Hauling Cattle

So on Sunday since Susan wasn't coming out like she planned (he daughter had ball again, sometime I just wanna cancel something she wants to do cause I have to go watch someone play ball, not that I begrudge her watching her daughter, but every game?)  Anyways we  Neil decided that we should haul cows up to out place at Stettler.  I call it the Stettler place but its really Rosalind, but no one knows where that is.  We were bringing up 46 heifers, a 2 year old who lost her calf but we wanted to keep her, and 2 bulls.  So 3 loads in Neil's trailer and 2 loads for me.  When its a 5 hour round trip, that is way to much for me to do in one day, but Neil don't mind, so I was gonna take one Sun, and one Mon and he was gonna do a second one Sunday.

(sure did a number on that one!)

But as we were going down the Dorothy hill, Neil blew a truck tire.  Of course he is all worried about me and having a spare, since Friday night I had 2 flats on the trailer (I think I musta drove over something)  and he had to fix the last one at 11 at night cause I could not get the jack down.  But anyway he had his spare tire in the nose of the trailer.  But whoever designed the trailer never put a door on the outside, so we had to go in with the heifers and get it from there.  Not good.   And the spare was not good either, we pumped it up but figured we better head home cause we were not sure it would hold.  And he had no jack, we had to borrow one from the same guy who pumped the tire up.

 (haha I got her in the air!)

(The tree that broke off and landed on the corrals)

We got home and let the cows out (the rest were still in the corral) and he found a better spare and put it on and after lunch decided to try it again.  We got loaded with a different bunch of cows and left to go through Hanna rather than Drum cause its closer.  We were only going through Drum to stop at East Coulee cause they were having thier monthly breakfast there.  We were almost to Hanna and I called Neil to tell him to turn around cause I needed to change a tire.  It was not flat yet, but the tread was coming off in big chunks.  Not sure what caused it, the tire looked good, wasn't that old, but sure was hot and I was sure it would blow if we left it.

 (another mysterious bird)

(too much water, it killed the trees)

We put the spare on and decided to keep going anyways.  Have I mentioned how I hate tires!!!  Well the spare everyone thought was crappy lasted the rest of the trip without any trouble.  Which was good.  We got up there, unloaded the cows and came home.  We were exhausted and it was about 7, so we decided to call it a day.

 (Pretty rose bud)

Monday morning we got the rest of the cows in and loaded all but 12.  My truck can haul 6, Neil's trailer 13 and so the last load was one cow light.  I am amazed how much more power my half tonne gas truck has than our old dodge 3/4 ton diesel.  And better fuel mileage too.  When I used the old truck I always had to stop for gas at Castor (hour or so from home) and with this truck I still had 1/4 tank left.   I know the gas tank is bigger, but still it was quite a load for a half ton.

 (wide loads again, you know its heavy when it has a bajillion tires and 2 pusher trucks)

(weird bee stuck in my radiator which is much smaller than the one being hauled above)

We had no problems except for 6.5/10ths of rain on Sunday made the corrals a mess to be in.  Luckily the cows were fairly cooperative and the trip was good.  Sure lots of good grass up there.   And another tenth Monday night and lots Tuesday.

 (More wild roses, so pretty)

 (the diplomat mine site we always stop at to use the washrooms)

(pretty butterfly on the red rock that is so popular up there)

I stayed home for the second bunch and Neil made it home by 8:30, so all in all a much better day on Monday than Sunday.  Guess that's what happens when you work on a day of rest.  Either that or Neil shoulda just been more prepared.  I think we shoulda called someone to haul them for us, and we are this fall cause they will be bigger and it will take even more loads.

 (already mowing ditches up there, guess no one hays them)

 (peek a boo, I see you)

(OK, come on out!)