Ranch Life

The cowboys and dogs came today to work the cows. The horses arrived in a trailer with the dogs who were on their toes and excited to be able to run around and herd the beasts from the pasture into the chute. We went in the truck to the cattle pens to see the action. It was raining lightly and there was a magnificent rainbow in the late afternoon sun.

Half the herd of forty, the calves, were going into trailers to tomorrow's cattle auction. The breeding cows were treated for the various pests cows get. Tonight, the calves will stay in a pen at the auction center with water and feed. Those calves are now really big and buff, and I am ready to see them go. Their mammas are now bellowing in the long pasture, missing their offspring. Curly, the bull, looks relieved. Beef prices are up.

All the late summer during the rainy season, the pastures have beeen mowed and groomed. The grass is thick. Warren, the ranch manager, is proud of his herd and the work he has done to revamp the cattle pens and the fences. He loves this place!

So do I! It still seems so magical and unbelievable that I live here. It often seems to me that the big adventure of the day is being able to watch that huge golden orb weaver spider quickly wrapping up a yellow sulpher butterfly that unfortunately blundered into her web. Or checking out that fence lizard that lives under the tractor. Or finally being able to put a name to that cobalt blue wildflower I see on my daily forays. (Curley top sage) By our entrance gate I love (and hate) to see the red shouldered hawk zoom down for a rabbit.

This is the first entire summer we have actually lived here full time. It has been as hot as the inside of a dragon's mouth, though at night we do not use the a/c because it does cool down. Despite the heat, I have loved beginning to know the rhythms of country life. I have learned a lot about butterflies and caterpillars, birds, reptiles. I am constantly checking my guide books, doing a unit on Florida ecology.

A couple of days ago I went to the feed store to see if they had collard plants yet and met up with a couple of local families I know from Lacoochee School. They were buying rabbit and pig feed and were also looking for collards. "Miss Molly! Are you coming back to school? When can we come to visit at the ranch again?" I am beginning to feel embedded here.

The salad garden is up, the tomatoes are looking good, and as far as I know, there is no hurricane on the horizon.

I hear foxes barking and the intimate ululations of the screech owls. The night sky, unpoluted with man's lights, is limitless.