That scenery is just absolutely incredible. My jaw is just on the keyboard right now. Those are exceptional herefords, too. My compliments to you, Ned Jr. If you'd let me, I would sure stop by and visit you. I plan on being in Colorado this summer.
Back about six years I was hauling purebred cattle. I hauled several animals for Gordon Jamison and actuall ended up hauling a bull and I think a female or two from Gino Pedretti's back to Gordon's.
Quick little story. I don't know if it was those particular animals I was delivering at the time or not, that's irrelevant. Whatever the reason, I was delivering something to Gordon's. I remember it was a cold night but it had been getting warmer during the days. I was picking up bulls as well as dropping some off, so I was backed up to the barn there at Gordon's. They brought the last bull up and he was going to have his own compartment which was actually the back third of my trailer. As he stepped on, he got about two thirds of the way up there and stopped. One of the hired guys brought the gate around and kind of pushed it up against that bulls hocks. He was a very gentle bull and didn't seem to mind at all (you've all been there with that last cow, haven't you!). He started pusing harder and harder on that trailer gate. All we could see was the bottom 12 or 15 inches of those legs sticking out. Well, the bull finally decided to step up on the so he just slowly steps on. The problem was, the fellow was pushing on those legs quite hard when he stepped up. Normally that wouldn't be a problem. I had, however forgetten one little minor deal on my otherwise perfect brand new Titan trailer. There's a nut welded up and down on the gate right below one of the hinge pins. You're supposed to go to the hardware store and get a .50 cent bolt to put in there to keep the gate from ever coming up out of the sleeves that it hinges on. I had neglected to do this. So, needless to say, when that bull stepped up in there with that gate being pushed against his legs, he just lifted that gate up off the hinges slick as a whistle. It popped out of there and came down right on the top of the hired man's foot! Now, as I mentioned earlier, it had been getting warmer during the days and causing the snow to melt and there was some mud in places. The hired guy was wearing five-buckle overshoes over leather boots. That gate came down hard enough to go through the overshoe, the boot, and the sock. When he got down that far there was already a pretty big red spot on his sock and it was getting bigger! I felt so bad for him. We had to get a floor jack and another guy or two to help us get the gate back on. I stopped somewhere and bought that bolt the next day!
. Thanks for all the compliments everyone.