Cattle, a rolling donkey, a spoiled horse, and a smiling lizard

Meet the Hereford calves, cows, and bull that are among the wildflowers at the Smith Ranch.  Also included for your viewing pleasure is an image of our donkey Ozark rolling in the dirt.  Donkeys will roll in the dirt and get up and shake their head and ears and not their body.  The reason for this is the dirt provides insulation against the heat and cold.

Below Ace is leaning over the fence to get his daily treat.

The lizard below is quite content on his elevated rock home!  Even looks like he is smiling in the image!

We sold our steers...

We sold our six angus steers at the sale barn and didn't make any profit on the sale this year.  This group of steers didn't gain a lot of weight compared to the steers we had the last few years.  Go figure!   I miss watching them graze the pasture.  The images below were taken a few days before we said our last farewell.

A beautiful horse, galloping cattle, and a pet lizard

This beautiful horse is not our horse, but I would love to own it!  Our neighbors have six horses with two Palominos with blond mane and chestnut coats.  I'm trying to get a nice image of all six horses and will publish the image when I do so.  After getting this image we drove the truck over to where the cattle were.  I was all set to get the shot when my husband Ron called the cattle.  It was hard not to laugh as they started galloping over to us.  The final image below is a lizard that has taken abode on a rock in our backyard.  Ron decided the lizard needed more room to sunbath so added a tree trunk and a rock to create a higher home for the lizard.

Their last and only professional portrait!

It's the final day that our four cattle are with us at the Smith Ranch before going to the sale barn.  It's a beautiful sunny September morning and a perfect day for outside portraits.  I grabbed my wide-angle lens and camera and headed out to the corral to have some fun.  The cattle have no clue that they are probably getting their last and only professional portrait!  They think I'm bringing them a treat.  They get very close to me with cute expressions on their face.  I have included my favorites from their session for you to get a good laugh!  Enjoy!!!

Friday Night at The Smith Ranch

It was nice to enjoy sunny blue skies after several rainy days (that were very much needed)!  I couldn't let it pass without going out and capturing some moments on the ranch.  I have included some comments with each photo taken below....

Here are our cattle taking a stroll down our driveway! :)  Seriously, I am on the bed of a pickup truck with a bucket of range cubes bribing them to get back into the pasture.

 Ol' Red is the shyest of the bunch.  He's the only one we aren't able to feed from our hands.

 I don't know why I enjoy taking photos of backsides but I think this one is kinda cute!

 Mr. Steer is having a "hay day" munching on some brohm hay.

 You wonder what is going on in these two steers' heads.... :)

In the morning and late evening are the best times to get reflections from the water.  It was pretty dark when this was taken and the colors weren't so great so I converted to sepia.

I saved this shot for last for those that might get creeped out!  This spider was my first shot of the day.  I was trying to get a backlist shot of this spider on my living room window while my husband was keeping it still.