cowboying

Ok, so I had a couple of posts I wanted to get up and even had time, but wouldn't you know it, we were near capacity on bandwidth and Dan shut us down. Boo. So, I'm reeeeeeeeeeally behind now. I still need to talk about Dizzy and this week Duff, Sandra, Urska, Dana, and Dave left/leave. Looks like I've got my work cut out for me!

But first things first!

Going back to the title: yes, cowboying really is a verb. Even if no real dictionary recognizes it. Because we say so. Besides, "googling" didn't use to be a verb either. So let me get on with my story.

Dow invited me to help him help some cowboys move cattle. Did you get that? Help him help someone else. It's like Jerry Maguire. Help me, help you.

Anyhow, we trailered (apparently this is not a real word either) horses up to the National Forest, past where we eat lunch on the long ride.

After we were given very detailed instructions as to what we were doing - I listened to none of it and figured some cowboy would tell me where to go - we headed out to find the lil fellers.

There are lots of rocks here. It is the ROCKY Mountains after all. And we had to ride in and out of every nook and cranny to make sure we didn't miss any cows.

Once we got them all gathered up - I got to be the one who pushed the majority of them out of the woods, so it looked like I was really good - we pushed them through a gate and out onto the road.

Before we go any further. Let me tell you about the weather. This here's Colorado. If you've never been to Colorado, you should pack clothes for all sorts of weather, from summer to winter, because you have no idea what you're going to get!

We started out the day with nice fall weather. Warmish, but brisk and windy. Really windy.

I sure wish I could figure out how to keep my hat on like a real cowgirl. I'm trying here. See how my head is all cockeyed? I tried.

Then as we got all the cattle gathered, it started spitting rain. That spitting rain, being pushed by huge gusts, turned into a driving sleet/rain/snow mixture. It. Was. AWFUL!

And it went away just as quickly as it came. Of course I don't have pictures of this because I was trying to keep my rain slicker closed, my hat on, and my camera safe.

The cowboys, taking ever good care of the only female on the trail, decided I could drive the truck and trailer with the "Caution Cattle Drive" sign on it to stay warm and dry. Except, um, I'm not really experienced with truck and trailer. Manual truck and trailer. I must have been a really good poser because it never even crossed the cowboy's mind that I might not know how to drive.

Luckily, Dow covered for me. We loaded up our horses, drove back to his truck and trailer...his automatic truck and trailer...and I drove it down. I guess you have to do it sometime and it might as well be now, right?

In case you're not sure how big this thing is, that truck takes up an ENTIRE parking spot. If two parking spaces look like an "H", it goes from the crossbar all the way to where the lines stop. It's big. And the trailer is big, too. And it was just big. But I made it ok. I only had to go forward after all...

As I mentioned, the bad weather went away, so I parked the rig here at the ranch, pulled my horse out and started riding again.

And we rode down the road.

I thought this was a pretty funny picture. A corvette with a bunch of cows. A little too ironic, don't you think?

The weather continued to do it's thing. Here's a perfect example.

I took this picture of Dow facing East.

Right after that, he took this picture of me facing West. Nice storm coming in again.

And now can't you understand why the cowboy thought I could drive his truck and trailer? I did a nice job posing as a cowgirl with my spurs, chinks, wranglers, cowboy hat, and vest. Man! I almost believe I'm a cowgirl!

Anyhow, we got stuck in the back, pushing all the babies who didn't want to move after they had already walked 15 miles. And the cowboys had pushed the front half of the herd into the pasture. They came back just in time for the second nasty windy rainy cold yuckiness to come through and relieved us to go home.

Here's what I look like after 20 miles of riding and pushing cows. Tired, but happy...all in all, a good day cowboying.