More Ranching

The Bag Lady had a very busy day yesterday. She had a doctor’s appointment in the morning in town, so decided to try to squeeze every errand possible into her day. The radio (the real one, not the one in her head) was reporting that the roads were in very poor winter driving condition due to the freezing rain and snow we had experienced the night before, so she left early, giving herself lots of time. Luckily, the sanding trucks had been out, so the highway was not bad. The city streets were also not too bad, but the sidewalks and parking lots in some places were terribly treacherous. The Bag Lady saw a woman go flat on her back in the WalMart parking lot! (The woman seemed to be okay, and refused the Bag Lady’s offer of help)
So the Bag Lady went to her doctor’s appointment and learned about the digestive system (Eat Lots and Lots of Fiber – Fiber is your friend!). The best thing to come out of her doctor’s visit is that the very nice lady doctor ordered four CartSmart bags for her four daughters! One of said bags is going to Australia!
Then the Bag Lady did some banking and went to the Post Office to mail a parcel to New York. Canada Post has many different ways to mail parcels, each more expensive than the last. There’s ground mail, which must still be by team and wagon (the parcel would get there sometime in 2008; no guarantees). Then there is air mail, at least 12 days to New York from here; the Bag Lady assumes ‘by air’ means hot air balloon, so quite dependent on the prevailing winds. Then there was expedited air which Guarantees 12 days (twelve days? For across the country? Sheesh, the SARS virus got here from China in one day!!) The last was express air, which, judging by the cost, the lady behind the counter was going to deliver personally! And really enjoy herself along the way, because that was guaranteed to arrive in only 6 days. After her puzzling experience at the post office, the Bag Lady did some marathon grocery shopping, then headed for home.
Once home, she discovered that the Cowboy had not been idle while she was gone, and after jamming her groceries any-old-way into cupboards and refrigerator, she rushed out to help bring the cows home from summer pasture.
We had tried to walk them home on the weekend as they were pastured less than a mile from home, but our well-trained cows would not go through the hole we cut in the fence! Cows are funny. If they had knocked that fence down themselves, we would have been rounding up all of them off the highway. But since we actually wanted them to go through the fence and across the highway, there was not a chance they would. Oh, a couple of the braver cows did actually go onto the pavement and start down the gravel road towards home, but most of them balked. So we had a change of plan.

Once we got the cows hauled home in the stock trailer, we let them out with the cows that had stayed home for the summer. Of course, we have two bulls, and when they became re-acquainted in the pasture, they had to have a fight. This is not at all uncommon (something to do with testosterone…) but sheesh, they could have waited until they were away from the fence! They managed to wreck a quarter-mile of fence, so the Cowboy and the Bag Lady had to fix fence in the cold wind.
Today the Cowboy had to go back to work, so the Bag Lady has to check the fence in the north pasture and repair any damage she finds. This will be a nice, mile-long walk, carrying the fencing tools, so she’s hoping the sun will be shining and that there isn’t too much damage.
Just another day on the ranch.