Cattle Drive

October 15th 2010

Lets start out with Jeremys famous line "I wonder whats going to happen THIS year...?" The only way to find out is to continue to read my post, but first lets go back to years past so you can fully understand the previous statement :) Way up the mtn: Julies mustang breaks the tree its tied to and bolts with the whole thing.... Last year: Sammi gets a log to the face, and a ride to insta care in cedar city for stitches. Year before: The semi truck FULL of cattle halfway tips over on the off ramp of the free way. Thanks to Dad and Jeremys PROFESSIONAL trailer backing we save all but one calf. Some year: Horse Lucky gets drug behind the horse trailer. One year before that: We loose horse Lucky for three days on the mtn. One time or Two: Sammi gets kicked in the shin/thigh goes home with some nasty looking bruises. Once or Twice: I am sure we all have been bucked off trampled or something of the sort.... Well I could continue on about stories of the past, but lets get to the one of the most recent......

We started our day out as normal up at five thirty to be ready by six, to be waiting on the sunlight. I drive dad and the crew over to the horses to get saddled as the sun is just thinking about coming up over the ridge. I drive back to the cabin with my instructions which are to get on the wheeler and hold the cows at the gate. Check. I can do that, or so I think... I get up to the gate and am "holding" the cows there and there is no one in sight for what seams like forever. Then chandler comes up on another wheeler and tells me the story, or what we know of the story by then...."Dad (Mr. Harr) got off his horse to tighten the cinch when he bolted, saddle slid under his belly and he was GONE they are all looking for the horse now. (dont forget we are on 700 acres of land here, and the horse has never been there before). So everything stops for about and hour or more while everyone is looking for this runaway horse and saddle besides me, who is still trying to "hold" fifty head of cows at the gate.... Jeremy find the horse with his amazing/crazy animal whisper ways but no saddle. We have an extra saddle so they saddle up the horse again and meanwhile Liesels horse acts up with her and goes up and over backwards! She the clever/smart girl she is bails but is up before her horse has a chance to get out from under her. So.... finally almost two hours later we are now all settled we have found the original saddle with a few minor broken straps and are ready to proceed with the cattle drive. Although, while this commotion was going on over there over where I was at, the cows were escaping my "hold." I was FREAKING out on our handy dandy walky-talkies, but NOONE seemed to hear. So they spend another 20 minutes gathering up the cows that I had lost or that had ran away from my grasps :) Moral of the story is everything worked out just fine! We lost a couple hours day light, but still managed to get the cows to the bottom and in the trailers before pitch dark. Now thats what I call cowboys!

Not much commotion when on during the day other than Duke being charged by the cows, hence why he rode the wheeler with me parts of the way. The kiddos couldnt get enough of ridding Jers horse which in return couldnt make him any happier. Colten got sick and slept most of the way off, I jumped a lot of fences (like a pro) to run down misbehavin cows. Also, the weather was PERFECT! We could not have asked for a better sunnier day. Years past I remember being a popsicle all day, wearing layer after layer. But this year, ultimate bliss....

We may have came home with some dirt on our faces, a little mud on our boots, or a tear in our jeans but the best part of it all was the memories we will smile about for years to come :)