"Working" Cows

Often you will hear people use the phrase, "working cows" or "working cattle." As in: What did you do today? We worked cows. What will you do tomorrow? Work cows. I kept asking, HOW??? HOW do you "work" cows? What are you actually doing? So, I was invited one afternoon to the end of a day of "working" cows. Here's what we did:

1. (done before I got there) Get all the cows & calves into a pen
2. Move them from a big pen into a smaller pen (see photo above)
3. Separate the cows from the calves (no photos, I was working)
a. Smack the cows on the butt and get them to walk away from you
b. Smack the calves to get them to start walking
c. Lead the calves into one pen, the cows into another
d. Yell at them to make them go the right way
e. Lead them all back to the start when cows went to the calf pen
f. Lead them all back to the start when calves went with the cows
4. Lead 5-10 calves into a tiny pen
a. See above a-f when trying to move calves
b. Get the calf who jumped in out of the watering hole
5. Lead the calves one by one into a shoot (use "hot shot" cattle prod when needed)
6. Vaccinate calves one by one
7. Let them back into the pen with their moms
8. Lead all the cows & calves out of the pen to the road
9. Get on a 4-wheeler and drive behind them down the road
10. Get all 140 cows & calves into the field across the street.


FAQ 1: What do you "smack" them with?
A cattle prod. It looks like a blind-person's stick- rubber, thin, with an orange tip.

FAQ 2: Does it hurt the calves?
NO WAY!! Most of the time they didn't respond at all to it.

FAQ 3: What's the "hot shot"?
It's the electric version of the cattle prod. It didn't hurt either.

FAQ 4: Was it dangerous?
Kinda. I did get stepped on. These things outweighed me by hundreds of pounds, so when they wanted to go somewhere, I just got out of the way.

For more photos go here and click to the right.

For some new photos of the Grizzly's game we went to in Missoula go here and click to the left.

Overheard: Just now

Me: No one commented on our blog.

Him: That's because no one loves us.

Realization

We've lived in Montana for 18 months. It took me this long to realize something big. Something important. Something so important that I took the "internet" away from Stephan (who was doing his best to use the laptop like a violin- with it resting between his left shoulder and chin, supported by his left hand, typing only with his right) to write you this blog.

After moving here with nowhere to live, bleeding ceilings, brandings, spiders the size of shitzu's, medical procedures, killer deer, killer rabbits, killer mice, killer pheasants, killer sage grouse, sausage suppers, hay bale fires, county fairs, quilts, antelopes on the roof of the car, rodeos, bucking horses, bull riding, well-drilling, bar "hopping", and dog pooping I finally realized WHY Stephan wanted to live here.

Because I think his 34 years on this planet have been leading him to this very moment in time, a moment when he could honestly ask someone... in all seriousness....

"Do you want some of my beef?"

.... and mean it.

To Do:

- Put clothes away

- Take out garbage (it is dump day!)

- Thaw Buffalo meat

- Make Christmas list

- Get yard ready to move dirt

- Call friends/family so they know we're not dead

- Seal foundation of the house

- Insulate closet

Like everyone else, we're getting ready for winter, and in case you didn't get our phone call letting you know we're not dead.... we're not dead.

Boola Boola, We're in Missoula

Missoula, where we keep saying the hippies live, but really it's just full of "tree huggers."

So far we've taken a few good hikes, shopped a lot (a mall, a bead/gem store, a quilt shop), visited the University of Montana, and did some other stuff. There are photos.

Photos of the branding office.

Photo of the winery we visited.

Photos of me being a cool wife.

Who's Lazy Now??

We did it.

We really did it. Seriously. We travelled to Helena (photos to come) and registered a brand.

Uh huh. We registered a brand.

This is our brand....



It's not the same one we had on all our wedding stuff because that one wasn't available. There are over 60,000 registered brands in Montana. The lady (photo to come) had to look through a LOT of brands (there isn't a computerized program, it's an actual book). And there are LOTS of rules. Here is a list of them!!



(this list took forever to put into the computer, I don't have a scanner out here, so I copied the page into Vectorworks and, although I'm the fastest draftsperson in the land, this still took over an hour)

Dear State Trooper,

I know that it's the law and everything to carry your drivers' license when you're, oh, say, driving a vehicle. However, my husband forgot his wallet at home before we headed out on this 500+ mile road trip to Missoula, and along with his credit cards and cash, he forgot his license.

So please do not pull us over on the way home.

Thanks!
Anna