MOVING COWS

Connie and I headed over to the ranch at Dell to help them move some of their cows up to the summer pasture in the Centennial Valley.  It is a 3 day cattle drive and some early morning get ups.  We are saddling horses by 0400 and loading them in trailers by 0430.  Start moving them just as it is light enough to see.  Also trucked up bulls to the lower cow camp.  We took 3 horses: Jack, Bill, and Joe.  They seem to enjoy working cows as much as we do.

Click to enlarge and you can see Leroy the beagle dog watching us cut the older bulls out before we continue on the drive.  That is Jack's head in the picture as we are manning the gate for Heath as he cuts out the bulls that we don't think can make the 3 day walk to the lower camp.

The lead headed up Sage Creek.

Bill and Jack getting a little to eat while we have coffee after putting the cows in the field for the night.

Some of the other mounts having some grass.

Calen with his horse Sunday following him back to the trailer.

A coffee break before we head back to the ranch to load bulls to haul up to the valley.

The next morning the sun is coming up as we are trailing across the divide to the Centennial Valley.

The cows strung out just before we cross the ridgline.

Having coffee the second day in the pasture the cows stay in for the night.

Cow dogs and cowboys.

What is on a real cowboy pickup: a coffee cup, clips full of .22 rounds, a can of skoal, more .22 shells, a pair of wire cutters, and some large caliber shells for things larger than gophers.

A northern oriole which has a nest right out the window of the ranch house.

This is the nest made up of a lot of string and horse hair hanging in a fir tree.

The old beaver slide that put up tons of hay on the Martinell ranch years ago.

Five mule deer hanging out by the beaver slide.

Headed up the road in the Centennial.

One of the cows that got stuck in the muck.

Pulling out another of the cows that got stuck in the bog.