On Saturday I was privileged to attend a round up on the Island Mountain Ranch. The ranch is located in a very remote rural area of northeastern Mendocino County in Northern California. Getting to it involved driving on dusty one lane dirt roads for over two hours through oak woodlands, redwood and fir forests. My kind of place.I knew we had arrived when we rounded a corner and came up a rise and there were horse trailers,jeeps and four wheel drive trucks all parked below a tree covered corral. There was quite the gathering of cowboy and girls with their families that had come to help with gathering,sorting cutting and branding. Among them there were quite a few talented ropers and a very experienced ground crew. They were bringing the calves and the few yearlings they missed last year into the corral eight at a time. Then one roper would lasso the head of the calf and another roper would heel it with another lasso. The ground crew then quickly got to work for the branding, dehorning and cutting. It was never ending action and teamwork.Lunchtime came as a well needed break. There were ice chests full of beer, soft drinks,water and a nice spread of cold cuts lettuce,onions and tomatoes for sandwiches. After lunch they rounded up more cattle and sorted them and the whole process started all over again.I photographed all kinds of action and people changing to different lenses for different perspectives. Though I must say I was really happy when they finished with the last calf and the call to dinner was made. Dinner was spectacular. There was Pulled Pork,Clam Jambalaya,potato salad, abalone, steak,corn on the cob and of course fresh Rocky Mountain Oysters from the day.After a short dinner (I wish could have had more) we made the long drive home under the almost full moon. I didn't make it home until just a little after two in the morning. I spent a lot of time sorting images over the last couple of days.The most difficult thing to do was to limit the number of images to put up.Gods precious love and blessings to all,chris
On Saturday I was privileged to attend a round up on the Island Mountain Ranch. The ranch is located in a very remote rural area of northeastern Mendocino County in Northern California. Getting to it involved driving on dusty one lane dirt roads for over two hours through oak woodlands, redwood and fir forests. My kind of place.I knew we had arrived when we rounded a corner and came up a rise and there were horse trailers,jeeps and four wheel drive trucks all parked below a tree covered corral. There was quite the gathering of cowboy and girls with their families that had come to help with gathering,sorting cutting and branding. Among them there were quite a few talented ropers and a very experienced ground crew. They were bringing the calves and the few yearlings they missed last year into the corral eight at a time. Then one roper would lasso the head of the calf and another roper would heel it with another lasso. The ground crew then quickly got to work for the branding, dehorning and cutting. It was never ending action and teamwork.Lunchtime came as a well needed break. There were ice chests full of beer, soft drinks,water and a nice spread of cold cuts lettuce,onions and tomatoes for sandwiches. After lunch they rounded up more cattle and sorted them and the whole process started all over again.I photographed all kinds of action and people changing to different lenses for different perspectives. Though I must say I was really happy when they finished with the last calf and the call to dinner was made. Dinner was spectacular. There was Pulled Pork,Clam Jambalaya,potato salad, abalone, steak,corn on the cob and of course fresh Rocky Mountain Oysters from the day.After a short dinner (I wish could have had more) we made the long drive home under the almost full moon. I didn't make it home until just a little after two in the morning. I spent a lot of time sorting images over the last couple of days.The most difficult thing to do was to limit the number of images to put up.Gods precious love and blessings to all,chris
