A NEW COWBOY IN TOWN
Today I came in touch with the latest that our tech world has to offer to make my live easier or more complicated; I’m not yet sure which. I’ve heard of “drones,” but this is the first time I got to watch one in action. John and Barbara Varian were hosting a week-long Photographic Work Shop at the V6. One lady that wanted a different angle to shoot pictures of a group of our horses, simply went to her S.U.V. and whipped out her handy four rotor drone. In less than a minute this contraption was in the air above the horses. It hovered at about 15 feet in the air. It was absolutely motionless because of a gyroscope that allows a miniature camera to take pictures from different angles producing blur-free pictures.
This is a robber of privacy or an observer of what’s going on in real time, pick your poison. Now I’m not one for watching nude sun bathers ( what a shame) so I think I will tilt in the direction of ” wouldn’t it be nice to know ahead of time where my cattle are, the day before I want to move the heard to greener pastures.”
The downside of this tech explosion could possibly be the death of one more Cowboy skill. The V6 has a lot of trees and brush for cattle to hide in or just shade up for the day. This means its time to start tracking our quarry. By reading how old the foot prints are and which direction they were going and guessing how long ago some cow poop was left you can track where the cattle are. Now if we are really serious as to how long this round looking plate of poop is, it’s time get of your horse take your index finger and insert it into the middle of said Cow Pie if it’s still warm. You get the idea. On the other hand, if it’s scattered down the trail she might be on the run and a fellow might want to pull his hat down and get ready for the chase.
Now back to that drone. This gadget they tell me with its computer chips chirping and a G.P.S. system attached will let me scour the country and will send a video view as to where all my cattle are. This leads me to a logical thought, why not just arm this destroyer of one more cowboy skill and mount it with a Bull Horn that blares out Yippee tie yi yay get along little doggie, get along.
Could it be that my cowboy days will soon be gone? Another piece of AMERICANA gone. I HOPE NOT.
See Ya,
Jack