Cash Milk

This past Thanksgiving week was dedicated to volunteer work for the Sacramento Hmong New Year. Over 30,000 people attended the event held at Cal Exposition, here in Sacramento.

Board members demonstrating traditional ball toss

Special Guest Miss Asia Sacramento (Hmong)

Contestants for the Miss Hmong Sacramento New Year Pageant

My friend sent over these tasty pictures of the crayfish from the delta. He said the claws were meaty but the tails seem a bit on the skinny side. It may be due to the season. Looks good I tell ya.

Today a friend  and I went to have lunch in Galt, CA at our favorite taco truck. It is on the corner of Twin Cities Road and Highway 99. I get the usual beef taco. He is a lot braver and orders the tongue and tripe taco. They are reasonable price at $1.25 per taco. The menu also include head taco, I guess they are referring to meet from the head of a cow. We will have to try that next time. This truck offers fried jalapenos and their tacos are the tastiest in the area.


Today a trailer pulled in with a boat. It looked to have a few crayfish cages so I decided to see if they caught any. It turns out this is the end of the season. He showed us his catch and we offered to buy some. These look very bright and healthy. Someone is going to have some good eating tonight. 

This here is the Cattleman's Livestock Market in Galt, CA. You have some of the nicest people here at CLM and the food is pretty good. We usually get breakfast here and head to the taco truck for lunch. Cattle is brought here on Wednesday and Thursday to be auction off. On weekends they usually have special sales.


This is the catwalk in the sale yard. This is where you can view the cattle inventory for the day. They run singles through first and then pairs, steers, and heifers. It smells like cows here and there is a lot of mooing. Once in a while you'll see a cow jump the 6 foot fences.

So I ran across this add about 20 guinea fowls for sale. It reads "These are working birds/pets - not for meat". I guess there is a working guinea fowl union somewhere that doesn't allow these birds to be stir fry. Sure promise I won't eat em'.


What do you guys think? Does the owner have the right to tell you not to eat these birds. I mean think about it. After laying eggs and serving it's purpose, the best poultry management practices would be to consume these meat birds. Oh wait they are protected!

This was the other long horn steer that we picked up from CLM. This guy stood 6 feet at the shoulders. He was sent off to Fresno and lived happily ever after. That would had made a nice rug.

Black Sparrow Hawk (Africa)

This was taken near Dry Creek Ranch in Herald, CA.

Above is a rare Black Sparrow Hawk from Africa. (picture taken from falconry website)

This past weekend A good friend of mine got together and went out hawking for cotton tail rabbits. We got skunked but it was successful because the passage hawk flew back to the glove. It was beautiful sight to see the hawk circle around us as we flushed the cotton tails out of the brush.

Harris Hawk

Cattle has to be weigh in to be sold or for record keeping. Part of the best practices of cattle management at our feedlot. Remember about cattle stress and moving them around to much, well if you have 30 heads of cattle weighing in and they lost 3 lbs each you just lost 90 lbs at $1.00 is about $90.00 today because you implied bad management practices or feed schedule. I can tell you all about that in another post. These scales are in the ground and are pretty sophisticated. I can assure you that every top operation ranch has one.  Balancing these babies are a must as rain, dirt, and water can effect your real numbers. In some cases you just drive your trailer righ on it and weigh them in.

Yes we are talking about Cache Creek Casino her in Northern California. Four longhorn steers ended up at CLM here in Galt. We were lucky enough to buy 3 of the 4 heads. This was the last one we kept. They weigh in about an average 1700 lbs and stood 6 feet at the shoulders. They were very gentle but intimidating because they all had 4 foot horns. Those lawn ornaments in the background are Angus bulls.

This was taken at Uptite Feedlot here in Herald. It was a facility a head of it's time.

Have you ever herd of a feedlot or know what one looks like? I haven't either until my ealry years as a small time rancher. It is where you take the animals to feed in a lot, make sense. It usually is a setup where you sort animals out and feed then daily to get gain in them. People usually take animals to feed lot to fatten them up before butcher or selling them off. Remember cattle is sold per by the pounds so every pound counts.

I spent a day with Mr. Whittle, a modern day cattle rancher up in Angels Camp, CA. He is a third generation rancher and his family has been in Angels Camp since 1864. They were one of the first families to settle there. Today they ranch over 20,000 acres of private and public lands. We spent today evaluating the pasture grass and opening gates to greener pastures for the cows. Now when we say cow in ranch country we are referring to momma cows. Male cows are called "bulls" and castrated males are called "steers", Young females who have not calved are called "heifers". We are cover about 800 acres or so today on horseback and this country is breath taking.


Some of you may wonder why we still us horses. It's really a lifestyle and it is less stressful for the cattle. Yes animals have stress too. When that happens they don't gain as well and it disrupts everything. So that means you wouldn't want a coyote chasing your cattle all day because they will in fact lose pounds and that can be the difference between cost and returns per animal. Like they say we like happy California cows.

This school house has been here since 1864. It is one of the oldest structures here on the ranch. 

Well if I am going to be a Cowboy I need a horse. This here is my horse, her name is Princess Sails. She is a American Quarter Horse. Her daddy was the no other than Topsail Cody, a hall of fame NRHA stallion. She is 9 years old and has a star on her forehead. No sock, I don't like socks (socks are the white coloring on their feet). I've had her for half a year now and she has been a dream horse. She is actually my third horse I have owned. More about her later ... .