First Cattle Drive of 2009

What??? Where'd all that snow come from??? Well, this is what it looked like around here last year at this same time. That's Cowboy & Abby helping me plow out the drive.

Thank goodness we're having a mild spell right now!

On New Year's Eve, we had dinner at the Pine Room. The owners are our neighbors and have a pretty big ranching outfit. They have property here at Princeton and at Diamond (about 30 miles south). Well, they were talking about trailing cows from Princeton to Diamond, and we offered to help...and they took us up on the offer!

It took 3 days, but we got 'um there...

~~Day One~~

My Man on Whiskey...in his fancy new chinks.

Martin riding Red counting his cows as they go through the gate.
Snoops, one dang good cow dog, waiting impatiently for work to start.

Martin counted approx 170 cows that would make the trip. They're all bred cows, and the majority of them summer in Diamond, so they sort of know the way. They've never been trailed all the way from Princeton before, but they definitely new the right direction.

It took us almost 2 hours to cut out the older cows and get the remaining herd through 2 pastures and 2 miles down State Hwy 78. That's where they stayed the first night. Martin just wanted to get them down the main highway on a slow traffic day...it was a good plan, we only had 4 rigs go through the herd.

~~Day 2~~

My Man had to go to his job in town, so Martin and I...and of course Snoops the cow dog... got started at 7:30 a.m. and it was a cold frosty morning. The pavement was pretty slick, and we took it as slow as the cows would go, but they felt pretty frisky and trotted along pretty quickly.

For the first 2 1/2 miles it was tricky because of open driveways and fields that the cows kept wanting to "go visit." With just 2 riders and one dog, we did a pretty good job.

But, you tell me why the guy who owns the pivot with brand new mint seedlings wouldn't close the gate to his field...duh!!! It's open range out here, and it's the responsibility of the land owner to fence off what they don't want animals running on...well, about 30 head of cows and Colt made lots of big holes in about a quarter acre of his field.

We're finally past all the tricky stuff and into the open range.
Snoops is such a great dog...he does a great job keeping the cows gathered up.

Mary showed up about 9:30 with the support vehicle...water, pop, hot coffee, cold beer or whiskey...whatever suites your fancy...hot coffee was perfect for me. Martin took the wheel (and took advantage of the truck heater) while Mary rode her lil' roan mare.


Of course there was beautiful scenery all along the way.

Riddle Mountain

Dry Lake on the left.

After about 13 miles of trailing, we finally arrived at the Jenkins' ranch where alfalfa and water awaited the herd. They sure were a happy bunch of cows when they saw that hay!

The end of the trail on Day 2.
3:15 p.m.
It was a pretty long day for cows, horses, and riders.

~~Day 3~~

Martin came to pick me and Colt up at 7:15 a.m. It was another cold, frosty morning with white covering the pavement. By the time we got to the Jenkins' ranch and unloaded, it was 7:45...the cows were rested and ready to go again.

Yep, I actually can take photos of something besides cow butts!

Today's trail was a lil' bit shorter...about 11 miles. But, it seemed to go really quickly. It warmed up nicely to about 48 degrees. The cows were a lil' slower than the day before...but can ya blame them!! They stayed off of the pavement as much as they could. Some of the cows were getting tender footed. We just let them pick their pace.

Mary showed up again with her support truck...refreshments tasted mighty good!

We've finally made it to the Diamond Valley and onto the gravel road.

We trailed past Mary's ranch, and she has one
of the prettiest views in Harney County.
This is her ranch with the Steens Mountain in the background.
See all that brown grass, well it's wild hay and in the
summer it grows to 3 feet high...absolutely beautiful.

And here we are...the cows are home!!! See Snoops still working the cows...we had to call him back! Well, that called for a cold beer while we stood around talking for a while. What a fun time it was. But, it wouldn't have been any fun if we would have moved them in blowing, cold snow! Luck was on our side this time.

Some happy but tired cows...now they can calve anytime they want!

I'm so proud of my Colt guy. He had a few moments where he was nervous because he couldn't see the other horses and he got impatient having to stand and wait for the cows. But, he really needed this to help him grow up. He learned a lot, and I think he's taken a big step toward being a well-rounded cow horse. He needs more of the same, but I sure love that horse!