A Whole New World

Yesterday I whined about having to get up and out of here before the sun came up. I wondered about my sanity and confessed apprehension of what lay in store for me. So... I now confess that it was really fun. I'm glad I got out of my comfort zone and headed for the cattle pens before daylight.

This is the first picture I took yesterday. I just want you to see that it really wasn't daylight yet. It is amazing what a man can get you to do. Yet... here I was at the shipping pens with cowboys on horses just waiting for the arrival of New Man... the Ranch Man.

Actually, I took about a hundred and fifty pictures during my adventure. I have some really good ones, but just going to post a few this morning for you to see.



After New Man, Ranch Man, arrived, we got into his feeding truck and headed for the pasture where he had put all the cattle that were to be shipped.

He turned on the siren to call the cattle, and they started coming from all directions. Pretty soon we had about four hundred critters following along behind, beside, and coming in from the distant hills. It was amazing...a sea of cattle. The sun wasn't really up yet, but I was thinking that it was a pretty good time to get going. The summer heat gets pretty intense fairly quickly.

The poor little critters followed along after the truck in great expectation. Little did they know what awaited them. They were going to be rounded up and loaded into the shipping trucks and off to 'you know where'. I considered hollering out the window, 'Run, Babies, run!' Common sense told me that wouldn't be a good idea.

When Ranch Man had the cattle close to the pens, the cowboys started driving them into the pens. I took this as we stopped for awhile to let the last of the cattle into the area. Some looked at me, and I kept thinking they were going to ask when that promised feed would be delivered. I could see it in their eyes.




Now I feel I must state, being the perfectly honest person that I am, that watching cowboys on horseback doing their job is pretty easy on the eyes. I'm thinking they were looking good in the saddle, and are certainly interesting to watch.

Somehow I began to feel sorry for all those who were home in bed missing out on this delightful event. Yep... I was actually enjoying the whole thing. I took tons and tons of pictures of the cowboys doing their cowboy thing. Such fun!




At last the cowboys herded a few at a time up the chute and into the waiting cattle truck while the driver watched and did his thing too. Poor babies.

I'm really grateful to New Man, Rancher Man, for sharing this little slice of ranching life with me. I've lived in cattle country for most of my life, and I've never been this up close and personal with what goes on as part of normal operation. Personally, I enjoyed it and I'd go do it again in a heartbeat.

Oh, I did have an opportunity to ride a horse. I opened my big mouth about how I'd ridden, but it had been years ago. When the horse was led to me, I paled. I looked at the stirrup, which seemed pretty high off the ground. No way was I going to try to hike my body off the ground and on top a horse in the presence of those cowboys. Nope... not doing it. That was just too far out of my comfort zone. So... I gave the horse a little petting and called it good. Tah Dah