Diary from Sky Range Ranch - September 25 through October 17, 2019

OCTOBER 1 – Last Wednesday was a really hectic day. I got up early and typed an interview for an article before chores, then Andrea and Stan came down to our place after breakfast and helped Lynn and me put black plastic over our big haystack of round bales. Using one big roll of plastic was a little easier than using multiple big tarps, but was still a challenge because the wind was blowing and making it difficult to hold it in place until we got it securely tied down. Also there were no grommets (like a tarp would have) to tie to, and we couldn’t just put holes in the plastic for our strings, or they would tear out. We made “ears” by tying a small rock into folds at the edge, to make a lump to hold the baling twines, so they would not pull off the slick black plastic. Thus we were able to tie the plastic securely to the sides of the stack all round, and added long twines over the top at each valley between those top bales. It was a little tricky to keep from sliding around or falling off the stack—especially in the wind—so Andrea took her shoes off to have better traction with her bare feet.

Then we put small tarps over the last load of round bales that Phil Moulton hauled the day before to our main stackyard. That was a lot easier!

After lunch Andrea took the big dam out of the creek at our #7 ditch headgate. We are done irrigating for the year, and need to have the watermaster take the locks off the headgates so we can shut them all securely before winter. We don’t want ice flows over our fields from leaking ditches.

That afternoon Andrea and I rode Willow and Dottie to the Gooch place to look for Michael and Carolyn’s missing cows. When they moved their cows a few days earlier to the Wild Meadow from their leased pasture, they were short 2 pair and didn’t have time to look for them because they had to leave that afternoon to take a trailer load of fencing materials to their custom fencing job down the river to Colson Creek and would be gone a week.

The most likely place their missing cattle might be would be in the Gooch place; they could have easily gone through the bad fence between their leased pasture and Alfonso’s pasture on the Gooch place. So we rode up the back side of the Gooch place checking through Alfonso’s cattle (and saw a few stray range cows in there), went up briefly into Cheney Creek (no cattle in there—just bare ground and not much grass because the range cattle had gotten in earlier and eaten it all.

riding in the Cheney Creek pasture

We then rode down the front side of the Gooch place—and found both pairs of Michael’s. The next challenge was to sort them out of Alfonso’s cows. His cattle are wild and spooky and were all leaving the area while we tried to gently and slowly get the two pairs of Michael’s together. They were at two different ends of the field, with other cattle. We had to bring one pair up along a cross-fence and through a gate into the front part of the field so we could get the two pairs together, and then head them toward the gate out onto the road--that Andrea had hurriedly opened.

We got the two pairs together but the older cow (one that Michael is leasing from another rancher) was trying hard to run the wrong direction to go with the departing cows of Alfonso’s. Dottie and I galloped back and forth to stop that cow’s wild charges in the wrong direction, and then the young cow and her calf took off back down the field, heading for the gate in the cross-fence. Andrea galloped after her on Willow, who is still very green when it comes to chasing wild cows, and also a bit clumsy. Andrea was reluctant to let her gallop at full speed through the humpty-bump boggy pasture, but realized she would never beat the cow to the gate—so she let Willow run. It was the first time she’d ever let her run full speed and that mare put on a blaze of speed and got to the gate ahead of the cow and turned her before she could get through it.

We eventually got the two pairs back together and out the gate onto the road and Andrea was ecstatic to realize that Willow CAN outrun a cow, likes to chase cattle, and can stop and turn quickly, and has more agility (picking up her feet better and not so clumsy) when going full speed than when just trudging along at a walk or trot. There’s hope for that mare yet, as a cowhorse. Once we had those pairs out on the road they behaved nicely and we took them on up the road another mile to the upper place, and put them into the Wild Meadow with their buddies.

While we were doing that, my cousin Naida West and her friend Joe arrived for a visit (on their way back to California from a trip to Montana) and Lynn visited with them until we got home. It was fun to see Naida; she’s one of my favorite cousins and I hadn’t seen her for many years.

That evening I called our cows and calves down from the field by Andrea’s house and locked them in the hold pen and main corral for overnight so they’d be easy to get in the next morning for preg-checking. I cooked a big pot of chili and fed Andrea’s kids supper. On their way home after dark, driving through the corrals, the kids saw a bear cub that darted ahead of them and went through the gate into the stackyard. Probably its mama is the bear that’s been living there in the creek bottom eating chokecherries, wild apples and cleaning up the entrails from our butchering.

The next morning Andrea and Stan came down early and we got the cows and calves sorted before the vet arrived to preg check the cows. Stan helped push cows up the alley to the squeeze chute and we vaccinated them. All of them were pregnant but one, but we’re going to sell several of the older cows as well as the one open cow. After we got the cows finished, we put the calves through the chute for their vaccinations (and Dr. Cope gave the heifers their brucellosis vaccination) and Andrea put in the nose flaps. Here are a couple photos of her putting in the nose flaps, for weaning.

Andrea putting in nose flap

Here are photos of one of the steer calves with his nose flap, and one of the heifer calves (Pandemonium, daughter of Panda).

nose flap in Pandemonium (Panda's calf)

Then we put them all the cows and calves in the little pasture above the house, where there’s good grass for the calves during their weaning. They still have mama for company but they can’t nurse because the nose flaps keep them from getting a teat in their mouth. We vaccinated the bulls, and had lunch, then Andrea and Stan helped Lynn unhook the tractor from the baler so he could hook up the swather and put it away for winter.

Friday morning Andrea and Stan left to drive to California. She will spend two weeks with him and get to meet his kids and family and see some places she’s never been before. Lynn and I took another big bale to the bulls in the back pen; they’d run out of hay. Then Emily dropped off Christopher for us to take care of when she went to work that afternoon. He enjoyed swinging in the archway between living-room and dining room. All our grandkids enjoyed that swing when they were little, and now it is entertaining the next generation.

Christopher in his swing

Lynn pushing Christopher's swing

faster, faster!

Saturday was windy and cold. We tended Christopher again when Em went to work. It started raining that afternoon and changed to snow by Sunday morning. Lynn left early that morning with his sister Jenelle to drive to Billings, Montana for their sister Edna’s husband’s funeral. The roads were terrible for the first part of their journey, with a lot of snow, and they were only able to go about 35 mph. The roads got better the farther east they went and they made it to Billings in time to meet with the family and enjoy some visiting. The funeral yesterday was really nice, and the get-together and dinner afterward, then Lynn and Jenelle convoyed back to Missoula, Montana that evening with their sister Ann and her son, trying to get partway home before the next bad storm hit. They stayed overnight in a motel there and came on home today.

I took photos around our barnyard of the new snow that weekend. It was certainly a plunge into winter at the end of September!

snow in the barnyard

I took care of Christopher while Em was at work those two days while Lynn was gone, and put him in his playpen while I was outside doing chores. He’s starting to crawl now (at 6 months of age) and it’s not safe to leave him anywhere he can move around! Yesterday morning we had 5 inches of new snow here, on top of what we already had (8 inches on the upper place).

I took photos of some of the horses and haystacks.

Dottie waiting for supper

snowy hay

hay safe under the black plastic

It was cold this morning (26 degrees) so the snow didn’t melt very much. Our calves were wet, cold and miserable. It was terrible weather for weaning, but they still had mom for comfort—which eased their stress--and none of them got sick. I took photos of some of the cows and calves in the snow, including Pandemonium (Panda’s heifer calf) with her nose flap. The phones weren’t working today; we couldn’t call anyone’s cell phones and couldn’t call long distance so I had to cancel several phone interviews I was scheduled to do.

cool calf

cows & calves in snow

cows & their weaning calves

OCTOBER 10 – The day after Lynn got home from Billings, he and I took our cows and calves to the corral and separated them. We put the calves down the chute and took off their nose flaps, then took them to the pens by the calving barn and sorted them—putting the keeper heifers in the field below the barn and the calves we’ll be selling in the orchard. Then we put all their mothers in the field by Andrea’s house. After not being nursed for 5 days, the cows are starting to dry up their milk, and are not so disparate to get back to their calves.

The next few nights were cold, well below freezing, but the afternoons were warm enough to start melting the snow, so the calves are able to graze in their pastures. Christopher and I both have colds. Lynn and I have been taking care of him during the afternoons and evenings Emily works, since Andrea was still in California with Stan. We made a space for him to safely crawl/roll around in our livingroom, fenced off with pillows that at this point he can’t crawl over, and he has fun in his play area.

Christopher playing in his floor space fenced around with pillows

Christopher in our living room

I took photos of him the next couple days, too, when Em came to pick him up and take him back home. Lynn bought him some jeans but the legs were too long and the waist too small, so he had to exchange them for bigger ones (for a 4- year-old kid!) and roll up the legs to fit him.

Christopher in his rolled up jeans

Christopher bundled up and ready to go out to the car

Saturday morning one of the Amish young men called us to say that several of them had been hunting elk and that one of them had shot an elk behind Bodenhamer’s ranch (on the other side of the low range) and it came toward our place. He thought it would go up toward our 320-acre mountain pasture and asked if they could go in there to look for it. I told him that Michael’s horses were in part of that pasture. Then John Miller’s son Sy called to say they’d tracked the elk (by blood trail) and it had come through our lower hill pasture and across the road and into our Heifer Hill field. They wanted permission to go look for it down in the brush along the creek. They also wanted a ride up to our place since they’d gone down to Millers to call us. So Lynn drove down to Millers ranch and brought them and their bicycles up to our field and they hiked down to the creek to look for the elk.

Just before dark we got a call from a Fish and Game officer to say that he needed to come pick up an illegal elk. Apparently when Sy and the other Amish boys finally caught up with the wounded elk—which by then had gone across the creek into the field with our cows—they discovered it was not a cow elk, but a bull. The season was only open for cow elk in a special hunt (to reduce the elk herds that are coming into private property and eating crops). So rather than kill it and have to pay a big fine, Sy and the boys had gone back home to call the Fish and Game.

They all came back to our place after dark, and Lynn took them across to that field through our barnyard, where they could drive without getting stuck in the swamp pasture where the elk was—and the Fish and Game officer shot the elk. Lynn loaned them some long ropes so they could drag the carcass across the bog without trying to drive to it and get stuck in the mud.

Sunday night I made another big pot of chili and some corn bread and had all of Andrea’s kids (and some of their friends) here for dinner, including Emily and baby Christopher.

Monday and Tuesday were warmer and the rest of our snow on the fields melted. Lynn and I took another big bale of hay to the bulls with the tractor on Monday, and the next day we moved the steers from the orchard and horse pasture and put them down with our keeper heifers in the field below the lane. We’d hoped to sell the steers by now, but Michael and Carolyn are still down river working on their big fencing job and there’s no way they’ll be able to take our calves to the sale anytime soon. There’s more grass in the bigger field (that we’d been saving for fall pasture for the heifers, to hopefully last the heifers into November) so we just put all the calves there for awhile until we can get the steers sold.

By that evening it started raining and during the night turned to snow. It was a nasty, windy storm, and blew a big branch off our elm tree in the front yard; it barely missed the roof. By morning we had 5 inches of new snow.

Stan and Andrea started their drive home that day and stayed overnight at Elko, Nevada, finishing their trip today, arriving late evening. Today was cold (22 degrees this morning, with a high of 32 degrees this afternoon) so it looks like the snow won’t be melting any time soon. I had to break ice off the calves’ water trough.

This morning Nick was able to get Michael and Carolyn’s horses out of the lower segment of the 320-acre pasture and put them back in the 160-acre pasture where they will spend the winter. Now we can take the cows to the 320.


OCTOBER 17 – Last Friday was quite cold (10 degrees that morning) and the 5 inches of snow was challenging for our calves to graze the frozen grass, so I took a wheelbarrow load of my horse hay out for them to give them a little encouragement. Our calves are fairly gentle and even though they are not used to having someone feed them, most of them were curious enough to come check out the hay and were eating it. I broke the thick ice out of their water tank. We need to hook up their tank heater!

We’d hoped to move our cows to the 320 that day, but there wasn’t enough time after we got all the morning chores accomplished. Andrea and Stan went to the kids’ football game that evening (Sam and Charlie were playing in the pep band) and Lynn and I took care of Christopher here, since Em was working and it was too cold to take him to the game.

Saturday was a bit warmer (18 degrees in the morning and up to 50 degrees by mid-afternoon). Now that I had help (with Andrea home from California, and Dani here for the weekend and not at Mark’s place) we were finally able to take some cows to the 320 for fall pasture. They were running out of grass in the field by Andrea’s house. After breakfast I called the cows down to the hold pen, and put them in the corral. Lynn and I sorted them into 3 groups. We took the 6 cows we plan to sell and put them in the field above the house; there is still a little grass there after having the pairs there for a week during nose-flap weaning. We put the young cows (pregnant heifers and the ones that just weaned off their first calves) in the back lower field where there is still a little grass. The rest of the cows can be on the 320 until snow gets too deep up there.

Andrea and Dani came down after we had the cows sorted, and we got our horses ready to ride. Dani rode Ed (who hadn’t been ridden for over a month) and Andrea rode Willow. We knew it would be a challenge taking the cows up the road to the 320, having to go along the Gooch place with the fence flat in several places. We’ve hauled them to the upper place, the past few years, and then taken them and Michael’s cows on up to the 320. But Michael and Carolyn were still down river on their fence job and their stock trailer is what they are camping in.

So, we gambled on being able to get our herd of cows past all the bad fences without losing any into Alfonso’s fields. It was interesting, because the younger cows in our group have never been on the 320, didn’t know where they were going, and weren’t happy about leaving some of their buddies at home. The whole herd got spooked and flighty when we went past one bloody place on the road where hunters had apparently shot, gutted or loaded up a deer. Some cows wanted to turn back and run home, and all the way along the Gooch place some were trying to go off the road and along the bad fence to go in with Alfonso’s cows. Dottie and I had to hustle along the steep bank and up and down it to try to keep the cows on the road while Andrea and Dani pushed the herd along and tried to keep them all together.

We made it all the way past the fields and neighbor’s open gates and past Michael’s cows on the upper place, and thought we had the worst of it behind us when we got them up through the wire gate out of our upper road pasture and headed across a small area of BLM land to get to our 320-acre mountain pasture. That’s when things got a bit challenging, with bad footing (slippery mud on the trail and 6 inches of snow on the hillsides) and a couple of young cows who were determined to cut back and go home.

First, one of them left the herd that we were taking up the trail, and crossed over the big gully. Dani went across on Ed, hoping Ed wouldn’t slip in the snow. She managed to turn the cow around and head her back up country, to eventually get back across the gully and join the herd.

Then I started to go up past the cattle to go open the gate into the 320 and another young cow left the herd on the other side and ran up the hill. Dani started after her but the cow had a head start and the hillside was slippery, so Andrea took off after the cow, too, trying get ahead of the cow—and they all went over the hill, heading back down toward the gate we’d come through, which we’d left open, knowing we would be coming back home this way. I realized that they might not be able to beat the cow to the open gate, so I galloped back down the muddy, slippery trail on Dottie to try to get to the gate ahead of the cow if she came back over the hill. She did, and was running hard toward the gate, but Dottie and I were just about there, too, and left the trail to head off the cow.

We headed the cow away from the gate, but Dottie tripped in the sagebrush and went head over heels at full speed, slamming me into the mud and rolling over the top of me. My face was flat in the mud and I heard bones crunch and knew she’d broken my nose and some face bones as she rolled on over me. Andrea and Willow were right behind me—we’d come together at the same moment to head the cow away from the gate-- and Andrea was afraid Willow was going to run over me, but she managed to stop. Andrea baled off and told me to not try to get up, but I was already staggering to my feet.

The cow had gone down along the fence into the gully (unable to go through the gate) and Dottie had gotten up off the ground and went through the gate but didn’t try to run off. Dani was pretty upset and weeping, after watching me crash, but went to get Dottie, talking softly to her and getting hold of her reins so she wouldn’t go any farther.

Andrea wanted to just get me home right then, but this was not a good place to leave the cows—out on the BLM range. We had to get them on up to our 320 pasture. I insisted that I could ride, and got back on my horse, though my nose was streaming blood (the broken nose was gushing and I was spitting out lots of blood) and my eyes were unable to focus together. I was able to see, but a totally different picture with each eye. I had to keep one eye shut the rest of the time. Andrea took a photo of me, back on my horse, with the blood streaming down my face.

smashed face after horse wreck

By the time I got back on Dottie and we started back up the trail to follow the cows, our herd had already gone quite a ways and were almost to the 320 gate, so we sent Dani up there to get around them and open the gate for them, while Andrea and I followed the herd. We didn’t worry about the wayward cow that had run down along the fence into the gully. I figured she’d eventually come back to the gate and go through it and end up down on the road by the field next to Michael’s cows and we’d just put her in with them on our way home.

We were following the cows up through the bottom part of the 320, to take them up the jeep road to the gate on top of the saddle—to put them through the crossfence. About that time I heard our herd-quitter cow bawling, sounding closer than if she’d gone through the gate and down to the field. Realizing that maybe she’d followed us, I sent Dani down to open the 320 gate and check (since we’d shut that gate, to make sure we didn’t lose anybody else if any other cows decided to run back down).

The young cow did follow the herd and was waiting at the gate when Dani got down there. The cow probably didn’t even go back up along the fence to the open wire gate she’d tried to run through; she probably just went up the draw following our herd, knowing she’d been left behind. So we were lucky, and had our herd all back together again. We took them up the steep jeep road and through the crossfence gate into the Baker Creek side of the 320 where there is still a lot of good grass. It’s the only part of our upper pasture that the range cows didn’t break into this fall!

I hadn’t taken any photos on our trek from the ranch, since we were too busy just trying to keep the cattle going the right direction. As we got to the top of the hill to the crossfence gate, I dug my camera out of my saddlebag and was relieved that it still worked and wasn’t smashed, and I took photos of Dani following the cows.

Dani following the herd up the hill

By the time we got them through the gate, my nose wasn’t bleeding so badly, but my eyes were still messed up and seeing double, and my left leg was becoming very painful. I took a few more photos as Dani headed the cows over the hill and toward Baker Creek.

putting cows through the gate

cows heading down into Baker Creek from the crossfence gate

I knew my leg wasn’t broken, but it was badly bruised and swelling up. The calf muscle was painful and it was getting harder to keep my foot in the stirrup because the Achilles tendon was also becoming very sore and the ankle quite stiff. On the way home down the mountain I had to leave my foot out of the stirrup with that leg dangling, trying to keep the calf muscle from bumping the stirrup leathers. It was a little easier when we got back down to the road where the ground was not so steep. It was still several more miles to ride home, and I was ready to get off my horse by the time we got there!

Dani unsaddled Dottie for me and put her back in her pen while I went in the house and cleaned up my face gently (covered with mud and blood) and put DMSO on my swollen leg. I also dissolved a couple bute tablets in water (not for me!) for Andrea to give to Ed, so that old mare wouldn’t be too stiff and sore the next day from her gallant exertions for Dani chasing cows.

Stan had been taking care of Christopher when Em went to work that afternoon, and Lynn had planned on helping, but a friend from north Idaho who was hunting in our area came by with a deer he’d shot and wanted to hang somewhere at our place, so Lynn had taken him up to Andrea’s place to hang it in our new meat room. They’d just finished doing that when we got home on our horses.

Andrea and Lynn insisted that I get checked at the hospital, so Stan drove us (and baby Christopher) to town in his pickup and I spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening in the ER. I got to meet Dr. Anne Healy, the new young doctor that Em goes to with Christopher for his baby checkups. She’s very nice and very thorough. She checked me all over and insisted that I have a CT scan on my face and head, and wanted x-rays of my leg. I knew that none of my leg bones were broken (and they were not) but knew that I’d broken my nose and maybe my left cheek bone. I wasn’t worried about the nose; it’s been broken twice before--many years ago, by a mare that always threw her head up when she jumped over sagebrush when chasing a cow. She actually did me a favor breaking my nose because it left scar tissue in those nasal passages and I no longer had the frequent and horrific nosebleeds that plagued me my whole life up to that point.

Anyway I was very fortunate that only my face had some broken bones; my arms, legs, back, ribs, head etc. were fine. I was really lucky, and glad that Dottie is a very small horse; when she rolled over the top of me she didn’t crush anything but my face! Dr. Healy was worried about the eye-socket fracture, however, and thought that might be why I was having double vision (because the socket is involved with muscles that control eye movement), even though I was able to see a little better by that time. I could focus both eyes together except when looking at something higher than right in front of me.

Dr. Healy called a specialist in Missoula, Montana and sent the CT scan images to him—and he made a special trip to his office to view them. He wanted to see me to have a closer check on the damage. So I had to make an appointment for Wednesday.

While Lynn and I waited in the ER, Andrea and Stan did the town errands. The grandkids
all came in to check on me. Later Charlie and Sam went home to water the cows and calves and fill our wood-box, and Andrea left her car for us to come home in. She and Dani fed my horses and started the fire in our stove (it had gone out). It was after dark by the time the doctor released me from the ER and Lynn and I came home. I was weak and wobbly by that time (no much to eat for quite a while) and my blood pressure was still low (it was REALLY low when they first checked it at the ED). I don’t know how much blood I actually lost, but I was woozy and getting sick to my stomach by the time we got home from our ride. I had to drink some milk and gulp down a little stew broth before they took me to the hospital (which helped my stomach). Fortunately I’d made a big pot of stew the day before, planning to have something for the crew to eat when we got back from moving the cows. Stan and Lynn had some for their lunch after we took the cows up the road, and Lynn and I had some for supper that night.

I put a lot more DMSO on my leg (which was very swollen and sore) and went to bed early, and wasn’t too miserable, though I did get up in the night and take Advil and put more DMSO on my leg—especially the knee, since those bones were aching severely. Sunday morning I got up early as usual and was able to type an interview and finish an article even though my eyes were still giving me problems, but doing better than the day before. The DMSO helped reduce the leg pain and swelling, and walking around doing chores that morning helped limber up my very stiff leg. I was able to actually walk (though short-strided) rather than hobble. Lynn insisted on going out to help with my chores but I was able to manage pretty well.

Later that morning Andrea and Stan took blocks of salt to the 320, and up the ridge on two 4-wheelers, and were glad to see that our cows had gone partway up Baker Creek. Hearing the 4-wheelers, the cows went on up to the top and found the salt Andrea dropped off (one block at the top gate in Baker Creek and the other block out on the ridge toward Preacher’s Spring). There’s still quite a bit of snow on the north-facing slope in the timber, but the south side of the 320 has bared off and the cows won’t have any trouble grazing until the next deep snow.

Stan had to go back to California Monday, so Sunday afternoon Andrea helped him gather and load up some things she wanted to send with him, including an antique hutch and coffee table, and several boxes of old horseshoes (ones we’ve pulled off our horses over the years). He makes beautiful yard decorations with old horseshoes.

Michael and Carolyn got home late Sunday evening from a long week building fence down river, and spent Monday doing laundry, getting groceries, going to the chiropractor (it was a brutal week for them) and getting ready to go back down there again that afternoon to try to finish the job before the end of this week.

I was pretty stiff and sore that day but doing better, and able to type a few more articles and do my chores. Lynn helped Andrea shut off ditch #9 for winter, so it won’t make an ice flow on heifer hill. It was shut off earlier (we hadn’t used it for a couple months, with the creek short of water and part of our water right shut off) but after the watermaster took the locks off Alfonso must have started using it illegally, because that ditch was running again these past couple weeks.

Tuesday my leg was less stiff and sore, though still hard to bend the knee very much. The DMSO has really helped, and walking around twice a day doing chores also helps limber up the stiff tendons and muscles. Lynn and Andrea got an extension cord and ran it from the calving barn across the pens and over to the water tank’s heating element (for the calves in the field below the lane) so we can keep the water from freezing over. At evening chores I laid out hay for all the horses so I could feed them in the dark early the next morning before Andrea and I went to Missoula for my appointment with the specialist to examine my facial injuries.