About Bryan County, OK

The crescent moon and the morning star were visible in the eastern sky when I started my morning walk at 5:55 a.m. today. There was something unusual in the way the clouds scudded past, pushed by a brisk westerly wind, and the sunrise was spectacular.

I'm used to a vivid pallette in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, especially at sunset. The colors this morning here in Caddo, Oklahoma rival anything I've enjoyed at home.

Nothing materialized weatherwise, and by the time I was headed back down Hat Powell Road to GlenMar Ranch, the morning light in one of the pastures gave me this beautiful little paintbrush to share with you.

We all say that real estate is "location, location, location." Sometimes I think the location doesn't matter so much as what we bring to our day.

Here's hoping yours is utterly fantastic!

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I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson expert. Call me for more info on vacationing in Tucson.

Or call me if I can help you with a purchase or refi mortgage;
(520) 349-9090

Photos copyright Mike in Tucson. All rights reserved.

Taffy is an ususual name for a working ranch bull. That's what happens when you let a five year old name your animals. Kristin named Taffy. Yesterday I tricked him out in his new bright orange fly tags so he could impress the ladies. That red tag in his left ear is his number tag.

GlenMar ranch is a cow/calf operation. When the young ladies (heifers) come of age to be bred, you want their first calf to be relatively small. That's where Taffy comes in. His daddy was an itinerant Coriente and his momma was a "black baldy." As bulls go, he's on the small side, weighing in at about 1,400 pounds.

Yesterday four of us worked most of the herd. By the end of the day, only one of us had been kicked, and there were no broken bones, thank God!

Today's cleanup work consisted of moving seven "replacement heifers" to the bull pasture and bringing Taffy there to make their acquaintance. A good time was had by all. The heifers and the bull cooperated. "God's in his heaven; all's right with the world." (Who knows that reference from their school days?)

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I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson expert. Call me for more info on vacationing in Tucson.

Or call me if I can help you with a purchase or refi mortgage;
(520) 349-9090

Photos copyright Mike in Tucson. All rights reserved.

Lenn Harley got to laughing at me "working cows." I told Bessie here, and she took exception. I shoulda' had video with a sound track! (You can imagine what she's saying!)

We had a lightning show the first night we were here (Saturday) and I got a lucky shot of one of the clouds backlit by a bolt of lightning.

Three of us started out this morning at 7:00 a.m. We worked the replacement heifers on the Eighty.

They get number tags in the left ear to identify them, and that orange tag in the right ear is called a "fly tag." It's loaded with an insecticide to keep the flies away. We replace the fly tags in the spring, and the number tags when they're no longer readable at a distance.

The herd is semi-wild, as they have 1,400 acres to roam during most of the year. In order to get them to cooperate, we herd them into pens and then into a chute with a "head-gate."

The calves are my Darlin's favorite. This little bull calf knows he's good looking! :)

____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.

Call me if I can help you with a purchase or refi mortgage;
(520) 349-9090

This was our sunset this evening. The location is GlenMar Ranch in Caddo, OK.

My Darlin' and I come out here every April, and have been doing so since 1996. Working cows is so unlike everything I do the rest of the year that it's a vacation to work the spring roundup.

It used to take us more than a week of hard work--my friend Dick Carson and I--to get everything done. Now we hope to be done in two or three long days. Shots, medical attention, fly tags, ear tags, banding the bull calves to make little steers out of them....

You have a GREAT week, and thanks for stopping by to comment!

____________________

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, AZ Mortgage lender.

Think of me as your Tucson mortgage expert.

Call me if I can help you with a purchase or refi mortgage;
(520) 349-9090

You're looking at history. The creekbed is solid limestone, a layer geologists call the Goodland layer. It runs through the GlenMar Ranch in Caddo, OK.

My Darlin' and I spent a day together, walking the creek, looking carefully at the limestone beneath our feet. It had just rained the night before, and the creek was flowing.

We were looking for a specific fossil, an ancient animal that lived under the sea. It's called an Ammonite. Most of them are two or three inches in diameter.

Bigger Ammonites existed, though. I've seen fossilized Ammonites the size of steering wheels at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show in February.

They're right there, buried in the limestone. Sometimes all you'll see is a tiny ridged curve in the stone.

We each found one. We're driving back to Tucson with our prizes carefully wrapped. We've been converted to amateur paleontologists!

I'm Mike in Tucson, your preferred Tucson, Arizona Mortgage Lender

Think of me as your local expert.