Photo Op — Goulter Cattle 2003

It started five or six weeks ago with the cows.  We were driving north on Sandridge past Shier’s Field, and Nyel, who was riding shotgun, suddenly said, “Look at that!  A hundred cows!”

By the time I could glance over, however, I thought there were more like twenty or thirty.  And then they were behind us.  “Yeah, right,” I said.  “No really!” he insisted (maybe just a little tongue-in-cheek.) “A hundred cows!”

The next time we went by, I was prepared.  I saw a few dozen at the north end — maybe the same few? — and then a whole bunch more toward the south.  “And look over there to the east!  There must be a hundred of them!  Lying down!” Nyel said. “Who do you think they belong to?  Wrights?”

We were headed to Astoria so, being in a cow-ish frame of mind, we checked out Goulter’s herd.  Probably another hundred?  I wondered idly if they’d ever met the cows on Sandridge.  And are they all being fattened up for steaks and roasts?  I remember one year that Blaine Walker and Lance Wright were raising a few Kobi beef but I don’t think that worked out well.

Horses at Martin’s Bog — “at least 100 of ’em!”

And… as if all those cows aren’t enough, have you seen the horses at the old Martin’s Bog just north of Joe John’s Road on Sandridge?  “Must be a hundred horses!  At least!”  We don’t know who they belong to, either.  But, like the cows, it’s a pleasure to see them all.  I don’t really think I’ve seen so many pastures full of cows and horses since I was a kid!  Not here on the Peninsula, anyway.  It feels just like it should be!