by Jan Fielden
Ah, Christmas time! I love it!! From special Church services, to town events, to decorating the house and all around it…inside and out, what a wonderful season.
Christmas gifts getting wrapped, cookies baked, candy made…all great traditions. The one thing we always seem to do that is different is having a round-up!
Oh yeah. But the weather has to be cold, windy, and sometimes rainy. It just wouldn’t be a great round-up without those weather conditions. Take the day before we had the round-up; it was 80-85 degrees…wow!
But that’s no good to work cows in…too warm. So, we waited until the weather was 28 and very windy.
If we had not had some great help, I don’t think The Colonel and I would have made it. The cold saps the strength right out of us it seems.
We had made up our mind that whatever cows and calves we caught, we would be satisfied with them. Was not going to matter to us if we missed a few, we would just catch them another time. RIGHT!
I was leading our helpers down to the corral and met The Colonel coming our way. What was he doing? He was trying to convince the few cows that didn’t get caught to come on in anyway.
He, of course, first said he was checking to see which ones we had not caught!
The Colonel also said we were going to trim down the herd. So, we are only keeping nine (9) heifers this time. We usually keep ten (10).
But he does always tell me how many we are keeping with a smile on his face. Such is the life of a cowboy’s wife at the Red Oak Ranch.
