Cattle, dog and rodeo

Yesterday I wrote about the irrigation pump.  Also on the same morning (Thursday) Dan brought over a large square bale of hay for his cattle.  With the drought and lack of grass it was past time for his cattle to leave.  He hasn't a place for his cattle currently so he will ship them Tuesday to the auction held on Thursday.  To tide his cattle over until Tuesday he brought over a bale of hay for them to eat.

I helped him unload the bale from his trailer.  We wrapped a chain around the bale and hooked it to one of my railroad tie posts and drove off pulling the bale off the trailer.

Then we needed to separate his cattle from mine.  Dan had to go, so a little later when the cattle came to drink and check out what Donna and I were doing to set up the irrigation pipes, I let the cattle into the part of the corral without the hay.  Then Donna helped me sort the cattle out.  Sometimes we got one of Dan's cattle through a gate into the part of the corral with the hay; other times we herded some of my cattle back out into the hayfield.  Whatever was easier at the time.  A number of cattle didn't want to cooperate.

I also left my one steer in the corral with Dan's five cattle as I plan to sell the steer.  The sooner the better as it will be one less mouth to feed and because cattle prices are dropping weekly.

My steer

Dan's cattle

One of Dan's cows is a black cow with a white face.  She is 8 years old, so an older cow than the other cows. The only cow without a calf.  I call her "Auntie".  She also reminds me of a Japanese kabuki player.

"Auntie" likes being near Buddy the bull so she often paced the corral Thursday afternoon looking for a way out so she could join the herd, who I now let into the middle pasture where there was more grass to eat.  Thursday evening for over an hour "Auntie" bellowed and bellowed calling to the herd.  Thankfully she got over that and has stopped bellowing.


Adding to the busy Thursday... while we sorting the cattle Donna's dog decided to wander off.  After the cattle were sorted I ended up searching for the dog.  The dog is deaf so I couldn't call for it.  I checked three neighbors' properties and no dog.  Some time later when working on the irrigation pipe I saw one neighbor return home.  Once I got over there I found the dog outside his building/house.  The dog had gotten inside the neighbor's living quarters, ate a lot of his dog's food, jumped up on a bed, threw up, then went to sleep.  My neighbor was remarkably okay about it.  He is a good neighbor.



Friday night Donna and I went to the rodeo at the NW Montana Fair in Kalispell.  When we left for the fair a very strong cold front came through.  The winds howled and blew everything not nailed down.  We had to swing back home as it began to rain with no end in sight.  We had to go back my house for me to get a coat. Of course, recently, the few times it was annoying to have it rain, it rains. 

The rain had let up by the time we got to the fair. But when the rodeo started it began to pour.  The cheap seats seen in the following photos emptied of most of the people.

The rodeo is spread over three days so each of the events (bucking horse, team roping, barrel racing, steer wrestling and bull riding) only had a handful of competitors each night.

A highlight was an Indian Relay Race.  Tonight six teams competed.  All were native American teams.   The race is three times around the track.  Each time around the track the rider rides a different horse bareback.  After each lap the rider jumps off the horse and runs over to another horse another team member is holding for him and jumps on that horse to race another time around the track.

It seems like chaos.

Some of the horses were pretty wild. As you can see in the following photo one horse finished the race without its rider.