There are three calves ranging in age from three to five months, and all as cute as the dickins. Several yearling heifers and bulls also reside there, along with two or three mature bulls, a few steers and several cows.
One big steer in particular, who the Holts named "Friendly Freddy", but we call "Bubba", always hurries right over to the fence to see me. Francis used to bring him apples and carrots, and I think he still hopes someone will have a special treat for him. He stands with his face up close to the barbed wire, then twists his head until the impressive spread of horns is hooked beneath the wire. He then takes a step or two closer until his face is almost touching the fence. What he wants is to have his forehead scratched. It's rather comical to see such a massive animal - that could essentially kill you if it really wanted to - acting more like the family pooch. But that's Bubba, just a lover not a fighter. As gentle as he is however, you still need to pay attention to those horns, because as you scratch, he sways his head back and forth and one whack from those things would quite possibly make you see stars. And those critters know exactly where their horns are - if fact, you can often see them using the tips of their horns as back scratchers!
There is a new bull in the pasture as well, and one of the two year old youngsters was testing his mettle against the more mature male. Even though the older bull was bigger and more muscled, the youngster did not back down right away, but held his own. It was obviously not an official challenge, for if it was the older bull would most likely have made short work of his rival.
The big storm the other day blew down a lot of trees in the Bitterroot Valley - some old Ponderosa pines as thick as two feet in diameter went down! It also took down a couple of old cottonwoods along the creek, and dropped one of them across the trail. Someone took a chain saw to it to clear the trail and I counted the rings today - 59 of them. The other cottonwood is at the edge of the meadow and will be allowed to decompose on it's own.
While taking some photos of the wild roses along the creek, I noticed a very tiny inchworm on one of the flowers, and took several photos of it. I didn't even know we had those here.
Partly cloudy and breezy this afternoon, and not too terribly warm, but comfortable enough. The sun is poking through the clouds here and there and there are a few storm clouds moving up from the Bitterroot. The days are getting shorter - the sun rose one minute later than it did yesterday...
My lawn really needs to be mowed but I just don't feel like it. The longer it is, the more moisture it holds and the less likely to cause any burning from the fireworks (best excuse I could think of not to mow...) I really hope it rains this evening - and tomorrow evening, and the next, and the next. I don't mind the fireworks that are "showers" and the ones that go up in the air and explode in an array of color, but I HATE the firecrackers! I wish it were were illegal to even sell them.
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