Fall Shots in Photos

It’s no secret that fall is one of my favorite times of year. Maybe it’s the birthdays, or maybe it’s that the weather has cooled down or that the colors are changing as the earth prepares to go to sleep for the winter. Regardless I can also add “Fall Work” into the category of things that make me love fall. We gave our fall shots a couple weekends ago and while I didn’t take the camera with me for the gather- which ended up to be a good choice, because Gump and I had to do a lot of galloping and changing directions due to the fact that a few cows were going everywhere other than where they were supposed to go, I did keep it on me in the corral for a couple of sorts (where we separate the mama cows from their calves for a short while). I will walk you through the day in pictures. Enjoy.

The first photo of the day, The Gump:

Heading down the alley to help them sort:

Saddle horses in the east corral; from R-L: Wyatt, Stitch, Dino, Ranger and Chachi (Dino’s daddy).

Stitch thought he’d eat or at least sniff Sharon’s Jacket:

Hey there Mama!

Gump watching intently, like a good ranch horse should:

Well hello there #172!

For those of you wondering, we haven’t pulled our bulls yet. They wish we would. And for those of you wondering what that is all about, I’ll explain. The bulls are really all finished with their work. Every cow that can be bred should be bred by this time, and the bulls have traveled and worked hard all summer and they’re ready to be done. Never thought testosterone worked that way, eh? Well when it comes to bulls it does.

Find the hole, Buddy!

Here’s some misfit calves- these are the non-black hided calves that won’t make the load. Sometimes when you raise angus calves you get a red one once in a while. And there’s some older cows that aren’t black, still in our herd from past days; plus we have some new angus cows that were crossed with herefords, so there’s a lot of red, bald faced calves in the herd this year.

Here’s the chute we’ll run the calves down to doctor them.

Here they are going down the chute:

Burt, our helper and Zach’s cousin, will hold the calves. I’m the back up, sitting on Gump.

Then the real fun starts:

They get poured with a de-wormer (an anti-parasitic), then they get the same two shots that we gave them in the spring. Those shots are given subcutaneously- so under the skin they go. Typically they’re given in the neck area.

I love that man!

Zach and his youngest brother, Bud.

Handsomest cowboy ever:

Zach’s other brother (there are three of them you know), Guthrie, has finally showed up with the pour on. Not that he was slacking. I’m not sure where he was to be honest. I was too busy taking pictures to pay that much attention.

I love this next series of photos because it’s three of the four boys in this family working together. And please pardon the photos. These are not my best work. I was having major issues with the lens that morning.

We got done working the first set we’d sorted, so it was time to bring more cattle down the alley.

Here’s JuJu, Guth’s daughter, riding one of the ranch’s studs, Banjo; next to her is Jim.

We sorted off about half of the cows that were left, and drove them down the alley, into the pen where we’d sort off the mamas.

You can see our house on the hill in the background here:

Zach is riding DX Iam Nuked, also known as Dozer. He is heaven in horse form. And is for sale.

Where this Charolais calf came from, I have NO idea!

Hi Wyatt, Festus and Dino (both the latter are Gump’s Brothers)!

Hey Girl!

There were flies and dust everywhere. It was a cool morning, but it warmed up the later into the afternoon we got.

They looked like they’re packed in this corral like sardines. I assure you they’re not. We really do as much as we can to keep the cattle and calves from stressing.

There’s one lone red cow in this photo. That cow belongs to Kelsey. She has quite a colorful herd.

This heifer calf has lost her fly tag from her right ear.

Mama! Where are you?

Have I mentioned it that it is loud when you give fall shots, or do any sort of doctoring, or sorting, or branding on your calves?

And finally, a photo of yours truly:

That’s about how fall shots worked this year. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life. I’ll be giving more fall shots this weekend as we help Jim and Sharon, who helped us this day.

I hope that whatever y’all have planned for the weekend is just as much fun as what I’ll be doing!
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