Recent "Daily Diary" Entries

October 23, 2011
Another gorgeous fall day to work cattle - golden grasses surrounding the herd held in place by a few cowboys with a big painterly sky as backdrop - worked steer pairs off - chased a few that tried to get away ... trailed the rest of the pairs to white butte pasture - counted them through the gate and pointed them to the dam ... rode back for lunch through rolling yucca covered riverbanks ... nice way to spend the morning in Cowboy Country ...

October 26, 2011
Chilly early morning gather on the Badure Ranch - rode toward the back of Porcupine Pasture and into the rising sun - the crew split and gathered the expansive yucca covered cowboy movie looking pasture - multi colored cows and calves coming from the northeast met with crew and cows coming in from the southwest - trailed across Blackpipe Creek and golden pastures onto the road for a few miles to t...he headquarters - Weened and worked the calves to the background noise of many bawling cows ... pit stop in the house for lunch and a photo slide show from the past 8 years ... time flies ... the archive of stories grows ... much work to do to prepare for shipping and the inevitable winter to come ... such is the endless cycle of ranching life ...

October 26, 2011
Coyotes first evening howls as the sun sets behind a bank of purple clouds - Pony glowing white way off up in the hills - Henry and Flaxy eating their hay in the corral - a sudden rush of wind as the sun disappears then silence again ... soaking up my last couple of weeks and the view out in the Scotty ... time to start stocking up on firewood for my move back into the bunkhouse ...

October 28, 2011
Woke up to a dark starry sky & saddled up my pony -pre dawn drive to Stanton Anderson's ranch for shipping day - view of Badlands silhouetted against the pink sky - big buck crossing the road in front of me - Rode with the crew south from the ranch for several miles to gather a herd of mixed breed & longhorn cattle some belted some spotted making for a pretty sight as we trailed the Hollywood type herd several miles back to headquarters - did the usual penning, sorting and loading and off to market ... great lunch with the crew - gorgeous day for a ride across the prairie and Badlands ...

October 30, 2011
Colossal orange crescent moon hanging so low over the Badlands it looks to be resting on top of them and within my reach ..

©JEAN LAUGHTON