Chicken Fried Steak and a Branding

Spring is here. The grass is starting to grow. The trees are blooming. More importantly, branding time is here. The babies are almost all born and ready to go. Our cattle are divided into calving groups and spread across several pastures. Last week, the heifer pasture was all calved out and ready to be worked. Kirk and I put in a few calls and rounded up some help and we were ready to go.

Saturday turned out to be a perfect day. It had rained on Thursday night into Friday morning. Before we could bring the heifer pasture down we needed to move some first calf heifers out of the way. Kirk and I were going to move them on Friday, but the creek was now up and them babies are hard enough to get across when it's down so we decided to wait until Saturday.

As I said, the babies are always a problem when moving pairs, especially with first time mothers leading them. Our crew did well though. I had to run the feedwagon first thing and move a group of yearlings to another pasture so I had to watch helplessly from the tractor. After a little cussing, a lot of running, and a horse that decided he would rather go for a swim than work Kirk, my brother Ty, a friend Jay, and Shorty got the heifer pairs moved. I brought the yearlings across and we were set to bring the pairs down from the heifer pasture.

The rest of the day went smooth. We had no problems bringing the mommas and the new crop of calves on their first move. Experienced mothers tend to lend to this. The working pens were pretty dry considering the rain Thursday night. There were still a few bogs so Kirk worked the gate and I sorted the cows off horseback. I have to brag on my horse. Despite me, she's turned out pretty good. She's getting fun to ride. Don't worry though Tim, I won't camp on her.

We got the babies worked and headed to town for lunch. We thought about working the cows first, but hopping on a horse with a full belly is not ideal. Some ground work to let the chicken fried steak settle a bit is a wise choice.

The cows were run through and paired up with their bawling babies. Reunited and it feels so good. We let them settle a bit and did a count to make sure all is well. Jay and Ty needed to go soon, so we let the pairs sit and rode south and took 72 fall cows to the north end of the ranch. We split them into two pastures and headed back to headquarters. Jay, Shorty, and Ty had to leave so Kirk and I were left to run the freshly worked pairs down south. We ran them under the turnpike and to their new home with no problem and called it a day. I always love it when a plan comes together.

I can do it!!!!!!!!!!

I have to brag on my little man. As parents we have all heard these words from our children. "I'll do it." "I can do it all by myself." You may, as I have, denied them the chance as you try and speed things up. "I can do it", is the usual reply. Hudson was with me in the tractor the other day and was insistent upon shutting the door after we got in all by himself. Finally I gave in. The door is pretty stiff and I thought he couldn't do it. What do I know. He tried at first to simply grab and pull as he observed me doing. He couldn't close it. Did he then feel sorry for himself and ask me to help or to close the door for him? No, observe.

As I observe this independent spirit in my kids I hear the words of Christ, "Unless ye become like little children...". I also have to wonder why does time kill this self-motivated will in us adults? Perhaps it's the uninhibited nature in children that makes this possible. They have yet to care or think about what happens if they fail. They have yet to learn to use their peers as a mirror for their own self worth. I really believe he just wanted to be more like dad.

As you read the Old Testament, you see the gradual shift from an independent and self-motivated desire to be free and judge yourself according to an inner standard that calls and leads us, to the desire to be ruled, protected, and cared for by our fellow man. In Genesis, Abraham is called by God to leave his country and his people to go as God leads. In Exodus, Moses leads a people out of captivity that constantly desire to go back for the security of food and shelter. In Judges the people did, "what was right in their own eyes", but still sought a ruler amongst their own, e.g. Gideon. He told them, "Let the Lord rule over you." After Judges you have 1 Samuel where Israel demands a king. God through Samuel tells them, "...he will take your sons and appoint them to himself...he will take a tenth of your sheep...you will cry out in that day because of the king you have chosen; and the Lord will not hear you in that day." Israel wanted to be, "...like all the nations," to have a king to judge them and "to fight our battles.

Don't misunderstand. We all need help. God removed many kings whose "hearts were lifted up." However there is a huge difference in wanting help and wanting someone to do the task at hand for us. Before we set out to do the impossible, we must remember God has created us for a purpose. After we have done the impossible we must remember that God has created us.

Proverbs 24:30-34

I have some helpful advice for all my fellows in the guild of lazy gardeners. Are you troubled by grass and weeds? Does the mere thought of travailing under the July sun with hoe in hand make you weak kneed? Is the beckoning call of the couch, an air-conditioned house, and watching Die Hard 2 for the twenty-fifth time too much to overcome? Fear not! A great truth has been revealed unto me. Let the grass grow. Let the shade of the weeds shelter thine onions. What's that you say? You canst not find thine onions amidst the weeds. Thine carrot tops have been vanquished? Fear not! The grass will brown and the weeds will stop. Runnest thou the mower over thine crop and wait, and fear not. Spring will come after the snow, and lo, there appearest thine onions and carrots, preserved in the ground where the frost toucheth them not. Dig then my hearty fellow! Dig not as the fool who labours forth in the summer heat, but dig now after being well rested for the summer, fall, winter, and the early spring, and enjoy thy bountiful crop of soggy onions!

In hot pursuit of some meaning

I'm sure many of you think inspiring romantic thoughts of the cowboy life. I once did and still do. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy what I do, but my naivete has been waining over the last five years as I have discovered a great truth: No matter what you do in life, it eventually becomes work. One of my favorite speakers, Ravi Zacharias often quotes G.K. Chesterton saying, "meaninglessness does not come from being weary of pain, rather meaninglessness comes from being weary of pleasure". As I wrote before in a previous post, I used to watch people drive by on I-70 and think, "suckers stuck in the rat race." The task at hand yesterday made me feel very ratlike.

To pelvic check or not pelvic check? That's not a question, but a necessity unless you enjoy chasing a frantic heifer at 2 a.m. in January with half a calf stuck out of her back end . Pelvic checking is done to ensure that a heifer will have enough room to heave one out. Although this doesn't guarantee that you will never have to, in the words of Roscoe P. Coltrane, be in hot pursuit and assist the poor struggling first time mother, it does help decrease the chances of that late night rendezvous with the calf puller and very cold hands.



The ratness of pelvic checking is the monotony. We did 135 heifer yearlings yesterday and that took about 6 hours. The routine goes like this. The heifer gets in the chute, George (the vet) measures her, we do the math, old ear tags are cut off, if she's big enough Kirk writes down her weight, #, measurement, etc., I vaccinate her, deworm her, and give her a new tag. Kirk also takes a chunk of her ear that is sent off to a lab to see if she is P.I. positive (persistently infected w/B.V.D. (bovine viral diarrhea)) (Is it grammatically correct to have this many parentheses?)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

Anywho, I know that I have probably lost you by now so I'll stop with the details. My point is that I don't see how some can do the same thing over and over, day in and day out. Part of what I love about this job is the variety. One day we are horseback. The other I might be putting up hay. I have a friend who works at a GM assembly plant. He says his job varies day to day, but there are guys there who do the same thing every day and they've been doing it for twenty years. We all dream about what our life would be like if we had this career, lived in this location, had this house, or whatever our little hearts can imagine other than what we have. This idea of greener grass has pervaded the hearts of mankind through out the ages. Paul writes, "...for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, to be content." Evidently the only cure is a learned one. Apparently these assembly line fellas have learned this lesson, or they are scared of change. Either way I have found the joy in the balance. I do enjoy a change of the routine, yet there is something to be said for a little stick-with-it-ness. (Is that a word? It is now). Once again, Paul sums it up best. "Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ."

Mr. Robbinson

A chill wind was blowing yesterday. I'm pretty sure that it wasn't the wind Mr. Robbins talks so Shakespearean about. Bundled up, coffeed up, and fed up (not a good idea when spending a day on a young and rough riding horse) we set out to grab some pairs in the Graf pasture that will be shipped on Friday. We had a couple of stray pairs that didn't belong, so after we cut them out we headed on out. Inevitably a couple of calves made their way to the wrong side of the fence. Naturally they didn't do so well finding their way back. After 30 minutes or so of throwing a lot of empty loops, we managed to get them back to momma. The rest of the trip went smooth and no more inept roping was needed on my part.

We made it to the pen and sorted of some stray heifer yearlings that came over from the north for a visit as a result of the previous night's rain that shorted out the electric fence. Another couple of light pairs were sorted off and replaced with some from a different pasture. Now we were ready to seperate the calves and work the cows.

As I mentioned before I was riding my younger horse Cooper. At times he goes by many names. B. S. is one of them. (Big and slow, what did you think that stood for?) He's good for gathering in the pasture, but painfully slow in the cutting pen. Part of the problem is my legs are too long to spur well, that and I need to add an L to the BS. I bet you can figure out what the L stands for. We got the job done though and in the end that's what matters most.

The cows were worked and reunited with their babies and put out to pasture to await the truck on Friday. The day help gathered their horses and scedaddled perty quick (I think they had had enough of the chill wind), and I went home, took the family to dinner at the Chinese/Mexican restaurant, had a hot shower, and finished the day on the Homemedics massaging back cushion (stupid horse). All in all a good day down on the Tailgate Ranch.