JULY 31 – I’ve been letting Ed graze for an hour or so each morning above my haystack, to eat down the grass that regrew there. A fake “hot” wire (baling twine fence) keeps her out of the haystack. Here’s a photo of Ed in the area she’s keeping mowed, with Willow in the background eating hay out of her slow-feeder.
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| Ed mowing the grass above haystack |
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| Willow eating from slow feeder |
This past week has been hot, up to 90 degrees, and the creek is dropping. We’re rationing irrigation water and sharing some with Alfonso (who rents the Colston fields above us and below us) so we won’t need to have the creek in regulation yet. Alfonso is as disgusted as we are with the high cost of the watermaster (and the excessive amount we got charged for water last year), and realizes we need to work together to prevent a repeat of last year. He’s finally realizing that the shenanigans of neighbor Bob Loucks (who selected this watermaster) and Jack (the neighbor downstream with the first right) have hurt us all. Bob insisted on putting the creek into regulation June 22nd last year, a month earlier than ever, in the history of this creek, just so he could make the upper place (Michael and Carolyn) shut off. This year we’ve thwarted his vendetta by working with Alfonso to regulate the water on Alfonso’s place and ours (to supply enough water downstream to Jack, the neighbor with the first right), and have averted an arbitrary cut-off. We’ve stretched the irrigation out longer than usual and this has angered and frustrated the two manipulators who wanted to put the creek in regulation quicker.
Pam and Ned stayed a couple days longer, after Emily’s wedding, and helped us get everything cleaned up and taken care of. They also had time to rest a little, and visit, which was really nice. Michael, Carolyn and Nick had a good visit in Canada with Heather and Gregory and little Joseph who is now almost 3 months old.
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| Gregory & little Monkey |
They put a new roof on Gregory’s parents’ house while they were there. They started home Monday, but had a serious tire problem; several lug bolts broke and the wheel almost came off. Fortunately they discovered it in time (the tire was shimmying) and didn’t have a wreck. They called Gregory who came with a trailer and hauled their car back to his farm while his dad went to the nearest town for parts. They were able to fix it and started out again the next day, getting home Tuesday evening.
The cows in the upper swamp pasture were out of grass by Tuesday; we moved them to the next pasture. Michael brought the backhoe and worked on the head of Alfonso’s ditch that comes out of our lower pasture, to put in a new headgate for him.
That afternoon we had a horrific rainstorm for 20 minutes. It washed rocks and gravel down the gullies and made deep ruts in our driveway. The rock and gravel that came down from our hill pasture nearly buried the fence, and washed a big pile down onto the country road. It came down through the culvert under the road and filled up our ditch and spewed gravel down across the field.
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| rocks & gravel that came down the draw |
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| rocks piled against the fence |
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| gravel came clear down across the road |
We had to dig out the ditch the next day, before we could get water through it again. The flooding left huge pools of water in the horse pens; Andrea had to dig some channels for the water to flow out and drain those pools.
On Thursday we went for a short ride with the girls (Sam and Dani haven’t had much chance to ride this summer) and ran into two rattlesnakes along the trail, which Andrea killed. After we got home from our ride and unsaddled the horses I snapped photos of Dani cleaning the rocks out of Dani’s feet.
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| Sam & Dani riding with us |
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| Dani cleaning Ed's feet |
Michael and Carolyn treated their bull for foot rot. Then Michael started tearing the backhoe apart to get at the hydraulic leak that needs to be fixed. It’s been leaking for more than a year, and we’ve just kept buying more hydraulic oil to add to it, but after working on the ditch for Alfonso the leak got much worse. He got the old metal line out and was putting in two new rubber ones (there was another line that was about to break) but had to order a new part. Then he finished putting it back together—before he started on a major project to fix another ditch for Alfonso that serves the backside of the old Gooch place. Bob Loucks helped Alfonso put in a couple different headgates and weirs in that ditch during the past 5 years but they both washed out and the creek made a huge deep channel down the ditch. Michael did a major repair on the creek channel and ditch, and concreted the headgate in place so it should last a lot longer this time.
Friday Andrea, Robbie and Emily drove to a little town called Declo, near Burley, for Tristan’s funeral (Audra’s boyfriend who was killed in a truck accident). Emily stayed to help Audra pack, and then came back home the next day with Audra.
On Saturday we brought the cows down from the swamp pasture, sorted off the bull to put in the back corral, brought the heifers up from the post pile pasture and sorted off the yearling bull to put with the big bull, then took the cows and heifers up the road to the heifer hill pasture. After we left them in the pasture Andrea and I rode on up to our 320-acre pasture and checked the fence and made sure there were no range cows in there, then made a loop through the high range. There were two pairs of Alfonsos already in there (one cow had a 2-week old new calf) but the grass in there is a lot better than last year. Millers and Alfonso put their cattle in there a month too early last year, and ran out of grass.
We checked troughs and were glad to see that Alfonso fixed the broken pipe on the Basco trough so it’s actually working again. We came home through the middle range and checked troughs. Coming through the timber at High Camp we saw a young bear (cinnamon phase black bear) with two very small cubs. The little black one ran up a tree and we took photos of him and his mama.
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| bears |
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| bears |
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| mama bear |
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| mama bear |
There’s no grass left in the high part of the middle range but still quite a bit of grass on the lower half, and some of the cows have moved back down there, so they ought to be fine until they get moved to the high range.
That afternoon Robbie and Jim helped Lynn put the hay fork back on the tractor and Lynn took a big round bale (one of the two we have left from last winter) to the bulls in the back pen, to put in their feeder.
Yesterday Andrea and I rode again, this time on the lower part of the middle range, to check on things for Alfonso. She rode up the third (far) draw and I went up the second draw, and discovered a very thin, lame calf of Alfonso’s with a huge fetlock joint. We called Alfonso to tell him about the calf.
After we rode, we brought Willow out of her pen and started working with her, putting a saddle on her for the first time this year. We didn’t have time to do anything with her last year, and she’s had a vacation from training since Andrea rode her 25 times as a 3 year old. Now she’s 5 years old--big and bold and headstrong--and it’s time to finish her training.
Granddaughter Heather sent photos of baby Joseph who is now 3 months old.
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| Joseph 3 months old |
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| Gregory and Joseph - 3 months |
Today was very hot again. Jack (who has the 1st right at the mouth of the creek) was short of water this morning so Michael and Carolyn spent most of the day going up and down the creek and adjusting all our water so that we all cut down a little, to send more on down to Jack to fill his right. If we can keep juggling water so Jack has enough, we can keep Gary (watermaster) from coming out and locking all the headgates.
Andrea and I rode Breezy and Dottie and Andrea ponied (led) Willow out over the low range. We’re going to go back to all the basics briefly to get this young mare back into the habit of regular handling so she’ll transition smoothly into being ridden again to continue her training. Breezy was the best choice for leading Willow, since she’s more mellow and tolerant than Sprout, and less likely to kick Willow.
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| Andrea ponying Willow |
After we got back from that short loop we rode Sprout and Dottie to show Alfonso where his lame calf was. We rode over to the 2nd gully and there was the poor skinny calf, exactly where he was when I saw him yesterday. He’s definitely been orphaned, and can’t travel very well.
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| lame calf with swollen fetlock joint |
We started moving him slowly down to the main trail, with Andrea on foot pushing him along and me leading her horse (and Alfonso leading his horse) but soon realized he would never make it far enough to get a vehicle to him on the low range to load him up and haul him home.
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| Andrea trying to encourage the calf to walk |
So Andrea used her cell phone to call Bodenhammers, the ranchers who have the range pasture adjoining the middle range, and asked permission to bring the calf home through their place. They granted us permission, so Alfonso rode home --and we called Lynn to tell him to meet up with Alfonso so they could drive around through the back road and up through that range pasture, because Lynn knows the way. Andrea and I began the slow task of trying to get the calf down through the gate and partway down though that range. The calf couldn’t walk very well with the lame leg, and was very hot. Andrea poured her water bottles over him to try to cool him off, and he went a little farther, then lay down. She rode half a mile to a water trough to fill her bottles again, and came back to pour more water over him. He rallied a bit and went a little farther, then collapsed again. I stayed with the calf while Andrea rode down through the sagebrush to meet up with Lynn and Alfonso to guide them to where we were.
Before they arrived, however, Alan Bodenhammer and his hired man came up over the hill in an ATV. Andrea met up with them and brought them to where I was waiting with the calf. We had to get the calf across a deep gully to get him to the ATV, and even though he was able to walk down into the gully he lay down and wouldn’t walk up the other side. So they had to drag him up it. Then they backed the ATV up to the calf, tipped the tilt bed, rolled him onto it and tipped it back down. They tied his legs together so he couldn’t try to get up and lurch out. Andrea rode in the back with the calf to keep him still and calm, and I led Sprout.
About that time Lynn and Alfonso got there with our old jeep. We all went down out of there—the ATV with Andrea and the calf, me riding Dottie and leading Spout at a trot, following the ATV, and our jeep following along behind. We brought the calf about a mile down to the back road, where we off-loaded him into the back of our jeep. Lynn and Alfonso took the calf to his place, and Andrea and I rode up the back road through the little town of Baker and up the creek road to our place. Alfonso put the calf in a shady area by his camp and gave him some water. We hope the calf will survive.
AUGUST 8 – Weather continues hot and this past week we’ve had a lot of smoke drifting into our valley from multiple fires. There are terrible fires over the mountains from us in Montana, and several in southern Idaho. We’re also getting smoke from some of the Canadian fires.
Speaking of Canada, granddaughter Heather sent more photos this week –of their cows, and baby Monkey riding with his mama, hanging out with mom, and sleeping.
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| Canadian cows |
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| monkey riding |
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| mom & kid |
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| monkey & hat |
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| sleepy monkey |
On Tuesday Andrea and I rode Breezy and Dottie and took Willow for her 2nd ponying session, up the road this time. She’s settling in fairly well to be led from another horse (since she was ponied a few times during her earlier training before we started riding her).
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| Willow's 2nd leading session, heading up the road |
We only made a short ride, however, since I had to get home before 10 a.m. Lynn and I had an appointment with the dermatologist to have more precancerous lesions removed (frozen off with liquid nitrogen) from various areas on our faces.
That afternoon Mark called Andrea to mention that he was taking Sam to a doctor because she’d been bumped on the head a few days earlier and was still having headaches. She had a concussion and needs to take it easy for a few days.
Wednesday we ponied Willow again and led her on a much longer loop over the low range, where she had to go through more sagebrush and climb a few hills.
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Willow's 3rd session
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| out on the low range |
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Lynn checked the water on the lower place to make sure Jack still had enough, and looked at the lame calf at Alfonso’s camp. The calf seemed to be doing better and Alfonso said it is sucking a bottle now.
The next day we ponied Willow even farther, this time with a saddle on.
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| Willow with saddle on |
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| leading Willow with saddle |
Alfonso made a long ride and checked the high range fences and shut gates into the adjoining range, preparing to move cattle to the high range. He wants us to help him move some of the cows. That evening I cooked a big pot of chili and some corn bread to feed the kids when they got home from Mark’s place. Emily, Audra and Jim joined us for supper.
Friday Lynn went to town early for his appointment with the heart doctor, and it went very well.
I got the horses ready to ride, soon after Lynn left to go to town. Dani, Andrea and I rode for 5 hours to move the low cows up higher, while Alfonso packed salt to the high range. The Amish couldn’t help with cattle moving except on Saturday and wanted to do it all at once instead of in small groups, so Alfonso wanted us to help--moving some of the low cows up—so they wouldn’t have to go so far on Saturday. Some of his cows have young calves, born out there on the range, and if they have to go very far in a big mob they get separated from their mothers and also get too tired on a long drive uphill in the hot weather. The way the Amish move cattle, with lots of riders and dogs--and taking them too far, too fast, trying to do it all in one day--is really hard on the cattle.
So Andrea, Dani and I tackled the job of moving them up in small groups on Friday, slowly and patiently. We started at the first gully, heading about a dozen pairs up that canyon and letting them drift on up, on their own, then went around to the 2nd gully where we picked up about 25 pair. I took them up that canyon while Andrea and Dani went around to the 3rd gully to gather any in that area.
Dottie and I took our time, letting the cattle string out up the draw at their own pace, just bringing up the rear to make sure the calves (that kept stopping in the draw to drink water) kept coming. When we got up to the water trough partway up that canyon we let the herd drink there until they last ones’ thirst was satisfied.
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| letting the cows drink at the trough in the 2nd gully |
We worked our way slowly up through the brush, picking up a few more pairs along the way, and eventually got to the bear trough where the cattle drank again. The leaders
headed on up through the brushy draw and I rode out toward the salt ground to see if I could see any sign of Andrea and Dani, and met a herd of cows coming over that ridge. Dani was bringing them from that area; she and Andrea had gathered about a dozen that Dani brought on up that tributary draw while Andrea went back to the 3rd gully to gather cattle strung out in that basin. Here are photos of Dani bringing her group of cattle up to the ridge, where I met her.
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| Dani bringing a group of cows |
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| Dani's group of cows coming up to the ridge |
After she got the cattle up over the ridge, Dani got off and re-adjusted her saddle because it had slipped back too far while climbing up the mountain.
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| Dani readjusting her saddle |
We took her cows to the Bear trough, where they drank their fill of water. After they drank, Dani let Ed get a drink.
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| cows drinking at bear trough |
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| Dani lets Ed drink at bear trough |
Then we pushed her group on up into the brushy draw to join up with the cows I’d brought. We slowly worked the cattle up that draw, letting them take their time. With no dogs, no pushing, no yelling, the cattle moved up the two canyons without stress and were not very hot or tired when we finally left them in shady areas at the heads of those two draws. Hopefully most of them would stay in those areas, at that elevation, and be easier to move on up (another half mile up the mountain) to the high range the next day when the Amish moved them.
It was quite smoky the day we moved cows, and even smokier on Saturday. Dani was congested from all the smoke so she didn’t ride with Andrea and me when we took Willow for a fast ponying ride, saddled and bridled this time. We put Lynn’s old saddle on her that day because it’s heavier—to get her used to carrying more weight again. This is an old saddle Lynn’s father had custom made by Hamley Saddlery in 1922.
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| Willow wearing old Hamley saddle |
Fifteen riders went out over the middle range to move cattle to the high range but we didn’t go with them, not wanting to be a part of that chaos (a lot of people riding out there just for the fun of a roundup, not knowing the range, nor how to move cattle). Alfonso wanted us to wait and ride with him Sunday to “pick up the pieces” and gather the cattle the Amish missed.
We went down to his camp Saturday evening to check on the calf with the swollen leg. He wasn’t doing very well and I took his temperature. He had a fever of 104.4 and his lungs were rattling; he had pneumonia. He was weak and couldn’t get up. Also he was very thirsty. Alfonso brought him a bucket of water from the creek and the calf drank a lot. We came home and got some medication for the calf but the prognosis didn’t look very good. He died the next day. Apparently the joint infection (probably from snakebite) went systemic and it was too late to reverse it, but at least we tried.
That evening we had a mule deer doe and fawns in our back yard. I took photos through the window of one of the fawns trying to nibble vines growing on the fence.
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| fawn nibbling vine |
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| fawn in back yard |
Sunday Andrea, Dani and I rode for nearly 6 hours to help Alfonso find the cows that got missed. We split up to cover a lot of country. Dani and I rode up the 2nd gully but there were no cattle in that area, so we went out through the rugged country between the 1st and 2nd gully and then found 2 pair near the Crawley trough. We brought them about a mile (to the bear trough and then up a steep ridge) to the designated meeting area by the green trough bed-ground. We waited there with the cattle for half an hour until Alfonso showed up (he found nothing in the 3rd gully) and then Andrea arrived with no cows either. She had checked all the area around two-pipe trough. So we took the two pair on up the mountain to High Camp trough in the timber, where we found 9 more pairs and a bull, and moved them all through the timber to the high range.
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| moving the cows through timber past High Camp trough |
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| Dani helping move the cows |
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| we picked up a bull and more cows in the timber |
After we moved them to the high range we ate lunch at Basco trough. There were too many cows there and not enough water. This is the problem with moving all the cattle in one day and dumping them into an area with only one trough. We always moved small groups over a period of several days (making sure all the cows had their calves) and then they weren’t all trying to drink from the only water source at once. The Amish and Alfonso haven’t figured that out yet, even though we tried to give them some tips about using the range, when they first came here. Some of these cattle will go thirsty until they climb on over the hill into Baker Creek.
On our way home we went around to Baker Creek and down to the middle range. We found 2 more cows on our way home down the other side of the mountain and brought them up through the gate to the high range. We found another pair and extra calf at the lower end of the middle range pasture in Baker Creek. Those will have to wait until another day. Our horses were tired, so we just came on home from there.
Heather sent more photos from Canada—of little Monkey and his dog Dude.
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| Dude packing a water bucket |
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| Dude and Monkey taking a nap |
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| Monkey trying to crawl |
Yesterday was hot again. Michael and Carolyn brought their yearling bull down to our place, to live with our two bulls until next year’s breeding season. They are going to sell their older bull; he’s become too aggressive and dangerous. They also took their 4 yearling steers and one cull cow (that lost her calf this spring) to the community corral at Carmen where Rusty Hamilton loaded a semi-truck with neighborhood cattle to take to the sale at Butte, Montana. Michael wanted to take the bull, but he first has to get over the withdrawal period after the antibiotics he received as treatment for foot rot.
That afternoon Andrea rode Willow for the first time this year; we made a short ride onto the low range. The young mare did very well, considering she was only ridden a few times as a 3-year-old (2 years ago) and had no handling last year at all. We will try to pick up where we left off on her training.
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| Andrea's 1st ride on Willow this year |
Michael and Nick brought a load of posts and poles yesterday and started work early today (at 6 a.m. while it’s still cool) and Robbie joined them, to start sawing out trees to rebuild some more of the old falling-down boundary fence on the lower end of our place. Trees keep falling down over the fence and it’s hard to keep it functional. They will be also be making a jackfence along most of that back field since some areas are too boggy to hold a regular fence. Michael used the backhoe to take out the worst of the brush, to clear a path for the new fence. He used a rented skid steer to take posts and poles on down into the field, but had a flat tire on it mid-day. Lynn gave him and the tire a ride to town to fix the tire.
Andrea changed water then held Dottie for me to put new shoes on her front feet. Then we made another ride—Willow’s 2nd ride of the year. We went down the road and through the field to take pictures of the new jackfence, then rode over the hill to make a loop on the low range. Willow did very well.
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| new jackfence |
AUGUST 14 – Last Wednesday Michael and Nick set all the new posts for the new fence that will have barbed-wire; the rest of the fence will be jack fence. Here are photos of the posts they set, and the sections of jack fence that they’ve already finished.
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| posts set |
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| jackfece across swale |
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| jack fence |
I reset Ed’s front shoes. Her feet were getting very long and I don’t want her tripping and stumbling with Dani riding her. That afternoon Lynn, Andrea, Carolyn, the watermaster (Gary) and Cindy from Idaho Dept. of Water Resources looked at the new weir on our #8 ditch that brings water to Alfonso’s field above ours, and to our upper field next to Andrea’s house. They determined that it is reading wrong (it was made wrong) so we’ll have to put a new measuring stick on it, which Lynn will pick up at Cindy’s office on his next trip to town. Andrea and I rode Willow again, another loop over the low range (for her 3rd ride) and she had to climb a few hills. We are planning to make lots of short daily rides to start getting her in better shape for longer rides.
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| Willow's 3rd ride |
That evening I hiked down to our back field and took photos of the jack fence at the bottom of the field, and the section of fence with wire on it--that the guys have finished--and on my way back took a photo of our ancient barn with a vine growing over the end of it.
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| jack fence |
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| new barbed-wire fence |
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| old barn |
The next day Robbie helped on the fencing project and they got it finished on that lower field—and now just have the boundary fence below the post pile pasture to finish.
I reshod Ed’s hind feet, so she’ll probably be fine for the rest of Dani’s riding this fall. Then Andrea and I made her 4th ride on Willow. It’s good for Dottie, too, to be ridden every day because she behaves a lot better when she doesn’t have much time off. On this ride we went up the road, out through Gooch’s Basin, and down into Baker Creek. Willow doesn’t mind weaving through tall sagebrush or crossing the little stream.
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| Andrea and Willow heading up the road |
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| Willow's 4th ride |
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| heading for Baker Creek |
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| crossing Baker Creek |
Each time we ride, we handle Willow’s feet before and after the ride. Andrea has been placing an old shoe over the foot and tapping on it, to get Willow used to the sound and feel of it so she’ll be at ease when I shoe her. Her feet are very hard and so far she hasn’t become tender traveling through rocky terrain. This is a good thing, because it’s giving us more time to get her accustomed to being handled and ridden, and having her feet handled regularly—so she won’t be so challenging to shoe. She’s always been a little stubborn and pushy, not very nice about having her feet handled or trimmed (wanting to take her foot away too soon); this extra work with her feet has been good for her. Also, with the riding, she is adjusting to a routine, and is a little tired when she comes home, more willing to stand nicely and behave herself while her feet are handled.
On Friday Robbie helped Michael work on the fence. Then Michael smoothed out our driveway—all the ruts and gravel from the flash flood we had a couple weeks ago—with the skid steer. Andrea and I made a longer ride on Willow, out over the range.
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| Willow's 5th ride |
Saturday morning Em and Robert left to drive to Tacoma, Washington, to go to Fox Island for a week, for a belated honeymoon. Em has always wanted to go back there again, ever since our trip with Andrea and the kids in 2007 for the 100th anniversary celebration of the Fox Island property (my grandparents Noah and Lila Moser bought it in 1907 and built a small cabin on the property) and the 90th birthday of my aunt Marjorie. On that trip the kids (who were very young then) enjoyed finding crabs and seashells on the beach and going out in the rowboat with my cousin’s daughter. Emily made another visit to Fox Island a few years later when she and Andrea went to Tenino for the funeral of my cousin Ned’s wife Amy. Emily always wanted to go back, and chose that spot for her honeymoon with Robert.
Saturday afternoon Lynn and Andrea helped Alfonso put a dam in the creek to try to get enough water in one of his ditches, then Andrea and I made a short ride in the fields on Willow. We rode up the back field, crossed the bridge, then went down through the front fields to check the cows, and then make a short loop over the range. Here are photos of Willow on that ride:
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heading for the bridge
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| Willow crossing the bridge |
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| riding down through the field to check the cows |
We made another short ride yesterday –it was cool and windy, and Willow was nervous and goofy. We did a longer ride today (her 8th ride), to give her more work and get her a little tired so she’d be more settled down, and we also handled her feet a bit longer than usual, in preparation for shoeing. She’s starting to get a little tender-footed in the rocks, so it’s time to get her shod.
AUGUST 20 – Last Tuesday the guys worked on the fence again. Andrea and I rode again—Willow’s longest ride so far this year—up into the middle range, climbing more hills. She was a little tired afterward, and it was a good time to put her first shoes on.
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| Willow's longest ride |
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| Willow's 9th ride - climbing more hills |
Her feet are very hard so it’s a good thing they didn’t need much trimming because they were difficult to rasp, to smooth up for the shoes. Andrea held her for me, and bribed her a little while I nailed the shoes on, feeding her handfuls of green grass. Andrea had filled a couple buckets with lush green grass she’d picked ahead of time, and hand-fed some to Willow. That young mare is such a greedy glutton that she was totally focused on the yummy grass and didn’t try to take a foot away from me. Lynn took photos of me shoeing her while Andrea bribed her.
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| shoeing Willow |
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| me putting a front shoe on Willow while Andrea feeds her grass |
I got the front shoes on very quickly and easily, and then we used the same strategy the next day to put her hind shoes on. We didn’t have time to ride that day, but even though Willow wasn’t tired from a ride, she stood nicely for the shoeing while she gobbled the grass Andrea fed her.
Coyotes were howling, yipping and carrying on during the night, and the next day we found a dead doe above house. It looked like the coyotes had run her into the fence and she broke her neck. Andrea and Robbie took the body over the hill so the coyotes wouldn’t be attracted back to it and kill her orphan fawn.
With all the hot weather our creek has really dropped. On Thursday Gary the watermaster came out and put locks on all the headgates, but he didn’t realize we’d fixed the measuring device on the #8 weir and that it now reads correctly, so he set it wrong, and we were short of water for 3 days.
We moved our cows from the field above the house and put them down on the lower field where the guys have finished the new fence. Andrea called them down through the little ditch-bank pasture to the driveway, and I followed them. The cows are always easy to move, always happy for new green grass. Andrea has done a good job of irrigating in spite of water shortage the past several weeks, and there’s a fair bit of regrowth on that field after we took the hay off in early July. I took photos as we brought the cows down through the barnyard and put them out in the field.
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| moving the cows |
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| cows enjoying new pasture |
After we moved the cows Andrea and I made a short ride on Willow and Dottie to try out Willow’s new shoes. We were able to trot up the road and out over the low range for a quick ride without her being “gimpy” stepping on rocks.
Andrea got the kids home that evening from Mark, and the next morning she and Robbie and the kids took her camp trailer and went to Lone Pine for a few days; this was the kids’ last chance for a campout before school starts.
Em and Robbie drove home from Fox Island that day. They had a good time there, staying at the cabin, and Emily took a lot of photos..
Jim ate supper with us two of the evenings while Andrea, Robbie and kids were gone. He’s been house-sitting and feeding the dogs and cats, and Lynn has been changing the irrigation water. Jim has been working in the shop, making lamps, tables, etc. and has been working on a fancy bluebird house.
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| Bluebird house construction |
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| Jim building bluebird house |
Yesterday I checked on the cows in the lower field while Lynn irrigated. Many of the cows and calves were lounging around in the shade when we went down there, but became curious and hiked up to the ditch to see what Lynn was doing. I took photos of them checking him out, and photos of some of the cows and calves.
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| cattle lounging in shade |
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| cattle checking out the irrigator |
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| cattle helping Lynn irrigate |
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| Panda (first calver) and her baby |
Andrea and kids are having a good time on their camp trip – fishing, visiting with the family that lives there, and trekking to see some old Indian caves. They decided to stay one more day and watch the eclipse of the sun tomorrow before they come home (it’s a total eclipse at that location; it will be only about 97% total here at our ranch).
The creek has dropped a lot in the past few days. Today Gary came out to shut off the 3rd and 4th rights completely (the old Gooch place and the upper place). Now only the 1st and 2nd rights have irrigation water. Lynn patiently showed him how to correctly read the #8 weir and he apologized for having shortchanged us on our water the past 3 days. That’s the only ditch we have running, so we don’t want it to be short.
Jim cleared the big rocks out of our horse trail (that were pushed down off the bank by the road-grader over the past few years) and sawed out the big sagebrush that were starting to overgrow the trail. Now it will be easier to travel that trail with our horses or a herd of cattle.
*** For more stories about adventures with cattle, you might like my book Cow Tales: More True Stories from an Idaho Ranch. This book is part of a series that includes Horse Tales: True Stories from an Idaho Ranch, and Ranch Tales: Stories of Dogs, Cats and Other Crazy Critters. These are $24.95 each. Autographed copies can be ordered from me at 208-756-2841 or hsmiththomas@centurytel.net or P.O. Box 215, Salmon, ID 83467, with a discount when all three books are purchased.
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