Diary from Sky Range Ranch - January 14 through February 11, 2021

JANUARY 22 – Last week the Christmas package from Granddaughter Heather arrived from Canada, with a nice photo album she created – pictures of Joseph and James, the two great-grandsons we haven’t ever seen yet.

She also sent an e-mail with a few new photos of the boys—baby James (who is almost a year old, and a photo of the boys with grandma Barb, with Joseph sharing an ice cream cone with his little brother.

Joseph sharing ice cream cone with James

baby James

It’s been cold at night and we’ve been chopping ice on the creek for the cows to drink at their water holes. Last Friday we babysat Christopher awhile in the afternoon and evening when Andrea went to town to take Samantha shopping for her birthday. He had fun at our house, strewing all his toys around, and swinging in the swing that we can put up in the door arch between the living room and dining room. That swing has been enjoyed by 2 generations of kids—starting with granddaughter Emily and now her little boy. I took a couple photos of him swinging but one picture is a little blurry because he was swinging so fast.

Christopher swinging

Andrea picked him up after supper and took him home, and he must have bumped the door lock with his foot when she picked him up to carry him out of her car, and the door locked—and her keys were in the car. She had to call the local locksmith to come out and get into her car to retrieve the keys.

Sunday evening we went up to Andrea’s house to have a combined birthday celebration for Sam and Emily. Their birthdays are close together; Sam’s is the 15th and Emily’s is January 19. Charlie and Sam came out a little earlier in the day and Charlie was able to get Andrea’s snowmobile started and the kids had fun riding on it, even though the weather was very cold.

After supper we all played Tripoli for a while and had a good time. Christopher entertained us throughout.

Tuesday I had a lot of phone interviews to do, for various articles. I did chores really early, came back in for an interview, went back out to water the horses and heifers, then did another interview, fed the bull on our way to feed the cows, and hurried back to do another interview.

The ice is really slippery around Shiloh’s water tub and the next day Dani hauled some dirt from the big pile in her pen, to spread over the ice so she won’t slip and fall down. 

Andrea left Christopher with us again a couple days ago when she had to go to town (and Emily was working) and I took photos of them when she came to pick him up.

Christopher & grandma Andrea

Yesterday it snowed. Dani’s friend Jack carried in more sacks of pellets (from the old barn across the driveway) for our pellet stove, and filled our wood box. It snowed more in the night and we had several inches of new snow this morning. 

Andrea helped me feed, as usual but the last part of the big round bale (that we need to feed tomorrow) was really precarious and about the fall off the truck every time we hit a frozen cow pie. So we used the baling twines off the 2 little bales that we fed—and tied them to the rope around the big bale core, tying it down to the truck bed in 6 different directions to help stabilize it so we could creep back out of the field and back to the barnyard without that bale core toppling off.

This afternoon Emily took Christopher sledding up and down Andrea’s driveway below her house and he thought that was a lot of fun.

Emily pulling Christopher's sled

Em & Christopher and old Chewy the dog

Then Dani took Christopher for a ride around the field on the snowmobile.

ready to go snowmobiling

having fun whizzing around the field

Then when the temperature dropped sharply at sundown Andrea took him to the house and Em and Dani continued having fun, and went out over the low range a ways on the snowmobile.

Dani & Em heading off down the field to go out to the road to the low range

FEBRUARY 2 – My computer has been acting weird and wasting a lot of time doing “updates” and then having to reverse the updates because they didn’t work, and then doing it all over again after a couple days—making it impossible to work on articles while it is spinning its wheels. I don’t need any “updates” for the things I use my computer for (writing articles and getting e-mails from editors and sending them articles) so my brother came by and turned off its update paranoia. It hasn’t tried to update since, and is no longer interfering with my work!

Sunday morning was 3 below zero, with a high of 17 that afternoon. We are back to breaking ice on the creek every day again for the cows to drink. The next day was just as cold. Jim used our pickup to haul some more firewood up to Andrea’s house.

Then Lynn went to town for mail and groceries. A packet arrived from Margot Hauptman’s daughter-in-law in Washington. Margot was the lady from Latvia who was the housekeeper at our dormitory (Harrington Hall) when I was a student at University of Puget Sound, and she was a wonderful person. She was always interested in us students and some of us kept in touch with her after we left the university. I exchanged Christmas letters with her until she passed away in 2001 at the age of 91.

I was surprised to get the packet from her daughter-in-law. The letter she sent me explained that she had only recently found the letters, Christmas cards and photos that Margot kept, and she was returning them to me. Her letter said that even though Margot had passed away 19 years earlier, “it took our retirement and then forced lockdown of COVID for her son Martin and me to finally sort through several boxes of her personal things…We have learned a lot about her life and want to thank you for your part. She kept all her ‘Harrington kids’ letters and cards, stuck in books, apron pockets, on her night-stand, desk and coffee table. It was obvious to me that you were very special to her. And so I return them back to you with love and information about her life, knowing that you made her smile.”

In the packet were all the letters, etc. that I’d sent her over the years, plus some photos of Margot as a young person riding horses in Latvia, and her obituary. She was born in Orel, Russia in 1910 and raised on the family estate in Riga, Latvia. She was an excellent horsewoman, and an accomplished pianist, receiving a degree from the Riga Conservatory of Music. She was married for 9 wonderful years until the horrors of war chased her and family from their homeland, seeking refuge first in Germany, where they got separated. Margot, her children and parents emigrated to the U.S. and hoped that her husband would eventually be able to join them at the end of the war. Instead, he was locked behind closed borders of the Iron Curtain until he died in 1987.

Margot and her family settled in Tacoma, Washington in 1940, with help from the Lutheran Resettlement Service. She worked as a supervisor/teacher at a day care center, as a nanny and housekeeper and then in 1960 became the housekeeper at Harrington Hall at UPS, until she retired in 1975—and then devoted her time to a wonderful flower garden and to keeping track of her many “Harrington kids” like me.

Receiving this packet from her daughter-in-law brought back many memories and I shall always treasure my friendship with this very gracious lady who had to make a new life for herself and her children in a strange country.

Tuesday was 6 below zero. Andrea helped me feed little bales to our young cows, since their feeder was empty and it would be one another day before we’d be able to start the tractor and put a big bale in their feeder. We plugged in the tractor and put a tarp over the motor to help insulate it from the cold, so it would hopefully start the next day.

We had another e-mail from granddaughter Heather in Canada, and more photos-- of the boys playing with their toys, and Joseph showing how strong he is, lifting his little brother.

playing

Joseph lifting up little brother

Dani started her GED classes Tuesday evening. She goes to class twice a week—Tuesdays and Thursdays—and is enjoying them much more than going to school. She has more one-on-one help if she needs it and is not afraid to ask questions.

Wednesday was a little warmer, but very windy, which made it difficult to feed the cows; hay leaves were blowing away and into our eyes. Fortunately it was the last day’s worth of the big bale on the truck, and we just pushed it off and rolled it down the hill, letting it unroll as it went—leaving a carpet of hay on the ground for the cows to eat, and less apt to blow all the hay leaves away in the wind. On our way back down from the field we saw that the wind had blown the tarp off the big bale by the bull pen (the hay I feed to “Babe”—our new bull) so we had to wrap it up again. We have to keep a tarp around it so the deer don’t get into it and tear up the bale and waste the hay.

Andrea and I loaded the truck again with little bales to take to our “emergency stack” and Lynn was able to get the tractor started—to load another big bale on the truck and take a bale to the young cows’ feeder. One of the front tractor tires was low and about to come off the rim, so he had to take the tractor to the shop and put air in the tire before we could take that bale to the young cows. Then we took a bale of straw to the older cows for bedding, and Andrea took this photo of Lynn and me bringing the tractor back down from the field.

bringing tractor back

The wind and cold weather made it difficult for Michael and his fencing crew for several days; they were building a jack fence for a rancher near Lemhi, and the wind chill made it equivalent to 40 below zero. They could only work a few hours each day in those conditions and it put them behind schedule finishing that job. We were glad it wasn’t quite that cold here at our place, but the wind still made working outside miserable.

The next couple days were warmer, which made everything easier, and we didn’t have to break ice for the cows and the bull’s water hole. Lynn tweaked his bad knee Thursday evening, however, and it was painful and swollen and he was having trouble walking. I put DMSO on it for a couple days, which helped reduce the pain and swelling, and he’s been wearing his knee brace again, so he won’t tweak it again.

Friday was the day the seniors gave their presentations, showing their senior projects and explaining what they did. Sam’s project was creating the fancy big bumper for her pickup and learning to weld. Even though her bumper got smashed when her pickup slid off the icy road last month and crashed into the rock cliff (and the bumper saved her life) she had it with her at the school and told how she had created it and all the welding she had done.

Sam and her bumper

That evening it snowed and we had 3 inches of new snow the next morning. We loaded another bale on the feed truck and took down the deer netting around the alfalfa bales so we could get a bale for the yearling heifers. Their feeder had been empty a couple days and I’d been feeding them little bales of my horse hay. We helped Lynn get into the tractor, using a stool, so he wouldn’t strain his bad knee; the first step up into the tractor is a little too high.

Andrea has been cleaning house and getting ready to go visit Stan for a while in California, and took this photo of Christopher lounging on her couch, eating chips.

Cristopher relaxing & eating chips

Sunday was cold again, and it wasn’t snowing, so the roads were better, and Andrea left early that morning to drive to California to stay a week with Stan. Jim helped me feed cows, and will help during this coming week while Andrea is gone.

Yesterday I chopped a bigger hole in the ice for the bull’s water hole; the hole had gotten so small that he could barely get his nose down in it to reach the water. 

Christopher had a bad night and a high fever. Emily and Dani nearly took him to town to the ER but he finally settled down and slept and seems to be doing a little better this morning. Emily had to work this afternoon and evening, and Dani had to go to her GED classes, so Lynn went up to Andrea’s house to help Jim take care of Christopher. He was feeling better by then and seems to be past the worst of whatever ailed him.

When I did chores this evening I discovered that the cows had come down from the field through the open gate by the hold pen, and had gotten the tarp off the big bale by the bull corral and were eating it and messing it up. I chased them back to the field and gathered up the scattered hay and put the tarp around it again (to keep the deer out). From now on we’ll have to leave that gate shut! The cows have been really good about staying up in the field where we feed them, but now that they’ve discovered the bull’s hay, we won’t be able to trust them!

FEBRUARY 11 – We ordered vaccine for the cows and Lynn picked it up at the vet clinic last week. We were going to vaccinate them this week after Andrea got back from California (their pre-calving vaccinations to ensure a high level of antibodies in their colostrum, to keep the calves healthy and prevent scours) but the weather has been too cold and nasty. We’ll hope to vaccinate them next week.

Last Thursday Michael brought his skid steer and a couple loads of posts and poles, and he and two of his fencing crew guys started work on rebuilding several of our bad fences. They took down the old pole fence along the lane to the post pile pasture (an old fence that was nearly 50 years old and the posts and poles were rotting and the poles breaking). Dani stopped by on her way to town for her GED class and brought in some firewood for us; our wood box was about empty.

The next day we had new snow and the guys didn’t work on the fence. Saturday was warm enough (40 degrees by afternoon) that the snow melted and settled a little. Dani brought Christopher down here for us to take care of that day, when she went to her job at the motel, and picked him up that evening. Emily and a co-worked had to go to Pocatello. The roads were bad on this end, and Jim loaned Emily his pickup for that trip, since it has better snow tires than Em’s car or Andrea’s old car.

Sunday was cold and windy all day, and the wind made it miserable for feeding hay. Dani had to work all day again at the motel, cleaning rooms and making beds; the motel was full, with the weekend hockey tournament here and all the teams from out of town. Emily dropped Christopher off at our house again on her way to work and we took care of him for the afternoon and evening. That kid is sure growing, and very “busy” and quite entertaining. He jabbers away in his own language and probably wonders why we can’t understand what he’s trying to tell us!

Andrea drove home from California and got here about 11 p.m. that evening. Even though the wind was bad most of the way, the roads were good. She took a photo of elk in one of the fields along the highway as she came down the Lemhi River.

elk next to highway

Monday the guys came back to work on the fence. They took out the old fence along the top of the horse pasture (some of the posts are rotting off, after being there for nearly 50 years when we fenced that pasture) and started setting new posts, and started taking down the old rotten pole fence around the pen below the calving barn.

The first dump truck load of rocks came at noon (to fill in the deep eroded hole below the calving barn where the ditch has washed the bank away, and gotten too deep all the way down along the fence). Our driveway was icy and we knew the truck would have trouble getting back up it (especially empty, with no traction) so Andrea spread some sand at the top of it where it’s the steepest. The truck driver got a good run at it (starting from where he turned around across the creek) and barely made it up around the corner without spinning out. So before the next load came, Andrea and I dug buckets full of dry dirt out of the big pile in Shiloh’s pen (next to the driveway) and spread dirt over the icy tracks, the whole length of the driveway. We got that job finished just before the second load arrived. While I was out there I hiked down to the field below the lane and took a photo of the heifers eating at their feeder.

heifers eating at their feeder

We’d used up all our spare sand at the top of the driveway so when Lynn went to town he and Jim got 3 more tubs of sand to replenish our supply for putting along the icy banks where the cows have to go into the creek for water.

We got 3 dump-truck loads of rocks that afternoon, and Michael spread them into the deep ditch, with his skid steer, and also dragged several batches of poles up to the top of the horse pasture where the guys were setting posts.

Yesterday morning was cold again, below zero, but sunny, and it warmed up to 20 degrees. The guys were able to finish rebuilding the horse pasture fence and I took photos of their handiwork. This will be much more durable than the old one that was sagging, with the old posts rotting off.

new horse pasture fence

Then they set the posts below the barn for part of the new fence around that pen. Michael had plowed all the snow out of it with his skid steer and piled the brush back a ways to clear a good path for setting the new posts. They got the poles on one side of the lane below the barn and I took photos of their progress.

rebuilding fence below barn

putting up poles

Andrea helped me feed, and brought in a little firewood. Then that afternoon she and Dani went to town; they each had doctor’s appointments. Andrea was having her shoulder looked at (follow-up from the MRI that was done earlier), and Dani was having a second appointment with our family doctor who is trying to help her with depression issues. She needs to see a counselor but the only way she can be referred to a counselor, in this medical system, is to have her admitted to the ER and sent to a specialist. So, yesterday evening Dani went to the ER and then Andrea had to drive her to Idaho falls late last night, to be admitted to a facility where she will be evaluated and assessed to determine what is going on with her (possibly bi-polar) and what medications might help.

This morning it was down to zero again but got up to 20 degrees by afternoon. The ice was thick over the bull’s water hole so I had to chop it out when I did chores. Lynn helped me feed cows, since Andrea was still in Idaho Falls, and Jim had a doctor’s appointment in town. 

The fence crew was here again today, working on the pen below the barn, putting up poles on the posts they set yesterday, and setting posts for the new fence between the pen and the field where the heifers are. The hydraulic pounder is able to drive the posts through the frozen ground.

pounding posts

The heifers were not very worried about the noisy post-pounder; one of them was napping nearby and she never even bothered to get up.

heifer napping

heifer napping next to post pounding

It will be really nice when the crew gets this fence finished; we built the old pen nearly 50 years ago, and this new fence will definitely out-last Lynn and me!