JANUARY 19 – We had some cold weather this past week, down to 5 below zero at nights and not even up to freezing during the daytime. Andrea helped Lynn clean out the clogged pellet stove in our living room and got it working again. We’re glad we have a good old wood stove (the one that Lynn’s parents bought in mid-1940’s—it is almost as old as we are) to keep the house from being too cold! Now that we have that chimney cleaned out, we’re staying warm again!
The young bull we got last summer to breed the heifers is an ornery bugger. He’s not quite 2 years old and thinks he is really big and tough. When we took a new round bale into the bull pen last week to put in the bulls’ feeder he came galloping and snorting, charging at Andrea and me as we were moving the feeder so Lynn could put the bale in it with the tractor. We both ran at the bull and yelled, and he backed off, but we will probably take the pitchfork with us next time we have to be in there on foot.
The next day Andrea left at 5 a.m. to drive to California to stay a few days with Stan. The roads were good and she got there about 7 p.m. Michael hauled a load of big square alfalfa bales to us that afternoon; we bought a load of hay from a neighbor, to feed with some of the straw left over from last year. We were glad we were able to find a neighbor who had some alfalfa hay to spare. We made a little stack of alfalfa bales in the stackyard, and Michael loaded one big bale on our feed truck (and we put some little grass hay bales on the truck alongside the big bale) so we could start feeding it that afternoon.
Lynn and I put a tarp over the little alfalfa stack to protect it from wet weather and snow. Michael loaded 8 of our straw bales on his flatbed trailer to haul to the upper place for his cows. Our driveway was slippery and he had trouble making the turn up onto the main road and had to back down again and drive all the way down to the highway at Baker to turn around and go back up the road.
Emily brought Christopher down to our house on her way to work that afternoon and we took care of him till she got home at 11 p.m. He took a very short nap but spent the rest of the time playing in his playpen and swinging in the swing, and watching a movie with us. We took care of him for several evenings while Em was at work, until Andrea got back from California.
The whitetail deer found the feed truck with alfalfa on it and ate some of it, so we started parking the feed truck in the calving pen where we can close both gates and it’s harder for them to get in there and eat the hay off the truck.
We recently had a message from young Heather in Canada and she sent photos of Joseph. Everyone there is getting impatient for spring, including that 2-year-old kid. He’d found his summer shorts and was wearing them—with his coat and hat on. Since he couldn’t go outside to play he decided to play hockey indoors.
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| Joseph |
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| Joseph ready to play hockey |
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| Joseph playing hockey indoors |
Last Monday Lynn and I took big bales to the heifers and the young cows above the house, and 2 bales of bedding straw for the cows in the field by Andrea’s house. In this cold weather the cow also eat quite a bit of the straw as well as their hay.
Tuesday Andrea drove home from California and the roads were terrible. Donner Pass was closed so she had to go another route. There was wind and snow and the roads were hazardous most of the way; she didn’t get home until after midnight.
The next morning it was 2 below zero and the high for the day was 18 degrees. The ice was thick on the creek and Andrea helped us break the ice on the water holes for the cows, and in the bulls’ pen. It’s been windy and cold every day since. The heifers ran out of hay in their feeder yesterday and we didn’t want to try start the tractor until today (to load another alfalfa bale on the feed truck and take a big bale to the bulls, and more straw bales to the cows) so I hauled a couple of my little horse hay bales out to the heifers with the sled.
Today after we got all the bales moved around, I worked on tax stuff, and then after chores Lynn and I went up to Andrea’s house to celebrate Emily’s birthday and have a belated celebration for Sam (her birthday was January 15). Emily made her special meatloaf (the kind she cooks for the residents at the care center where she works) and Andrea made scalloped potatoes and I brought a big fruit salad. We had a fun dinner and Christopher had a lot of fun entertaining everyone.
JANUARY 31 – Last week we had another load of firewood delivered; we were running low. With all the cold weather we’ve gone through a lot of firewood. Now all we need to do is get it split; these are huge rounds. Lynn put a tarp over the pile to keep the wood dry until we can get it split.
The young cows ran out of hay in their feeder before we could take another bale up there with the tractor, so Andrea and I took them a couple little bales of my horse hay on the 4-wheeler. We plugged in the tractor that night so we could take them a new big bale the next day. We also gathered up some old wire that the guys left in the field when they replaced the old braces in the fence. The old wires had been buried in the snow but the cows had walked through there and those wires showed up; it was a hazard they could catch their legs in. Andrea dragged the old wire down along the fence with her 4-wheeler and we put the wire tangle on the tractor loader tines to haul down to the barnyard to a place where we could put it out of the way.
Last Friday at school Charlie gave his presentation for his senior project. His project was to restore the old 1967 half ton 2-wheel drive Chevrolet pickup that we gave him a few years ago—the old pickup we bought from Velma Ravndahl. She and her husband were my 4-H leaders in the 1950’s and early ‘60’s. They raised Arabian horses. Jerry died in 1971 but Velma continued to drive that pickup for several more years until she moved to a retirement home in Boise, at which time she sold it to us. It hadn’t been driven for quite some time when we gave it to Charlie after he started driving.
He did a really good job with his presentation, telling about what he had to do to restore the body and take out some dents. He took all the paint off and repainted it—and had to do it twice because the first time, the primer paint didn’t stick. He also replaced the old boards in the pickup bed. It was a major reconstruction and a huge project. He did an excellent presentation; that kid has come a lot ways from his rough start in life and social handicaps (high functioning autism). His presentation was methodical but very well thought out and effective. We were really proud of him.
Andrea, Sam and Dani went to the eye doctor later that afternoon; they all need changes to their glasses. Andrea’s eyes have gotten much worse in the past several years.
We had more snow, and Lynn plowed our driveways again on Saturday. We tended Christopher most of the afternoon and evening; Emily was at work and Andrea went to the awards ceremony at the school (Charlie received his senior awards). Emily took off work briefly to be at the awards ceremony, too.
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| Charlie and some of the family (including his dad) at the awards ceremony |
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| Charlie after the awards |
There was a basketball game afterward; Sam and Charlie were both playing in the pep band. Andrea stayed for that and took some photos of Charlie playing his trombone.
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| Charlie playing his trombone |
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| Charlie in the band |
This past week Emily started catching up on posting my blogs; we got a bit behind with them this summer and fall when she was so busy taking her nursing classes as well as working full time and taking care of baby Christopher. Now she is hoping to try to catch up in the next few weeks and get all the “old” family news posted.
We had another major snowstorm on Tuesday. I was busy trying to do some interviews for several articles with urgent deadlines, so Lynn and Andrea fed the cows and took a big bale to the young cows with the tractor and I didn’t help feed. Since he had the tractor running that morning, for moving the big bale, he plowed our driveways again after we got done feeding.
We are getting a LOT of snow this winter. His earlier plowing left some major piles and berms along the edges of the driveways, so that day he also plowed some of those piles of snow away from the gates we needed to be able to open and shut, for vaccinating the cows.
The next day I took some photos of the new snow. Here are photos of the bulls eating hay and our fences nearly half buried in the snowy fields—as Andrea was hiking down to meet us to help feed the cows—and our snow-covered haystacks.
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| bulls eating hay |
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| snowy fields |
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| snow-covered haystacks |
I also took photos during and after we fed the cows. We try to feed in the areas we’ve fed before—feeding along the edges but keeping the truck out of the really deep snow where we would get stuck.
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| cows enjoying their hay |
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| a little bit of hay left on the truck |
The next day Andrea helped Lynn put chains on the feed truck after we finished feeding the cows. It’s getting harder and harder to get around in the deep snow up in the field by her house. He’d left the chains hanging on the fence by the old bridge near our house when he took them off this past spring, but the old fence collapsed this last fall and the chains had fallen down into the snow and were frozen in. Andrea helped him dig them out, using hot water to thaw the ice around them enough to chop them loose and pull them out.
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| digging out chains |
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| getting chains out of the ice |
Then she swept snow off a small area in the lane by our house, to create a place to put the chains on the feed truck, so she and Lynn wouldn’t be struggling around in the snow to get the chains on.
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| sweeping away the snow |
While they were putting the chains on the truck, I hiked around to the horse pens and took photos when Willow stuck her head over the fence and got her nose snowy.
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| Willow peering over the fence with a snowy nose |
That afternoon we finally heard from Cindy Yenter (the local Idaho Department of Water Resources person) to tell us she’s finally scheduled the meeting of our water district’s advisory board, for February 5. Back in December she told us that we could present our complaints (about the problems we had this summer with non-delivery of our water right, illegal water diversions on the neighbor’s place and the water master allowing him to continue to steal water with his unlocked headgates, etc.) but to make a formal complaint we needed to also know the water measurements on the various ditches.
Until we know what we are actually going to be charged for (and what the watermaster recorded as our use, versus the neighbor’s use) we cannot finalize our complaint. The watermaster final report is supposed to be posted by the end of the year, but it had not been posted yet. He did not do his job. We asked for those records and Cindy had told us she would get them to us, but as of this week the watermaster report had not yet been filed. We can’t finalize our complaint until we know how incorrect his report is. We asked Cindy again for that report.
Meanwhile, we ordered vaccine for the cows (their pre-calving vaccinations) and another gallon of delousing insecticide, and Emily picked them up for us in town when the veterinary clinic received them.
Yesterday we loaded another big alfalfa bale on the feed truck for the cows, and took a big bale to the bulls, and more straw to the cows—one bale for their feeder, and a bedding bale to their brushy area where they like to bed out of the wind.
When I went outside to help with the hay, I took photos of the cats eating on the back porch, and then a photo of Lynn coming back from the field with his tractor to get another bale of straw, and the bulls enjoying their new bale of hay.
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| cats eating their food on the back porch |
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| Lynn coming back for another bale of straw |
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| bulls enjoying their new bale |
Lynn plowed more snow and Andrea used the scoop shovel to get the last of the deep snow away from the gates in the corral. She also dug out the old tire rim salt-holder that was completely buried in the snow in one corral, and got it out of there so a cow wouldn’t injure a foot or leg stumbling over it.
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| Andrea cleared snow away from gates and dug the tire rim out of the snow |
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| loading tire rim |
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| getting corrals ready |
Then she put the tire rim on the 4-wheeler and took it and a block of salt up to the field for the cows.
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| tire rim loaded |
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| ready to take the tire rim to field |
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| salt loaded and ready to go |
When I came back to the house I took more photos of the cats –the old “fencing cat” coming to greet me, and the stand-offish “trailer trash” cat who always acts like she wants you to pet her and then swats her claws at you.
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| fencing cat |
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| trailer trash cat |
Mark let Dani stay here this weekend (it was his weekend to have the kids) so she could help us vaccinate and delouse the cows. They need to have the vaccination several weeks before they calve, so they have peak immunity and a high level of antibodies in their colostrum to give the calves protection against diseases.
Today we did chores early and got everything ready to work the cows. I made a pot of chili to simmer on the stove for lunch. Andrea had to take Dani to town early for an orthodontist appointment, and when they got back they helped us bring the cows down from the field above the corrals. Andrea led them with a bale of hay on the 4-wheeler and Dani followed them, and we had the feed truck down by the corrals to help attract them. After we got that group in, we lured the young cows down from their pasture above the house. Dani and Andrea made several trips with both 4-wheelers through the deep snow along the runway to the chute so we could walk along it without the snow being up to our knees.
We put the young cows through the chute first. Dani pushed them along the runway, Andrea caught their heads, I vaccinated them, and Dani put the pour-on delouse product on each one. She’s tall and has long arms, and it was easy for her to reach over their backs and pour the proper dose from tail to head.
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| Dani pouring delouser on cow |
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| Dani's long arms made it easy |
After we got that group done, we took them back up to their field, and then put the older cows through the chute. Even through there were more of them, it actually went a little faster because they know the drill and go through without balking. Then we took them back to their field; they were eager to go back, and we followed them with the feed truck and fed them their hay. I took photos as the cows headed back to the field, with Dani going along with them on the 4-wheeler, and Andrea feeding hay off the truck after we got back up to the field.
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| cows heading back up to the field |
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| Andrea feeding cows |
After we got finished, Dani carried several sacks of wood pellets into the house for us (the last of the pellet that we had stored in the barn across the driveway) and filled our wood box. She’s really good help and we were glad she could be here this weekend.
We got a message from IDWR saying that Cindy Yenter was going to meet with the watermaster this coming Monday afternoon and put together the final watermaster report for last year’s irrigation and get it to us before the Wednesday meeting. That doesn’t give us much time to go over it all and find the errors before the meeting!
Michael and Carolyn have put together a summary of all the problems we faced last summer with the watermaster shutting off the 4th right completely when there was still adequate water in the creek to service it, not delivering water by priority (allowing the 3rd right users to still keep using water even after shutting off the 2nd rights), not putting locks on ALL headgates (just ours) when the creek went into regulation, not reading the weirs with the proper measuring charts, etc. but we still need to see the watermaster’s field notes and final report to know how much error there is between what his report states and what actually happened.
FEBRUARY 9 – Last Saturday Lynn plowed the deep snow away from the woodpile so we’d have a place to split the wood. Then he went to town and got another ton of wood pellets for our pellet stove. Stan drove here from California and brought his wood splitter and got here late that night. The next day we used the tractor to unload the splitter next to the woodpile and also took a big round bale to the young cows. Stan split wood, even though it was snowing, while we hauled hay around, and we took the tarp off the straw stack to take two bales down. Andrea and Stan helped Lynn unload the wood pellets from the truck and into the barn across the driveway from the house.
Our pellet stove quit working in the middle of the night, but Lynn was able to take it apart and get it working again. We had nasty cold weather and wind, so we were glad to be able to get it going.
Cindy Yenter sent us the watermaster notes and report late Monday afternoon, and Michael and Carolyn added up numbers and found a lot of discrepancies, to add to our complaint, showing that the watermaster was not doing his job.
Tuesday morning was cold (2 below zero) so I plugged in our feed truck at 5 a.m. so it would start easier. We had to break ice for the cows and bulls (Stan helped Andrea break the ice) and I broke ice out of all the horses’ tubs. Lynn and I hauled 9 more little bales from my horse hay shed to my “spare hay” pile by Sprout and Shiloh since I was running out of hay for them, and put the tarp over it, then Andrea and Stan loaded the feed truck with little bales from the stackyard stack to feed with the alfalfa hay.
Wednesday was the dreaded water meeting. Weather was cold and snowing but we did our chores and feeding early and got everything done in time to go to town ahead of the meeting to get the mail and do a couple errands.
Michael and Carolyn had printed out copies (of our complaints and suggestions for resolution of the problems, plus some of the photos of the unlocked headgates, use of illegal water diversions by Alfonso, etc.) and gave a copy to each member of the advisory board, and to Cindy Yenter and her boss from Boise. We’d requested to have him at the meeting.
The chairman of the advisory board Jack Jakovac, the first right holder on the creek, along with our neighbor Bob Loucks (secretary-treasurer of our water district)--who only has 5 acres but wants to control everything that happens on the creek--likes to intimidate and control the watermaster. Those two have turned every new watermaster against us in the past 6 years, and don’t want to hear our complaints. They spent most of the meeting discussing other things, such as the problem of finding a new watermaster, next year’s budget, etc. then told us we only had 10 minutes to present our grievances and suggestions for solutions.
It turned into longer than that, however, because other members of the advisory board asked some good questions, and Cindy herself admitted that the watermaster failed to do his job and was out of line in shutting off Michael and Carolyn’s water 2 to 3 weeks before it was justified. Jakovac adjourned the meeting abruptly and he and Bob Loucks left, but Cindy and her boss stayed for another hour talking with us, and were interested in all the evidence that Michael and Carolyn had put together and listened to their explanations of things that IDWR hadn’t been aware of or open to trying to resolve. We felt like maybe we were finally making some headway and that perhaps we will be treated more fairly in the future.
Cindy admitted that she hadn’t given enough training to this last watermaster. We hope our district can find someone who is willing and able to be our watermaster for this coming year, and hope that person doesn’t get influenced against us (by Jack and Bob) right off the bat--as happened with the past 4 watermasters.
We finally got home just before dark and did chores before it was really dark. It was snowing hard, and kept snowing all that night and the next day. With nearly 8 inches of new snow, there was no school that day. Andrea and Stan had planned to take a trip to Arizona with her travel trailer, but the weather was too nasty for traveling, let alone pulling a trailer, so they didn’t go.
Instead, they helped us feed cows, and get the black plastic off the end bale in our stack of big round alfalfa bales, to feed the heifers. We fed the cows and took another bale to the young cows as well. That afternoon Lynn plowed our driveways again. Stan, Andrea and Dani spent a couple hours riding Andrea’s snowmobile down in our lower back field and had a bit of fun in the snow.
It just kept snowing and by Friday we had more than 2 feet of snow. When I went out to do chores that morning it was obvious that we were going to have to plow again, so I plugged in the tractor. At least the weather had warmed up to 30 degrees, and it only took 4 hours of being plugged in for the tractor to start.
Andrea drove down through the new snow to help us feed and I took photos of her coming down the driveway from her house. The plowed track was buried in new snow.
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| Andrea coming down to help us feed |
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| new snow was deep |
I also took photos of the snow-covered haystacks and corral gates.
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| haystacks |
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| corrals |
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| gate into corral |
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| gates |
Visibility was poor when we fed the cows that morning, with it snowing so hard, and when Lynn was driving up to the field by Andrea's to feed the cows he got too far out of the plowed trail and hit a steel post by the ditch and got stuck in the snow. Dani came down on a 4-wheeler to help us, and we dug snow away from the back tire on the feed truck and got it unstuck. Then she drove ahead of us on the 4-wheeler so Lynn could kind of see where to drive, following her. Even though he’d plowed that track the day before, it was so deep again with new snow that Dani got stuck a few times with the 4-wheeler and Andrea helped her get going again, pushing on it.
We finally got the cows fed, and I took more photos as we drove back down through the barnyard (the corral fence nearly half buried with snow), and a photo of one of the bulls peering through snow-covered fence rails. Lynn parked the feed truck next to the old sick barn, out of the way so he could get the tractor out of its slot and do more plowing.
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| snowy corral and shed |
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| corral fence half buried in snow |
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| bull peering through snow covered fence |
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| Lynn parked the feed truck out of the way |
Then Andrea, Stan and Dani spent a couple hours shoveling 2 feet of snow off our barn/shop roof so it won’t cave in if it keeps snowing. We had to do that a few years ago after a heavy snow (the year that so many roofs collapsed under the weight of several feed of snow). Dani left early to go home and tend Christopher so Emily could go to work that afternoon so Stan and Andrea finished shoveling the snow. The tractor started by noon and Lynn spent a couple hours plowing driveways again.
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| shoveling snow off barn roof |
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| Andrea, Dani & Stan shoveling snow |
Andrea, Stan and Dani went to town that evening for the basketball game (Dani’s chorus group was singing the national anthem, and Sam and Charlie were playing in the pep band). People were worried that the out-of-town team wouldn’t make it because of the bad roads, but they did manage to get here in time for the game. It was a good game, and our boys actually won it. Lynn and I tended Christopher while everyone was gone (Emily worked that evening from 3 to 11 p.m.) Roads were really bad on their way home and they were all late getting home. Dani was having serious pain in her lower abdomen and Andrea took her to the ER at the hospital to be checked out. There was nothing conclusive, however, and she may need to have more tests if the pain continues.
Yesterday morning we had horrible wind and rain that turned to snow, but it quit about the time I went out at daylight to do chores. It was difficult struggling through the snowdrifts to feed and water the horses. I tromped a trail from my hayshed to the horse pens; it took several tromping trips to make a trail wide enough for my wheelbarrow—to take hay to Breezy and Rishiam. I was glad I have a stash of extra hay over by Sprout and Shiloh.
Stan was discouraged about the bad roads and being unable to take the travel trailer on their proposed trip south. He wanted to leave that morning but Andrea didn’t want to risk it—not with the weather still unsettled, and Dani having health problems. So Stan decided to go back to California for now, and come back later for his wood-splitter, and maybe do their trip at a later time.
I plugged the tractor in when I did chores, and Andrea helped us feed cows. I took photos of the cows coming to the feed truck, eating their hay, and how deep the snow was next to the plowed trail through the field (to get to where we feed the cows)
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| cows coming to the feed truck |
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| eating their hay |
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| Lynn in the feed truck |
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| deep snow next to truck |
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| deep snow |
I also took pictures of the feed truck going back down the plowed trail, and going past the steel post that Lynn ran into during the earlier snowstorm when he couldn’t see the edge of the trail.
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| driving down the plowed trail |
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| deep snow |
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| bent over steel post in the deep snow |
I took photos of the mountains of snow he’d plowed out of the trail to get up to the field, the plowed trail, and the calf houses in the lower field nearly buried with snow.
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| plowed trail through the field so we can get back and forth with the feed truck |
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| mountain of snow plowed out of the trail |
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| calf houses nearly buried |
When we finished feeding, Lynn helped Andrea get the travel trailer jacks back under her trailer and level again. By noon the tractor was able to start, and he took it up to her house with a wood pallet on the loader tines, to lift her up high enough to get onto the trailer roof and scoop the 2 feet of snow off it.
Then he spent the rest of the day plowing more snow, making the driveway wider, and getting the snow cleared in the area where she and the kids park their vehicle. She brought her car, pickup and Emily’s car down here, out of the way (Emily drove her old Explorer to work because it has 4-wheel drive and better clearance; the county road and highway are still treacherous with all the snow). She got her little jeep stuck in the snow trying to move it, however, and they broke a tow strap trying to pull it out. Lynn came down here and got a tow chain, and was able to pull it out with the tractor using the chain. He continued plowing snow until well after dark.
Michael spent that whole day plowing/moving snow with his skid steer at one of his job sites (where he and Nick are building fences). There was even more snow up on that location (up a creek the other side of town); it was 3 feet deep.
My evening chores were challenging, making sure I had all the snow out of the horse tubs before it froze solid with colder nighttime temperatures. The snow completely filled the tubs. Weather forecasts predicted 11 degrees for last night, but it didn’t get quite that cold. It was 20 degrees when I got up this morning at 5 a.m.
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