Diary from Sky Range Ranch - May 13 through June 24, 2020

MAY 20 – This past week the weather was cool, freezing some nights, and only in the mid-50’s during the day, but the grass is growing. Last Tuesday Lynn went to Carmen Creek to locate a well site for some folks, and Dani worked with Shiloh so she can soon start riding her again.

We were still feeding hay to the cows for several more days, waiting for the grass to get tall enough to put them out on pasture—hopefully before we ran out of hay. Andrea has been getting all the fields and pastures irrigated and she and Lynn started the water in our upper ditch that services the heifer hill field, so all our ditches are now running.

Granddaughter Heather sent us photos of Joseph and his baby brother James, out in the yard, and taking a nap. That baby brother (3 months old) is growing fast!

Joseph and baby James

Joseph and James - nap time

Last Thursday Lynn helped Andrea change the oil in “Luna” (our old Chevy Lumina that Emily is driving until her own car can get fixed). Luna is the little white car we bought used in 2000 when we had to make so many trips to Salt Lake while Andrea was in the burn ICU that summer. Emily (at age 2.5 at that time) named the car Luna, and barely remembers the trip we took in August that year to take her to Salt Lake to see her mama in the hospital—after Andrea was finally out of the ICU and well enough to have her little girl come visit her.

Friday we had a lot of rain, and snow on the mountains. It was too muddy to drive the feed truck up into the field to feed the cows, without getting stuck, so we took several little bales of hay on 4-wheelers (a couple trips with 2 4-wheelers) up to that field to put in their feeders.

The next morning was cold. I had ice in my hoses at chore time because I didn’t drain them—and had to wait until later in the morning to water the horses and heifers. At least we were able to drive the feed truck up to the field that morning to feed the cows. 

That afternoon was clear and sunny, almost up to 60 degrees. Andrea brought Christopher down here in his stroller (while Emily was at work) and he played outside with us for about an hour. He loves playing with Lynn’s canes and took one outside with him, along with a peanut butter jar lid, and was using the cane like a hockey stick.

Christopher with Lynn's cane

Christopher using the cane like a hockey stick

He also checked out some of the interesting little rocks in the driveway.

Christopher sees a pretty rock in the driveway

And then spent some time in the front yard picking dandelion.

picking dandelions in the front yard

Sunday afternoon Dani and I rode Ed and Dottie on a short loop over the low range. Millers had turned their cattle out on the range the day before, and they were scattered all over trying to find good grass. There was a little bit of green grass on one of the bedgrounds, and I took a photo of Dani on Ed as we rode through that area.

Dani riding Ed on low range

Due to the cool weather the grass hasn’t grown much out there yet. It needed more time to grow before they turned the cows out. They were probably out of hay and pasture at home, however, and needed to put their cows somewhere; most of them are really skinny. Alfonso hasn’t turned all of his out yet; some are still in his pastures on the Gooch place.

not much grass out there

On our way home across the hills and ridges on that ride, Dani found 3 little whitetail antlers and brought them home. After we got home, Dani held Breezy for me while I trimmed her hind feet. Breezy is getting old and feeble; we didn’t ride her at all last year, and she is fully retired.

About the time we got home from our ride, Bob Minor came by for a visit, since it was Lynn’s birthday. Bob brought a plate of delicious cookies that Jane made.

The next day we didn’t ride, but Dani came down to hold Ed for me while I put front shoes on her. Ed is almost as old as Breezy, but still doing pretty well, and I am glad Dani can still ride her as a spare horse while she is working with Shiloh and making the transition to a younger horse that still needs more training. That evening we went up to Andrea’s house for a combined birthday celebration for Lynn and Andrea. His birthday is the 17th and hers is May 21 so we usually just have one birthday dinner for both of them. Emily cooked dinner and made a delicious carrot cake for the occasion.

the cake Em made

birthday cake for Lynn and Andrea

They gave Lynn a few gifts, including a couple of really nice pictures to hang on our kitchen wall.

the pictures Dani gave us

Christopher entertained us throughout the evening, when he was in his playpen before dinner, during dinner, and also helping “clean up” afterward.

Christopher in his playpen

Christopher at dinner

Christopher was part of the cleanup crew

It rained hard that evening and continued raining off and on all day yesterday. We’d planned to feed the cows hay one last time, but with it so wet and muddy (and risk of getting the feed truck stuck) we simply brought the cows and calves in from the field and took them around to the lower swamp pasture. They were SO happy to go to green grass! Also there are calf houses in that pasture so the calves can still get in out of the rain on nasty stormy days.

We offloaded the few bales of hay (and the last of the big alfalfa bale) that were still on the truck, putting that hay over by the bulls, since they will have to be in the corral for another month or so until the start of breeding season. Dani and I covered that hay with a tarp to keep it from getting wet in the rain. We are still feeding the heifers hay (2 more big alfalfa bales left for them) until we have enough pasture for them.

After the rain quit Andrea took the harrow and little tractor up to the field above the house and harrowed the part that wasn’t boggy. Then she put in a bunch of step-in posts along the creek in the upper swamp pasture to start making an electric fence. We usually can’t graze that pasture until high water goes down, to avoid the risk of having calves drown trying to cross the creek. This year we decided to just fence off the creek so we can use that pasture earlier. It always grows really tall before we can use it, and the cattle tromp it down badly. Now we can utilize it a bit earlier and they won’t waste so much, and it will grow back for later use again.

Granddaughter Heather sent a few more photos – of Joseph riding his faithful dog Dude, and the two boys snuggling at nap time. That kid loves his baby brother.

Joseph riding Dude

James & Joseph

brother time

We had more rain off and on today, but then the wind started drying things out this afternoon. It has been too wet to take a bale to the heifers with the tractor (we would have gotten stuck in the mud, going down through the hold pen to their feeder) so we let them graze in the pens below the barn and the 2nd day pens for a couple days. Today it was a little drier by late afternoon and we were able to feed them another big bale. It was still too wet and boggy to get down to their feeder so we put another feeder in the hold pen next to Sprout and Shiloh’s pens, put a big bale in it, and put a temporary hot wire around it so they can’t get into the last 2 big bales or my horse hay. We were able to get the bale into their feeder and then get back out of the hold pen without getting the tractor stuck. It rained again this evening so we were lucky we moved that bale when we did.

MAY 29 – The first part of last week continued cold and windy. I checked on the cows and calves in the lower swamp pasture each day, and Andrea finished creating the electric fence along the creek in the upper swamp pasture. Lynn helped her get her chain saw working and she sawed out some of the fallen-down trees along the creek that were in the way of making the fence. We had to buy a few more step-in posts and a couple more rolls of electric poly-wire to finish the fence.

By Friday the cows in the lower swamp were running out of grass and we let them down into the hold pen above the corrals for a day, to eat that tall grass while we finished the electric fence in the upper swamp pasture and a fence along the ditch pasture next to it. Our rotational grazing creates small pastures here and there on the places we can’t cut hay, and gives the cows something to graze during the summer.

Saturday was cold and windy again, and that morning we got the new hot wire fence working (and had to replace some insulators that weren’t adequate) and then moved the cows into their new pasture. On Sunday Michael and Carolyn branded and vaccinated their calves and vaccinated their cows and put their herd out onto their road pasture so their fields can start to grow. 

Heather and Gregory have had some new foals on their farm in Canada, and she sent photos of some of those new babies. They have several more mares left to foal.

new foal

new foal

Dani has been driving up to Lemhi for several days to get some help with her homework for the classes she is behind in. The students are all having to do their school work at home with the school closed because of the coronavirus, and many of the students are way behind. Fortunately Dani is getting some good help from some of Andrea’s friends (on a ranch near Lemhi) who are homeschooling their grandkids and they were happy to help Dani as well.

On Monday Lynn went out to the cemetery with his sister Jenelle to put flowers on family graves. Dani spent the day at Lemhi doing her school work, and Andrea and I rode Shiloh and Dottie for 3 hours to check the fences around our 320-acre mountain pasture, to make sure no range cows can get in. I took photos as we rode up toward the ridge below the 320, of Andrea on Shiloh, and some lupine. The lupine is really thick this year—some of the hillsides are covered with this blue wildflower.

Andrea riding Shiloh up to the ridge below the 320

Heading up the ridge

Lupine

The grass is so poor on the low range this year, and there are so many cows out there (it looks like Alfonso and Millers have overloaded their permit) that soon the cows will be trying to get through our fences to find something to eat. We rode up to the ridge, and I took a few more photos.

view from the ridge

Andrea and Shiloh

Then we rode along our 320 fence and patched a few places in that fence on the ridge next to the low range.

the old jack fence

riding along the 320 fence

We rode up through the 320 to check a couple of the gates to make sure they were still shut, then hurried home again—and planned to check the other fences another day.

riding up through the 320

When we got home we helped Lynn put another alfalfa bale in the heifers’ feeder (only one bale left after that one) and used the tractor to load the last 20 little bales in the stackyard onto the feed truck to haul around for the bulls. We stacked those there and covered them. Andrea and girls went to the cemetery that evening with flowers.

Tuesday morning when I did chores there were cows bawling in the upper swamp pasture. I hiked up there and discovered Zorra Rose’s calf outside the fence, and all the cows were mobbed up in a tight group against the fence. There was no way to get the calf back through the fence by myself, so I hiked on up to Andrea’s house. Everyone there was still sleeping but Andrea woke Dani and they hiked down and helped me. We were able to open the temporary panel gate a little ways, and Dani kept the mob of cows from pouring through it to come out—while Andrea and I gently herded the calf through the gate and back in with the cows. The mama was very upset and worried. It was unusual to have the whole herd so freaked out and we wondered if a predator had upset them and spooked the calf through the fence (a really tight 5-strand barbed-wire fence).

Later that morning when Andrea was irrigating she found a freshly killed whitetail doe in the ditch below heifer hill (right across the creek from our cow herd); it had been dragged into the ditch and partly eaten. The guts had been eaten, and part of the hindquarters. It may have been killed by the cougar that has been lurking on the creek (the one that was up at Rocky’s house a little earlier, coming after their dog). This was probably the reason the cows were upset and the calf had spooked through the fence.

After chores I put front shoes on Dottie, then Andrea and I made a quick ride over the low range (she rode Shiloh) and then she finished irrigating. After lunch Lynn went to town for mail and groceries and to buy more horseshoes and horseshoe nails. Dani spent the day doing homework at Lemhi again, and stopped here on her way home so we could fill her car with gas. We are glad to donate some gas for her efforts to get caught up on her school work, and told her we’d also give her a bonus if she passes all her classes. She had gotten way behind (not knowing what to do on some of them, without being able to do some of the things online like the teachers were expecting all the kids to do) and was failing some of her classes, but has now brought her grades up quite a bit.

Dani went up to Lemhi again the next day to catch up more of her school work with help from her “tutors” and on her way out the driveway chased a cow of Alfonso’s that had come through the range fence and into our field.

I put hind shoes on Dottie then Andrea and I made a longer ride. She rode Shiloh again, and we took the stray cow of Alfonso’s on up the road and into his field, then rode up to the 320 to patch more fence on the middle range side—along Baker Creek. We took a few down trees off the fence and tied up some broken wires where the trees were too big to get off the fence. Andrea tied a log to the bottom wire of the fence in Baker Creek where cattle could push under, and patched the fence where a tree fell down through it.

Andrea tying twines and sticks to patch hole in the fence where tree fell down through it

Then we rode on up through the middle range.

we rode up through the middle range

And went on up into the high range (shutting that range gate that got left open all winter) and found a young bull elk that had been recently killed by wolves and mostly eaten. Andrea was able to get one of the ivories out of its skull, but the other one was gone; that whole side of its face had been eaten away, bones and all. We found some wolf poop right outside our 320 gate in Baker Creek, just below the killed elk.

I held Shiloh from my horse -

while Andrea dug the ivory out of the elk skull

When we got home from our ride Andrea caught Willow for the first time this year and brought her out of her pen to eat a little grass while she brushed her.

Yesterday it was actually quite warm (up to 80 degrees in the afternoon). After Andrea irrigated she caught Willow again and I trimmed her front feet a little (so they wouldn’t be so long and apt to trip her) and got her saddled and bridled. We made a short ride over the low range; Willow’s first ride this year. 

Andrea's 1st ride on Willow

Then we made another short ride, with Andrea riding Shiloh. She wants to ride Shiloh several times and then turn her over to Dani for the summer. Shiloh needs a lot more riding and training and Dani hopes to get that more comfortable working cattle and not so insecure when she has to be a ways apart from other horses.

Andrea & Shiloh on low range

After lunch Andrea brought Christopher down here for us to babysit while she changed more water (and Emily at work). He had fun racing around the dining room in his bumper car, and watched part of a movie on TV. He also had fun taking fridge magnets off the refrigerator. Then Andrea took him back home again on her 4-wheeler when she got done irrigating. 

Christopher reaching fridge magnets

After supper Lynn took our feed truck up to the upper place where Michael was using his tractor to unload fencing materials he’d hauled from Montana. Michael loaded another big grass bale on our feed truck, to bring home and feed the bulls. This will help stretch our few little bales, while the bulls are still in the corral.

This morning after chores I hiked up and checked on the cows and calves in the upper swamp pasture. They were doing well (much better than the day they were spooked by the cougar). We had a couple hard rain showers, then it cleared up and we were able to give the heifers their last big bale of hay.

Andrea and I rode Willow and Dottie (Willow’s 2nd ride of the year) and made another loop over the low range. 

Willow's 2nd ride

Dani went up to Lemhi again and is more confident now about her school work. She is nearly caught up and all her grades are higher. Andrea changed more irrigation water then drove up to Lemhi to visit with the friends who have been helping Dani, and to thank them for their help. We tended Christopher again this evening and Dani and Andrea picked him up. When Emily works the night shifts at the care center, we take turns taking care of Christopher.

JUNE 11 – Last Saturday Andrea and I moved our cows and calves from the upper swamp pasture to the ditch pasture, then Dani rode with us (on Shiloh) for a longer ride up into the middle range (Willow’s 3rd ride of the year). I took photos of Dani and Andrea as we headed out over the low range to head for the middle range.

Dani & Andrea riding Shiloh & Willow

heading up to middle range

I took more photos as we ride up the first ridge in the middle range past the bicycle gate. The hills are really covered with lupine this year—the blue wildflower that causes crooked calves (fused joints and other skeletal abnormalities) if cows eat very much of it during early pregnancy.

riding into middle range

riding up ridge in middle range

We found another dead elk in the draw this side of Crowley trough—another wolf kill from late winter. We hurried home so Andrea and Dani could drive up to Lemhi again for more tutoring for Dani. I took photos as we headed back toward the low range, to go through another gate, riding through more thick patches of wildflowers and lupine.

heading back toward low range gate

riding through more lupine

Lynn and I babysat Christopher that afternoon so Em could get a nap before she went to work on her night shift at the care center, then Dani and Andrea picked him up on their way home from Lemhi that evening.

The next day was really windy and we didn’t ride. Andrea and I made a short electric fence to lock the cows down at this end of the ditch pasture, so make them eat that segment more thoroughly—for one day, and also locked them out of her driveway at the upper end because Alfonso put a bunch of cows and bulls in the field right above it. Even though we have a taller, better fence between us now (that Michael and Nick rebuilt this past winter) we don’t want to take a chance on having a bull try to get through it to get in with our cows. We don’t want any of our cows bred this early; we won’t be putting our bulls in with them for a couple more weeks.

Last Monday Dani went to the school to take her books back and her final assignments, and Andrea and I made a short fast ride over the low range (Willow’s 4th ride this year) so we could get home in time for Andrea to go to town and get to the school before noon to pick up the kids’ grades and pick up Charlie’s graduation packet, and his 4 tickets for family members.

Willow's 4th ride

Andrea riding down into Baker Creek

We had a few days of hot weather (high 70’s and into the 80’s) and the grass is really growing. Last Tuesday the 13 heifers had eaten the last of their final bale so we moved them down to the post pile pasture. They were very happy to be out on grass!

Then Andrea and I rode Dottie and Willow up into the middle range and put a longer loop on the gate (to make it easier to close) and rode over to the draw to take a closer look at the dead elk. I held Willow while she hiked down into the draw and took the ivories out of the skull. I took photos as we rode over there, and Andrea took photos of all the lupine we were riding through.

Andrea taking photos of wildflowers

riding through the lupine

Then we rode on over to the Bear Trough and down the tributary to the 3rd gully, to the seeding fence at the bottom, where we literally ran into another ride (a neighbor, Jill Minor) and her dog. We came around the base of the hill and the dog was right there and nearly spooked the horses. We visited with her a bit, then trotted home along the trail to coyote flat.

The next day we didn’t ride; I typed several interviews for articles then took out the temporary posts and hot wire we’d created to make a small enclosure for the heifers while we fed them their last bales of hay (so that field would grow). That afternoon Andrea took salt to the heifers in their new pasture and she and Dani put up a hot wire to split in the field below the lane. We always fence off the boggy side for grazing (where we can’t get it dry enough for haying) and just put up hay on the higher drier side.

They also put a crossfence hot wire to split the pasture. This time when we graze the pasture side we will make the cows eat the top half of it first and save the bottom half for them to eat later, and it will all last longer because they won’t tromp it all down at once. I paid Dani some of her earned wages and gave her a bonus for working so hard to get her grades up before the end of the school year. Andrea gave her a special watch as a bonus, and gave one to Sam also for getting a 4.0 grade point this school year. These watches count your steps during the day, record your pulse, respiration and temperature and do many other things—like having a mini-computer on your wrist.

Thursday morning our phones and internet quit working; someone dug into the phone line up the valley near Tendoy, and it took all day for the phone company to fix it. I had a couple interviews scheduled but couldn’t do them because we had no long distance service. I also had no way to let those people know that I couldn’t call them, because there was also no e-mail service. Finally I was able to have Rocky’s wife Bev send them an e-mail (she has a different e-mail provider) and let them know we’d have to reschedule the interviews. We also couldn’t communicate with Andrea, Em and Dani who were driving that day to Pocatello for Dani’s appointment, since there was no service from our landline to any cell phones.

Lynn went to Carmen Creek to locate a water well, then he helped me load and haul some bales from my hay shed to make a little stack by Sprout and Shiloh’s pens. We also dragged the 2 hay feeders (that we’d used for the heifers) off to the side and out of the way (against the 2nd day pens) for summer.

Christopher has been enjoying a few chances to play outside when someone can keep track of him. Andrea took this photo of him checking out an old tricycle that belonged to one of her old kids when they were young.

Christopher and his tricycle

Friday was very warm – up to 85 degrees. Andrea changed her irrigation water in the morning and then we rode for several hours on the other range (south side of our ranch) to check fences, since the range cattle on that side are also short on feed and pressing our fences hard. 

We checked the fence along our Cheney Creek pasture and propped up a couple spots and fastened some wires back to the posts, where cattle have been pushing on the fence. There are several spots that need a few more steel posts. The original fence was built in the early 1950’s before my dad bought that place, with split cedar posts. Those old untreated posts lasted a long time; cedar tends to be resistant to the effects of “bugs” and rot. Over the years we put in some steel posts to reinforce the fence, but the original posts are still there. Some have been loosened up by cattle pressure, and a few have been pushed over, so steel posts have kept the fence functional; we just need a few more steel posts in some places. Andrea and I did enough propping and patching to keep the fence upright until some steel posts can be put in—unless the range neighbors push a big herd of cattle along the fence and push it over.

The top end of that pasture has a pretty good fence (repaired over the years with stays and steel posts), except for where it crosses the creek bottom along Cheney Creek. The range cows last summer broke through it because they were so short of feed, and knocked down several posts and the braces next to the old gate. They ate out our Cheney Creek pasture completely. As we rode along the top end of the fence we were pleased to see that Michael had recently rebuilt that mashed down part completely—putting in new braces and a new gate. Carolyn told us later that it was a photo finish, to get it rebuilt before the range cows got to it this year.

We rode across gopher meadow and out to the road, and came home down the road after checking on Michael and Carolyn’s cows in their road pasture. When we got home Andrea tried to get her pump working (to water her lawn) but it has a major problem. She finally gave up on it and got ready to go to graduation.

It was a unique ceremony this year, with social distancing. It was held outdoors in the school parking lot, with select spaces for people to be. Each senior could only invite 4 family members, so Charlie invited his dad and 2 of his siblings—Emily and Sam. Andrea and Em dropped Christopher off at our house when they went in that evening, and we babysat him, since Dani was out of town visiting a friend. Andrea sent me photos that were taken that evening at graduation – of Charlie, Em and Sam, and of her and Charlie.

Em, Charlie & Sam

Charlie & Andrea

She also sent me Charlie’s senior picture.

Charlie's senior photo

My brother Rocky (who works for the radio station) broadcast the graduation ceremony over the radio for people who had to stay at home, so we listened to it on the radio. We had a big windstorm that temporarily knocked the power out several times in a short period—probably because it blew a tree down over the road and the power line just below Clyde Smith’s old house a mile below us on the creek. The wind blew a lot of dust around in the parking lot at graduation and blew down the big screen they’d used for their senior slide show, but by then the ceremony was almost over. 

Andrea and crew were held up for a few minutes on their way home however, by the tree across the road. Chris French (whose family ranches in the valley below us and runs cows on the Forest Service range above us) was cutting the tree off the power line with his chain saw. He and his family were camping up the creek that evening and he’d come down to do the ranch chores and encountered the tree across the power line and partially blocking the road, so he sawed it off the power line.

The next day it rained off and on all day so we didn’t ride. Charlie and Sam drove out to visit and pick up Charlie’s graduation gifts from us and Andrea, and it was fun to see them. Andrea took a photo of them at her house.

Sam, Charlie, Em & Christopher

It rained really hard that evening and water was flooding my horse pens so after supper I went up into the field above and took out one of the irrigation dams that was sending water across; augmented by all the rain it was flooding much farther than just the field!

Sunday we had even more rain that morning then it quit, so Andrea and I worked on the hot wire below the driveway and got it functional—then moved the cows from their ditch pasture (by her house) and brought them down to their new pasture. It started raining again right after we moved them.

Monday was very cold and rainy (new snow on the mountains) so we didn’t ride. Andrea took salt to the cows and irrigated, and I spent the day typing articles. It was so cold in the house that we built a fire in the stove for the first time since late winter. Millers and Alfonso pushed a big mob of their range cows up into the little basin below our 320, even though there is no feed left up there. One of their bulls and several cows broke through the fence into our road pasture, and Michael and Carolyn had to put the bull in their corral and chase the stray cows out and patch the fence. They broke down the wire gate and smashed a good pole fence (across the gully, next to the gate) into kindling. Michael and Carolyn patched it as best they could after Michael got home from his custom fencing job, but it got dark before they could chase the range cows up out of that basin. 

When Carolyn called John Miller that evening to tell him they had his bull in their corral, wondering what they should do with him—and wondering when they were going to move their cattle out of the low range pasture—John told her the BLM had given them permission to stay another 2 or 3 weeks on the low pasture. We were surprised to hear that, because this is already the longest any cattle have stayed on the low pasture (the smallest of the 3 pastures--generally the cattle only stay out there from May 15 until the first of June or sometimes the first week in June at the latest). The cows are out of grass and will be crawling through all our fences to get something to eat.

The next day was cool and cloudy but no rain so after I did several interviews in the morning Andrea, Dani and I rode up there to help get the cattle away from our fences. Dani rode Ed because Shiloh isn’t as experienced and level-headed for chasing cattle. I took a couple photos as we rode out there. 

Andrea & Willow

Andrea & Dani

We rode again yesterday, checked through Michael and Carolyn’s cows to make sure they were all still in the right place (and no more range cattle in with them) and discovered more flat fence on the backside of their pasture. I took photos of Dani and Andrea as we rode up through our place to that range basin to gather the cows—and of Dani opening the gate to go out there.

Dani riding Ed

Andrea on Willow

Dani opening gate

We rode up around the basin and picked up the cattle that were still in that area pressing our fences. We herded the range cows out of that basin and when we got to the top of the ridge and had cell service, Andrea called Carolyn and told her about the flat fence. We’d tried to prop it up but there was nothing there to use for props except dead sagebrush. Michael and Carolyn carried steel posts up there that evening to fix it.

Andrea & Willow riding around the basin

moving the cows out

Today a big group of cattle and several bulls were gathered along our fence on the other side (range cows on the south side of our place), trying to get in. Our fence is pretty good along that side, but just below us Alfonso’s fence is pretty shaky. If the cattle get into his place below us, they’ll mash down his hayfield, but also the bulls will be right next to our heifers in the post pile pasture. So Dani, Andrea and I rode out there this morning (Willow’s 9th ride of the year) and moved those cattle up out of the swamp next to our place and back over the hill. There is hardly any grass out there, so they are trying to get into the fields. I took photos as we started up over the hill with the cattle, showing the lack of grass out there.

Andrea & Willow

Dani & Andrea moving the cattle up away from our fence

We ended up with five bulls in the group, and they were trying to fight each other the whole way. It was good practice for Dani and Shiloh to do a little more cattle work. We took the cattle about a mile, hoping to get them to some better grass, but were appalled at how little grass is out there on that range pasture; those cattle will be pressing our fences hard on that side, too, because those guys won’t be moving them out of that pasture until early July.

moving the cattle

still no grass

nothing but sagebrush on this range pasture

This afternoon Andrea irrigated and started working on the hot wire to create a ditch pasture along the field above our house—where we will be putting the heifers after they finish grazing the post pile pasture. Summer is a challenging and interesting game of rotational grazing all around our place in the areas where we don’t put up hay, grazing little pieces for a short time and then letting them grow back before grazing them again.


JUNE 24 – Last Friday Andrea finished putting up the hot wire for the ditch pasture below her house, then she and Dani came down here to get horses ready to ride. We made a ride up onto the range behind Andrea’s house to chase a bull up off the fence. He had been pacing up and down the fence trying to get through it to come fight our bulls. Dani and Shiloh did very well, and this was Willow’s 10th ride this year. We got the bull up the hill quite a ways, to join some other range cattle, and hoped he would stay up there with them and not down on our fence.

Dani & Shiloh

we got the bull with some other cattle

Dani & Andrea moving cattle

taking the group a little farther up the mountain

While we were riding, Dani’s friend Jack helped Lynn clean up the swather (using a power washer) to get it more ready for cutting hay again.

The next day was cold and windy and we didn’t ride. Andrea irrigated and then she and I checked on the heifers in the post pile pasture to make sure they still have enough grass for a few more days’ grazing. Then we moved our cows and calves down to the lower half of the pasture below our lane. We split that pasture with a hot wire and they didn’t knock it all down and waste so much; the first half lasted them 6 days and generally the whole pasture only lasts about 7 or 8 days.

That afternoon Jack helped Andrea put child-proof latches on all her cupboard doors in her kitchen, since Christopher had figured out how to open all of them. Andrea also took out the lower drawer in the TV stand because Christopher was pulling it out to stand in it to climb up higher. That kid is just too clever and fearless, at 14 ½ months old.

It started raining that night and rained off and on the next day. It got cold the next night, down to 27 degrees, with new snow on the mountains. Andrea finished creating an electric fence along the ditch above the house to make a corridor pasture for the heifers to graze the ditchbank. When we went to the post pile pasture to move the heifers, one of Michael’s heifers was missing; she’d crawled through the barbed-wire fence in the brush along the creek and got in with the cows and calves below the lane. There is thick brush along that fence but also some bad spots where trees have fallen down and pressed the fence down a little, and a few staples missing, and she got through it.

So we left her there with the cows (no easy quick way to get her out of that herd) and moved the rest of the heifers to new pasture. We brought them up from the post pile pasture and sorted them in the lane by the sick barn—putting Michael’s heifers temporarily in the main corral, then taking our heifers up the driveway, through the main ditch pasture next to the orchard and horse pasture, and into the newly-created temporary pasture along the ditch above the field above the horse pasture. Then we put Michael’s heifers in the main ditch pasture. Hopefully it will last them about a week until we send them up to the upper place. Having them sorted into their proper groups will make it easy for Michael to take his home when he decides to get them and the young bull that will go with them.

Granddaughter Heather sent an e-mail and some photos. Several more of her mares have foaled.

new foal

new foal

She also sent a photo of Joseph riding one of their horses, with his faithful dog Dude supervising the ride.

Joseph riding

We had more rain—raining steadily for several days—and we didn’t ride. This is the most rain we’ve had for quite some time, and I is really helping the dry areas that haven’t been irrigated. It will also help the range grass out on the mountains. 

On Tuesday Dani drove to Idaho Falls for her orthodontist appointment to have her braces adjusted. It was the first time she’s made that trip solo. She’s a very good driver and did just fine, allowing extra time to get there because the weather was still stormy. There was new snow on the passes that day. For some unknown reason our telephones and internet quit working fairly early that morning and didn’t start working again until evening. There was no way to call Dani or for her to call home, except cell phone to cell phone. With no cell service here, Andrea had to hike up the hill a ways behind her house to have cell service to talk with Dani. She had a safe trip home again and got back before dark.

Stan also got here that evening, after spending about a month in New Mexico manning a shower unit. He plans to be here for a while until his next job.

We had nearly a week of steady rain, then it cleared up and Stan helped Lynn change the oil in our tractors and repair some leaks in the big John Deere. They also assessed the broken spring on the swather, to figure out the best way to fix it. That afternoon was the first day it didn’t rain, and Andrea brought Christopher down here on the 4-wheeler, to get a bit of fresh air and let him hike around a bit in our driveway (trying to keep him out of the mud puddles!) while I did chores. Christopher was fascinated by the tractors and wanted to go check them out, but there was too much mud to let him go over there. That little kid can run faster than great-grandpa!

That evening Andrea and Stan hiked up on the mountain behind her house but kept smelling a strong odor of something dead. They were high enough to look down at the fields and saw that one of Alfonso’s cows had died in the field above Andrea’s house. The stench has been pretty bad now for several days. First the dead cow right below our fields on the lower place, and now this one right above our place!

Friday was a nice day, no rain, and the driveway by our house had dried out enough that I was able to shoe Shiloh. I wanted to put shoes on her while her feet were still soft from all the rain and mud (it was still a bit muddy in her pen), since when they are dry they are almost rock-hard and very difficult to trim and smooth up for the shoes. Andrea held her for me and I got her front shoes on, then decided to go ahead and do her hinds, as well. She’s been ridden quite a few times this spring and even though her feet are tough and hard they were starting to wear down (going through all the rocks) and she would soon need shoes—and this was an opportune time to get it accomplished.

Then Andrea and I brought the cows and calves up from their pasture and into the 2nd day pens by the barn where we could sort out the stray heifer. We were going to just wait and sort her out when we moved the cows to the next pasture, but the grass was lasting very well where they were, and we wanted to make sure we got that heifer out before she needed to go to the upper place with her buddies. We got her sorted out of the cows, and put her with the other heifers (that we’d brought down the lane from their ditch pasture). She was happy to be back with her buddies again. We put them back in their ditch pasture and the cows and calves back down to their lower pasture.

During one of the last rainstorms, we had a lot of wind that blew down several trees onto our fences. Stan sawed a big cottonwood tree out of the fence just below heifer hill (it crashed through a brace and ruined it, but barely missed the power pole and jack fence). He also sawed several smaller trees that fell down in the swamp pasture, mashing the electric fence.

That evening granddaughter Heather called from Canada, to ask some questions about gelding their foals, and we had a nice visit with her and her husband Gregory.

Saturday Michael and Carolyn had hoped to come get their heifers and bull, but they had too much to do that day and still needed to go around the pasture where they plan to put them, and saw some fallen trees off their fences. So that morning I put shoes on Willow (while her feet are still soft from all the mud in her pen, from the rain). She still had a fair amount of hoof left on her front feet after 10 rides, but her hinds were wearing down and it was time for shoes. Her feet are as hard as Shiloh’s so I wanted to take advantage of them being soft from the mud.

I got her shod, then Andrea and I made a 4 ½ hour ride. We started by going up through our hill pasture, and paused to take photos of Andrea’s house across from us, above the hayfield. It was interesting to also see the contrast between the green grass on our side of the fence (our property extends up that hill behind her house a little ways) with the lack of grass on the range next to our own hillside. 

view of Andrea's house from our hill pasture

We rode on up through our small hill pasture (which has more grass on it than the low range next to it) and went on out into the low range pasture on the town side of our place. Then we made a loop over the range to see how many cows are still left on that low range pasture (Alfonso and Millers always miss a few when they take their cows to the middle pasture). We saw some down low and we know there are still a few up around Michael’s road pasture, but didn’t worry about moving them on that ride.

Andrea & Willow riding through our hill pasture toward gate out onto the range

Instead we went on up into the middle range and high range to check on the grass and see where the cows are—and make sure none have gotten into our 320-acre pasture. The cattle were scattered but most of them were too high, where the grass is not very good (after being overgrazed for the past 8 years by Alfonso’s and Millers cattle that have always gone to the small top part too soon rather than staying in the much larger lower area of that pasture where the grass is always about 3 weeks ahead of the high grass). I took photos of cows on one of those high bed-grounds.

bedground on middle range

not much grass yet on middle range

On that ride we ran across 5 big rattlesnakes (3 on the low range, one in our hill pasture and one on the high range). Andrea took a photo of one of the snakes we encountered on the middle range.

rattlesnake

When we got to the old green trough below High Camp we let the horses drink, and Andrea also got off and adjusted the cinch on her saddle. She took a photo of me holding Willow for her.

Willow drinking at trough

me holding Willow

A little farther on I took a photo of photo of Andrea and Willow after we went through the gate into the neighboring range, and she took a photo of me and Dottie.

Andrea & Willow

me & Dottie

We made a loop through that range, looking over into Mulkey Creek, and saw the dramatic difference in grass; that range is just as high in elevation as the top of our old middle range, but there is a lot more grass and it’s healthier, due to not being overgrazed. This is what our side looked like while we were still running cattle on the range and diligently managing it to prevent overuse of the top part.

ridge toward Mulkey Creek

riding up the ridge

on the ridge

We came home down Baker Creek through the 320 and it was very muddy and slippery through the timber; we had to be careful to make sure the horses didn’t slip and fall.

While Andrea and I were riding, Stan helped Lynn again with some of the tractor repairs and maintenance. It’s a challenge keeping our old equipment running, so we can keep putting up a little hay for the horses and cows.

Sunday was cool and cloudy, but not much rain. We went ahead with the plan to get Michael’s heifers and bull to the upper place. At morning chores I locked our 2 dry cows in a small corral, then Andrea and Stan helped me get Michael’s heifers from their ditch bank pasture, down the lane and into another corral. Then we moved our cows and calves from their pasture below the lane and took them to the corridor along the creek in the upper swamp pasture. Hopefully it will last them a couple days, and hopefully no calves will drown in the creek. It is still pretty high after all the rain. Then we moved our heifers from their ditch pasture to the ditch pasture below the lane. Those ditch banks grow a lot of grass and the heifers can eat it down. 

We had all our cow moving done by the time Michael and Carolyn came down with their stock trailer and generator. They used the generator to heat their branding iron so they could brand their young bull before they took him home. When they got him last spring as a yearling, they didn’t brand him, and he spent a year here, breeding all the heifers here (ours and Michael’s), and then in the corral with our bulls. Now he’ll be on pasture on the upper place, with more risk of mix-ups with range cattle, and it’s good to have him branded, for proof of ownership in case he gets out.

He’s a bit snorty and ornery and we knew it would be hard to get him down the chute, but we had a plan for that problem; we put him with our two dry cows and they went down the chute and he followed them. So we had him captured for branding. Then we put those two cows back in the stackyard to finish grazing it before we stack hay in there, and put Michael and Carolyn’s 8 heifers with the bull and loaded them all in the trailer to haul home to their new pasture. It all went smoothly and quickly. 

Then Lynn took our old feed truck to the upper place to get another big round bale; Michael was using his tractor to move fencing materials around and loaded a bale for us. He has a few bales left over and we’re out of hay for the bulls. Our two bulls will stay in the corral a few more days until we turn one of them out with our cows.

On Monday the weather warmed up to 80 degrees by afternoon. Stan came down late morning to help Lynn finish servicing the tractors and Andrea and Dani rode with me on Willow and Shiloh to try to find and move the range cows that were left on the lowest part of the low pasture when Alfonso and Millers took their cattle to the middle range. 

heading out over low range

We rode to the top of a hill overlooking the lowest area of the range, to look around.

looking out over the low country to find cows

We saw two pair down at the lower end of Baker Creek and rode down there to get them, moved them up through a lot of deep, slippery bogs. With all the rain we had last week, the bentonite deposits are still wet and some are practically bottomless. We had to be careful where we went through those wet spots. We got them up out of that area and took them up a jeep road.

Dani moving cows up the jeep road

Then we headed them out over coyote flat, and followed them around a trail toward one of the gates into the middle range.

taking the cows over coyote flat

Dani following the cows

Yesterday we moved the cows and calves to the lower swamp pasture, and then rode again, to try to find the cattle that got missed on the high end of the low range. We looked through the Basin below the 320 and didn’t find them, and stopped to let the horses drink at Antelope spring trough. It was a brand new trough a couple years ago, but the spring only runs a trickle (enough to service 6 or 8 cows) and Alfonso and Millers always herd big bunches of cattle into that basin and they get thirsty and try to all drink there with not enough water—and they’ve already broken the cross poles. The trough was full that day, however, since the cattle have been moved out of the low range now for several days and it had a chance to refill. The horses drank, and Shiloh dunked her nose and face clear into the water to root around in it and splash water all over. Then we rode up to the ridge and looked down into the next basin but didn’t see any cattle.

Shiloh playing in the water

Dani & Shilow looking down from the ridge

Then when we came around the ridge above Michael and Carolyn’s house we saw a lone bull lying in the sagebrush in that saddle. When we got closer he got up and we could see he had a broken hind leg; it was swollen and floppy and he couldn’t put any weight on it at all. We checked his brand and saw that this was one of Alfonso’s bulls.

broken leg

Alfonso's bull with broken leg

I took photos of him, and since we had cell service at that spot, Andrea called Alfonso and left a message for him, telling him where the bull was located. She also called Lynn and told him about it, so Lynn drove down to Alfonso’s camp but he wasn’t home. So Lynn called John Miller, who said Alfonso had seen the bull the day before, and that they were going to go out and butcher the bull and pack the meat home. That poor bull has been suffering for several days and we were appalled that they hadn’t done something with him immediately. We rode on around the hill and found 3 pairs those guys had missed when they moved their cattle, and we took them down to Baker Creek and put them through the gate into the middle range.