AUGUST ON THE PLAINS Oooooo-weeeee!

Well, it's hot...again...today....

Football practice started on Monday, so both boys are doin' their thing out on the field...105 yesterday and 104 today...YIPES!!

The Shaggin' Wagon has just had a fresh coat of spray paint, a longhorn rack has been duct taped to the headache rack and today a set of bench seats is being mounted in the bed...all of this for......VERNON'S CRUISE NIGHT! Part of Vernon, Texas' Summer's Last Blast. The guys are hoping to win the BEST Redneck Vehicle around.

DOWN IN THE CHUTE...

A second visit to the vet with the first sick (bred) cow didn't go so well. She went down in the chute and after several hours, we were finally able to get her in the trailer to go home. She has since died and the second bred cow that we got on July 14 is now passed as well. Same symptoms and all. It's really wierd. We spent almost 2 weeks pumpin' high doses of high powered antibiotics in her. I think the intense heat was a major factor too. Bless their hearts.

I rode Biscuit to the other pasture to gather cattle and check on them. He did rather well...considering I hadn't been on him much. It's certainly not like riding a horse, I'll say that! Give me a good horse any day of the week! He's a jumping mule, so he is trained to jump fences on command. Dyke learned that he'll jump creeks too - even when he has 260 pounds on his back. I think Dyke was a bit unraveled with that stunt! I used to jump bareback - when I was a teenager, so jumpin' a creek with a saddle is a cinch.......or it would have been when I was young and plyable!

We still have 5 male black lab pups.......come on, people~!

This morning, as usual, Dyke got up early to fix a hot breakfast for the boys before practice...he let me sleep in a bit....when I awoke, squinting to the north, I noticed there were 5 cows standing around the chicken pen....out of the pasture....so, before the coffee got started, or the animals got fed...out I went on the 4 wheeler to get them back in and survey the fence problem....in my P.J.s....Of course, as usual, they went right back to where they got out, so that part wasn't too awful bad...Starting at the east fence, I traced it back to where the escape took place. YUP, hot wire was down...all over! With a few extra posts driven in the ground (thank goodness it rained recently), I was able to get the fence back to working order and gave the cattle a good scolding before I went to the house to brew my coffee for the morning. Sheesh - sweating before coffee....not fun!

We've had 2.5" of rain in the last 2 weeks....very unusual!

THE COTTON IS GROWING!!!

EVERYTHING IS GREEN!