... I'm an Ol' Cow Poke...

I have one more story to share from our annual “pilgrimage” trip up North to see family and friends. 

Himself and I got to be cow pokes for a day!

While visiting some friends of mine, we were there during the time they normally wean the calves from their cattle operation.  Given the opportunity to help, we jumped at the chance.  

They came in pretty easy… lunch was being served!  The cow dogs (some brilliant Border Collies) encouraged them to pick up the pace a little bit. 

All was nice and calm until some of the old cows starting getting a bad feeling about this…  Next thing we knew, a few made a run for the hills and it was round up time!  (Sorry, no pictures to share of this; I was too busy chasing cows and yelling at the top of my lungs.  And trying not to get stepped on!)

Even with our friends on their ATVs and Himself and I blocking the ‘passes’, it took a while to get them back up to the barn.

Once we did, the separating of cows from calves went fairly fast.  And there were some unhappy mama cows.

VERY unhappy mama cows!  They bellowed well into the next evening!!

Anyway, separating the calves brought the next project for the day.  The calves needed to be vaccinated, wormed, and weighed.  And like any ‘kid’ – they don’t like getting a shot!

The first chute had a head gate to keep them still for their shot.

Then they mooove into the second chute for weighing.  The scales are very accurate…

BUSTED!! 

(It also gave the weight of one of the farms cats to walked across it… 18.2 pounds!)

Then Himself spritzed them with the wormer.

And from there, it was back to the other calves where they complained to each other about the rude treatment!

We had such a blast helping!  I would love to be able to help next year!