Still in the saddle....

 Every morning and every evening and sometimes at noon, you'll find us in the saddle.  We're sorting out cow/calf pairs as they come into heat for breeding.  Hubs is the main sorter.  He sorts out the cows from the big bunch of cows, and then we (who are holding the bunch) help bring them out and across the pasture away from the herd.  It works well.  I remember one time we were watching a rodeo on TV and the kids saw the event called team penning.  One of them jumped up and said, "Hey, that's we what do when we're AI-ing."  Most rodeo events started from jobs done on the ranch.

 Yesterday we were wearing our jackets and hoods as we rode.  It barely reached 70* all day, but today we've had the heat move in and we hit 95* for a high.  It sounds like we are in for a hot, hot weekend, with temps reaching into the 100's.  We live in the land of extremes.  I'm so grateful for A/C on these hot summer days.  When you come inside from working outside, it's the nicest feeling ever to feel the cool air wafting over your body.

Here's proof that I actually do ride, but I am always about getting a few pictures during the times when I'm just holding cows and don't have any action. 

Pete loves me

and my dirty boots.

 

 As I was hanging out the wash on the line, I noticed a LOT of golden dragon flies zipping around everywhere.   They didn't mind me at all as I was pinning the laundry.  They happily lit on the lines and watched with their big buggy eyes.  I remember summer days swimming with the kids at one of our regular swimming holes.  The dragon flies - blue, gold, and black & white spotted -- would skim across the top of the water in search of mosquitoes and bugs to eat.  There certainly are plenty of mosquitoes around for them to feast on now.

There's a full moon tomorrow night.  Have you noticed its biggness lately?

According to the Farmer's Almanac, July is the Full Buck Moon, a time of the month when the new antlers of buck deer push out of their foreheads in coatings of velvety fur. It was also often called the Full Thunder Moon, for the reason that thunderstorms are most frequent during this time. Another name for this month’s Moon was the Full Hay Moon.