Thursday, August 7, 2014 –

We sometimes run the cows through to preg check them or worm them, but this time the guys were strictly working on the calves. They were being ear-tagged, branded, de-horned if necessary and in some cases castrated. They wanted to do it last weekend when the weather was cooler, but couldn’t coordinate it all with the helicopter pilot. Yes, you read that right. The cows were gathered this time with a helicopter. It’s done quite frequently in our area because of the rough terrain. We wanted to try and gather some wild yearlings that didn’t get caught last year. Our L-shaped place isn’t very easy to gather horseback because the pens are at one end of the L and the river is at the other. These yearlings were hanging out by the river in the wildest part of the ranch. Anyway, the helicopter paid off and the yearlings were caught.

The weather was so hot today, that the guys were getting dangerously over-heated. However, at just the right moment, a cloud built up and sent a cooling breeze and a little shower over the proceedings. This was just enough of a relief so that they could finish up the last bunch of calves. Our friend, Brent Brown, was also helping us today.