Ranch Day!

I drove over to the ranch yesterday afternoon.

I got there about 6:45.

Kyle was mowing the future "bull pasture".

It's not even fenced, but in some future

life there "might" be a bull in that

general vicinity.

Anyhow.

He is supposed to be working 8 hour days.

He was nearly at 11.

So I made him stop.

And we drove into Gainesville to

check out Whole Foods.

I've never been in one before.

He is looking for ideas for things to eat.

He is getting a little tired of

"chicken, rice and mixed veggies".

His go-to.

(Unless he drives into town for Taco Bell).

(or Subway)

We got some good ideas.

But no food.

It was 9:00 and WAAAY too late to

think about cooking.

And he doesn't have many cooking vessels.

So we might need to make a run to

a store for things like baking pans,

a toaster oven,

that sort of thing.

Anyhow.

We stopped at KFC for a power bowl

(or whatever its called)

and then back to his place.

Where we watched Netflix and ate dinner

until time for bed.

We were up, dressed, breakfasted and ready to get to work

about 8:15.

After a false start (I'm a terrible cattle round-up person)

we got the girls all headed in the right direction

and moving up to the front of the property.

Just as they rounded the corner towards the

working pens, the construction crew guy showed

up with his truck and trailer and freaked them

out a little bit.

I guess when they were there earlier yesterday

the scissor lift they were using to put up the walls

broke. So he showed up, loaded it up, and left.

(They STILL haven't finished his building...)

The girls got over their fright and got into the pen.

Once we got them in,

they are pretty easy to work.

They all had a gazillion flies on them,

so the older cows were quite anxious to

get into the chute and get their fly spray.

We line them up in the alley and then they

go one-by-one into the chute where they get

a squirt of fly spray and stand on the scales.

This particular cow weighs 834 pounds.

Pretty light for a grown heifer!

(Which is why Kyle would like to get rid of most

of these cows and replace them with a breed that

gets bigger... and without horns!)

Kyle - urging them forward down the alley.

Carrying his bright green "hot shot".

They have learned (pretty quickly!) that you

need to move. If you don't, he will tap you with

his little hot shot.

Tap, pause, tap, pause, ZAP.

He only zapped a total of 3 times today.

And we worked 43 head.

Not bad!

The big hunk of steel is attached to a sliding gate.

As the cows move forward, we slide the gates

open and closed to move them on down the chute.

He bought the gates.

But a calf got her head stuck in those bars,

so he welded the big plate of steel to stop

those squirrely little calves from doing stupid things.

He has gotten 5" of rain this week

(he has a rain gauge right there on the 

top of one of those fences)

and the grass is GREEN and GROWING.

The ranch is looking good!

When we were finished working everybody except

the 4 heifers he has separated out

(didn't want them exposed to the bull - they

have 2 of them pre-sold as grass-fed beef,

and 2 of them are eventually going to the city farm

to be AI-ed with the rest of her herd down there...)

Anyhow.

He has 4 heifers in the front pastures.

But now that the bull is gone (he went home Tuesday)

when we were all done, we went around and opened

all the gates except to the pasture the facility is in

and the pasture his house and new building are in.

The two herds will combine and then we will work

them all together in July.

But since they were still separate today,

we just drove over in the CanAm and he shot

them all with his air gun thing that shoots giant

paint pellets full of fly spray.

And then we drove the perimeter fence,

just to check,

and sure enough, a tree fell on a section

and he had to do some quick repairs.

He pulled out The Tank and moved the

giant tree sections.

(Those are some BIG oaks!)

And then "we" fixed the fence,

just as it began to rain.

Linda popped by to pick up some AI supplies from

the last time the vet was here.

And to check on the progress on her house 

across the street.

(ZERO)

Just as she was leaving, the heavens opened and

it POURED!!!

We probably got 2 inches of rain in 15 minutes.

Hopefully enough time had gone by since we

sprayed the cows that it got into their blood stream

and will continue to repel flies for a couple weeks.

Otherwise it was a total waste of effort.

When it quit, Kyle and I headed into town

to pick up a Subway sandwich.

He took his home to eat and I ate mine

on the road.

And now I'm home.

All in all, another successful ranch day!