Californian Cowboy: 8/31/11

So today ended up being everything I hoped it would be. What a great day.

I woke up at 3:45, made some breakfast and coffee, and got ready to saddle up. Apparently a late start id one of Duke sr’s pet peeves, so I made sure to be saddled up by 4:45. It was great, Rafa and I went out to the saddle and leather room

at 4:30 and prepared everything for the ride while blasting Old Crow Medicine Show. It was such a great start to the morning.

Everyone arrived right on time at 4:45, cinched up, and we were on our way by 5. What a feeling riding into the sunrise, fresh legs, ready for a great ride. We trotted out 6 miles to the pasture we were moving. It was so cool to watch the sun rise while we were trotting out.

Got to the pasture, and proceeded as normal. Make a game plan for how the wrangle was going to happen, and split up, all going in out own directions to take care of our assignments.

The Wrangle went swimmingly, the cattle basically moved themselves. This was completely unexpected as these were first time mothers, very protective of their calfs. They did great though, not even a stray calf.

All around, the move went absolutely great. It was a really great group, a relaxing ride, and a prefect execution. When we got the last calfs through the next gate, Cooper brought up that he saw a cow with an infected sheath (foreskin). We now had to pick it out of the group of 600, rope it, and inject it with antibiotics. So the chase ensued. Duke sr, cooper, and Michael all had ropes. We found the cow, and proceeded to cut him out of the group, the guys roped him with a couple of shots each, and before I knew it, he was on the ground tied up. It was pretty straight forward, Michael took out a syringe, gave him a shot in the neck and we were done. We let him go, and he ran off like nothing had happened.

We started our trot back to headquarters, and Duke sr approached me about my drip irrigation knowledge. I told him that I had experience with it, and I could help him out if he needed. He told me that Janet wanted to install drip in their green house, and he wanted me to design the system and install it with her, teaching her about it along the way. I gladly accepted the offer, so he told me that he wanted me to come over to their house after the ride and check it out. We ended up talking the rest of the 5 mile trot home. It was absolutely great, my first bonding experience with Duke sr.

We got home, and headed directly to the Phillip’s house. I took a look at the greenhouse, and knew what needed to be done. We went inside and ordered all the parts online. Julie Nora and I hung out for a while and ate some pizza, it was a good time for sure. Everything seemed like it went great. Their house is beautiful by the way.

I took off from their house back to the ranch and worked with Duke jr for the next three hours. We solved two major problems he had been suffering from for a while. First, we finished mounting a mobile welder back onto the trailer which it had broken off. A project he had been working on for a month now. It felt great just chillen with him, solving issues he desperately wanted to get solved. We got the welder mounted, it looked great and rode well as far as I could tell. We then moved on to lifting up a 4 ton dump truck off of all 6 of its wheels with a bulldozer and a grader. We had to do this to see if all six wheels were spinning when we tried different solutions. He nailed it on the first try, just by flicking an almost hidden switch below the dash. He was stoked we got it that fast. We let the dump down, and I drove it back to the parking spot.

We had a great time working together, but then it was time to go lay some pipe. Cooper, stuart, ryan, and our guest Henning from germany went out the pipe loading area and grabbed the next flat of pipe. By the time we got back to headquarters it was 4, so cooper told us that since we woke up so early, we could quit early today. I was relieved, I was tired.

We hung out in the metal shop and fixed a flat real quick while jiving each other having a lot of fun just hanging out.

After that I ate a bit of food, and cruised over to may camp to help Duke Coop and Stuart build their new horseshoe pit. We got it mostly finished, now all we need are some regulation horseshoes... Should be a good time when we get those tomorrow while were out going to the rodeo. I hung out there till about 9, playing games and eating more dinner. It was awesome, stuart make chicken bacon spinach quiche, which was stellar.

Now its time for bed, I have a full day of work tomorrow, then rodeo in the evening. Ill be sure to take a bunch of pictures.

Until then, here are some more pictures from today’s ride.