One recent cold and snowy Sunday, I decided to get up early with Jamie and go with him to work to see what "feeding the girls" actually entails. Little did I know that that particular Sunday would not just be frigid, but Holy Cow...bitter cold!!! So dressed in several layers and walking as if I had left a do-di in my pants, we headed out to the ranch. Once there we had to leave the nice warm pick-up to get into the, cold....VERY cold, feed truck. Driving to the hay yard turned out to be more difficult than usual due to not just blowing, but driving, snow in front of us. Visibility was at times zero. It was beautiful in a way and also rather spooky.
I asked Jamie if I could get out and take some pictures while he loaded up the hay...little did I know just how cold it really was until I had to stand in the wind for a few minutes! Moving on, the feed pick-up has a hydro-bed which has arms that extend back and then "grab" each bale of hay. Jamie controls the arms with levers inside the truck...I need to find a way to do that with my camera so I don't freeze the next time.
The arms have teeth on the end that "grab" the bale and it's then lifted onto the truck.
Another bale is added and we are off to feed some cows. (Wait, wait for me!!! I'm freezing out here!!!)
Before we go into the pasture, we first need to stop, apply our "emergency brake" and open the gate. Jamie found this rock on one of his first days there. He has it down to an art...he drives up to it slowly until the tires hit it perfectly and there she stays. He is quite proud of his rock brake.
Then comes the hard part...finding the cows. Can you spot them in the trees? I'm sure on a day when visibility is not limited, this isn't quite so difficult. Typically in this weather they stay huddled in groups since it's warmer and they can be found somewhere out of the wind.
We didn't have to go far and once the word got around that food was here, well they came on their own. Check out that formation!
Once again the hydro-bed comes in handy. With the push or pull of lever a bale of hay is lowered to the ground, the bale stays attached to the arms and as you drive away the bale unravels. Neato, especially in temperatures below zero! Unfortunately I wasn't able to capture this process for you...who knew that frozen cow piles could be so slippery. One slip and some snow covered jeans later and I decided to abort that mission. You'll just have to use your imagination.
Here are "the girls" enjoying their meal. "Eat up, buttercups!"
We passed this windmill several times on our way to and from the hay yard...sometimes we could see it, sometimes not.
And now it's time to close the gate and go home. You got the short and condensed version of feeding. What you didn't see where the 10 or so trips to and from the hay yard...you see it takes much more than just 2 hay bales to feed all those cows and then we had the other group to feed. But what a fun morning together! Jamie enjoyed having me along and showing me his routine and I enjoyed watching him work.
And there is always time for the blue eyed snow snake to goof off in front of the camera. Love your outfit, man...that is sex-y!
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