Ranch Lessons 102…”Muddy Muck & Yuck” is now in session:) Today for fun I am sharing a secret cattle ranch factoid called when “The Ground Quivers With Mud & Cow-A-Pooey…Watch Your Step!”
Having grown up on a large cattle ranch, I learned early on about cow’s pooping in all the mud puddles creating…”Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck”. I have accidentally stepped into the quagmire of “Cow-A-Pooey” before and the sludge would literally suck my boot off my foot! I would hop on my other foot that was still in my other boot, trying not to fall down, as I grabbed hold of my yucky boot…which had sank deeper into the boggy mire of muddy poop and give it a hard yank…while trying to not put my foot with only the sock on, into the mud for balance but…as you can imagine, that was just about impossible!
This muddy mix is with horse poop, so even though it is still not fun to walk into, it is different as it has a horse poop smell and since it has something to do with a horse, it’s not so bad:)
Right Annie? Cow manure mixed into mud is worse! It never fails the night before, after you have gathered up your herd, you get an inch of rain in the corrals where you plan to work the cattle…at least it settles the dust, but now you get to deal with slippery, muddy cow pooey/sludge, as they have pooped all day and night
I have heard them “snicker-snort-moo-snort snicker” as we walk by…they smirk with gurgles and rather interesting noises to let you know that they have more to conjure up…and I promise, you will slip and slide or get your boot stuck into their mixture of “Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck.” It is at that moment, the “cowgirl life” loses a bit of the glamour and glory, when you have to work the cows and the gates on foot instead of horseback in the mud…in the sludge and in the poop!
Both WB and I remember working gates in muddy puddles, when the cow ran by you at warp speed giving you the gift of “Cow-A-Pooey Splatter Shower”, covering you from top to bottom!!! You learned early on to keep your mouth shut as they ran by! I liked having my hat on, hair tucked into it, wildrag covering my mouth and nose if needed, with my sunglasses on even if it was cloudy! Ahhh the good old days:)
Looking out one of the barn doors down on the arena presently…hey WB, look at how nice my round corral stays with the sand, compared to the arena where the water stands on top of the dirt and takes forever to drain off…hint-hint, more sand…more sand:)
Barn Lion Jack, did not like my camera flash…he looks kind of grumpy huh?
Brother Pat is not quite as grumpy and he was sort of interested in the camera…but just a little bit.
Back to “Muck Pooey”…this particular mud is clay dirt with older cow poop and fresher horse poop mixed into it and it is slowly draining the standing water into the ground. Note: It is always good to tuck your jeans into your boots…preferably higher top boots with galoshes over your boots.
Nummie nummie munch munch…I love the sound of horses eating their hay:) Annie is so patient with my camera…she lets me take pictures anytime.
And back to that round corral with the sand…a beautiful design in the sand in an interesting odd way. My round corral always makes me think of the song called “Barn Cat” by Mary Ann Kennedy. It is great, in fact all of her songs are great…Barn Cat was on her first album called “The Trail Less Traveled.”
“Barn Cat” by Mary Ann Kennedy
I’m a barn cat, not an alley cat or a house cat, I don’t sit on laps
I got a real job…I catch mice…It’s a tough life…I’m a barn cat
Meow, this is my territory…Bow wows…look out…I got sharp claws
And a king size bed made out of straw…I’m so glad I’m a barn cat
I got a feed room, and a tack room…And 4 stalls…I stalk em all
Don’t need a litter box, I got a round pen…60 foot of sand…I’m a barn cat!
Meow, this is my territory…Bow wows…look out…I got sharp claws
And a king size bed made out of straw…I’m so glad I’m a barn cat!
Be sure to check out Mary Ann Kennedy as I love her music:)
Tucker waiting patiently for me…thinking something like this “Mom, can we go yet…all this talk about muddy poopy corrals makes me very glad that we do not have a zillion cows anymore…I would not like getting all my fur muddy and stinking like a cow patty either….ewwwww!” I love how her colors blend in with the rocks…didn’t have it planned but Tuck is very photogenic with her color and sweet eyes.
Okay Tucker let’s get out of this “not so bad mud” and head for the house…we’ll go see what Minnie Mouse is up to.
Ms. Minnie says “Meowsy Hi All!” She looks pretty with her markings as they blend into the Navajo rug in this image. She loves her Navajos and prefers sleeping on wool blankets…she has sensitive fur and the wool must have an interesting tactile feel to it that she likes.
She told me that the “Barn Cat” song is fine but she would like to have a song called “House Cat”, as she prefers her house and is a very lady like kitty angel:)
And this concludes Ranch Lessons 102…”Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck” from the Juniper T, for now…wishing you a super-duper weekend where ever you may be! HRCG and crew over and out:)
Hot Rod Cowgirl 
Mar 05, 2023 @ 05:10:45
amazing photos and story, greetings from indonesia
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Jun 20, 2013 @ 19:48:15
Great pictures and post. Look forward to reading more. 🙂
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Jun 21, 2013 @ 13:59:55
Thank you so much:)
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Mar 15, 2013 @ 17:54:27
catnipoflife is honoring you with two Beautiful Blog Awards! Go to http://catnipoflife.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/the-envelop-please/ where the ‘rules’ are posted and do leave a comment so I know you received the notification! (Be sure to scroll down to Beautiful Blogger and Very Inspiring Blogger!)
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Mar 16, 2013 @ 16:45:47
Thank you thank you:) I am honored and humbled with two beautiful blog awards…..you are so sweet and I love your blog:)
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Mar 12, 2013 @ 09:21:26
WOW! You made everything so vivid…right down to the poopey-poop! Of course, that was your intention, right? Never had any experiences on a ranch. Um-m-m-m? Makes the litter box seem not so bad 😆
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Mar 12, 2013 @ 15:49:41
The litter box is not so bad:) Yes I was showing the unglamorous part of being a cowgirl and living on a ranch. One interesting thing is that horse poo does not smell bad at all compared to cows….horses just have a wonderful sense and feeling about them along with the ahhhhh horse smells:) Mucking out stalls is not thrilling but horses are:)
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 05:22:14
I haven’t seen you around lately. I guess you could say the same about me. I’ve been sick with a bad cold for about 10 days so I’ve lost touch with a lot of folks. Glad to see your still posting and enjoying life in the fast lane. LOL
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 15:38:15
Thank you for dropping by and sending get well prayers your way…. have been lucky to dodge the colds and flu bugs the last few years…my hubby gets chest colds easily. I have not posted as often as I would like as my hubby had shoulder surgery the day after Christmas and has been in a sling….today he began Physical Therapy….look ways to go yet so I have been doing the office as usual stuff and helping more with managing the shop etc. we hired three new employees so that kept me busy too with W-4’s and I-9’s and our employee handouts etc. Often the day disappears before I have a chance for my 2nd cup of coffee. The shoulder surgery was planned last summer as WB tore his bicep muscle in three places but sa they were setting a date for surgery they found the neck fusion too so that was first…we both are tired of doctors and medical stuff…but that is why I am a bit more quiet…and then loosing Kiah was very hard for me too but I’m here:) I did the muddy cow poo post for fun as it was needed to lighten up a bit:) Get well soon and I will be blogging more one of these days soon:)
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 15:46:19
I’m 63 and get my medical care at the Veterans Administration Clinic. I’ve been have tooth-ache like pain in my right shoulder the past 6 months. After 6 x-rays the diagnosis is arthritis. Oh, wonderful, there’s no cure for that so I live with the pain. Take care & I’ll see you on the blogs. – Bob
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 16:05:10
Not easy to do…living with the pain. WB heard the bicep pop July 20th and since then has been in pain. The way they do this type of surgery is that they trimmed 1/2″ bone off the clavicle and then 1/2″ bone off the arm bone where it joins the shoulder cap area….they ground off some arthritis under the clavicle and around the shoulder area….then they cut the bicep since it was yet hanging in threads still….then they drill a hole into the arm bone and take the bicep and run it into the arm bone hole and hold it in place with a screw….lots of massive bone pain in the recovery…and for the first time in his life he really can not do anything. The PT wore him out today and he is sleeping in our family room as I type…he usually is a type A personality….he did not tell me about the pain he was having after he heard the pop noise in his shoulder for 4 days and then he said “I think I better see a doctor”…I knew then that something bad was wrong! I have watched his daily pain since July and while it will get better one of these days the pain truly wears on you so I feel bad for you:( I wish they could have helped you somehow with the pain! Be good to yourself and take care ok:)
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 16:15:14
Thank you for sharing. The pain I have is minor compared to your husband’s. I have sharp pain if I lift my arm over my head or behind me. It’s most noticeable if I’m a passenger in a vehicle and need to reach the seatbelt. I’m supposed to be scheduled for physical therapy but haven’t heard from them in months. I may need to remind my doctor’s head nurse. Take care – Bob
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Feb 11, 2013 @ 15:02:15
Congratulations, Cowgirl!
I have nominated your blog for the Super Sweet Blogger Award.
The rules of this award are at
http://dearkitty1.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/super-sweet-blogger-award-thanks-katharina/
Well deserved 🙂 Enjoy!
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Feb 12, 2013 @ 19:39:51
Thank you so very much:) I am blessed to receive your award and that you thought of me:) I love the Super Sweet pictures of the piled on frosting! I love buttercream frosting so that the cake is 1/4 cake and 3/4 buttercream yummy frosting:) Congratulations to you too:):):)
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 01:26:06
Thank you! Keep blogging 🙂
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Feb 13, 2013 @ 15:30:14
🙂
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:09:11
I love horses. I agree with you, I think it’s fun how animals have their personalities, too. If I could, I’d probably live on a farm and have dozens of animals. Your horse, Annie, is very beautiful. Good thing she’s ok with a photo shoot now & then. 🙂
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:52:28
Yes, it is always a delight to my heart to see their unique personalities and their emotions. Annie is young yet too, she will be 4 this year…she trusts me in taking her pictures and she knows I am not the boogie man:) Melody my older mare, she will be 8 years old this year pouts at times…when I brought Annie home as six months I thought Mel would not mind if Annie took her stall which was closest to the house until Annie settled in…well Melody pouted for a week, she would hardly look at me so as soon as Annie was ready I moved her next to Melody and let Melody have her stall back….and Melody immediately improved in her attitude…all was well again:) Annie was fine too and she likes her stall and feels very secure in knowing I love her too…and Buck is more even in his emotions but he is a very true heart and loves to gt his daily rubs and loves…each so different and yet so alike in that they love to be loved and having the relationship to us:)
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 17:36:29
Great photos of your cats & doggie 🙂 They are beautiful.
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 18:59:11
Thank you much:) I love my animals and each one is special in their own unique way:) They each have their ways and personalities that make them very human…and horses are the very same way too!
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 14:00:28
I use composted cow manure for my vegetable garden so I can’t complain too much about cow poo. It’s usually mucky when I take it out of the bag. Sometimes green moss is growing on it! Even in the sealed plastic bag! I end up standing in it when I’m raking it into my soil or “side-dressing” a tomato plant with a little extra nutrients.
I never lost my shoe in it or my boot. However, once I dropped one of my hair rollers into the toilet bowl accidentally! It was my turn to go “ewwwww” and my dad’s turn to laugh.
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:03:11
Yes in order for your boot or shoe to be sucked off your foot you would need muddy sloppy conditions with cow poo mixed in to make it more slimy and slick…several inches deep and just lots of puddles and mud…that is when you lose your boot or shoe I promise:) I can just hear your Dad laugh and I bet it was not fun at all to fish out your hair roller…can you believe we used to sleep on those things….rollers with the brush and then the huge hard plastic ones and I even used my Mom’s small juice cans for rollers as my hair was long…and it is naturally straight…so I would sleep on them and take them out in the morning and ta-da straight hair:) Did you use dippity do?
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 09:26:39
Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck! Ah I remember it well. I have a story about that. After 3 days of nonstop rain, the sun came out. Mr Bates (who owned the ranch where I was working) wanted to go to town and took off in the truck. 1/2 an hour later he waked back. The truck was stuck in a giant mud hole. I was sent to get the Work Horse (mostly Percheron) Smokey to help pull the truck out. I got up to the corral, a giant morass of Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck and there was Smokey, right in the middle. After 10 minutes of cajolling, he sauntered over to the fence. I was sitting on the top rail. He let me hook the rope to his halter and pull him closer to the fence so I could climb over to his back. As I started to ease my leg over he started to siddle away, there I was, one foot on the rail one almost on the otherside of a wide back, one hand holding the halter rope and one flailing madly trying to keep balance.
Smoky keep moving away.
It seemed to take forever as I fell – face first towards the Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck.
I remeber the spat as I hit. How the goo felt as it slowly encased my body. How it tasted – as my mouth was open when I fell…
I put my hands down and felt the splort as I lifted the top half out of my body out of the Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck. I felt around for my glasses and then wiped my face and spat.
There I was, sitting in the muck, covered head to to and Smoky put his head down, his nose touched mine and he laughed!!!!
I can still smell the Cow-A-Pooey Muddy Muck!
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 19:17:16
Oh you do know what I mean:) And I am with you in your description and can imagine seeing you and Smokey…horses are so smart…my Mom did not ride horseback and one time my Dad talked her into riding his old rope horse Gypsy…it was summer time and warm and we were up at the mountain cattle ranch for the summer and fall. Anyway, I knew Gypsy well and she was smart…Mom came out in her bermuda shorts and well Dad and I both had our boots and jeans on…i was maybe 12 or so and gently said to Mom that maybe you would want your jeans on Mom…she said oh no, it is hot and I am ok since we are just going for a short ride in the meadow here close to home. Well I kept worrying…Dad led the way, Mom was behind him and I was behind Mom so I saw it coming….Gypsy began to drift closer to the trees and I kept saying to Mom to not let her get too close or she will try to rub you off…well Gypsy decided to go between two trees and I yelled at Mom to pull her back but it was too late and they went through the trees…Mom’s shins were scraped from knee to ankle…that was her last time to ride…horses seem to get these funny ideas and I bet Smokey thought a-ha:) I can just imagine the spat and the splort…of cow-a-pooey muddy muck:) I would have loved to know Smokey…he sounds like a true character:) And yes that smell stays with you forever:) Good memories and always fun to share:) You have a great way of sharing and telling your story with great writing style:)
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 09:14:33
Gosh, you could have titled this one “Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Poop But Were Afraid to Ask” !! 😀 😀 Somehow cleaning Sam’s litterbox is going to seem VERY tame compared to ranch poop! Happy Weekend!
Pam (and of course Sam who has a big smile on his face)
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 18:57:35
Hee-hee I love your idea for the title…yeah that part of working cattle was not super fun…it was not too bad on horseback unless you had lots of muddy corrals from the weather, either melted snow or rain, as it was hard for your horse to grab solid ground if you had to move fast to cut off a cow etc. Yes Sam’s box is very tame when it comes to cow poo…and it is odd but horse poo never smells or grosses me out…any horse person will say the same thing:) Horses are just different…and muddy conditions always make a mess to work in. Hugs and Happy Sunday to you all….kitty loves for Sam:)
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 06:38:55
I love this post! It brought back so many memories of treking through fields and tiptoeing around cow poop trying to catch the horses without getting too dirty. It is so weird how horse manure never was even given a second thought…and when you cleaned stalls it was with pride that you got every last piece out so they could return and start all over again!
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 18:51:19
🙂 Thank you much and I am happy in my heart to know that it brought back good memories to you too:) I know it does for me as I loved even the mucky poo muddy days as living on and working on the cattle ranch was bliss…I loved all the hours spent in the saddle looking for cows and moving them to new pastures…and then sorting them was fun….much mroe fun on horseback as your horse loved to boogie somewhat with the cows and that was a thrill that I loved….cutting out the cow from the herd and letting your horse work:) I miss those days so much…riding out at daybreak with your lunch packed in your saddle bags, and riding for miles all day coming home at dusk…eating Mom’s good dinners…going to bed and then repeating it the next day again:) I know what you mean too about cleaning out the horse stalls…no biggie and always liked giving them a clean stall with clean dry bedding…but cleaning up after cattle was ugh…having to clean out the stock trailer with a pressure washer…when I was done I was splattered from the top of my head to the top of my boots with cow-a-pooey!
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 06:23:08
I wonder if the stickiness of cow poop is why the Masai use it to plaster their domas(huts) cuz it seems to me it dries to a hard and plaster-like shell. Maybe the digestive cow juices are a contributing factor? Wow…am I overthinking this!
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 18:44:38
I have never thought of that but I bet you are right…it dries like a sort of plaster and I wonder too if it is used in other ways such as making a cast for an injured Masai. I would not like it as it would be smelly but maybe if you mix some other stuff and herbs with it, it is not bad? You got me thinking too:) Thank you for dropping in to say Hi:) And thanks for giving me some deep thoughts for the night…I always like exploring deep thoughts and the why nots and what ifs:)
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 03:14:22
I have had some experience with having a boot sucked off by muck and some with stepping in cow and horse poo. The worst is chicken poo.
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Feb 09, 2013 @ 18:40:28
Thank you for visiting my blog:) I am not familiar with chicken poo…sounds pretty yucky. Yeah the boot being sucked off your foot is always such a joy and happens when you least expect it! It would never fail to happen when my Dad would say “now Marcy move out of the way so the cows can get through”….”but Dad I can’t as I need my boot” and well the cows won and I lost! The good old memories that we never forget…:)
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Feb 08, 2013 @ 22:33:44
Nothing like the smell of hot cow poo or horse poo…. just says something to me… Probably DON”T STAND IN ME…
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Feb 08, 2013 @ 22:37:15
For sure:) It has always been such a part of my life working with cattle and horses…but yeah…no matter the weather conditions I try to steer clear of cow poo but have to admit…horses are different and I can not help but love their smells both good and not so great:)
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Feb 08, 2013 @ 22:05:06
Muddy muck is what we will have here when the three feet of snow melts. If it ever melts! How I long for a whiff of horse.
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Feb 08, 2013 @ 22:12:42
I know, I know horses smell so good and no matter what we are drawn to them:) Our snow right now is pretty much gone…every few days I get just a slight glimpse of Spring….and see a bit of green…so I am hoping:) I am sending you lots of good whiffs of horses in heart and thought:)
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