DECEMBER 15 – We had several more inches of snow last
week so the cows are on a full feed of hay. Michael brings his truck down every
few days to load some of the big bales to take up to his cows.
One of
Alfonzo’s bulls was out on the road below our place; the neighbors who fed his
cows the day before had left the gate open. Andrea and Lynn drove down on
4-wheelers and put the bull back into Alfonzo’s field before it came up to our
place.
Michael,
Carolyn and young Heather drove to Butte, Montana to do Christmas shopping and
meet up with Heather’s friend Gregory driving down from Canada. This is his
first trip to Idaho to meet the family and visit here for a few days. With the
stormy weather and bad roads, they wanted to make sure he could make it over
the pass between Montana and Idaho in his pickup. Later that week Carolyn
cooked a nice dinner and we went up to their house and got to meet Gregory—a
very nice young man!
Last
Wednesday we fed our cows close to the gate into our heifer hill pasture, and
sorted out the young cows (first and second calvers), putting them through the
gate. Now we can feed them separately so they’ll get their share of the
hay--and the older, bossier cows can’t hog so much of the feed. We can also
give some of the better hay to the younger cows, since they are still growing
as well as being pregnant. We are feeding them all some alfalfa, but we can
save the best grass bales for the weaned heifers and the young cows.
That
evening Lynn and I drove to town and attended the school Christmas concert. Sam
and Charlie were playing in the concert band and also sang in the chorus.
My boxes of
books finally arrived (my latest book, Ranch Tales) so I packaged up a bunch of
them to mail out to family and friends as Christmas gifts. If only I could
write a book every year, then my “gift list” would be easy!
Andrea and
Robbie took his pickup and went with Michael and Carolyn and kids (in their
truck) up the creek to get firewood. The snow was really deep up there and they
had to chain up both pickups, but were able to get into a good patch of dead
trees (killed by the fire in 2003) and brought home two big loads of wood.
We’ve had a
lot of snow and cold weather; the snow is getting quite deep. Andrea and Robbie
helped Lynn take a couple of big grass bales up to the group of young cows—a
good one for their feeder and an extra one (a spoiled top bale) to spread
around for them to bed on, so they won’t have to lie in the deep snow.
The kids
are now out of school for Christmas holiday, and got to spend the first few
days (before Christmas) at home with Andrea this year. Dani helped feed the
heifers a few times (so she could pet her favorite one -- Deerling) and made our
calving calendar. She wrote all the cows’ names on the dates they are due to
calve. She also enjoyed spending time with her favorite pets, including her
cats.
Tuesday
evening Dani and Sam went with Andrea and me to deliver gifts to a couple of
our neighbors up the creek. We stayed awhile to visit with David and Rosina and
their young children (the Amish family living in Gordon Binning’s smaller
house). It was cold that night by the time we got home, nearly down to zero.
Wednesday
Sam had another checkup, and another x-ray, and the doctor said her foot has
finally healed enough that she no longer has to be on crutches! It’s been a
long recovery; she’s been on crutches since July.
Robbie
helped Lynn put the blade on our big tractor and Lynn plowed snow off Andrea’s
driveway and ours; it was getting too deep to drive to her house, or to get up
our driveway. Robbie spent a couple days taking the old straw out of our
calving barn, loading it into a little trailer and pulling it out with the
4-wheeler. He took some into the adjacent field for the little heifers to bed
on, and several trailer trips up to the field by Andrea’s house where the main
group of cows are. With the deep snow they had to place to bed, so he spread
the straw along the bottom edge of the field along the willows, out of the
wind. They are appreciating their nice bedding area.
We have
several cottontail rabbits living in the barnyard and one of them has taken up
residence under by the parked machinery next to some of my horse pens. This
rabbit likes to eat the alfalfa leaves that spill when we are loading our sleds
to feed the heifers, and is very unafraid of people. Lynn’s cat (that also
lives in the same area, by the tarped alfalfa bales for the heifers) has caught
and eaten several cottontail rabbits this winter, but not this one. She likes
to chase the rabbit, but so far these games of cat and rabbit haven’t wiped out
this bunny.
With the
snow and cold weather the whitetail deer are coming in droves to eat the
alfalfa. We have the haystacks wrapped with netting, and put tarps over the
feed truck and the hay for the heifers, but they come boldly into the feed trail
to eat with the cows and heifers. Even when we chase them away, they wait in
the bushes until we leave, and come right back again. Some of them come through
the house yard.
On
Christmas Eve my brother Rocky and wife Bev and son Aaron stopped by on their
way home; they are now finally in their new house up the creek; it is finished!
Rocky had just been to a couple Christmas Eve events downtown, playing Santa. He’s
perfect for the part, with his white beard and jolly smile.
Yesterday (Christmas) we did chores early, fed the cows
their alfalfa, then went up to Andrea’s house to watch the kids open their
gifts.
That afternoon Michael came down for more hay and helped us
take big bales around to fill the cows’ feeders again. Andrea took the kids to
Mark that evening; he gets them for most of the rest of the Christmas vacation.
Today Andrea and Robbie helped feed, and break ice for the
cows. With all the cold weather it’s been harder to keep their water holes open
and we have to chop them open again every day. Michael came down late morning
and we took the shoes off Shiloh, Sprout, Dottie and Ed.
Andrea and Robbie put up more electric wire around part of
Willow’s pen to keep her from chewing up the fence posts and poles. That filly
loves to chew on everything!
Tonight the temperature is dropping below zero.
JANUARY 5 – Magrat’s young heifer Mallulamae was lame with
foot rot last week, so Andrea and Robbie helped me treat her. We lured her and
a couple other heifers into the 2nd day pens (by the barn) with a
little hay, then put her in the headcatch by the barn and gave her injections
of oxytetracycline. By the next day she was walking better, and by the 3rd
day was no longer lame, and the swelling nearly gone.
Jim has
been creating some lovely lamps and chandeliers in the old “rolling wreck”
trailer house that he converted into a shop. Robbie helped him take out a wall,
to make a bigger working space. Jim is making several lamps and pieces of
antler art for some clients and also some extra ones to take to an art show in
a few weeks, to sell. As a fun project he created a decorative “flower pot” and
some huge “flowers” made of antlers and turquoise.
He’s also
spoiling us, splitting wood and filling our wood-box every morning. With the
cold weather we’ve been using both stoves and going through a lot of firewood.
Jim and
Robbie repaired our two old runner sleds that needed some new boards. Our kids
used them when they were little, and one of them dates back to when I was
young. Those are still the best sleds because they steer. Andrea’s kids are now
enjoying them; they can come down her driveway all the way to our barnyard. It
makes a great sledding hill. They also enjoy having someone pull them back up
the lane on their sleds, with a pickup or 4-wheeler so they don’t have to hike
back up. With the new snow the other day they were having a snowball fight on
their way back up to their house.
Rocky’s
daughters Amber and Amanda made a fast trip up here from Boise to visit and see
Rocky’s new house. They stopped briefly at our place early the next morning on
their way home, to say hi and to see Andrea.
The deer
have been jumping in with Veggie and eating his alfalfa hay at night. Andrea
and Robbie screwed some small poles onto the fenceposts to make the fence
taller, and strung more electric wires above the fence. We hope that will keep
out the deer. Poor old Veggie is 30 years old now, and it takes him awhile to
eat his hay; he picks at it all night long. If the deer eat it, he won’t get
enough.
On New
Years Eve Andrea got the kids back from Mark (for 1 day) so we had a potluck
pizza dinner at our house when they got home. Andrea made a pizza and I made
one and after dinner we all went up to her place to watch movies. We took our
old VCR tapes of The Gods Must Be Crazy and The Gods Must Be Crazy II and
Andrea made a big batch of popcorn. The kids hadn’t seen those old movies and
we all enjoyed them. That’s the first time Lynn and I have stayed up until
midnight on New Year’s Eve for many, many years! It was 8 below zero when we
got home, and 11 below by morning.
In this
cold weather the cats like to find warm spots, like our “fencing cat” on a
favorite perch enjoying the sunshine’s warmth reflecting off the barn door.
The water holes in the creek froze over and it took 30
minutes to chop out the ice and re-establish the water holes. Charlie and Dani enjoyed
their “new” repaired runner sleds and coasted all the way down to the barnyard,
and helped do chores that evening, then Andrea took them home before they got
too cold. It dropped to 15 below that night. She had to take the kids back to
Mark for the rest of the holiday.
The deer
tore down the high hot wires around Veggie’s pen that night, so Andrea fixed it
and strung more wire. I think we finally have them fenced out.
The young
heifers ran out of grass hay in their feeder and it was too cold to start the
tractor. It has to be plugged in overnight and even then it won’t start at this
temperature so we don’t even try it. So we backed the feed truck up to the
stack and four of us rolled a big bale onto the truck to take out to their field. We
rolled it off the truck into their empty feeder. We give them alfalfa hay twice
a day, but also keep grass hay in their feeder at all times, and they are doing
very well on that program. The deer don’t bother to eat the grass hay; they
just want the alfalfa! We select the best grass bales (not too coarse) for the
heifers—and it sometimes has a little clover in it, too.
When the
kids got home from Mark's, Andrea had a turkey dinner cooked and we all ate at
her place. She hadn’t had a chance to have a Christmas dinner for the kids so
this was our belated get-together for dinner.
Andrea took
bales around today to the various feeders. It’s hard for Lynn to get in and out
of the tractor with his painful back and hip, so Andrea is doing more of the
tractor work.
Then Robbie helped them tear out the old fence between the calving pen and the orchard. We need to rebuild it before calving season. I locked the two little bulls in the horse pasture so they wouldn’t get out, and moved their water tub; I can take a hose through Dottie’s pen to water them. Michael rerouted the hot wire, putting it on tall poles above the fence they’ll be rebuilding. I fed them lunch. This afternoon, they built fires over each post hole they need to dig, to thaw the frozen ground, and put our half barrel “ovens” over the fires, to keep the fires contained through the night.
Andrea went
to the doctor last week to have her shoulder checked; she’s torn something
loose, and it’s very painful every time she chops ice or has to use that
shoulder very much. If it’s not starting to do better in a couple weeks she
will be referred to a specialist. The doctor prescribed physical therapy for her in the
meantime, to try to help it.
Last week
we had major snowstorms—10 inches of new snow in town, and not quite that much
here. I took photos of the new snow on our new fence.
Lynn plowed our driveway and Andrea’s again, and his hip is
really bothering him now, after getting in and out of the tractor. It was
hurting so badly during the night that he had to use crutches to go to the
bathroom. Since then he’s been taking pain medication and has a doctor’s
appointment tomorrow to have it checked. It doesn’t hurt much when he’s sitting
down, but standing and walking can be very painful. We’ve been doing all the
chores and letting him sit in the house and read his newspaper!
Since we
started feeding the cows 2 weeks earlier than last year, and feeding grass hay
in their feeders rather than straw, they’ve been going through the hay more
quickly than we expected. We’ll have to buy some more hay or straw to make it
last the winter. A nearby rancher offered us some baled cornstalks to try (and
we’d buy some from him if the cows will eat it) but the 4 bales we put out for
the cows—2 for our cows and 2 for Michael’s cows at his place—weren’t accepted
very well by the cows. We’re looking for another alternative. The cows are
enjoying the corn stalks for bedding but won’t eat them.
Robbie took
the kids sledding last weekend, pulling them around on a big tractor tire inner
tube with a snowmobile, in the deep snow on heifer hill. They had a lot of fun.
The next day they went sledding with friends.
We had
another stretch of sub-zero weather but Michael, Nick and Robbie kept working
on our fences, hanging the gates in the calving pen, and starting on the big
corral. Nick and Robbie kept working on it the two days that Michael had to
haul a couple horses and a dog to the veterinarian at Challis (tooth issues on
one horse, and a yearling colt to be gelded -- and to have cheat grass seeds
removed from the old dog’s ears and sinus cavity).
Thursday
evening we all went to town for Sam’s birthday party. She’s 13 now. The party
was held at a pizza place and she invited about a dozen school friends.
