OCTOBER 24 – Last Thursday Lynn went to town for his appointment with the cardiologist from Missoula who comes to Salmon periodically. His test results were good; his stents are still in good shape and he’s doing ok.
We still have some nice fall colors and I took a few photos at chore time -- by my hay shed and below the calving barn.
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| fall colors above horse pens |
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| fall colors below the calving barn |
I moved the 4 cows and heifers we’re going to sell; I let them come into the lane by my hay shed (from the pasture above the house) and put them in the orchard and horse pasture where the grass is better—what’s left from the weaned calves. They can graze there until we sell them.
The next day Lynn and I tended Christopher all afternoon and evening while Dani and Emily were at work, and Dani picked him up on her way home.
Saturday was a little warmer and a nice day for Lynn to go locate a well site for some folks the other side of town. Our calf check arrived (from selling the calves the week before) and we finished paying for the hay we bought.
Andrea and Stan drove home from California (where Andrea was visiting Stan for a week); they got here at midnight. They brought a load of firewood in Stan’s pickup and unloaded it by our very tiny woodpile.
Stan had to head back to California early the next morning, even though he’d planned to stay here for a week or so. He was called out on a fire in northern California, to run the shower units at a fire camp. The fires in California are still raging in many areas; it’s been a horrible year for fires—with loss of homes, loss of forests and grazing lands, and many ranchers losing hundreds of cattle perishing in the fires.
That morning Andrea and I had planned to ride and check the cows on the 320 but it was raining and we decided to go up there on her 4-wheeler instead. Dani went with us and she drove the 4-wheeler while Andrea and I threw a lot of the big rocks out of our jeep track up through the 160 and 320. I took photos as we worked our way up the trail and through the gate into the portion of the 320 where our cows are.
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| Andrea picking rocks out of the trail |
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| Andrea shutting the gate |
We checked on the protein tubs on the ridge; the cows have eaten half of what was in those tubs. They were all across the canyon on the far side of the 320 (on the town side of Baker Creek). We drove down into Baker Creek and had to unplug the overflow pipe on our trough; the water was running over the side and making a mud hole. We cleaned out some leaves and fir needles and Andrea had to blow on the end of the overflow pipe to jar some of the packed debris loose, and we got it working again. Andrea and Dani put a big rock on the end of the overflow pipe so it will drain better (and not have a tipped-up end that collects leaves and debris)
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| Dani cleaning out the trough overflow pipe |
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| putting a rock on the pipe |
Then we drove partway down Baker Creek to where Dani and I could hike up the hill to check on the cows, and Andrea took the 4-wheeler on down to the creek crossing to wait for us. The cows were all there grazing, and doing fine, but #38 (LillieAnnie, alias Alligator Eyes) was lying down and I made her get up to see if she was ok. She had a stick stuck between the claws of her left front foot, but I wasn’t quick enough to try to pull it out before she moved away. Hopefully it will come out on its own and not make a sore area between her claws, or she might get foot rot (an infection that can enter the soft tissues if there is a break in the skin).
Dani and I hiked back down to the creek and came down the trail, and Andrea had hiked up the hill to meet us and we almost missed her. She was up higher on the hill and we didn’t see her, but she saw us and gave her elk call whistle and Dani heard her. She was coming up to check on us and the cows because she’d startled a big black bear when she drove the 4-wheeler down the creek, and it had run up the draw toward where the cows were grazing—but we didn’t see the bear.
We picked more rocks out of the jeep trail as we came down off the ridge through the 320, to make it easier to drive up there the next time if we need to take more protein to the cows in Andrea’s little jeep.
When we got back home I let Breezy graze for a while. I’m still letting her and Sprout graze a bit every day. Sprout is cleaning up the weeds and grass around various areas of the barnyard and stack-yard, and I made a new fake fence (with step-in posts and baling twines) for Breezy in one corner of the little pasture above the house. We are trying to keep Breezy from losing more weight, and the green grass helps a lot. She’s failing fast at age 30, and this will be her last year.
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| Breezy grazing in temporary pen |
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| Breezy enjoying green grass |
On Monday I locked the 4 cows in the calving pen at chore time, then Andrea helped me move them around to the main corral so they’d be easy for the brand inspector to look at. He came later that morning and checked their brands, and our two bulls in the back corral.
Andrea and Dani drove to Idaho Falls for Dani’s orthodontist appointment and another adjustment on her braces, and they took Christopher with them since Emily had to go to work, and we were busy with the cattle. Michael and Carolyn came with their stock trailer early afternoon and we loaded the 4 cows and the 2 bulls, to haul to the sale in Montana. The smaller bull is getting really bad-tempered and didn’t want to come out of the back corral, and Michael helped us get him out of there and into the front corral with the cows. With the little herd altogether they went into the trailer without problems.
The next day Andrea and I went up to the 320 on her 4–wheeler to check the cows. As we drove up through the 160, Michael and Carolyn’s horses followed us up to the gate into the 320.
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| Michael & Carolyn's horses followed us up to the gate |
When we got to the ridge we looked for the cows. They were on the far side of the canyon again so after we checked the upper trough in Baker Creek and got the overflow unplugged again, we hiked up the other side of the canyon to go look at the cows. I took photos of Andrea looking for the cows on our way up, and she took a photo of me as we went up out of Baker Creek on the far side.
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| looking for the cows |
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| coming up out of Baker creek to go around the mountain toward the town side |
When we got over there to look at the cows I was glad to see that Alligator Eyes no longer had the stick stuck between her heels. I took photos as we checked the cows, and Andrea took a photo as we hiked back down Baker Creek.
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| cows grazing far side of Baker Creek |
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| hiking back down Baker Creek |
On our way back through the 160 I took photos of Michael and Carolyn’s horses. A couple of them were licking salt and then turned to watch one of their buddies galloping down the hill toward them.
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| horses at salt ground |
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| horses watching their buddy galloping down the hill |
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| galloping down to join his friends |
I took a few more photos as they all joined the group and took turns licking salt.
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| curiosity |
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| horses at salt |
Wednesday was cold and very windy but we rode to the 320 to check cows. It was so windy that we went up the road instead of up the ridge; it’s always windier on the ridges. There was intermittent sunshine and clouds as we rode up the horse road along our fields (to get up to the main road) and I took a few photos as we went along.
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| riding up the horse road |
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| Andrea & Dani riding up the horse road |
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| riding past the tall sagebrush along the horse road |
We went up to the upper place, and up the draw from the road, and through the gate below Preacher’s Spring into the top end of the 320, and spooked two groups of elk out of the timber. I took photos as we went on up past Preacher’s Spring, as the elk took off, and our horses were watching the elk.
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| elk leaving Preacher Spring to go over the mountain |
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| watching the elk |
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| elk going over the mountain |
We rode on up to check the top gate on the ridge to make sure no hunters have tried to drive through, and then came down along the timber and into Baker Creek to check the water trough.
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| riding down the ridge along the timber |
On our way down into Baker Creek we found a cow elk lying behind some logs. She didn’t get up as we got closer, but when we stopped there on the trail to look at her (and take some photos) she got worried and got up and crashed down through the timber—on three legs. She has an injured shoulder, probably shot out of season by a hunter. The cow elk season is not open yet.
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| injured elk |
Our cows were all down in Baker Creek that day, grazing in the little meadow along the creek bottom. We came back home on the road again, avoiding the windy ridge.
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| coming down the ridge |
I’m not sure how many more good days we’ll have before it snows, so when we got home we let Shiloh graze some of the tall green grass below the lane while I took her front shoes off. Her shoes have been on since summer and her feet are getting too long, so I wanted to get them off before the weather really gets cold and nasty. Her shoes were so worn out that they came off fairly easily.
Lynn helped Andrea make a dog house for Chewy, the kids’ old dog, and Andrea put some hay in it for bedding. The prediction is for colder weather and we want that old dog to not be cold and miserable at night.
The next day Andrea and Dani filled our wood-box and dumped the water out of the tank in the orchard, before it freezes solid, and helped Lynn run an extension cord from the calving barn to plug in the tank heater for the heifer’s water tank, so it won’t ice up. Then Lynn and I went to town for mail and groceries and our flu shots.
Yesterday Andrea helped Lynn put power service in all our tractors (to help keep the diesel from gelling during cold weather) and then I took off Shiloh’s hind shoes, and took down the fake fence in the stackyard where I’d been grazing Sprout. Andrea shut off all of our ditches a little better, to make sure they won’t have any water in them to make ice flows out over the fields.
Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent us some photos of baby James and young Joseph. They are really growing! Joseph was wearing one of the horse T-shirts I made him for his birthday.
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| Baby James |
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| Joseph |
Today we had a little snow and lots of wind. Michael and Carolyn preg-checked and vaccinated their cows on the upper place, and weaned their calves. Andrea and I drove up to the 320 on her 4-wheeler and hiked up the ridge in a blizzard. The cows were all heading around toward Preacher’s Spring to get out of the wind, and we didn’t see them all; the visibility was bad and the blowing snow was stinging our faces. We checked their protein tubs and hiked down into Baker creek to check the water trough, then headed home. The wind was bitterly cold.
NOVEMBER 1 – Last Sunday was very cold, with a high of 24 degrees, and I didn’t put Sprout or Breezy out to graze; the grass was frosty and it never warmed up. The next day was just about as cold (28 degrees for a high) and we thought we’d better check on the cows, so Andrea and Dani drove the 4-wheeler up to the 320. The cows were just about out of protein, but the water troughs were working fine, with no ice on them.
We received a couple more photos of our Canadian great-grandkids from young Heather; it’s always fun to see pictures since we can’t go visit them and they can’t come visit us due to the borders being closed because of COVID
Alfonso’s ditches were still all running, with sheets of ice over most of his fields. He and a couple other riders moved his cows down from the Gooch place and across the highway to some pasture that a guy named Ron (who lives at Baker) is letting him use.
That guy is a friend of a fellow named Danny that we met many years ago when he and his son were here hunting. He comes here from North Idaho every year to go hunting. Danny stays with his friend at Baker but always stops in to see us and visit. He said that Alfonso had mares and foals in that pasture with the cows, and one of the foals got caught in the barbed-wire fence and couldn’t get out. Ron called Alfonso and told him the foal was stuck in the fence, but Alfonso never came to do anything about it. The foal was still there, lying on the ground, all bloody and cold, the next morning, with the mare standing beside her trapped baby. Ron and Danny were disappointed that Alfonso didn’t care enough about his horses to come rescue the foal, so they went out to the pasture to see if they could free it from the tangle of wire. As they approached, the foal was so scared that it struggled and tried to get up, fell down, lunged around and finally pulled free, and ran off with its mother, limping and bloody. Hopefully it will be ok.
The ice in Alfonso’s ditches was backing up the water and making a flood and ice flow around Vickie Colston’s house and driveway so she called us to see if we could shut off the water. Lynn told her that we finished irrigating about 3 weeks earlier and Andrea had shut that ditch off completely (the ditch that comes through Alfonso’s field, past Vickie’s house, and down to our place) but apparently Alfonso turned it back on and was irrigating the field around Vickie’s house. Lynn told her to call Alfonso. She did, and Alfonso came riding down our driveway later that day and yelled for us to come to the door—and told us it was our problem, not his (and claimed that he hadn’t been irrigating since August!), and galloped off.
Lynn went to town to get mail and groceries, and more protein tubs for the cows. The feed store was out of big ones so we got four 60-pound tubs which cost more money per pound but will get us by until the feed store gets some larger ones ordered in.
The next day was a little warmer (actually above freezing) so I grazed the two horses again and Andrea and Dani took the 4 small protein tubs up to the 320 in the jeep and checked on the cows. After they got back, Andrea and Lynn took sandbags on the 4-wheelers and went up to the head of the ditch on the Gooch place and got the headgate shut and the water blocked off. It was obvious that the headgate had been opened since Andrea shut it off nearly a month earlier. Alfonso is a lousy neighbor but we didn’t want the ditch flooding Vickie’s house so we shut it off for her.
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| sleepy Joseph with his mom |
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| Baby James with his grandpa John Eppich |
Now that we have our cull cows and bulls sold, we have enough money to buy a new bull, and decided to get one from Pharo Cattle Company in Colorado. That ranch has been raising grass-efficient cattle for a long time, with guaranteed calving ease and good dispositions.
For the past 50 years we raised most of our own bulls, from our best cows in our crossbred herd, with careful selection on mating to produce bulls that could pass desired traits to their offspring. We only needed an occasional purchase (usually a crossbred bull calf to keep our mix relatively stable) to bring in new genetics and avoid inbreeding.
For many years we had a large enough cow herd/gene pool to raise our own bulls, but then 18 years ago we sold most of our cows--after Andrea’s burn accident. Then after selling our range permit a few years ago, we cut down our herd even more, and now have just a small herd, and it’s no longer possible to keep enough genetic diversity, without having to breed a bull to his own daughters. For a few years we used some unrelated bulls from our son’s herd, and most recently a couple bull calves we bought from a neighbor 3 years ago. Even though those bulls sired nice calves, their calving ease was not good (and we are too old to be pulling calves!) and one of them was getting ornery and the other one was getting too big, and his daughters will probably be too big, and we don’t want our cow size to get bigger!
So we decided to buy a new bull, and make sure he will be smaller-framed and sire easy-born calves and have a good disposition. I contacted Kit Pharo to inquire about how we might be able to use their stay-at-home bull selection program and buy a bull at their sale.
On Wednesday Andrea helped me move some old panels in the stackyard, and some old poles and junk below the old barn, so Allan Probst could bring a couple dump-truck loads of rock to put in two spots along the creek where during high water the creek has been washing the bank away. We need to fix those areas before next spring’s high water. Allan brought the rocks, and sometime later this winter Michael will place them along the caving-in bank to protect the creek channel.
Allan also brought a load of gravel to dump on Andrea’s driveway where the surfacing Michael put on several years ago has eroded off. Lynn tried to smooth out some of it with the blade on the tractor, but then had to put the loader bucket on and finish smoothing it with that. While he had the bucket on, he cleaned the manure buildup away from the feeding area along the fence in the back pen, where we will put our new bull for the winter.
I took Willow’s hind shoes off while the weather was decent and not too windy. Her shoes were as worn out as Shiloh’s and fairly easy to remove. Her front shoes were newer (I replaced them later in the summer when her front feet got too long) and I’ll take them off later.
Andrea drove Lynn to 4th of July Creek that afternoon to locate a well for a guy in New York who is buying property there. They took Christopher along and he had fun running around on the hillsides, following Lynn and checking everything out.
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| Lynn and Christopher walking around to locate water |
He carried his little toy tractor around with him, and also brought Lynn his hammer for pounding in a stake to mark the spot where Lynn located water.
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| Christopher & his tractor |
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| Christopher bringing Lynn the hammer |
Christopher was also fascinated by the herd of elk that were nearby, just through the fence.
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| elk in the next field |
Christopher was chattering his baby talk as he wandered around, and the elk were fascinated by this very small chirping creature and watched him with curiosity.
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| elk watching Christopher |
On their way back through town they happened to see Sam when they stopped at one of the stores, and Andrea took a photo of Sam and Christopher.
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| Christopher with auntie Sam |
The next day Andrea, Dani and Dani’s friend Jack gathered up some leftover posts that were down along the fence that Nick built a couple years ago on the lower end of the swamp pasture, and Andrea hauled them down to the fence below the lane, in the field where the heifers are. We need to set posts along that fence in places where trees have fallen over the fence and broken off some of the posts. We’re hoping to get to that project before too late in the winter.
Yesterday afternoon Andrea and I made a fast ride on Willow and Dottie to check on the cows. They were all at the protein tubs and lounging around, and looked full and content. They are doing well on the very dry grass, thanks to the protein supplement.
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| riding up the ridge to check cows |
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| cows lounging around by their protein tubs |
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| heading back down Baker Creek |
Today I grazed Sprout and Breezy again, but our grazing days are numbered. We’ve nearly run out of places for Sprout to “mow” and the green grass in Breezy’s little fake pasture is getting drier and not as palatable.
This evening Andrea and Dani brought Christopher down here to show off his dinosaur costume for Halloween, though he didn’t like the hat part and kept taking it off. Then they took him up to visit Bob and Jane Minor, who always enjoy seeing that little kid. I took a few photos while he was here at our house.
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| Christopher in his dinosaur costume |
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| Christopher & grandma Andrea |
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| dinosaur kid |
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| Dani & Christopher |
While he was here he enjoyed rearranging the magnetic numbers and pictures on the fridge door, and taking some of them off to look at more closely.
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| rearranging the fridge stuff |
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| reading the fridge magnet |
NOVEMBER 10 – We bought more protein tubs and Andrea and Dani took a couple of them up to the 320 in the little jeep, then hiked to the top gate to make sure no hunters have tried to drive through it. On Monday Michael and Carolyn hauled their cull cows to the stockyard in Montana for the sale on Tuesday. Cow prices are off, as usual this time of year.
Meanwhile, Dani has been wanting to get a used pickup—something of her own. She’s been driving Andrea’s old Eagle (1980 model) to work, but it has some serious issues and is wearing out. We found a 2001 Explorer Sport Track (a little 4-door vehicle with a small pickup box in the back) that’s in pretty good shape and not a lot of miles on it. Stan is helping her by paying for half of it, and we paid for the other half (mainly with money we owe Dani for her hours of work this summer and fall on the ranch) and Dani will work off the small balance that she wasn’t able to pay for. She’s very pleased with her new wheels! This was the best birthday present, ever, in her opinion.
We feel fortunate that we got enough money from our cull cows and the two bulls to be able to bid on another bull, at Kit Pharo’s sale in Colorado. This was a stay-at-home purchase, selecting about 30 bulls from the 300 offered—with a maximum bid, and hoping that at least one of the 30 we picked would fall in our price range (so we’d end up with the first one that didn’t go over that price).
We chose bulls with top ranking for calving ease, disposition and moms with good udders (no big teats that a newborn calf would have trouble sucking), and we also wanted a small to medium frame bull, since our cows have gotten too large over several generations of using other people’s bulls. When we had enough cows to raise our own bulls, we selected the genetics we wanted, from our best cows. But in our smaller herd we haven’t had the luxury of raising very many of our own bulls, and used some bulls of Michael’s and then a couple bulls raised from one of Michael’s good cows, and then bought a couple bull calves from a neighbor.
It was time to get a bull with better genetics for calving ease, smaller frame, and a good disposition. In our old age we don’t want mean bulls and we don’t want to pull calves, or have to help a calf nurse a bad udder. So we splurged and bought a bull sight unseen (except for a short video clip) from a herd that has been focusing on efficient, smaller-framed cattle with good udders and good disposition. We managed to get one of the 30 bulls we’d picked out.
On Tuesday Andrea drove to Idaho Falls for an appointment with her pain doctor. She is having some serious issues and needs to figure out how to resolve them. She now has an MRI scheduled for November 16 on her shoulder and neck. She has bone spurs in her neck and upper back, and torn ligaments in her shoulder and the doctor wants to see how bad they are and what needs to be done about them.
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| Dani and her pickup |
We had a birthday dinner for Dani Wednesday evening at Andrea’s house. Emily cooked meatloaf and potatoes and I brought Jello and a fruit salad and Andrea supplied some other salads, rolls, etc. and birthday cake. Sam and Charlie came for the birthday, and a few other friends, and it was a great dinner and a lot of fun.
As usual, Christopher stole the show and entertained us with his antics -- driving his 4-wheeler and waving at us as he went around the room, just like a rodeo princess parading and waving to an audience.
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| Christopher riding his 4-wheeler and waving to everyone |
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| 4-wheeling! |
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| riding around making motor noises |
He had fun with the balloons and helped Dani open her gifts, and after she blew out the candles on her cake he enjoyed having his piece of cake which he spread all over his highchair tray.
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| fun with balloons & helping Dani open gifts |
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| Dani's birthday cake |
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| Christopher eating cake |
Before we left, I took a photo of all 4 siblings (Emily, Sam, Charlie and Dani).
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| siblings |
Wednesday the bulls from the Colorado sale were sent off on 10 different routes to be delivered to the buyers. Our bull had a long trip to make—along with a number of other bulls—going through Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, California and Oregon—a trip that would take more than 3 days. He was supposed to arrive in Jerome, Idaho on Friday evening and there was a bad storm predicted for the weekend.
Thursday was very warm, up to 75 degrees. Lynn and Andrea went to town to get the pickup for Dani, and have a duplicate key made for it. When they got home, Andrea helped Lynn take the loader bucket off the big tractor and put the hay fork back on it, for winter feeding. Then he went up to her house to tend Christopher (with Em and Dani gone to work) while Andrea tried to shut off Alfonso’s water that’s coming on down to our ditch on heifer hill.
Sam stopped by just before dark, to see Breezy. She needed a chance to say good-by to this old mare before we have to put her down, before winter. Sam spent a lot of time and many miles with that mare; she rode her for 5 years after we had to remove Breezy’s cancerous eye. Removing the eye gave Breezy a longer life, and she’s done very well without it. But now, at age 30, she is failing in mind and body.
Friday it got up to 60 degrees. I had to go to town to have another appointment with the eye-doctor to adjust the prescription on my new glasses because they are not working. The left eye is corrected ok but the right one was not.
After I got home, Andrea and I made a fast ride to the 320 (Willow’s 47th ride this year, and maybe the last one for this year) to check on the cows, because the weather was changing and snow was predicted. The cows were all doing well, but we had to unplug the overflow on the water trough again. I took a couple photos of them eating protein from their tubs on the ridge.
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| cows on 320 eating protein |
Michael took some fencing supplies to his crew on 4th of July Creek that morning and then he and Carolyn left early afternoon to drive to Jerome to pick up our new bull. The roads were good and they got there by early evening, and stayed in a motel because the bull did not arrive at the Jerome stockyards until 9 p.m. The bull was very tired and a little lame when he got off the truck (after his 3 1/2 day trip) but went right to the feed bunk and seemed ok. Michael and Carolyn loaded him up Saturday morning and brought him home, just ahead of a big storm. It started raining not long after they got here, and the rain changed to snow by nightfall.
The little bull seemed to settle into his new home ok. He found the hay feeder, and took shelter along the creek by the brush, out of the wind. By Sunday morning we had 4 inches of new snow, drifted in places where it was 8 or 9 inches deep. Dani came down and helped me take a bale of coarse hay to spread for bedding in a couple places for the bull--where he might want to lie down out of the wind. He was curious and came to see what we were doing, and started eating some of the bedding hay. He seems smart and easy-going so we are pleased that he’s not flighty. He definitely has a good disposition.
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| new snow |
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| snowy barnyard |
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| new little bull eating hay |
I fed the heifers a little hay in the field below the lane. They were still trying to graze through the deep snow but after they figured out what I was doing they came to the hay. This is the first hay I’ve fed them this fall, and hopefully the snow might settle and they can keep grazing, but this gave an opportunity to start gentling them more and have them get used to me bringing them food. That way I can call them and they will come, and it will always be easier to move them when we need to bring them into the corral or take them to a different place. They will be “civilized” and cooperative cows!
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| heifers still grazing through the snow |
Yesterday was cold; the temperature never got above 28 degrees. I fed the heifers a little hay again, and this time they came when I called them. They are still diligently grazing in the deep snow, but were glad for the hay. Andrea drove to the 320 on her 4-wheeler to check the cows. The snow was 8 to 10 inches deep up there in places but the cows were still grazing—on the far side of Baker Creek where the snow wasn’t quite so deep. They were still trekking up to the ridge to eat protein from their tubs, and the water trough in Baker Creek was still working well. The spring water that comes out of the hill (that we piped into the trough) is fairly warm (about 55 degrees) and it’s running fast enough that it probably won’t freeze over the top of the trough unless it gets well below zero.
It was cold and still snowing. Lynn swept off the porch so he could feed the cats, and I took photos of a whitetail doe and her two fawns eating weeds in the backyard—taking the photos through the dining room windows.
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| Lynn swept off the back porch to feed the cats |
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| whitetail doe and fawns eating weeds in backyard |
Today Andrea filled our wood-box (we’ve been burning a lot of wood, keeping the fire going on these cold nights, and checked on the young cows in the lower back field. She also tried to divert the water from that spring on down to the bottom of the ditch so it won’t make an ice flow across that field.
The young bull we bought is settling in nicely in his new home and is very mellow. We are glad he has such a good disposition.
