Bar C Publishing and Distribution.

Ranching life is a good life, yet many people believe cattle ranchers have loads of money and that we don’t do much except watch our cows multiply as nature intended.

Not the truth by any means, take this morning for example, we saddled the horses early, as we knew it was going to be a hot day. The sun just peaked above the trees in-front of the house as we walked the horses through the gate into the pasture. We had locked the cows on the hill pasture and in what we call the swamp. (A 40 acre tract we bought two years ago that we work on when we can, regarding pasture improvement. (Chain sawing.) Which is not possible in the winter because it gets so wet and we worry the tractor will become stuck. Anyway, off we go and check the cows; the sun is shining, the wind is blowing a comfortable breeze, all in all a good day and then we discover one young cow is “bulling,” which is disappointing as we took our bull out of the herd just three days ago. This ensures a small calving window for next year and enables us to keep track of who is calving regularly and who is not. On the other hand it does mean we have to sell a young cow, if she isn’t going to breed back with the others then she doesn’t get to stay.

We continue on around the pastures checking fence and seeing how the grass is holding up under present stocking rates and rainfall. Having spent an enjoyable hour or so my husband decided to go check in the swamp just one more time. I decided to head back to the barn where I unsaddled my horse and turned him out, as I’m storing the saddle, my phone rings.

“Bring me the truck with all the fencing tools in it.” My husband says. “The neighbor’s bull has torn the fence up!”

So, off I go with the pickup and for the next hour and a half, hubby and I fix fence in the hottest part of the day, in the brush, ticks and poison ivy. We completed the task with a wary eye on the bull, knowing he would be back. So my husband decided to go visit with the neighbors while I unsaddled his horse.

Needless to say the neighbors living in the house assocaited with the land do not own the cows or rent the land. We are currently looking for the owners and hunting their phone number. It wasn’t exactly what hubgby and I had planned for a hot Sunday morning, but if you’re going to be a rancher, you tend to do what you have to do, when you have to and that, is just part of ranching life.