Out of the Fog

Everett and I were horse back by 9 this morning. After attempting to start our water siphon - our water system for the troughs we are using - we crossed the ranch on Annie and Pearl to retrieve 31 cows out of the Lower Bull Pasture. As we did, we were drowned in fog.

Mornings in Watsonville, CA are cool and cloudy. At night, moisture from Monterey Bay extends its reach into the hills, gripping the ranch in clouds and fog until the sun burns off the moisture around noon. This morning, climbing into the clouds, I felt like I was in the civil war, waiting for musket bearing soldiers to appear over the hills. It was awesome.

We quickly gathered the cows and brought them to the Kelly Corals to bob their tails - an indicator that they have not been breed and will be grass fed beef for next year.

We returned to our high stock cattle in the afternoon, fixed some fence, started the water again, and cleared a long forgotten road through the back bowl of "The Picnic Grounds". Tomorrow night or Saturday morning we'll move the cows into the bowl and leave them there for the weekend, allowing them to water out of the "Dry Lake" pond so we don't have to worry about getting the siphon started.

I talked to Everett today and decided to start taking pictures to visually document the progress we are making with our high stock density. Look for them to come.