hand" to be 4 inches. The "fellas" are both 7 years old. We got them as 2 year olds. The guys we got them from said they had 30 days on them. What ever that means. They have been awesome cow ponies. There has only been a few incidents of trauma. Nothing spectacular. :) Well, there was this on time Cameron was riding Junior and there was a mylar balloon on the hill side, he didn't even have to get off, just swooped it up and started down the hill shaking it. You should have seen the look on Juniors face! HAHAHAHA! Well, at least Junior waited to get to the bottom of the hill before he bucked Cameron off! He was fine thank goodness. Ever since then, no bucky bucky! I'm not much into the blood lines of horses. They are either a good horse or not. But, both boys are Driftwood breed. Junior has that real long gait that looks like he is hardly running. And smooth like a rocking chair. Leo on the other hand comes from quarter horse racing. In fact he has Man O War in his lines. And can he run! And he LOVES to run! So, I am usually the one who gets the " Get around those SOB'S"! And we do. They both can anticipate the next move a cow will make. They are awesome in the sorting pen. I always say, Leo watches Sesame Street, he knows which one doesn't belong! lol!

This is Cameron's horse Junior.

 My horse Leo. He's always suspicious getting shoes on!

And what would a day shoeing horses be with out a treat for Bandit?! Yummy! A hoof!

UH OH! I see TROUBLE here!

Well, we went and picked up 6 kittens from a friend who adopted a mama cat that so happened to be prego. And prego she was! She had 6 babies. They are 6 weeks old. We took 4 of them to the in-laws. And we kept 2. I am so surprised Cameron let me keep 2! They all look alike. Grey tabby with white feet. I just grabbed 2 before he could change his mind! HA! They will stay confined until they get a little bit bigger and everyone gets to say hello and there's no more hissing and punching! And that's from the new kitties! Smokey and Bandit are okay with them. Bandit stands over them and herds them around like a heeler does. Bandit thinks they are hers to do as she sees fit! Silly dog. They are so darn cute. So now we have 2 dogs, 5 cats, horses and cows. I do want to look into getting and Anatolian Shepard as a guard dog.

Kitty #1. I think its a female.

Kitty #2. I think this one is male.

Both kitties! And yea, they are on the couch! When they get older, we will get them their shots and fixed!

Summer time - sweet, sweet summer time

Summer is just around the corner. It's been in the mid 80's here the past few days. Suppose to stay this way for the for see able future and a little warmer. ( if you believe the weather people).  We took the winter cover off the pool a few days ago to see what kind of surprises we were in for. UGH! Not to bad. Mostly leaves and algae. Lots of chlorine, brushing and vacuuming and its almost ready to hop in! We do need heat, lots of heat for the solar heater to warm the pool. Doesn't look too bad.

                                         
                  Those are cows in the backyard. Such a view!

 

                     A pretty little yellow flower.

                                    Hens and chicks.

    
        A little butterfly getting nectar from the flower basket.

   Thanks for visiting. Have a glorious day!