Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Watch Where You Step

I gave you guys a break for a few days.  I was camping without internet access for the weekend.  I could have gone to McDonald's or Starbucks, but I was having fun with friends in the real world.

Bayou City Outdoors did a series of Hill Country events for the Memorial Day Weekend.  You know it was a guy who picked the campground - we were camped out in a pasture.  I knew it was a ranch, but I didn't realize we were going to be in the same field as the cows.  Click to enlarge the below photo and you can see exactly how close they were.



I awoke to the sound of mooing and a strange call I soon realized was coming from the BULLS.  There were two of them coming straight towards our tents - dehorned, but still very large and scary.  I told one of the guys to go stop them from coming this way.  I was only kidding, but he did it!  He walked over to the bulls and immediately the two of them started fighting.  The cows came over to watch.  It reminded me of the school yard, with the kids yelling, "Fight!  Fight!"


There were a couple of dogs that were hanging out at the ranch and decided to adopt us for the weekend.  That's R and one of them pictured above.  When R started encouraging the cattle to move farther away from our camp, she immediately ran out to help.  She actually sent them in the correct direction and only chased them when we were trying to shoo them.  Smart puppy!  We decided if she was going to herd the cattle, she could stay.

She did a good job.  The cattle spent a lot of time standing around and staring at us.  I think we stole their favorite shade trees and all those spots void of grass where we liked to pitch our tents were their beds.  They were probably wondering why they could fit an entire herd under those trees and six skinny humans couldn't share.



There were also a couple of horses that occasionally came whinneying and running through camp.  One of them decided to take a dust bath.  The dog spotted the horse with all four legs in the air, rolling around on the ground and decided she wanted to play, too.  The horse wanted no part of it.  He reared up, kicked at the air, and our canine friend took the hint.        

We used the ranch, near Llano, as a base camp while we did some wine-tasting at the vineyards outside of Fredericksburg and visited a couple of state parks.  I hope everyone had fun this holiday weekend.
 

24 comments:

Brian Miller said...

nice. sounds like a great weekend...hoping to go camping here in a couple weeks when the kids get out of school...

Vince said...

I wish they would invent an air conditioner for tents. For unless you allow the opening to stay open you awake with so much humidity and heat one may as well be using a plastic bag.

Bernie said...

Your weekend sounds great...love the horse picture.......:-) Hugs

Anonymous said...

That looks like fun...bulls and all!

Anonymous said...

Camping is great. I'm going camping soon. I'm so excited!


LOVE!

Jen said...

I do have a ceiling fan for my tent, but I didn't use it this weekend. The weather was perfect for camping. I left the rainfly off and looked up through the mesh roof and 2 mesh walls at the stars. It actually got cool enough that I had to crawl inside my sleeping bag in the early morning hours.

My tent has one vent near the top that is never completely sealed so I don't have the moisture problem as much as with other tents.

Anonymous said...

Looks so wonderful, getting close to be poetry, seen from here. Makes one glad to read about your good time. Please have a nice Thursday.

Liz Mays said...

Camping coupled with wine tasting sounds divine. I think it's really neat that the horses were roaming free out there.

jack69 said...

Great Post, I know you enjoyed the campsite no matter if a guy picked it.
Take care

Sniffles and Smiles said...

Sounds like a fabulous way to spend the weekend! And what terrific photos! So loved this! Would have liked to join you :-) ~Janine XO

betty said...

cool place to camp! I think I would like that, at least there weren't bear around, right?? and visiting wineries is also fun too!

sounds like it was a very nice weekend indeed!

betty

Ronda Laveen said...

Quite a nice time you had! Great photos. Aren't those cow dogs fun to watch? Love them.

Tempo said...

Hi Jen, looks like a nice place to holiday, nice and shady under those trees.

Lucy said...

Having been raised on a farm, I never really knew that the smells were different. I sure do now.

Full-On-Forward said...

What an awesome Weekend! Happy for ya!

John

RoseBelle said...

Wow, what a nice place to camp minus the bulls of course. We have to drive for hours to our nearest campsite and it actually looks more like a run down forest.

Kelly said...

I bet those cows were pretty irked that you took their shady spot! Our bull can just look at me and I back off. No way I'd want to sleep in the same pasture with him (or our cows!).

The Blonde Duck said...

Popped in to say hi! We live south of the Hill Country, so I loved looking at your pictures!

sage said...

sounds like a lot of bull... just kidding, sounds like a great weekend and good for you for not hunting down an internet access

buffalodick said...

Unique experience! Glad you had some fun...

Sara Louise said...

Those Hill Country trees are making me homesick!

gayle said...

Haven't camped in year..not sure this old body could take it!!

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

Glad you are having fun outdoors.
lovely photos.

Heather said...

You are so adventurous! You really do amaze me! Soo cool that the dog was there to potect and have fun with.

I wonder if when I am a widow, wether or not I will be that adventurous. I used to be, a long long time ago.

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