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Misty Morning Milk Sip

Misty Morning Milk Sip
Misty Morning Milk Sip

Misty Morning Milk Sip

😜You have to look pretty closely at the cow center frame to see the calf nursing on her Black Angus Mom. I just named the image that lol. This amazing landscape is the attraction to me. There are other cattle off in the distance to but the perspective and shadows…. be still my heart…. Backcountry Pasture on a “at the sunrise” dewy morning on a rolling landscape. The recipe is: low angle “Golden Hour” lighting passing through a lot of suspended moisture at right angles. This is however but a sideshow to the sunrise to the right of frame. I have to constantly remind myself to look around to see what otherwise would be missed. The cow/calf are in Wyoming pasture while the treed hills in the distance are in Montana.

This borderland country is a favorite backcountry haunt of mine. The view is amazing from this ridge in all directions All the ground in this image is a small portion of our overall ranch which is in both Montana and Wyoming. Yes we pay property taxes in both states (before anyone asks lol). My son went to High School in Montana. Had to drive 90 mile round trips daily. At age 13, he had a ‘hardship” license to drive the backcountry gravel 15 miles to the closest bus pick up spot Ranch Kids learn to drive very early.

I’ve got fossil “Micro-sites” on several locations in this image. The ground looks the same except there are fossils falling out of the sand if you dig it. 99 percent of the bedrock sand has nothing in it. Some spots are very fossiliferous. Hit or miss. I knew fossils were here when I bought the place, I just didn’t know where they were.

A land of many uses.

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana).

Title: Misty Morning Milk Sip

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First Morning Drink on Tap

First Morning Drink on Tap
First Morning Drink on Tap

First Morning Drink on Tap

The very first of the mornings light skimmed off the high hill tops and ridges. I like to be just on the far side of a ridge for the sky show. Here I caught a calf Black Angus enter the rear door of the cafeteria’s milk spigot. Between the green grass (rocket fuel) and all that raw milk makes them live wires. You never know which way they are going to jump in the spring.

I get a lot of comments regarding the conical pyramidal shaped hill. I often do satire narratives where they turn magicially into volcanos or the rare “American” pyramid. I’m sorry that the truth is way less interesting. Sadly they are just piles of different layers of sandstones and mudstones. Deposted during the late Cretaceous, these layers are world famous.. This is when the dinosaurs were crawling around these sands I’m standing on. Blanketed in the Hell Creek/Lance formation, we never know what we are going to find. . Known from the end of the dinosaur era. They are indeed occasionally fossilferous. I’ve found good sized bones in the grass before (rare but several times). There are indeed dinosaur fossils up here. We earned Bliss Dinosaur Ranch as a name. p

But this is a land of many uses. We raise a lot of grass and cattle up here. I raise some dinosaurs now and then of course. We’ve had a nationally released video of 4 wheel drive activity we’ve done up here. (2008 Petersons 4 wheel drive and offroad’s Ultimate Adventure Video was partially filmed here). We have had a major rifle shoot here every year for 18 years now. Oil has been extracted back in the 1960’s so the place was mineral rich. Open spaces are still open. You would be hard pressed to find much evidence of the 1960’s oil production. There are several pipelines for oil, gas and CO2 crossing nearby. This place makes many things happen.

Title: First Morning Drink on Tap

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Sip Through the Wire

Sip Through the Barbed Wire
Sip through the Barbed Wire

When a calf slips under a fence into an adjacent pasture, a sip through the wire is in order lolol. It might take it a few days to find it’s way back to mom but it usually does on it’s own. If mom is bursting, and calf is hungry, wire isn’t a problem and a situation usually presents itself to relieve the pressure that’s building lol.

It was a beautiful morning that day and I was driving my Jeep across country following cattle trails to a remote high point to watch the sunrise. This photo was just one of those things I randomly run into as I travel from location to location. Some of my best images have occurred that way and I actively try to be ready for such encounters by having my cameras reset from pointing at the sun to pointing at the backshow 😎📸.

I’m not sure how and where and particularly why calves go through barbed wire away from their mom. Curiousity I suppose is their motivation. I try to be an observer of nature when ever possible but I only get snippits here and there of the real story. I see the end result all the time. The process leading up to that result is what I’m not usually in the loop for lolol. My dad used to say “things are as they are, not as they seem OR as you are told). I try to examine all things backcountry with this philosophy in mind. I run into things every day that I’ve never seen before let alone have an explanation for lolol.

It around 6 pm as this posts so be safe for the rest of the evening. Fricking dark at 5:30 and the time changes next Sunday……Boy is daylight savings time messed up !

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands.

Sip through the Wire.

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Mother and Calf Nursing at Sunrise

Mother and Calf Nursing at Sunrise
Mother and Calf Nursing at Sunrise

This Mother Angus Cow and her Calf were nursing up on that ridge. The calf choose the back door entry this time. Inherently dangerous being under that tail for falling “debris” that usually is forthcoming from the south end of a cow. I see calves choose the back door when mom is in a hurry for a quick sip. 4 taps, no waiting ….

If you like my work, you might follow my personal FB page to have it flow with your newsfeed. Or visit BlissPhotographics.com to see a pile of my images…

Location: Bliss DInosaur Ranch, Wyoming/Montana borderlands (Wyotana).