Must be nice…….the cows are going on vacation. Well, some of them are. About 2 months before they have their calf, they go “dry” and we won’t milk them anymore. All they do is rest, eat, and sleep. And get fat! Then once they have their calf we start milking them again. I’m jealous…….2 months of nothing.     These cows are waiting to be sorted. We hold everything back until after milking and then we all head out there to separate out dry cow versus milk cow. Someone is in the back slowly pushing the herd. Note I said slowly. If things start moving too fast we can hear Earl yell from a mile off.It’s stressful!            Meanwhile, Earl is standing around the corner checking his handy dandy calendar. Making sure nothing slips through. We can interpret every hand signal, flailing arms, gates crashing and sounds we’ve never heard before. Sorting cattle is an “art”, and we’ve got it down pat. Most of the time.       Here they come, get ready. Earl handles the gate. Anything with a red marked leg has to stay. The others go racing on through.      Big Bubba came cruising around the corner. I assured him we aren’t taking any of his girlfriends away. They’ll be back! He wasn’t impressed.      Well, looks like we’re out of cows. Finally got them sorted and ready to move on. Good work, Candace. The boys always get ticked when we do all this work and they’re off at school.       These girls are waiting their freedom. They’re ready to go on a nice vacation. We had a total of 21 leaving the herd. Ouch, that’s going to hurt my paycheck. It’s going to be lean and mean!      Moving on over to greener pastures. The grass is always greener on the other side. Right? That’s how the saying goes, anyway. I don’t believe it, though.     Everyone has to get acquainted. Have their little head butting battles and find their proper “pecking order” in the herd. It’s going to be a busy day in the dry cow lot.      I told you sorting cattle was stressful. Do you believe me now? We all get a little “mad cow” by the time we’re finished. Only 2 more days before the “cowgirl” leaves on her trip. We’re trying to get all the cow work done before she leaves. Haha……………………Carol