The Best Laid Plans... On the Ranch

Today I have decided to enlighten those readers that have perhaps never experienced moving cattle by semi-trailers and horse trailers, and for those that have, I think you can relate.

Note: This is my personal experience and may not hold true to all others, theirs may not involve as much swearing or underwear changes.

First the day starts off early, and there is a partially developed plan for how things are going to go.

Within a half an hour the plan has gone to sh#%.

At this point a plan B of sorts is thrown into place and within another hour that is gone as well.

So all involved begin flying by the seat of their pants and hoping for the best.

This usually results in the worst.

You yell at your spouse. Your spouse yells back.

You both begrudglingly carrying on working together because your survival depends on it.

Several hours later than planned, the cattle pairs are separated, Mommas in one semi-trailer, babies in another. The stragglers are placed in a horse trailer along with a four wheeler for fixing fence later.

You begin the convoy down the road.

You are driving the pickup with dual tires and a twenty-eight foot long horse trailer.

It's a two hour drive to the summer pasture, where the cattle are going to stay for the duration of the warm weather months.

Due to construction, you cross a single lane, cliff of death, less than one foot of clearance on either side of those dual tires, bridge, and you have arrived.

After a change of skivvies, you begin the work of unloading cattle.

Someone (Hub's) balances precariously above the cattle and gives them a spray of medicine to keep the bugs at bay, a form of OFF bug spray for cattle if you will.

This is where things begin to look up. The Mommas are happy to see their babies and the grass is green and beautiful and you can finally begin to breathe a sigh of relief.

Then comes the several hours of checking and fixing summer pasture fence for breaks in the wire.

Finally after the four wheeler runs out of gas and you have been sufficiently bitten to death by mosquitos, you haul yourself home, or in my case, back to my sisters, for a glass of wine and a hot pizza.

 

The day is done, and somehow everyone miraculously survived, marriage still intact.

Till tomorrow when you have to go back over that bridge....

Have a lovely day!

P.S. Last Fall we worked cattle in the same pasture.

 

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