Ranching Tutorial

(Come an' listen to a story 'bout a....)


The Bag Lady wants to share a small portion of her workday with you (hope you’re interested…if not, you are excused!)
She ordinarily does not take her camera with her when she feeds cows, but she did just this once so she could give you a better idea of what she is talking about. She tried not to make it too realistic…if there is poop in the photos, it was unintentional, really! (Unfortunately, it is difficult to avoid in the pasture!)
So, slip into your rubber boots and grab your coat; here we go!

Here we have picked up the bale with the loader and are ready to transport it to the pasture.

This is what the inside of the loader looks like (do you feel like you are driving?)


Here we have to get out and cut off the strings.

Like this, see?

Okay, let’s dump this bale into the feeder.

Mission accomplished:

Most days, the Bag Lady spreads the hay out on the ground for the cows, but the loader has been a little balky lately, so she filled a couple feeders for insurance. Here is what it usually looks like. (the Bag Lady did this just before you got here so you wouldn't have to deal with the cows milling around! It can be scary if you aren't used to it.):

This calf has decided this looks like a good place to lie down.

Make sure the gate is shut when we’re done, would ya?

Hope you all enjoyed your foray into the ranching world!

(Ya'all come back now, ya hear?)

Fun For Friday

The Bag Lady wants to try to do something fun for Fridays, and has way too many ideas, so needs some input from her loyal readership (tee-hee – pretty presumptuous, eh?) She thought maybe she could share some of her famous secret recipes, but it seems as though most of her readers are fitness types, and most of her recipes are fattening!
Then she thought perhaps some kind of craft instruction, but it seems as though most of her readers are fitness types, and most of her crafts are of the sit-down variety. (Boring!) Then, she thought, well, gee, there isn’t much else in the Bag Lady’s limited repertoire, so maybe a funny photo? Diet tips? Beer drinking tips? (Oh, wait; pretty sure everyone can manage that one on their own) How-to tips? (Hmm, how to … what?). Gosh, this is harder than she thought. So she pulled out her trusty manual on how to come up with something to write for her blog. Even that didn’t help.
So she’s throwing it open to the masses (all 6 or 8 of you). What should Fridays be about in the Bag Lady’s world? Food? Fun crafty things? Diet tips? Photos from the country point of view? Secret tales of survival in the wilds of northern Alberta?

Then one of the neighbours showed up with a load of straw bales that the Bag Lady had to unload and stack and she got to thinking; how many of her loyal readers gets to run a wheel loader? Eh? Of course, twelve years ago, if you had asked the Bag Lady to run anything larger than a pick-up truck, she would have laughed you out of the room. It all started so innocently and look at her now! C’mon girls, how many of you have a secret desire to drive this:


What if the Bag Lady told you it’s just like driving a car? Except for the joy-stick that makes the bucket go up and down and tilt. Which is pretty cool unless you stick the bale fork in the ground by mistake! So perhaps the Bag Lady should use her Friday posts to share some of the ranching stuff she gets to do. Okay, you pick:
Recipes?
Crafts?
Diet tips?
Country photos?
Survival tales?
Ranching stuff?
Go into the comments section and make your choice.
In the meantime, have a super weekend. Who knows, the Bag Lady may post again through the weekend – it depends on what fabulous adventures await her on the ranch.