Recently I had written a Tale about bringing “The Hiffers”, as our 3 year old Grand Son calls them, to the Home Place. We arranged a Sunday afternoon visit out there with our Daughter, Son In Law, and their kids, ages 8, 6, and 3.
Our first step of the adventure included a little corn throwing at some of our game feeding locations while “searching” for our new bovine guests. We “found” them out in the middle of an overgrown pasture mixed with tall grass, pear and mesquite.
The ladies were a bit nervous at first, given their very limited exposure to 3 little “jumping jacks” all talking loudly at the same time in the excitement of the moment. But the cattle cubes finally encouraged them to come around. Those kids sure were practicing their baseball throws in trying to see how close they could come to getting the cubes in just the right spots. All the young ladies were numbered with ear tags, and there were considerable debates on the “best one” among the three young evaluators.
After feeding about half a bag, we motored over to the pasture where our new guests call Home. Each of the 3 got to sit in Poppi’s lap and drive the truck out on our place and on the 2 mile journey to the next destination on the isolated country roads. We did not have to search for the group of last year’s heifers, now spending time with the Herd Bull. A big grey Brahma with the black hump, our daughter calls him Big Daddy. His hooves are each about the size of a small dinner plate. Gentle as a puppy, but I still made them all stay in the truck bed as we had about 15 or more hungry mouths all around us. Our girl has never been afraid of animals and surprisingly to me, even the meanest cow dogs never harmed her a bit over the years of being around ranch animals all her life. Consequently, her kids don’t much think of the potential of danger. But Poppi does and his truck and feed mean his rules. They all petted on Big Daddy and he stood around with his ladies until the cubes ran out.
After heading back towards Devine where we left their passenger car, 2 of the 3 fell fast asleep in the first 5 miles of travel. Mimi just told me they are coming over today (President’s Day) since there is no school. It will be interesting to listen to their recounting of the day.
While I have no clue as to how they will recall the little trip, as long as they had fun, were safe, and made some memories to solidify their connection to our family acres, I am totally convinced it was a successful investment in a fine early Spring afternoon.