Diary from Sky Range Ranch - June 24 through August 5, 2020

JULY 3 – We had some hot weather for a few days and Andrea turned off most of our ditches to start drying up our fields so we could cut hay, and then it rained—so we were a little slow getting started haying.

Andrea went to the doctor to have a lump checked, and had a mammogram and ultrasound. At this point it seems benign and probably just a large fibrous cyst.

Dani washed all of our saddle pads and saddle blankets with a power washer and left them on the fence in the back yard to dry. They haven’t been washed for a long time and were really dirty, and we don’t want them to make our horse’s backs sore.

Dani washing saddle pads & blankets

saddle pads hanging on fence

Last Thursday Andrea and I made a fast ride up the ridge to the 320 and down the road. It was Willow’s 14th ride this year, and she’s coming along a little more in her training. We went past Alfonso’s crippled bull with broken hind leg; he was still on the ridge saddle below the 320, in the same place we’d seen him several days earlier, so he hadn’t ever made it to water; Alfonso and John Miller had not yet gone up there to butcher him. That poor bull had been injured for more than a week, without water in this hot weather, just trying to graze a little in that one place.

bull with broken leg trying to graze

That afternoon Andrea and Stan drove to Mud Lake (this side of Idaho Falls) to get parts for the swather and some baling twine so we could start haying. The next day Stan started working on the swather and found more problems, so he and Lynn went to town for more parts. Andrea and I folded up the tarps and black plastic that we used last year to cover the haystacks (Dani laid them all out flat a few days earlier, to get all the water out of them so they could dry out), and we put them away in the sick barn, ready to use again this year. 

We grazed the heifers in the lane for a while, and put up a hot wire in the back yard and put them in there to graze for a couple of days. Lynn and Stan worked on the swather after they got back from town and got it functional.

Saturday we put our #1 bull out with the cows and heifers and put them in the orchard; it’s just a small pasture but should last them a couple days. We put the bigger bull in the main corral with the 2 dry cows to keep him company so he won’t try to jump out. We were going to sell those 2 young cows (one that we thought was pregnant but didn’t have a calf this spring, and the first-calver that lost a calf—the dead calf we had to extract), but we needed some “babysitter” cows for the spare bull. If they end up pregnant we may keep them.

That afternoon Lynn and Stan put new cutter sections in the swather, and Andrea and I made another short, fast ride up the ridge. Michael and Carolyn heard a shot up above their house the evening before, and sure enough, we found that Alfonso had finally put that bull out of his misery and taken part of the meat. Most of the carcass and gut pile is there in the trail, but the coyotes will probably clean it up soon.

Sunday was cool and cloudy, threatening rain, so we didn’t start cutting hay.

threatening rain

Andrea helped me take the rest of the hay out of my hay shed and stack part of it next to Sprout’s pen, and we stacked the rest in the alleyway next to Breezy and Willow’s pens, and put tarps over it. Now my hay shed is empty and ready for the new hay after we get it cut and baled.

Stan and Andrea put the turner rake on our little tractor and helped Lynn take the blade off the big tractor so we can hook up the baler. It was a very cool day, so that afternoon Stan and Andrea drove 4-wheelers up to the 320 and took three fence posts—and carried them up the steep hill to the fence corner between our pasture and the high range-middle range crossfence where the brace posts have rotted off. Sometime we can go back and rebuild that brace. When they were up there it started raining, and they got soaked on their way home. It was a cloudburst—and poured rain for about an hour. We were glad we hadn’t started haying yet!

It rained all night and most of the next day. There was so much water coming into our ditch above heifer hill that it was threatening to wash out, so Andrea and Stan worked on that problem, then helped me get a hot wire working across the horse pasture. We divided the orchard pasture with a hot wire this year (making the cattle use just half of it at once rather than mashing it all down and then not wanting to eat it) and did the same with the horse pasture when we put them in there. It extended the grazing on those two pieces by 3 or 4 more days.

It rained for two more days and then Wednesday finally cleared. We finished putting a hot wire across the field above the house, so we can graze it in two parts and stretch the pasture farther. Stan and Andrea rolled up the hot wire and took out the temporary posts where we fenced the creek out of the upper swamp pasture. Utilizing strategic splitting of various pastures has helped get more good out of them, with more grazing days.

Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent photos of one of their mares and new foal. Now they only have one mare left to foal.

mare and new foal

Dani and her friend Dakota stopped by here on their way to town that afternoon, to tell us the tragic news about an accident the night before. Several of their friends and classmates had been driving too fast on the back road this side of town. The boy driving swerved to miss a pot hole, and rolled the jeep. None of them were wearing seat belts and they were all thrown out. The jeep rolled over the young man driving, resulting in serious head injury and broken bones; he was sent by life-flight to a hospital in Idaho Falls. One of the girls suffered broken bones and severe face injuries. She will recover but needs a lot of plastic surgery on her face. The other two girls had minor injuries. It was a sad day for our community; the young man (a senior this year) may not survive.

Yesterday the weather got hot again, starting to dry out the fields. Today, some of Alfonso’s cows and calves from the Gooch place got out on the road and came wandering down to our place that morning so I shut our driveway gates. Later Alfonso came roaring up the road on his 4-wheeler, chasing them back up to the Gooch pasture.

Andrea and Stan checked our back field, and it is dry enough to cut, and so is the big field by Andrea’s house. Lynn started cutting that field, but when he went through the ditch to get to the field, another spring broke on the swather. He was able to finish cutting, but it left an uneven cut, with the stubble a bit longer than it should be. We need to get ANOTHER spring for the swather before we can cut the rest of our hay!

Dani and I made a short ride on Shiloh and Dottie over the low range and I took a photo of her as we paused to overlook the far side and bottom of Baker Creek.

Dani on Shiloh looking over low range

Then we rode up a little draw with some big sagebrush, where the deer like to hang out, and came across a newborn fawn that was killed and eaten (probably coyotes); all that was left of it was the head. We had to hurry home because a thunderstorm was looming; we got home and got the horses unsaddled just ahead of a nasty wind. It didn’t rain much but the wind was terrible.

Andrea, Stan, Dani, Em and Christopher went to the western playday at the Fairgrounds, that evening and fortunately the wind had abated a bit. Christopher enjoyed the outing, and Em took pictures of him wearing someone’s hat.

Christopher, Em and Stan

Christopher wearing a hat

Then the next day Andrea took a photo of Emily, Christopher and Stan when they were all out visiting at the care center where Emily works.

Em, Christopher and Stan

JULY 15 – Last weekend Lynn and Stan got the baler cleaned out and greased and ready to go. We had to wait for parts for the swather and couldn’t cut more hay until Monday, so on Sunday Andrea, Dani and I made a ride up through the 320 to make sure the range cows weren’t getting in, and check the fences. I took photos as we rode up the ridge to the 320, and into the 320.

riding up ridge to 320

riding through 320

..and photos as we rode through the 320—to Baker Creek and then up Baker Creek through the tall grass in our mountain pasture.

riding toward Baker Creek in 320

riding up Baker Creek

Then we made a short loop through the high range and discovered a recently killed mule deer doe, covered with sagebrush and grass—typical of a cougar kill. Those big cats like to hide their kills and come back to it again later.

dead deer, covered up

I took another photo of Dani as we rode on up and over the hill to go through the gate into the middle range.

Dani & Shiloh

We came home through the middle range and went through several groups of cattle, and saw one of Alfonso’s cows with an injured front leg (elbow sticking way out) and so crippled she can hardly walk. She was just skin and bones. Upon closer inspection we saw that the hoof on that leg was very long and overgrown, which indicated that she’d been this way for quite a while; the hoof was long because she hadn’t been putting any weight on that foot, to wear it down normally. That man has no compassion for his cattle! She must have been lame already when he turned her out on the range this spring, and has just gotten worse.

That evening we went up to Andrea’s for a late supper; Stan barbecued some hot dogs and sausages. 

Monday morning Andrea and Stan drove to Mud Lake again to get another spring for the swather. Meanwhile Lynn’s sister Jenelle said we could use her swather if it took very long to get ours fixed. She’d loaned it to John Miller a few years ago and it was still at his place. Lynn called John to see if he was using it, and he hadn’t used it for several years; he’d tried it out but it was too big to pull with his draft horses. He didn’t realize it belonged to Jenelle, however. Rusty Hamilton (who sometimes helps Jenelle) had brought it out to John’s place and had given John the impression that it belonged to Rusty. So John told Lynn we could come get it the next—after he brought it down off the hill where it has been sitting for more than a year.

Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent photos of baby James (he was baptized that Sunday) and of Joseph showing one of their horses to a man and his daughter who was interested in buying the horse.

Baby James the day of his Baptism

Joseph showing horse to buyers

Dani and Dakota helped me load up the pile of hay twines next to my hay shed and haul them off to our string pile, and we trimmed the gooseberry bush on the other side of the shed, and the crab apple branches by the gate that obstruct the gateway for stackwagon for coming through to unload hay.

Stan put the swather back together when he and Andrea got back from Mud Lake, and Andrea started turning the cut hay on the field by her house, so it would get dry enough to bale. Stan learned how to run that tractor and turner rake, and Andrea started baling, but the hay was still a little too wet. She waited till evening and by that time it had dried out enough to bale and she got it baled just before dark. Lynn cut the lower back field in the afternoon, and the field below the lane after supper.

The next day was windy but didn’t rain. Lynn went to town to meet up with a guy who drove him up past Elk Bend to locate water for a well. Andrea and Stan took our little tractor over to John Miller’s place to get Jenelle’s swather. John had brought it down to his barnyard and put air in the tires. Andrea was appalled by the condition of the swather; it had a spring completely missing on one side and the cutter bar was severely bent. It looked like it had been wrecked, running into something. But she pulled it home, and parked it up in our stackyard. It needs a lot more work on it than our old swather, to be functional. We realized that this must be the swather that we saw Sy Miller cut Alfonso’s hay with a couple years ago, and got it stuck in the ditch in the field below our place! It’s now in really bad shape.

That afternoon we got our haystacker going and hauled a load from the field by Andrea’s house, and got it safely stacked in my hay shed. We discovered that Alfonso had turned his ditch water down onto that field the night before and was flooding part of our field, so a couple rows of bales were too wet to haul and stack (there would be danger of them heating and causing a fire). So we left those bales, to haul with the pickup and cut open so they can dry out and not mold. We put those bales over by Sprout’s pen, opened them and scattered the flakes of hay all around; the horses can eat that hay after it dries out.

Last Wednesday Andrea and Stan put more boards across the big ditch below heifer hill, on each side of the culvert, to make sure we can get the haying equipment across without running a tire off into the ditch. Lynn started cutting heifer hill and Andrea finished cutting that field, then he cut the field below our lane—which finished our cutting for this year. The old swather held together, thanks to Stan putting on the new springs. Dani took a photo of Lynn getting in the tractor to finish cutting hay.

Lynn getting in tractor to finish cutting hay

On Thursday Lynn and Andrea hauled several pickup loads of rocks to put into the water crossing (where a spring runs down through our place) to get to the lower back field, so the haying equipment won’t bog down—especially the stackwagon which would have the most weight. Stan turned the hay on that field with the turner rake and little tractor and Andrea started baling but the hay was still too green. She and Lynn hauled some of those wet bales over toward Sprout’s pen and we opened them up so they wouldn’t heat and mold.

Friday we had a lightning storm and hard rain at 5 a.m. which made everything too wet to continue baling hay. Even though it got hot in the afternoon, it was still too wet to bale until the next day. Stan turned the hay again on the lower back field and within a couple hours it was dry enough to bale—so Andrea baled and Lynn hauled, and we got several more loads safely stacked. Heifer hill was also still a bit wet from the rain so Andrea turned it and was able to bale again by late evening. We got the last load into my hay shed on Sunday and started stacking the rest in the stackyard across the creek.

Dani helped row bales (rolling some down off the hillsides onto more level ground for the stackwagon) and hauled some of the wetter bales to open up by the horses and bull pen, so they wouldn’t be in the stack and at risk for heating and spontaneous combustion. We were racing a thunderstorm that evening and got the hay all hauled before it rained again.

On Monday Andrea got some of our ditches started again, to get water back on the hayfields. Dani and her friend Dakota helped her put a dam and rocks in the creek to get water into the heifer hill ditch; someone had taken out all the big rocks she’d put in earlier, so it was a struggle to get that ditch going again. That afternoon Andrea and I went for a short ride; the horses have had a lot of time off while we were haying.

A couple weeks ago granddaughter Heather in Canada lost one of her mares (found her dead in the corral) and never really knew what happened. The sad part was that the mare had a month-old filly. The stubborn little critter would not nurse a bottle and was not doing very well on just hay and grain. So when the last mare foaled a couple days ago, they put the orphan filly with the mare and new baby and helped encourage the orphan to nurse the mare. It seems to be working. The foals are kept separate from the mare (so the mare won’t kick the orphan) except at nursing time, and with supervision lets both of them nurse at the same time. She sent photos of the new baby and skinny orphan napping together, and nursing together.

the two foals napping together

the foals nursing at the same time

Yesterday I started grazing Sprout in some of the barnyard areas where grass has grown up tall—in places we don’t have a very good way to graze it with cattle. I can put baling twines up here and there to make a “fake” hot wire, and Sprout respects the “fence” and stays in the designated area that needs mowed down. She might as well eat some of that good grass, and save hay!

Today Stan left to drive back to California. He has a new granddaughter he hasn’t seen yet, so he was eager to get back and spend some time with his daughter’s family.

Andrea did a lot of irrigating, trying to get everything going again and the fields watered before she leaves to go spend some time in California with Stan—and before Alfonso gets done haying and wants to turn all the water onto his fields. If we can get over our fields once—so they won’t be so dry—then it will be a lot easier to make do with a lesser amount of water and let Alfonso have most of it for a while.

Between morning and evening irrigating, Andrea went with Dani and me on a short ride on the range behind her house—to see if those guys left any cattle when they moved their cows to their next range pasture last week. They often leave a bunch of their bulls behind, and the bulls press our fences, trying to get into our place. We only saw one cow and calf out there this time, however. Maybe we won’t have to gather up their bulls for them! I took photos of our creek from the ridge –looking down toward the old Gooch place where Alfonso is cutting hay, and looking down at our fields—and a photo of Andrea and Dani as we were riding up the ridge.

view of the creek from the range on our south side

view of our fields

Andrea & Dani on the ridge

Partway through that ride Andrea and Dani changed horses, and Dani rode Willow home. I took a photo of her riding Willow.

Dani on Willow

JULY 27 – This past week has been really hot, with temperatures in the 90’s. Andrea has been diligently trying to get our parched hayfields watered. I’ve been letting Sprout graze for a few hours every morning and evening in the grassy lot behind the calving barn where we park all the haying equipment, to get it all grazed down (and less fire hazard) before we put the machinery back in there for winter.

Breezy has been losing weight all summer (she’s getting old and has been fully retired from riding for a couple years now) so I started feeding her a little grain at chore time. She wasn’t sure she liked it at first, and only nibbled at it, but now is eating a bit more.

Dani helped Andrea finish putting step-in posts at the bottom of heifer hill, to fence off the hayfield from the outlying areas. In a week or so we will graze the cows in those areas and keep them out of the hayfield so it can regrow for fall pasture.

Last Friday Andrea helped Lynn park the baler in the sick barn and put the loader and hay fork back on the big tractor. Then we used the loader to lift Andrea and the big tarp up only our haystack in the stackyard and got it that stack covered and the tarp tied down. We also used the tractor to put another big bale in the feeder in the corral.

Saturday we made a short ride over the low range (Willow’s 19th ride this year). Andrea wants to ride her a few more times before she leaves for California.

riding on low range

On Sunday we moved the cows from the field above the house and put them down on the post pile pasture to graze for a couple days, then made a longer ride to check on the 320. We hadn’t been up there for a couple weeks and wanted to make sure no range cows were getting into that pasture. I took photos as we went up through the 320.

riding through 320

Crossing Baker Creek in 320

riding up Baker Creek

We also saw a small buck in the brush as we went up Baker Creek, so I took a picture of him, and a photo of one of the many patches of tall larkspur. There is a lot of larkspur this year, which is poisonous to cattle if they eat very much of it.

small buck in the brush

larkspur

When we were checking our fences and gates we saw range cows up in the high range already—even though they are not scheduled to go into that pasture until August 8. So we rode up Baker Creek and up into the high range and found multiple bunches of cattle all up and down the creek and scattered all over. A rough count showed at least 80 to 90 cows are up in that pasture, and they’ve already eaten out Baker Creek. We took photos of some of those cattle in the little meadow above our 320-acre pasture.

Alfonso's cows in high range

There were some clear at the top of the mountain at Cat Hole trough. We rode on over the top and came home down through the forks of Withington Creek and down the road. No cattle had made it over into that part yet.

I called John Miller to mention to him that there were cattle already in the high range, and he said Alfonso had already seen them and thought someone had left a gate open. John said they’d probably have to get a crew together to get them back out. I offered our help but he said they could handle it. The thing that was puzzling to me (though I didn’t say anything to John about it) was why did Alfonso not try to get some of those cows back to the proper pasture when he noticed them?

We made a short ride the next day to have more training on Willow, and Dani practiced bridling Shiloh by herself. Shiloh is sensitive about her ears but Dani is getting to where she can bridle that mare with no problems. I took photos on our short ride.

short ride over low range

Andrea & Dani

Then on Tuesday morning I put hind shoes on Ed, in case Dani has to ride her to move cattle sometime (since Shiloh isn’t very good with cattle work yet). Andrea and I made a fast ride through the 320 to check the top fence (since cattle are now adjacent to the top end of the 320, being in the high range) and noticed that there were a lot more cattle in the high range; Millers and Alfonso haven’t moved them back out yet. I took photos of range cattle outside our southern fence and of Andrea taking photos.

range cows just outside our 320 fence to the south

Andrea taking photos

Then we rode on up into the high range and saw cattle clear up at Cat Hole trough on the ridge between Baker Creek and Withington Creek and cattle on the big salt ground between those two major drainages.

cattle near the ridge between Baker Creek and Withington Creek

cattle on the big salt ground between Baker Creek and Withington Creek

We rode into Baker creek at that elevation and came down Baker Creek, and saw the new trough that Alfonso and Millers finally put in last fall to replace the old one that had rusted out and no longer held water (and was dysfunctional for several years). There were cattle of Alfonso’s hanging down next to our 320 fence; we’ll have to be diligent now in checking our fences and gates.

riding into Baker Creek from big salt ground

new trough

Alfonso's cattle hanging down on our 320 fence

Dani didn’t ride with us that day or the next because she had a cold and didn’t feel well, but Andrea and I made another short fast ride on Wednesday to put more miles on Willow, and I took photos as we crossed Baker Creek below the big grove.

short ride on low range

crossing Baker Creek below the grove

When we got home we moved our cows from the post pile pasture to the upper swamp pasture; the grass has regrown nicely since we grazed it earlier this summer.

Carolyn has been doing most of the irrigating on the upper place, since Michael has been really busy with their custom fencing, and also irrigating their small leased pastures next to the upper place. She recently had several problems with Bob Loucks, the neighbor who has 5 acres and who used to pasture his horses on the adjoining 15 acres of Art Turner’s that Michael and Carolyn are now leasing. For several days, Bob kept shutting off her water on Art’s place and also shut down the wild meadow ditch on the upper place, and Carolyn caught him trespassing. Bob was very belligerent and seems to feel that he can do whatever he pleases. Its frustrating having neighbors like this!

Thursday was cool all day, with a little bit of rain. Then we had a thunderstorm and brief downpour. This cooled things off for a few hours, but lightning started a fire the other side of town.

Andrea left early Saturday morning to drive to California to spend a couple weeks with Stan. Dani helped Lynn irrigate and change all the water; the irrigation will be up to us while Andrea is gone, and Lynn can’t get around very well to do it himself. Dani is good help, and learning how to set the dams and get the water out of the ditches where it needs to go. After they got the water changed, Dani and I made a short ride over the low range on Shiloh and Dottie. I took a photo as we rode through some tall sagebrush. Dani is doing well in her progress with that mare.

Dani & Shiloh

Yesterday Dani helped irrigate again, then we made another ride over the low range. On our way home we encountered a BLM ranger who rode with Alfonso yesterday to help him move some of his cows back onto the middle range (the ones that have been in the high range in advance of when they should be). There are still some cattle up there, however, eating up the grass they should be saving for later. We told her that when we used that range (from 1955 until we sold our range permit to John Miller a few years ago), we rode nearly every day to check the cattle and make sure the troughs were working and that the gates stayed shut and fences functional. Gates were often left open by recreationists driving, riding or going through on bikes or motorcycles. It was a constant job, keeping cattle in the proper places, but the guys using the range now don’t seem to realize that they have to get out there often and monitor what’s going on. There is even more recreational traffic out there now, than there was in earlier years.

ride over low range

After our ride, Dani drove up to Lemhi to spend the rest of the day working on her math projects (with some tutoring help from her friends up there) and got more of her make-up homework finished. Emily brought Christopher down here for us to babysit while she took a nap before going to work (her night shift at the nursing home).

Today was hot again. Dani helped me get a calf back in from the field this morning (he’d crawled through the fence) and we let the cow herd down into the lower swamp pasture.

After she helped Lynn irrigate, we rode up to the 320 and spent several hours putting staples into the fence around the top south corner to patch several places the elk and range cattle have knocked the staples out of the old posts. In some places the old posts are completely rotted off and the fence is just being held up by some steel posts we put in a few years ago. I took a photo of Dani as we rode up to the top ridge to start fixing the fence.

riding to top ridge on 320 to start fixing fence

We didn’t get it all patched; we had to hurry home so I could do a phone interview at 3 p.m. for an article—but we got the worst of the fence repaired. There are still cattle on the high range that didn’t get put back where they belong, so they are pressing our fences up there on 3 sides. We had to ride clear over to the rocky outcroppings above our 160-acre pasture to make sure the gate down into the adjoining 160 (that Alfonso is leasing) is still open. Last year Alfonso and Millers built a drift fence up past those rocks and up the hill a ways, to keep range cattle from coming down through the rocks into Alfonso’s leased land. It was an illegal fence (unauthorized, on BLM land) and made a trap for the range cattle that were used to coming along the 160 fence and going on around those rocks. Last year when the range cattle were starving and thirsty, they mobbed up in that fence corner and broke though Michael’s good fence and into our 160-acre pasture—and about 100 range cows were in there for several days and ate all the grass. After the fact, John Miller realized that the drift fence had created a serious problem, and he went up and fixed Michael’s fence, and said they would leave the gate up there open (into Alfonso’s piece) so the cattle would trickle down into that pasture instead of breaking into ours. At this point, the gate is open, so it won’t be a problem for us, but I took a photo of the illegal fence.

the drift fence Alfonso & Millers built last year

That evening I cooked supper for Em, Dani and Christopher. They will eat with us on the nights that Emily doesn’t have to go to work; she usually takes a nap in the late afternoons before going to work at 11 p.m.

AUGUST 5 – More hot weather, with temperatures up into the 90’s every afternoon. Last Tuesday Dani helped Lynn irrigate, then went up to Lemhi again to work on her math homework and she got it finished. 

That afternoon Lynn and I got the cows in from the swamp pasture and sorted out the bull and the 5 heifers and put them in the corral. We are ending the breeding season (so we won’t have any late calves next year) and in a few days will be putting the heifers in some other areas to graze (ditch banks, etc.) to help stretch our pasture. After Dani got back from Lemhi she joined us (and Em and Christopher) for supper, since Em didn’t have to work night shift.

The next morning I talked with Carolyn awhile on the phone. We still don’t have a water master, but so far there’s been enough water in the creek to service all the water rights. Not having the 4th right (the upper place) turned off prematurely—like the watermasters have done the past several years, influenced by Jacovak and Loucks—has actually kept the creek flowing better. Watering the upper meadows keeps the wet bogs and springs recharged and keeps feeding the creek water, later into the summer.

We put the cows and calves in the ditch pasture below Andrea’s house. There’s a lot of grass there; we moved the hot wire over into the field to include the part we couldn’t cut for hay (that Alfonso kept flooded with his irrigation water from the field above) and included some of the windrows we couldn’t bale (because Alfonso sent even more water down into our field after we started haying). That pasture should last the cows at least a week.

After we moved the cows, Dani and I made a short fast ride on Shiloh and Dottie.

Dani & Shiloh

That afternoon she helped me get the heifer hill pasture ready (the next place the cows will go to), tying a mesh panel over the gate and another panel in the ditch to keep calves from going under the fence at that spot. She hauled off a bunch of sagebrush that Michael and Nick cut out of the fenceline when they repaired the old fence, and I mashed down grass along the hot wire that Andrea put up (before she went to California) so that it won’t short out when we hook up that hot wire later. We want to have everything working when we put the cows in that new pasture. Dani and I were both pretty roasted by the time we quit on that project, in 93 degree heat.

The next day we didn’t ride; Dani finished haying off the rest of the sagebrush and some old wire we gathered up out of that pasture by heifer hill. She took photos of her big loads of sagebrush.

load of sagebrush

hauling off the sagebrush

Friday Dani had an orthodontist appointment to adjust her braces, so we didn’t ride—which was just as well, since it got up to 98 degrees that afternoon.

Sprout got all the tall grass and weeds grazed down behind the barn so Lynn put the swather, tractors and stackwagon back there, to get them out of the way until next haying season.

On Saturday we put the two bulls together in the main corral and took the heifers to graze the little pen/pasture next to Sprout and Shiloh’s pen. I put up a temporary hot wire to keep them out of my little haystack next to Sprout’s pen, and they can graze that area and get it cleaned up before we stack big bales in there again (the hay we’ll buy for this coming winter). We put the 2 dry cows (that have been babysitting our spare bull) in the back corral by themselves and will let them graze a few hours a day in the hold pen, to help them transition to grass (from hay) until we put them back with the main cow herd. We don’t want them to get emphysema (a fatal condition that sometimes happens when cattle are changed abruptly from dry feed to lush green grass).

The two bulls, who have been good buddies all their lives, were not such good buddies when we put them back together again. They fought all day and part of the next day. The one that had been subordinate in their earlier friendship decided he wanted to be the boss and they haven’t been able to settle the matter.

Even though it’s been really hot we don’t want to completely skip riding (and Dani’s progress with Shiloh’s training) so on Sunday after she and Lynn finished irrigating we made a short fast ride over the low range.

Monday we didn’t ride; after Dani helped Lynn irrigate she went to town to take a math test. Emily took Christopher to visit a friend and they went to Williams Lake and let their kids play in the water.

Christopher in the river

Em, Christopher & friends playing in the water

We’ve been letting the two dry cows graze a couple hours every day in the hold pen, then putting them back in the corral. Monday afternoon when I went to put them back, they didn’t want to go back to the corral. I had to walk through some of the boggy area to herd them, and lost my shoe in the mud. It was completely buried and I couldn’t take time to try to find it because one cow was trying to run past me. So I took them on down to the corrals with one shoe and one stockinged foot, and came back afterward to find my shoe in the mud. It took a while to find it because it was completely covered!

Andrea has been having a good time in California with Stan, helping him finish building his wash trailer unit (that he will take to fire camps, for the fire crews to have a facility for washing). She sent a photo of the trailer.

Stan's wash trailer

Em had Monday and Tuesday off and didn’t have to work the night shift, so I cooked supper for us all again on those evenings. After Dani and Lynn got the irrigation water changed Tuesday morning, we let the cows down into the lower swamp pasture for a few hours (they’d grazed the ditch pasture pretty well—it lasted a whole week) while we unhooked that hot wire and hooked up the electric fence around the heifer hill field. It worked; Lynn checked it with his fence tester. 

So after lunch we put the bulls in a side pen so we could bring the cows through the main corral and take them up the horse road to heifer hill. Dani and I rode Ed and Dottie; I brought the cows out of the corral and up the lane, and Dani headed them at the top of the driveway—to put them up the horse road and keep them from going down the road or up to the main road. I took photos as I brought the cows up the driveway.

I brought the cows up the lane

cows going up the lane

Dani on Ed, heading the cows up the horse road

Lynn and Dakota went up the road on 4-wheelers ahead of the cows and Dani went on up the road to help head them through the gate into heifer hill while I followed the cows along the horse road.

following the herd along the horse road

Dani & Ed, after we put the cows through the gate into heifer hill

The cows were a little surprised to find an electric fence there, keeping them out of the lush new short grass on the hayfield (that needs to grow a lot before they graze it). They soon figured out how to go down and around and over to the creek bottom. It’s a good thing they are well trained to respect electric fences! There’s enough tall grass around the edges of that field and in the creek bottom to maybe last about a week, giving our other pastures a chance to grow more before they’re grazed.