Can I get a YeeHaw!

For anyone who hasn't been informed, we are the proud owners of cows. Not just any cows (I am learning all sorts of new things) but Herefords. Not Heifers, which are girl cows, but Herefords which are a type of cow. Heifers are girl cows that have never been bred by the way (to put it politely). And none of this should be mixed up with Bulls or Steers, which I am not going to go into because I don't know a polite way of explaining that one. Just know the Bulls breed and Steers don't.

So yesterday was the big day of the cattle drive. We needed to move all 8, 4 females, 3 babies and 1 steer, to another field. Really it was just through two gates but what the heck, it sounds much more exciting to call it a cattle drive. Sidney even wore her boots, because that is what cowgirls do.


This is one of our cows. Isn't she cute and so unsuspecting that we are going to yeehaw her into the other field. I tried to talk my husband into letting me drive the BMW around in the field for the round up but he didn't even acknowledge me, which makes me think I am funny.


Here is a different cow. I know she looks the same, but trust me she is different. Did I also mention that 2 of our cows are pregnant and they will be born in November (possibly December if Mark's hereford gestational chart is correct haha, just wanted to sound cow savvy). Wish I would have paid more attention while visiting my grandpa on his dairy farm. Here is to hoping it all comes back to me when the time comes.


Here we are doing the "actual" herding. This is what we like to call the "right left" technique. One person runs right, while the other person runs left. Then we decide to get back to herding again. The right left technique has nothing to do with chasing cows, it is just something we do in our family which usually makes us chuckle and then we are useless for the rest of the day. But since our senior cow herder was watching and almost yelling but not really, we just did a quick practice and then got back to business.


When we were in the middle field, herding to the finally field, one little fella got confused and ran into a holding pen. Cowboy Coty then took it upon himself to hustle the little guy out of there. He is so cute, the calf, well Coty too. Sidney wanted to name him Tiny but then decided he wouldn't be so tiny after awhile and changed it to Cloudy. I tried to tell her it wouldn't be cloudy for long (even though we live in Washington) but she didn't get it and ignored me which is what all my children do when they think I am hasseling them.


This is the final leg of our journey, and the cows bolt for freedom and some new tall grass. Oh and what is that I see in the distance beyond the next fence? Is that a black Angus bull (remember, they do breed)? Yes they ran down to the other fence and antagonized that bull until he decided to bound through the fence to get a better look at those lovely ladies. So cowboy husband spent the evening chasing the bull down and locking her away until today when he is suppose to be picked up.

All in all, no one was hurt, the cows made it to their new home and we are all better cowpokes.

Stay tuned for...

Pig raising 101
Yes, we are also going to be pig farmers. I just hope no one ends up looking like a character off "Mad Max beyond Thunder dome".