There’s one set of cows we have still running in conjunction with the neighbor’s… Today we split the herd to take them to better pastures.

No dogs got to play today because the other cattle aren’t “dog broke” and they will just go on the fight and not want to move.  Well, that was the plan.  What I ended up doing never got me very close to the other cows… so, dog gone it! I coulda taken my dogs!!! Oh, well, better safe than sorry, I guess.

The pastures encircle this wooded knoll, patterned with junipers and aspen and limber pine.  A couple of developed springs lay hidden.  Open sagebrush prairie wiggles down between timber patches.  A red tailed hawk screams from his perch.  Blue grouse flutter loudly to a hidden branch.  A cow bawls.  Downhill the calf answers in his higher pitched “meh.”  Horse hooves ring on lichen covered rock and crunch through dried and curled Mule’s Ears.  The light breeze riffles through needles and leaves, Mother Nature’s breathing… soft, full, relaxed. I lean from my saddle avoiding the pitch on the branch to my left and the scent of “mountain” overwhelms me: fine dust, cured grasses, echoes of sage, underlying notes of green grass, and a coating of pine.

I urge Panama into a trot, catching up with the guys…