B Team

I have to say of all the things I've done on the farm, working cows will always be my favorite. No contest.
Even if I have to wake up before the sun, I'll do it! Riding a horse and hunting for cows is the best thing.
Now, before I go any further, you should know that I am in no way a professional cowhand. However, I have been along for the ride a time or two, so I'm not a complete goober either. I'm going to do my best to tell you what I did this morning, but if you are a professional cowboy please don't laugh at me too hard.
Today we had to get some cows that were in a pasture with a lot of woods. The woods make things tricky because the cows will split up and run into the woods which means getting them to where we need them that much harder. I was prepped beforehand.
"Mindy, we want them together in the open. If one darts off, stay with the group. Keep them together. We can always go back and rope the one. We can't rope all of em." (Or something like that.)
The group was spotted as we were coming in with the horses and we got our game plan, which was to swoop around them and keep them together. And BAM! They were off! Those guys (boss man and Lupe) took off like a shot. Racing around to get the group. I, of course, had to go race with them. One went wide. One went short. And I went through the woods more or less. Haha. But those guys were good because all the cows were pinned on the fence line. The use of the fence is brilliant because that is a whole side you don't need to cover. We kept them mooooving down the line until we got them where they needed to be.
After that we went back through and checked for stragglers. I was sent down the tree line with specific instructions looking for cows. It was a nice jaunt. The only problem being that there were so many different stands of trees I wasn't sure of which line to stick to. I did my best to look for cows and follow directions. No cows were found so mission one complete.
The next mission was to move a big group down the road to a home with lush grass. Because of the pros I was working with it went really well and we didn't have to chase any of the ladies down.
Boss and I went to get the truck, while Lupe checked some fence. On the way, we moved a bull to the next pasture over. Once we got him pointed in the right direction the bull kinda knew where to go on his own. We got the truck and Lupe. Next we unsaddled the horses and let them find some shade and water to cool off. By 10:00 it was just about boiling outside.
Unsaddled horses doesn't mean work is over. In fact it had just begun. Time for grunt work. Here's where I have to say that I am a terrible grunt. The job was to fling bags of mineral into the back of the truck. 50 lbs bags into a bed that is to my collar bone. I got one in there. I bore my ridicule like a champ though.
After like 45 mins of opening gates and moving trucks and putting out mineral in mineral boxes (again I did one... this was more because I was slow at manhandling those heavy bags than anything) and even moving a mineral box (which was cool because it is like a sled), we were nearly finished.
All that was left was to show the fence guy what fences needed mending. It was a full morning of good work for the B Team. The A Team are those guys who work for the boss that are real bona-fide cowboys. Sometimes he doesn't need the whole cow crew so he calls on us. The faithful B Team. We may not be as skilled or have mounts that have top of the line cutting horse bloodlines but we do have a whole lot of heart. Haha. That and a strong desire not to get kicked off the B Team.
Anyway, I came back to corn after a morning in the Creek. We are getting green stuff finally! For the passed few days it has been dusty brown corn, which is not great. All in all an awesome day and I will sure sleep well tonight.

Sayings:
"...Like to throw your/his/her/their lollipop in the dirt..."
Translation : pitch a fit

Pictures:
1. Benny is a good cow hunter. He listens to everything. This was when we were alone looking to cows left behind.
2. This is to show you how huge the pits are. This is pit 9 and it is the final one we are filling (I think).