Cattle Drive and Bear Hunt

Someone has bought the neighboring ranch ('Lillys Lake') which is about 16km away from us. The couple is from Alberta and they have moved their entire ranch. Other people find it difficult enough to move just their house, but they also have to take their tractors, all other vehicles, cattle feed, horses..... and 150 cows. And each time it's a 7-hour drive. It's a loooot of work. And the big cattle truck is not allowed to drive on this road because it's too bad for such large vehicles. That's why the new neighbor simply drove all his cows to us. I have to say that Henry and Aileen are the best neighbors you can imagine. I don't think I can find anyone in Germany who can accommodate 150 cows for a week and who will also feed them and take care of them completely without asking for money. And here, it's like a matter of course. So, this week a truck came every day and unloaded about 40 cows (calves, bulls, cows or horses). Then we had to quickly grab our horses and drive the cows to the right paddock. From Wednesday on, I had to do this alone. And doing it alone is difficult because the cows have three other directions they could run off to. That's why you have to always ride around them at a gallop and bring them back in the right direction. And during this gallop, Jay (my horse) thought it should make a full stop. I was only riding with a halter and without a saddle, and of course, I flew nicely over her neck. But the coolest thing was that I stood up right away and jumped back on Jay and was on the other side before the cows. The cows were pretty slow, but it probably still looked cool. ;)
And on Monday, I got to drive the excavator :D That's really fun. Well, I haven't really excavated yet... just brought the excavator to the trailer, but you can just drive anywhere and over everything. Hopefully, I can do some real digging this week.
On Tuesday evening, after all the work, we came into the house and were actually going to have dinner. But Aileen had just taken apart and cleaned the oven, so we had to wait at least another 2 hours. So we thought about what else we could do. And Henry suggested we could drive to the meadow where they make hay and see if the grass is growing. That was the best idea ever and turned out to be one of the best trips in the time I've been here. We forgot the key to the road gate where you can drive with the pick-up, so we had to drive across the forest with the quad. And we didn't have a chainsaw with us, so Henry had to chop down all the logs in the way with an ax. In between, we drove through lakes. But our quad has a hole at the bottom and in the end, everything was smoking and the quad got really hot. So it was really really close that we got through there. When we arrived at the meadow after an hour or so, there were many wild horses and we chased them with the quad. That was really fun, driving a quad right in the middle of a galloping herd of horses. (the horses ate probably 50 bales of hay from Henry in the winter and now they are eating all the grass that he wants to make hay from)
And then we saw a bear in the bushes. Henry jokingly told his dogs to chase the bear..... and then they did ..... and they didn't come back no matter how loudly we called them. So we had no idea where they were. And believe me: when Henry wants to save his dogs, he drives the quad even more catastrophically than when he chases cows. To make matters worse, it started raining.... I now know what brain freeze is. Because I didn't have warm clothes with me and was completely wet and in that speed (there were some roads in between) it's really windy. But we didn't find the dogs again. So at some point, we just drove back. And just as we were at the meadow, the dogs came back. And then we had to drive back for another hour. We had mud up to our faces and we had to take turns driving because our hands were frozen (I even had gloves with me, but they were soaked through). I've never been so happy to see the pick-up again and it's never been so exciting to see if the grass is growing. Super cool.

This week Ty (Aileen's brother) also moved in with us, and he has been trying to hunt a bear all spring. On Thursday, when we were having lunch, Henry looked out of the window with his binoculars and saw a bear. So we couldn't waste any time. Henry and Ty quickly grabbed their guns and ran out (I followed behind). We walked about 15 minutes toward the bear, but the bear also moved a bit and we didn't have a good shooting position. Oh my god, that was exciting. I've always wanted to come along on a hunt. But then the cattle truck arrived and brought new cows, and Henry and I had to bring them to the right pasture. And Ty didn't get the bear anymore, even though he searched for the whole afternoon. That day, the neighbor also brought 8 bulls, and we drove them straight to the neighboring ranch. So Henry and I only rode for 5km. After that, the road was so good that the neighbor could do it alone.
On Friday, I had my first big cattle drive. We drove all 150 cows 16 km to the other ranch. Friday morning was really stressful because there were several people visiting, a calf got sick, we had to repair the quad and a tractor, and feed all the cows. Around noon, the neighbor arrived with his helpers, and we quickly saddled the horses. And then we started. I think the first part was the most difficult because we had to drive all the cows across the forest and then it was just a road. Henry said it was the slowest cattle drive he had ever been on. Because many cows were still very exhausted from the long trailer ride, some had just given birth, and some were just very old and looked like they could fall down and die at any moment. Right at the beginning, there were 2 cows that couldn't go any further. So after 5km, we locked them in a paddock that was by the roadside. We arrived at the ranch around 7:00 PM, and it's a really beautiful ranch. In the final stretch, there were still 3 cows that absolutely couldn't go any further. So we just left them there, and the neighbor picked them up later. Yeah, then it was 7:00 PM.... it got cold and I was hungry and thirsty because we didn't have lunch and we still had to ride for another 15km. But the way back was also nice. Henry told me many stories and we trotted almost the whole way, so we only took about 2 hours. But then we still had to check the cows and feed the calves, so it was three-quarters past 9 before we finally had dinner. I don't think I've ever been this hungry. But it was a really cool day, and I brought 150 cows to their ranch with 3 real cowboys :) :D
On Saturday, the weather was really nice for the first time this year. Unbelievable - last week I still needed my gloves almost every day and now you can walk around in a t-shirt. Aileen and I wanted to take advantage of the nice weather and went for a canoe ride on Nimpo Lake. This time it was completely different from last week's race. We had time to enjoy the beautiful nature and could talk to each other. During the race, I didn't even see how beautiful the lake actually is and how cool the mountains look in the background.

On Sunday, the weather was still great, so we went to Charlet Lake with Lesly and Mike. The plan was to ride the motorboat there and do a bit of fishing. But Lesly and Mike's motorboat didn't work. So we made a campfire and had hot dogs on the beach, and later we rowed a little round, which was really nice too.
In the evening, there was a big party in Nimpo because this weekend was the Fishing Derby at Nimpo Lake. And it was riiiiight really nice!! There was a cool live band, my friends from SixMileRanch were there, and the Australians from the neighboring ranch were there too, and there was a lot to drink ;). I love the parties here and I'm always so happy to see everyone again.

That was a really adventurous week, and I saw bears almost every day and drove the pick-up very often :) haha it's cool here.... I never had a driver's license with me and always had at least one beer haha but there are no other cars here.... so it doesn't matter.

And this week is going to be really cool too. :D The day after tomorrow is branding :)