Working Cattle

It's been a while since I've been inspired to share anything on this forum.  Then many wonderful and surprisingly entertaining thoughts/ideas popped into my head.  The first of these was a photo journal of our family "working" a pen of cattle.  Ya don't just see that everyday...or do you? 

It was then that I chose to check in on my Bestie in Nebraska to see what she had been talking about...you guessed, didn't you?  Working THEIR calves!  Ugh.  I thought I had an original idea.  Not sa much.

I will give J. credit for being first but I have to share our side of the coin since I edited all of those stinkin' pictures.

Here we go-

 Prop open the gate to desired pen of cattle in a mechanical engineering kinda way...

...with a stick.

Hide behind the tractor until they start to come out of the pen.

Wait for the cattle to come out of their pen.

The arrow points to where the photographer (me) was... then they needed my professional help to chase the rest of 'em out.

Now it's time to get these boys moving in the same direction towards the alley and working chutes {up between those two silos, in other words}.  I often times find myself talking to them like Babe talked to the ewes, "Now, if you fine gentleman would kindly walk up the alley in an orderly fashion, I would be forever grateful."  This dialogue is happening in my head.  My fellow cowboys would look at me with disgust if I actually said it out loud.  That's ok.  The cattle KNOW ME.

They are in the alley ready for their tiny little shot to keep them healthy, make them strong, and most importantly, TASTE GOOD. 

 That was cold.

Keep in mind, they haven't been fed yet and it's almost 9:00am. 

Most of them are as pissed off as #1088 here. 

 "They move better if they are hungry."  Tell him that when you're down in the alley with all 1100# of him.  Oh no. Wait.  It's ME that's down in the alley with him.

Oh look...the princesses have arrived...apparently, there was a uniform today.

AND we mustn't forget the basketball.

Pregame talk with Dad.

Thoughts here:

a. No, he didn't go to the "Final Four".  We shop at Goodwill.

b. The kid with the stick has no idea what his dad is saying at this point.

c. The ladies are thinking about doughnuts and how much longer 'til we can go make sumthin' outta duct tape.

Getting the job done.

Fast forward 90 minutes.  Done.  Cattle are back in their pen eating their breakfast. 

Another Saturday morning.

The next three photos are what you get when you hand the 6 year old the camera when you are busy and say, "Put this in the pick-up for me."

Happy trails-

Becky