Change in the Air

Searching for strays during fall gather. Ray on Skipper, with Sky and Hap,

It's funny how you wake up one morning and you know you've gone from summer to fall. This year it was Sept. 2. The air is just different. It's way crisper. You leave the house with a heavier coat. Then it heats up and fries what left of the green grass, and makes you think you way overdressed. But it's gorgeous. Clean.

Fall gather. Todd and Ray on Drifter.

I love it. The horses love it. I love living in a part of the country with definite seasons. Sometimes they kind of seem to get out of order. I've seen a lot of times when all the seasons, except fall, unroll in June! When we spent summers in cowcamp, I always took my down jacket, and I wore it year round. We've seen it snow every month of the year. But regardless what the weather does, it doesn't really change the air the way fall does.


Clayton on Peter Paint and Ray on Nugget. Monitoring our Forest Service allotment.
The cows had only been in 8 days, and they asked us to move. We didn't agree. That
triggered a 3-way grazing study between the ranch, FS, and MSU.

Fall means Indian Summer is right around the corner. Crisp, cold nights, and hot dry days. Eye-popping colors around trees and water, and a muted yellow/brown palette everywhere else. The forest fire smoke lays down. I hate the haze that spoils the landscape view since they stopped managing the forests. Now God has to do it since some people don't use the brains He gave them! Guess I'd better not go there...

Morning mist over the Jake cowcamp and the creek on our way to gather upcountry.

Fall gives you more of a purpose after a long, hot, summer that saps your energy. There's more of a sense of urgency. The cows need to be gathered for weaning and shipping. Pens need to be readied for back-grounding or heifer development. Property boundaries need to be clearly marked for hunting information. Trucks need to be lined up...

Ray and the kids in our cowcamp trailer home.

And things need to be done outside that can't be done once it starts freezing, raining, or snowing. Same holds true on the home-front. Once we got everything moved, when I'd get stymied trying to get everything put away, I'd go out on the deck and work on some refinishing projects.

Ray can't figure out why I'd take on more projects when I already have more than I can get done. Well, I guess, neither can I, except maybe it's because I'm one of the world's worst procrastinators. If I ignore it for awhile, maybe it will sort itself out. Actually, that really can work pretty good sometimes. But I'm also the kind that works best under pressure. Like a quickly approaching deadline. Fall gives me a pretty good deadline!

Come to think about it, Ray and I aren't really what you'd call “spring chickens” any more either. I think we hit our “fall” this summer. There is a definite change in the air, and in our perspective. I'm looking forward to these “happy golden years”, and thank God for the reminder that winter is just around the corner. We need to be making hay while the sun shines!

“Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.” Eph. 5:16