"What do you DO as a ranch hand?"

I was suprised by this question last week and responded, "A little bit of whatever needs doing!" 

Here is a photo that is part of one task that I have set myself: to sneak 21st century technology into the operation of an old fashioned Texas Hill Country ranch.  

When we run a lot of cattle through the squeeze chute (it is humane, I promise!) to give them tests or vaccinations, I take a digital photo of each face.  Then when one solid black cow out of a group of thirty solid black cows loses her identifying ear tag (think of losing a pierced earring) I can match her face to one of the  photos and make her a new tag: Yellow 151. 

Thirty black cows may all look alike from the highway as you drive by, but this one has one ear lower than the other, only one cowlick, located almost on top of her head, a smooth dark nose and three little ridges above each eye.

Nan Henke

Texas Hill Country Art

http://texashillcountryart.etsy.com