Another crazy storm sky at Five Mile. The photo doesn't even do it justice. Looked like it was raining purple and pink.....
The idea is to rope a cow (hopefully not a 'dry' one), get her stopped or at least slowed down (the job of the mugger who grabs and turns her by the head) and then a squirt of milk in to a bottle by the milker. Who then races to the judge and has to be able to dump out as least one drop.
With the rain pouring down and the arena quickly filling with mud, it was even tougher than usual. Henry finally managed to snare a cranky cow (he is much braver than me.....she started running right at him with intentions to hit, he held his ground, sidestepped and tossed his loop on her as she flew by. Like a matador. On the other hand, I, seeing the intention on her face, was looking at my get away options, which were not good from the middle of the arena.) My cousin Lester is a heck of a mugger. He is not afraid either, and he is big. Like, really quite big. I know that if he gets his arms around that cows neck, she is going to stop, like it or not. Our cow raced us down the other end of the arena, Henry basically skiing and Lester running up the rope, finally sliding his arms up her body and around her neck, slowing and then stopping her. Finally, my job description comes in to play. I grab the nearest teat, which was utterly dry. Oh NO! I suddenly realized that I had company and quickly flung out a hip to block Olivia, trying to steal some milk. Huh. Lester was also trying to kick her back from the front end of the cow. No rules right?! Hip checking her again (she was determined) I grabbed another teat, and finally got a wee tiny bit of milk in my bottle and ran. Luckily, we were very close to the judge and he acknowledged my few drips for the win! Lester let our cranky cow go and she flung around to take her anger out on whatever was closest. Which happened to be Olivia. I yelled a warning, but luckily Henry was close enough to basically pick her up and swing her out of the way so she didn't any more than a gentle nudge on the backside. Just enough to get her to provide a good squeal. Fun was had by all and we each had an extra 100 bucks in our pocket. Nice. Olivia was a bit miffed that we had been so 'mean' to her, but all's fair in love, war and wild cow milking.
Olivia trying to get in for the steal.....
Photo credit to Chris C.
Otherwise, our first ride (16 days) headed out shortly after rodeo and no doubt have had a very wet trip so far. I'm actually about to fly in to do the second half of the trip. Dealer dog will have his first flight, that should prove interesting. Our theory is that dad needs to come out to start haying. But someone needs to wake up Mother Nature and get her to turn that tap off!!
Lots of cow moving as well. As most of the crew is gone to the mountains, I hired a couple of local cowboys to help out for a few days. We moved a couple of bunches up to our new range and they are pretty delighted to be there. The guys were great help and I enjoyed their company. I have to say that all this rain has made all the ranges pretty darn amazing. The calves are growing fat and sassy and, knock on wood, predators are finding other animals to eat.
Alright, I'm out. I won't be back to a computer screen until the 27th of August, but hopefully will have some good photos to share. The weather is supposed to be turning for the better and I sure the heck hope so! Wish me luck.....
Take care all,
Punky
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