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Cow country & the ‘off’ switch

I know I have been MIA a little lately… no excuses save that I have been actually working here at Granite Glen (my aching muscles and crunchy knee will testify) and I am just too stuffed at the end of the day to transfer my images off my camera and into the back-end of my blog.  Hey, I could sugar-coat it for ya, but I am just trying to paint a piccy for my beloved readers!

One of our main jobs of late is weaning – but the weather has been less than condusive to this particular task.  The outlook has been a lot like this …. impending dampness. 

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We have had lots of drizzly rain which is lovely for grass-growin’, but not so nice for young fresh-off-their mamas bovines standing in yards.  Muddy is what it is.  We have managed to get the first lot of calves weaned, vaccinated and safely out in their paddocks. And while this sounds a little tough, most of the cows barely moo-ed for their youngsters, and ended up looking much like these cows within a day:

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Thank goodness I can just concentrate on eating grass and growing my next baby, they seem to be saying!  And the weaners are contentedly grazing in their newly assigned paddocks.

It was the red cows turn this week -I was a little too busy to take decent pics during the actual muster, but these few shots were taken during the hour-long walk to the yards.

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We have some pretty serious gullies in our neck of the woods… if you ever have to help us round up cows remember: FEET FORWARD, LEAN BACK going downhill.  And LEAN FORWARD, hang ON going uphill. Simple really.

Rules to live by…

Violet has all these techniques down pat.  She’s a mad keen horsewoman (if you haven’t already spotted that) and is always the first out of bed and dressed on muster day (as opposed to school days, when she is a long last from her blankets).

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Her horse, Sandy, is a ‘goey’ little steed – which suits Violet to a ‘T’.   She loves being out front of the mob (mostly ’cause Sandy hates being behind)…

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Dash and Pickles, on the other hand, are more sedate.  Pickles can apparently snooze mid-stride…

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How’s a boy to daydream about Tranformers or snow-skiiing if he’s constantly slowing his horse up?  Mind you, when push comes to shove, this pair are worth their weight in gold.  Once that ‘daydream button’ is switched off, Dash has some serious cow sense.

Of course, I can hardly blame my son for getting distracted from the practicalities of weaning, can I?

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Ooohh… look! A groovy reflection in a horse’s eye!!!

Yup.

Where is that ‘off’ switch again?

😉

BB

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