My Cattle Adventure—Part 1

A couple days ago, Kordell called to see if I'd help him haul some cattle.  Sure, I thought, I bet this'll be blog post material!

Well, I changed into work clothes, grabbed the phone for pictures (sorry, the phone's camera isn't exactly superb, so that's the reason for the poor quality of the pictures), slipped on my shoes, and headed outside, where Kordell was just pulling in the drive with the trailer to back up against the loading chute.

Well, he took one look at my footwear and sent me back inside to get some mud boots.  Kansas has finally gotten several inches of rain (right in the middle of bean harvest, unfortunately...), and naturally, this means the cattle pens will be quite sloppy.

So I get back out to the working shed, and he hands me this epic sorting stick with a flag on the end.

We walk through the shed to the alley, and at this point I'm very glad for those mud boots...

Almost lost them in the mud a couple times!

Once we're out of the alley and into the feeding lanes, it's time to set up some gates.

And finally, we get to the cattle themselves.  Kordell stuck his flag's handle in his side pocket, so walking behind him cracked me up!  It was like one of those little kid's bikes.  I never had to guess where he was!

Not too happy to see us... ;)

Kordell's job: slowly herd the cattle toward the open gate.

My job: make sure the cattle don't sneak past me to this side of the shed.

So there I stood, flag in one hand and phone in the other, desperately hoping that I won't drop the device in the muck, staring down the cattle as they warily made their way toward the gate.  "Don't wave the flag, and just talk quietly," Kordell had said.  I already knew that.

But it sure took away from the fun.

See ya!

There was one fella that was a little stubborn, but just a little, so after just a little flick of the handy-dandy flag, I chased him right back into the alley.

Well... okay, Kordell actually got him out.  But I did splendidly at lending my incredible presence and moral support.  And don't forget that flag's daunting appearance!

So after they're locked in the alley, it's time to set all the gates back to the way they were.

We'll avoid the fact that Kord basically did them all because I hadn't done it for a few years. Having four brothers to help Daddy kinda prevents that.

And thus ends part one of my cattle adventure with Kordell!  Tune in next week for part two, featuring Jarvis... ;)