The Look and Feel of Indian Summer

~I'll shoot any man who looks at me wrong,

or make love to any man who looks at me right.~

~Ellen Banks 1886~

Are we really into fall? Sometimes I still feel like I'm waiting for summer to get here!!! OK...I'll take the late Indian Summer...it's been so pleasant. But the house was 59 degrees this mornin' so I fired up the wood stove...ahhhh it feels sooooo good!

Mr. Augustus McCrae

Gus is back into training after a month off...we have so much to do. But I'm proud of the lil' man getting right back into the swing of things without any fuss. He's got promise!

Here mom...I'll help you dial in the shot!

I'm out in the pasture playing with the camera and Cowboy comes over and plops right in front of me...he doesn't make any bones about wanting some attention!

Playin' with the early mornin' sun...who's legs are who's?!?

The wood pile has been swarming with these dragon flies. They sit comatose, warming themselves in the sunshine. The aroma rising from the juniper wood as it dries is heavenly.

My now ugly garden.

We've covered the garden a couple of weeks ago when it got down to freezing a few times. Then the temps came back up again. Now, it's freezing almost every night. The cabbage heads and onions sure turned out nice this year as well as the tomatoes. I cut the tomato plants at the base and put them in the green house (with all the green tomatoes still attached). The tomatoes are slowly ripening!

The owls are still keeping and eye on us. The babies are nowhere to be seen. They must have struck out on their own.

Last Friday I helped our friends down in the Diamond Valley gather up cows. The calves had already been weaned off and they were just waiting for the guy to come out and preg check the cows. They checked them on Saturday. Then the cows get trailed about 25 miles from Diamond to Princeton. It took two days, Sunday and Monday.

This ol' homestead is one of my favorites in the Diamond Valley. The fall colors are showing their best.

You wouldn't believe the goofy tourists...seeing a cattle drive is such a big deal to them and everybody's got to take pictures. This one lady drove through the herd (like she's supposed to) then she stops the car in the middle of the road and is taking pics as we're trying to push the cows up the road. Of course the cows don't want to go, because she's sitting in the middle of the road blocking their way...we finally get the cows past her...and she drives through the herd one more time...thankfully she drove on...*rolling eyes here*!!!

Moving the cows north...Dry Lake is on the horizon.

A lot of the way is following the county road, but eventually we cut cross country, across BLM grazing allotments, to reach their winter pastures.

Double checkin' the head count as the cows go through the gate. My Man got to ride on Monday!

It's amazing how the cows know the way. We only had to nudge them a couple of times to adjust their line of travel. In the photo above you can see the two buttes. Their winter pastures are on a ranch that lies between them. It's probably 5 miles across.

The young heifers get to graze on the green grass under the pivot. Steens Mountain is way off in the distance.

Needless to say, it was an enjoyable two day of riding. The weather was perfect. When we help bring them back to the home ranch in February, it's going to be a lil' bit on the cool side!