Californian Cowboy: 9/18/11

Hello there!!

I had a great ride on Friday, and a great weekend to follow.

Friday’s ride started really well. We gathered the pasture, and pushed the herd into the corral. It’s the time of year when were separating out the bulls to weigh them and sell them. So, when we got the herd into the corral, about 200 animals, we started cutting the bulls away.

This was something I had never done before, which ended up to be quite a thrill. It takes experience to know how much pressure to put on the animal and where to put it to make it cooperate with your demands. I enjoyed just watching michael, allen, rafa, Jonathan, and duke jr at work. It’s amazing how well coordinated they are, really without saying a word at all.

We successfully got all the bulls separated from the cows. I helped out I think, didnt get in the way, and cut some out myself.

After that we split up, Rafa, Allen, and myself went all the way out to the carpenter to wrangle up 15 more bulls which were wandering somewhere in the massive pasture. Our job was to bring them back to the corral, join them up with the rest of the 85 bulls we had separated,, and drive them to a pasture called the chrome white.

We found the bulls in the carpenter, they were on the far side, laying in the creek bed in the shade.

They were huge. I mean massive. Allen said he estimated the biggest to be about a ton.

They moved so slow. Theres no pushing these guys to go any faster either. They go at their own pace, and theres really nothing you’re gonna do to change that. But finally, around 2 o’clock, we got them into the corral, and joined up with the others.

We started out towards the chrome white. About a quarter of the way there, we rounded a fence corner with exactly 100 bulls. At that fence corner, about 20 heifers were crammed into a group. When we passed, they got really excited. So excited that they decided to break through the fence and join us.

This was the first mishap of the afternoon. We had to stop the move, and cut out the heifers. This is really tough to do while in the middle of an open pasture. With no barriers to keep the herd together, they tend to get all cut up and splayed out.

We cut out 5 heifers and thought we got all of them, later we would find out that we didn’t. Allen went back to put them in and fix the fence while rafa and I continued toward the chrome white with the heard of 102 animals. Allen ended up cutting himself real bad on the fence.

He rejoined with us, and we continued the drive. When we arrived at the gate, we encountered our next obstacle. In the very corner of the pasture, we had trenched, and the trench was blocking our way to the gate. We had basically cut off the corner of the pasture with the trench, and the gate was on the other side. Damn.

About 3/4 of the bulls figured they could jump the trench and got through the gate just fine. The remaining 25 however, just didnt have the balls to jump over. We waited and tried to push them over for about 30 minutes. After that we decided to just cut the fence on our side of the trench and let them in through the opening. Great idea, but one, one, bull decided that he just wasnt going to go through.

He was a huge white and brown bull who was lame, and really really pissed off. He had just been taken on a 5 mile trek with a hurt leg and he just wasnt having any more of it. We tried for a solid hour and a half to get those animals through the fence, and it was apparent this one just wasnt gonna go. I started to patch up the fence we had cut while rafa and allen led him all the way back to may camp where there was a gate we could let him through. They got him in. Yes.

We trotted back to headquarters after that, completing our ride at 5:30. And 11 hour ride.

It was a fun, challenging, sometimes frustrating ride. One of my favorites so far. Brutus rode really well as well. Except when we were cutting the bulls as well as when we were trying to pus them over the trench, he is not as agile as I would like. He cant make quick starts stops and turns too well, and in that situation, it is totally necessary to be able to. The bulls were moving quickly and suddenly, you needed to be able to react to that, countering their moves in split seconds. Brutae is just a bit too big for that. I’m not complaining about him, just the wrong riding situation for him. Its like me trying to be a running back. Its just not gonna work.

Anyways, I went into town that Friday night, got groceries, so I wouldn’t have to do it on Sunday.

Saturday I cleaned up around headquarters until about 1. Thats it.

Kinda just hung out after work until we went over to may camp for rafa’s going away party at 4.

It was great, he had no idea we were throwing it for him. His first hit was seeing the freshly skinned goat that cooper had bought. He was asking all sorts of questions about why we had so much food and beer. We finally broke it to him that everyone was coming over for a going away bash. He was so stoked.

Jonathan arrived, and with him so did his guns. We ended up shooting his frickin awesome AR-15, and his .45. It was so much fun. The holographic site he has on that thing is soooo sick.

We had such a great time at the party. Cooked up the goat which was absolutely delicious, drank, sang songs, danced, and just had a blast. It was so fun, I wish I had taken some pictures.

I woke up to a phone call from Jim letting me know they were at the front gate. I quickly got dressed, and went out to hop on the dirtbike to meet them, but they were already in the parking lot when I came out of the bunkhouse! It was awesome, they just made it out to headquarters all on their own.

It was so awesome to see everyone. Ingrid, Kimo, Kelly, Jim, Brooke, and jim’s too dogs. What an awesome family they are.

I gave them a quick tour of headquarters then we headed over to may camp to shoot some trap.

We shot all sorts of guns. 12 gauges, 20 gauges, a 22, a .45 handgun, and a 270. We were lighting everything up. All of our targets absolutely mangled. Everyone shot too, it was awesome. Great to see little 100 lb kelly blast that big ol 270. What a badass girl she is. Jim’s a badass too, I can see why they really love each other, it seems like they’re prefect for one another.

We headed back to headquarters. I wrangled up the horses and we rode bareback to the lake. It was nice, some of the horses were in a lazy Sunday mood though, didn’t want to go too fast, or even at all.

They took off after we got back, as everyone had a real big day tomorrow.

What an awesome day. It was soo great to see family and get big old loving hugs from the ones you love. It really does a body good. Thank you for coming out to see me you guys, It really meant a lot to me that you did that. I love you all.

After that I just hung out and read for the remainder of the evening. A really relaxing great day.

I have some pictures from the last couple days, and once I get the pics from today, I’ll post’em.