Fall at the Ranch means moving cows from the mountain

A little ranch update:  Well, the fall work begins on the ranch.  We are in the process of moving cattle from summer pasture, up in the beautiful Big Horn mountains, back home.  Gosh what a wonderful time of year.  Fall is my favorite season.  Gene and I headed to Battle Park last week morning to meet Dennis (who is new to us this summer and been helping us out on the mountain), pack up Molly (the mule), and gather the high country herd.  We pushed everything  we could find - meaning all our cows and calves, and some of the neighbor’s too - down the middle fork trail.  We got Molly unpacked by 4ish, and the guys moved cattle down across the south fork while I worked on getting camp set up. 

It looked like rain, so I covered the wood, set the, beds up and spread tarps out.  Not quite your regular chuck wagon on this trip - we made coffee for breakfast while we ate cold pizza for supper.  Rain did set in eventually overnight, and the tarps soaked through shortly after.  Gene got  up and built a fire at midnight.  Dennis, who hadn’t yet fallen asleep when the bonfire started, and I stayed in the puddles in our bed rolls till we knew we had to be up and ready to ride.  Daylight finally came, and we had all our wet gear packed back on Molly and were back riding the last pasture.  We joked that the romance had gone out of this western adventure about 2 a.m.!!  Later, back at home, I can tell you that hot showers felt good that evening, and the burger at Paintrock Inn was the best ever!!

Ranching gets in your blood, we guess.  We feel so blessed to have those hill top churches and good friends to help on the days we need extra hands.  Today we feel confident most of the ol’ girls and their calves will make it to the home place, where we’ll wean and pregnancy check later this week.  Ranching in open country involves lots of counting and backriding till we have everything accounted for.

Enjoy this wonderful fall weather, spend some time with your animals - they make you smile!