Putting cows back where they belong.......

I have been working my butt off lately. I have worked everyday last week and then Saturday we celebrated Sage's birthday. Yesterday we had to sort the cows out of Tejon's and get them back on our pasture where they belong. I hate to have to admit it but I left a gate open for a mere two hours one day when I went to work. I have four gates to open and close to get out of here and it was pouring rain........so needless to say I thought since I wasn't going to be gone long on one of the days I would leave just one measley gate open. There were no cows to be seen afterall. Well, they must have all been notified by some unknown source that I left the darn thing open and by the time I came home (in the dark and the rain I might add) there were cattle tracks going through. DAMN! I just caused us more work, not to mention I didn't want Tejon to know about it before we could get them cleaned up. Those of you that are on Facebook saw the picture of the vagrants in the snow the day after I had left the gate open. It was a real neat picture of them all hiding behind the bushes but I can't for the life of me get it loaded here.

So yesterday we were off to get it cleaned up when we got the call from Tejon. Double DAMN!

They weren't mad and I admitted it was me that left it open and apologized. Jeremy saddled a horse and me and the kids took the ranger filled with hay. We gave him a head start and then joined him. We can cover the longer flatter distances so we headed south toward the gate and he went over the hill to check a couple of canyons. I had just went through the creek when I spotted a whole bunch of them mixed in with Tejons cattle. I was trying to get a plan together and went on past them to open the gate. In the time it took me to find the gate keys and get it open the cows must have seen the hay and decided they might get an easy meal and there they were! Right smack behind us! I throw open the gate and toss a flake of hay in the road just beyond the gate and there they went through the gate right where they belonged. The Tejon cattle aren't nearly as gentle and were kind of hanging back, there were two more of ours that had paired up with them, dang it! Well they were two of our real nice ones and I wasn't about to let them get away so I jumped in the ranger and told the kids to HOLD ON!!! Off through the bushes we went, every so often I would yell to them to make sure they were okay and by golly we got those tail over their back punks! Sorted out Tejons and had everyone where we needed them! I was so proud of my kiddos, oh and Moose the dog. He was in the back of the ranger too! I think his brains are already scrambled though. So of course I went back and closed the gate and headed back toward where Jeremy was. I rounded the corner and found him, of course I promptly tell him he can go ahead and go home and unsaddle his horse cause me and the kids single handedly had gotten the work done already.......he loves it when I get cocky!

Well, we still had a couple more mixed in with Tejons cattle to get but I will save that story for later. It involves a bit of cussing though........