Saturday, June 18, 2011

Before the Storm




We are located in the high desert of SE Oregon and sit at the foot of a 10,000’ fault block known as the Steens Mtns. Just the term “desert’ brings to mind sand, sagebrush, arid, dry, dusty, hot barren land. But not here. This is rangeland, there is an abundance of water from snow run off and underground springs. There are a diverse variety of native grasses carpeting the pastures surrounding us and the past few years it has been uncharacteristically cold and rainy until mid summer.

Today there was a 10% chance of rain. That changed to 100% chance this afternoon. Before it did, I made a trip down to the end of the ‘Nurse cow pasture’ formally known as the “Sheep pasture” because there used to be sheep there. All the pastures here have names. There is the “Cornfield” which is where the horses stay. There is no corn there. Then there is the “Barnfield” behind that, which is a good couple of miles from the barn. There is also the Elk and East Elk (no, there are no elk here) the Airport (nope) the Beetlefield, Poison and Mosquitoe. There are mosquitoes.

At any rate, I grabbed the 4 wheeler and accompanied by Cider, and the Maremmas, proceeded down the half mile long alley that leads to the horse cavy and bottom of the sheep pasture where Quasimoto and his harem were.

Quasimoto is one of the 200 new Akaushi bulls


Quasi stared at us, no matter where we moved, insisting I could only record what he considers to be his ‘good’ side. I like his caboose, but …well yeah, butt. We stayed on the outside of the fence because he wasn’t a very gracious host.

Miss EmmaLouMae was being coy and trying to hide from us. She is camera shy.


Dolly eyeballed me, then struck her sexiest pose. What a beauty queen she is. She truly takes my breath away with her big cow-eyes, twisted little face and boney hips. Perhaps beauty really IS in the eye of the beholder.



On the way back, the boys played in the creek for a bit, then my bodyguards ran alongside a ways, before forging ahead to make sure it was safe for us to return home, via the barn. 






It’s nice to have someone watching out for you.

4 comments:

  1. You slay me! So beautiful. One of these days you will find me wandering around trying to find this slice of heaven! Love the baby cow peaking around momma.

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  2. Your girls are so beautiful. I'll bet their little ones will be just as lovely as mama. Hope you milk room is coming along. Keep us posted on the deliveries.

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  3. thanks for getting a pic of the bull..... he's awesome cool!

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  4. you are welcome :) They are really pretty bulls...and VERY red. Aka-ushi translates in Japanese as red cow. The boss said they seem to have good temperaments also. All I know is, Quasi can't take his eyes off of me, and I don't think I am all that pretty of a cow...

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