Bunkinsons Disease and THE CHASE
9/26/06 - 3rd Day - Before Breakfast. Ok, you might think "he has really slowed down his posts to this journal. This is hardly a 'daily' journal", but that really isn't true. I mean, it is true, but it doesn't seem to be true to me. Like yesterday, I got on here and thought about everything I wanted to write. Then something occured to me in my mind and I ran off to do that, and talked about the stuff I was going to write with a few people via email, and it just seems to me like I wrote in the blog, but lo and behold I didn't. So this morning when I sat down to write, it really shocked me that I didn't blog yesterday because it seems to me like I did... Maybe I have Bunkinsons Disease. I have the same problem with my wife. I talk to so many people about so many things, that it seems to me like I talked to her about it too, but then she says, "you never told me about that, I had to read it online". So she says she finds out everything about me online, which may not be good.
Ok, so we have been trying to catch Pita our oldest calf for about a week, because we want to loosen her halter and because we want to start training her, but we had not been successful. She is VERY smart. She is VERY fast. She has gotten very big and she is very skittish. I have no idea why she is skittish, but she knows what is going down long before the other cows do. If she sees us grab the lariat, she is GONE. She is the most skittish of all the cattle, and she does not cooperate by doing stupid things like the other cows do (like running into the corral to get away from us). So we have been on this mission to catch Pita. Here is a list of the things that make it difficult, despite the things listed about Pita:
1. We are not practiced ropers. In fact, we are not very good at all.
2. We don't have a horse or even a 4-wheeler.
3. The pasture the cows are in is pretty big.
These things conspire to make catching Pita a pretty hard task. So yesterday I told the fellas to take the pickup and one of them get in the bed and the other drive and see if you can rope her and bring her in. Well, I see them tearing around the pasture for a good thirty minutes stirring up dust with no success, so I decide to go help. By this time the children and just about everyone else are lined up on the fence line yelling "Pita! Pita! Pita!". I had told the guys, the least you can do is run her until she gets tired and just stops. But we learned... Pita DOES NOT STOP. So I got in the bed of the truck to try to rope her. I don't think a single throw got within 10 feet of her. Part of that was because I am a poor roper, but part of it was because Mark is a very poor cutting-truck driver. So then I retired myself to driving. I am a very good cutting-truck driver, and we had done this once before years ago, so I kept her running while the guys tried to rope her with no success. So our new plan became...
Y'all wait until she gets tired and slows down, then jump off the truck and try to tackle her. I mean, we had been running her for well over an hour and she was showing little signs of tiring. She would slow down every once in awhile, and Mark and Mihai would launch themselves off the bed of the truck and try to snag her, but each time they did this, she would have a burst of speed and be gone. This went on for another 20 minutes until finally I started cutting her away from the herd while trying to drive her into a corner or into an angle where both guys could jump out and try to pin her. Several times the fellas jumped off the truck and Mihai dove to tackle Pita, but she would break free. She is a large, very muscular calf and she is fast! The cheering section for Pita is now growing tired, and the sun has set and we are chasing this cow in a Dodge Ram pickup truck by headlights. Finally we trap her in the entrance area to the corral. This time we ALL dismount, and I go diving out of the truck like a bad episode of cops. We finally pin her against a fence and Mihai dives in to tackle her, but she is breaking free because she is sooo strong. So I jump on her head and get hold of her halter while Mark comes diving in on top of Mihai to stop her from struggling. Pita is ours! A smattering of applause rises above the dust from the crowd gathered at the fence line. We finally caught Pita. We got her roped off in the corral, and will start some training with her today.. Lord Willing.
Michael
Ok, so we have been trying to catch Pita our oldest calf for about a week, because we want to loosen her halter and because we want to start training her, but we had not been successful. She is VERY smart. She is VERY fast. She has gotten very big and she is very skittish. I have no idea why she is skittish, but she knows what is going down long before the other cows do. If she sees us grab the lariat, she is GONE. She is the most skittish of all the cattle, and she does not cooperate by doing stupid things like the other cows do (like running into the corral to get away from us). So we have been on this mission to catch Pita. Here is a list of the things that make it difficult, despite the things listed about Pita:
1. We are not practiced ropers. In fact, we are not very good at all.
2. We don't have a horse or even a 4-wheeler.
3. The pasture the cows are in is pretty big.
These things conspire to make catching Pita a pretty hard task. So yesterday I told the fellas to take the pickup and one of them get in the bed and the other drive and see if you can rope her and bring her in. Well, I see them tearing around the pasture for a good thirty minutes stirring up dust with no success, so I decide to go help. By this time the children and just about everyone else are lined up on the fence line yelling "Pita! Pita! Pita!". I had told the guys, the least you can do is run her until she gets tired and just stops. But we learned... Pita DOES NOT STOP. So I got in the bed of the truck to try to rope her. I don't think a single throw got within 10 feet of her. Part of that was because I am a poor roper, but part of it was because Mark is a very poor cutting-truck driver. So then I retired myself to driving. I am a very good cutting-truck driver, and we had done this once before years ago, so I kept her running while the guys tried to rope her with no success. So our new plan became...
Y'all wait until she gets tired and slows down, then jump off the truck and try to tackle her. I mean, we had been running her for well over an hour and she was showing little signs of tiring. She would slow down every once in awhile, and Mark and Mihai would launch themselves off the bed of the truck and try to snag her, but each time they did this, she would have a burst of speed and be gone. This went on for another 20 minutes until finally I started cutting her away from the herd while trying to drive her into a corner or into an angle where both guys could jump out and try to pin her. Several times the fellas jumped off the truck and Mihai dove to tackle Pita, but she would break free. She is a large, very muscular calf and she is fast! The cheering section for Pita is now growing tired, and the sun has set and we are chasing this cow in a Dodge Ram pickup truck by headlights. Finally we trap her in the entrance area to the corral. This time we ALL dismount, and I go diving out of the truck like a bad episode of cops. We finally pin her against a fence and Mihai dives in to tackle her, but she is breaking free because she is sooo strong. So I jump on her head and get hold of her halter while Mark comes diving in on top of Mihai to stop her from struggling. Pita is ours! A smattering of applause rises above the dust from the crowd gathered at the fence line. We finally caught Pita. We got her roped off in the corral, and will start some training with her today.. Lord Willing.
Michael
posted by Michael Bunker at 9/26/2006 03:33:00 AM
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