Day 16: 'Cow Pies & Cacti'

 


Turns out the coyotes did not keep me awake all night but rather the pain from the hole the prickly pear cactus spine left in my ankle did, from when I backed into it yesterday.  And the battle between me and the cacti didn’t stop there!  Sure enough, at some point during the day, I ran into another one and my knee is now sporting multiple stab wounds.  (I need to get more antibiotic ointment at this rate – I’m already halfway through the tube we brought with us.) 



The cows started coming down the mountain throughout the morning and convening at our campsite, which made us realize that they were probably going to get fed soon.  Since I had been watching them with my binoculars quite a bit, I had noticed one cow that hadn’t moved from her spot about halfway up the ridge for a few hours and she had separated herself from the herd.  I figured she might be in labor and kept prodding Rick to go on a hike with me to check her out.  About that time, Farmer Fred (seriously, his name really was Fred) showed up with his wife to feed the cows.  I ran out of the RV to greet him and ask if I could help, but he said they had it under control but that I could ride in the 4x4 Polaris if I wanted to watch.  I decided to just stand by and watch the ordeal, which was quite entertaining watching about 75 head swarm the vehicle to try and get the food.

Once they cows were all situated and eating their grain pellets, Fred and his wife Tanna came over to talk to us.  I told him about the cow up on the hillside that was still there and everyone took turns looking through the binoculars but no one could see her except for me.  They were quite concerned, as their cattle were their only livelihood and due to darn near toothless grins both of them kept flashing, I figured they couldn’t afford to lose even one cow.  (They said they owned about 200 head and had built the herd up from 30 over the past few decades.)  I told them that we would take a hike up the mountain to check her out and that I would call him if there was trouble. 

After hiking through the cacti - and being very careful not to get stabbed - we finally got to the general area where I thought I had seen the cow.  It was a pile of rocks and a dead pile of prickly pear.  To say that Rick gave me a hard time on the hike back down the mountain to the trailer is an understatement.  The zingers he was coming up kept getting better and better on the 30 minute hike back.  (I just know I’m going to hear about this one for the next 6 months at least.)  

View of the RV from the top of the mountain

The farmers came back after feeding the herd farther up the canyon and Rick told them of our ‘adventure’ and my bionic eyes, which they got quite a laugh out of.  We learned more about their lives here in the desert and got to meet some of their favorite cows, like Maggie, who was about 11 years old and had been bottle fed as a baby by Tanna.

Maggie


We spent the rest of the day lounging around the trailer amongst all the cows, entertaining ourselves by watching the baby calves romp and play with one another.  Even Beamer got a chance to come outside and sit on my lap in the sun.  

As the sun started to set, we took another little hike to a pile of rocks off in the distance.  As we got closer, it looked just like Clifford the Big Red Dog!





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