My Time on The Drift - Day Five

With over 100 years of history behind me, and hopefully many more before, this is our journey on the Green River Drift in 2020.

Monday, June 22 - Day Five

Many mornings, like the one we had today, could be written down as perfect. I wish I could explain the beauty we saw today as the sun rose over the Wind River Range and the fog was slowly lifting from the irrigated hay meadows and New Fork River...It truly was beautiful. This seems fitting as it was my Grandma's birthday. A true ranch woman in every way, she put others before herself for much of her life, she was known to be a little feisty, truly caring, and a wonderful cook. I think of her often and the work she did as a wife, mother, grandmother, ranch woman, and friend. She did about everything the men did and then some which is sometimes a thankless job. Now that I am here a filling a few of those shoes, I can truly appreciate her work.

Taking care of others, including animals, before yourself is something we are taught at a young age. The Golden Rule plays into many of the decisions I make, so knowing that our neighbors share that mentality is comforting.

I was reminded today of the good people can show in small ways. Historically, we would have used the New Fork Cattle Bridge saving us time and the hassle of using the highway. The bridge was built in the 1940s and is now needing some maintenance to be useful again. Now we travel down the highway, across the New Fork Bridge, and down the Paradise Road. The traffic we faced this morning was quiet and patient. We were all surprised by that since it can be chaotic at times to navigate traffic safely. Our cattle hate to go across the bridge when on-coming traffic is coming towards them. This makes everyone a bit cranky since we have to push the cattle harder than we would like. Today, they trailed across the bridge at a trot as traffic waited patiently on both sides. I thanked them for waiting because it did help us get out of the way.

Once off the road, we mothered up the cows and checked for any sick calves. Our herd has been healthy which will ultimately help them gain over the summer and trail to the mountains easily.