NOVEMBER 20 – Christopher stayed with us a few hours last Wednesday and had fun going round and round the dining room table with Lynn’s canes, using them alternately like ski poles or hockey sticks.
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| Christopher with Lynn's canes |
He found a few other toys he hadn’t seen for a few days, and those entertained him for a while. Then when it was time for him to go home, he hurried into the living room to see what else he could find, and got over by one of the book cases and found some tiny little notebooks, which he brought out for us to see. |
| Christopher found some little books |
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| Christopher's little books |
Last week we had only a little snow but a lot of cold weather. I’ve been feeding the weaned heifers a little of my horse hay in the mornings, but they are still grazing in the warmer afternoons; the grass isn’t snowed clear under yet. I had been using a wheeled cart to feed them in a little hay, but the day it snowed I got the calf sled out of the calving barn. It’s easier to pull through the snow than the cart.
Andrea and Dani hiked up to the 320 the day it snowed, to see how those cows were doing; the storm brought them down to the lower saddle, but they’d been up at their protein tubs on the high ridge earlier that morning. They can still root through the snow to graze.
The next day was colder and I apparently didn’t drain the hose adequately (the one I water the heifers with, and Sprout and Shiloh) and it froze. So I carried water to Shiloh’s tub in a bucket, watered Sprout with a short hose, and waited till afternoon sun thawed my hose, and then watered the heifers. They always have some water in their heated tank. With only 6 animals this winter in that field (instead of 13 or more) since we don’t have Michael’s heifers, too, they never run out of water even if I skip a day.
It snowed again that Friday, but was warm enough in the afternoon (32 degrees) that I was able to do a load of washing without freezing our drain. Our old washer only fills with hot water (the cold intake quit working) so I use a hose to fill it with cold water for rinses. I use a timer to make sure I don’t forget to turn off the hose when the washer is full, but I got distracted doing too many things at once, and ran the washer over—flooding the back room! It took a bunch of old rags to sop up all the water on the floor.
That afternoon Michael brought a rented mini excavator (that he will also use at his place over the weekend to clean out some ditches before everything freezes up), and parked it here so he can dug a burial hole for Breezy in the corner of the pen below the bull corral. In that spot, she will be next to Nikki—my best cow horse ever—who is buried just through the fence, in the corner of the bull corral.
When we had to put my old mare down (very early spring of 1988, when she was 26 and suffering from severe respiratory problems due to “heaves” which was due to dusty hay, and similar to emphysema in humans) the ground was too frozen to dig a hole to bury her, except in the bull corral where a thick layer of manure had kept the ground insulated and the frost was not so deep. Knowing we would have to put Breezy down before severely cold weather (since she’s becoming extremely thin) we had Michael dig the hole ahead of time before the ground froze.
It snowed off and on all the next day. Andrea drove her 4-wheeler up the creek and parked it at my brother Rocky’s house and hiked from there to the 320 (since there was too much snow and too slippery to drive it up through the 160 and into the 320). She was able to check on the cows and make sure they could still graze, with all the new snow, which is 8 to 10 inches deep at the top end of the 320.
Carolyn brought Michael down here and dropped him off, and he dug the hole behind George’s barn, for Breezy, then placed the pile of rocks (that Allan Probst dumped along the creek in the stackyard) in the area where the creek has been eating away the bank during high water every spring and threatening to come down through our haystacks. He got that bank nicely repaired with rocks, and drove the Mini up the road to the upper place.
We got an e-mail from granddaughter Heather in Canada; they’ve had quite a bit of snow in Saskatchewan and she sent photos of Joseph playing in the snow, and sledding with his little brother James.
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| Joseph playing in snow |
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| Joseph & little brother sledding |
She also sent photos of their old feed truck. |
| ready to go feed cows in Saskatchewan |
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| feed truck on Heather & Gregory's farm |
The roads here were slippery with new snow on top of ice. On her way home from town after working at the motel, Dani slid through Crofoot’s fence—the big house at the corner where our creek road intersects the back road. It dinged up her pickup and took out a section of the pole fence, but she wasn’t hurt. Bart and Mindy Crofoot consoled her and told her they plan to put a gate there anyway; she took out the old part just before it got to the new fence.
Sunday it quit snowing and was warmer, up to 40 degrees. Andrea hiked to the 320 again to check the cows and protein tubs. They had nearly eaten all the protein. We had to decide whether to gamble on it not snowing anymore (and taking more protein up there somehow) or bringing the cows home. Not knowing if we’d get snowed out (too deep for the cows to continue grazing) before they could eat another big batch of protein, we decided to bring them home as soon as they finished those tubs.
On Monday Andrea had an MRI on her neck and back to try to determine exactly what’s going on with those joints and figure out some way to help ease her pain. Later that day, just at dark Tom Miller and his daughter brought us a load of firewood—four 4 cords of big rounds (fir) and unloaded it next to our dwindling woodpile.
I started feeding Breezy a little alfalfa hay (digging some out of the round bales where the deer have been eating through the net-wrap). She isn’t eating hay very well anymore (even the finest, softest grass hay I can find in my stack) and won’t eat grain or pellets, and is losing weight rapidly. She does eat the alfalfa leaves/crumbs, however, so we’ve been filling several buckets every day from the big round bales, trying to pull out the best, leafiest alfalfa to feed her.
The deer have been hitting those bales really hard during the night, so after Andrea checked the cows on the 320, she and Dani dug some big rolls of plastic netting (deer fencing) out of the snow behind our haystacks in the stackyard, we put it up around the alfalfa bales that we’ll eventually be feeding our heifers.
Yesterday it was windy and stormy off and on, but we managed to bring the cows home from the 320. Andrea and Dani went to the 320 on her 4-wheeler and were able to drive up in there (the snow had settled enough that they didn’t get stuck) and start gathering and calling the cows. Lynn and I took the feed truck up the creek with a couple little bales on it, and I hiked up from the road and opened the 2 gates where the cows would be coming down.
They were in a couple different groups and some were grazing in the timber and were not interested in coming down. Dani had to go get them, while Andrea called the lower group and got them gathered at the saddle by the gate into the lower half of the 320. Eventually they all came, following Dani on the 4-wheeler, with Andrea following them on foot. I called them on down to the lower gate and led them the rest of the way down to the road, while Dani hurried around through the 160 on the 4-wheeler (since the trail the cows come down is impassible with a 4-wheeler), to get down to the road in time to meet up with us.
She got there in time, and I got on the feed truck and called the cows and lured them with bits of hay as Lynn drove along, to keep them following us and not be distracted by cows in the adjacent fields. Dani periodically went into the fields when necessary, alongside our herd as we came down the road, to keep the field cows from coming to the fence to try to join us. Alfonso’s whole herd was wanting to come out onto the road—and the fence is flat there in several places, so Dani had to be very aggressive to chase them away from the bad fence.
We managed to get the cows past those bad spots, with no extra cows joining us, and put them into our heifer hill field. The snow isn’t as deep down here as on the 320 and they were able to graze some of the hayfield aftermath that regrew after they grazed it earlier this fall. They are happy to be home.
Stan drove here from California and arrived late afternoon, after we got home with the cows. We had the tractor plugged in, so it would start, and Lynn used it to unload Stan’s wood-splitter that he brought with him. We had a snowstorm late afternoon and we were glad we had the cows moved, and that Stan got here safely from California before the storm hit.
Today we branded and vaccinated our new little bull. We used the generator to run the clippers and clip the area where we brand (so the hair wouldn’t be so thick where we brand—so it wouldn’t burn so badly) and to heat the branding iron. We gave him an 8-way clostridial vaccine and deloused him, then put him in the back pen where he will spend the winter.
Stan and Andrea split some wood this afternoon, getting started on the big rounds, and I fed them some lunch. After supper Tom Miller brought another big load (4 more cords) so this will be enough wood for us and for Andrea’s house this winter.
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| Stan splitting wood |
DECEMBER 1 – Stan split all the wood for us, and he and Andrea hauled several pickup loads of split wood up to her house. Weather continued cold but we didn’t have any more snow. It settled enough in the orchard that I was able to let Breezy graze there for a few hours a day, nibbling a little grass. Between that, and feeding her alfalfa leaves, she seemed to quit losing weight. |
| Breezy grazing in orchard |
Last Monday we moved the cows down from heifer hill and into the pasture below it; there is more grass regrowth there now. Andrea brought Christopher on the 4-wheeler (and brought their salt down to the next field) and then I took care of Christopher while she helped Stan split and stack wood. When Christopher came he was wearing one of the other kids’ old coats that was a little too big for him, and I took photos as he came to the house to see us. |
| Christopher hiking around in driveway |
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| going up the porch steps |
He found an old broken 4-wheeled scooter alongside the house—a toy that had seen better days with earlier children long ago, and he lugged it up onto the porch and showed Lynn how he could ride it. |
| old scooter |
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| showing great grandpa he can ride it |
The next day Stan and Andrea finished splitting the wood and Dani helped stack it, and they covered it with tarps. We now have a good supply of wood for winter. |
| Dani & Stan covering the wood piles |
When they came back in the house to get Christopher to head home again, he was enjoying his swing, and then as he got ready to leave he grabbed a roll of paper tape (one of many rolls of strapping tape, duct tape, masking tape, etc. that he likes to unstack and restack on one of our cabinets) and was running around with it having a great time. |
| Christopher swinging |
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| running around with old roll of paper tape |
On Wednesday it snowed a little more again, and covered the little bit of grass that Breezy was grazing. The time had come to ease her out of a life that was becoming more difficult for her. Without enough flesh on her old bones, the cold nights were taking a toll in spite of her very long hair coat. We didn’t want to have to ask Michael to help us put her down because he has already helped us with that unpleasant task multiple times over the years—first with a young mare that had kidney failure, and later to put down 4 elderly horses at various times (one with severe and fatal colic).
Shooting a horse, when done properly, is the most swift and humane death, but we hated to ask Michael to help us with Breezy since he’s so very busy and it’s not an easy task. Andrea didn’t want to have to do it herself because she is emotionally attached to this old mare, so she called our cattle vet, Dr. Cope to see if he would euthanize Breezy. But he no longer carries the medication needed for euthanasia.
So we called the Blue Cross Vet Clinic to ask Renee—the veterinarian who has helped us with several horse situations, but she wasn’t working that day. The receptionist said Renee doesn’t do farm calls anymore, to put down horses, but would ask her. We were hoping Renee would make an exception and do this for us and for Breezy. She’s had a long history as Breezy’s “vet person” and Breezy knows her and trusts her. Renee came out her to treat Breezy for colic when we first got Breezy (as a 4-year old mare), the first year Renee was here, and did the surgery to remove Breezy’s cancerous eye 7 years ago. Renee agreed to come out Friday afternoon after work.
Thursday I received an e-mail from granddaughter Heather in Canada and she sent some photos of the two boys. They are growing up so fast!
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| brothers |
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| Joseph & James Nov. 26 |
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| silly boys |
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| James |
That afternoon (Thanksgiving day) the temperature got up to 33 degrees and sunny. Dani helped me take shoes off Ed – her first experience trying to take shoes off a horse, and she did very well.
Lynn and I went to Andrea’s for dinner, and Christopher entertained us. We planned to have the whole family for dinner on Friday, when all the kids could be there.
Friday morning was clear and cold. The receptionist at the vet clinic called and told me that Renee could probably come out that afternoon after work (just before dark) to euthanize Breezy. This was a relief to us; that dear old mare would not have to go through any more long cold nights.
This also worked out well, because we were celebrating Thanksgiving a day late (when all of Andrea’s kids could come), having dinner midday before Emily went to work. Charlie and Sam were able to come a little early and stop here at our house, and spend a little time with Breezy and say good-by to her.
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| Charlie saying goodbye to Breezy |
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| Charlie & Sam with Breezy |
That old mare meant a lot to both of those kids. Charlie rode Breezy a few times when he was just learning to ride, and Sam rode her for 5 years after that mare’s eye was removed. Breezy was basically Sam’s horse during those 5 years, and the two of them did very well together.
I’d fed Breezy some alfalfa leaves and she was happily munching that pile as all the kids said good-by to her. I took photos of all of them as they paid their last respects and shared a few personal moments with her. Here are the photos of Sam & Breezy.
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| Sam & Breezy |
Dani rode Breezy a few times over the years, even though the old mare was sort of Sam’s horse. I took photos of her and Sam with that very special old horse. |
| Dani & Breezy |
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| Dani & Sam & Breezy |
Then we had a nice dinner at Andrea’s house, and it was great to have all the kids there, and Christopher enjoyed it, too. |
| Thanksgiving dinner at Andrea's house |
Christopher now feeds himself very well, even though it’s sometimes a mess cleaning up after his meals!
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| Christopher enjoying dinner |
He also enjoyed entertaining us and he and Lynn read a Dr. Seuss book. His play area is walled in by couches and the playpen, but he’s now strong enough to push his playpen along the floor and out of the way so he can get out and go where he wishes. |
| reading together |
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| pushing his playpen out of the way |
After dinner I took photos of all of Andrea’s kids. It’s always fun when they can all get together like this. |
| Emily, Charlie & Sam |
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| all of Andrea's kids |
Emily had to leave early to go to work, but she stopped by our place on her way to work and said good-by to Breezy. In earlier years she enjoyed riding that mare, and rode her a lot when she was helping me ride range one summer while her mom was working at a fire camp. Breezy had an important place in her heart, too. Lynn and I came home just as Emily was heading off to work, and I did chores early, and fed Breezy alfalfa leaves in the calving pen—having her last meal.
Andrea and Dani came down for a few minutes, too, and I took photos of them with Breezy. Andrea had a hard time saying good-by. Breezy was her best cow horse for several years, and was the last horse she rode before her burn accident—and the first horse she rode again a few years later after she’d recovered enough to get on a horse again, and together they came back to almost as good as new. Saying good-by to Breezy was the end of a major chapter in her life.
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| Andrea and her old mare Breezy |
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| Dani & Breezy |
On her way home, Andrea helped me take the net wrap off the new big bale for the bull, and I fed him early and did all my chores early, before the vet arrived.
Renee came just before 5 p.m. (and Andrea and Dani came back down about that same time) and we gently put Breezy to sleep. Andrea covered her with a soft old blanket, and we covered the blanket with a tarp for the night (to protect her body from predators) since it was too dark to bury her.
I plugged in the tractor so it would be sure to start the next morning; it was cold--only 6 degrees that morning. Stan and Andrea helped Lynn put chains on the tractor, and Michael came that morning with his flatbed trailer and loaded 8 big round bales from our heifer hay stack, to take up to the upper place for his weaned heifers.
Then we took the hay fork off the tractor and put on the loader bucket, and used it to carry Breezy’s body from the calving pen to her final resting place behind George’s barn (the old log building at the corner of the bull corral). We rolled her into the hole that Michael dug for us earlier and left the soft fluffy blanket over her to serve as her burial shroud. Lynn used the tractor loader to fill the hole, and it was a challenging because part of the dirt pile was frozen. He broke a crosslink on one of the tractor chains trying to maneuver on the frozen ground, and almost got stuck once when a front tire sank deep into the softer ground farther away from the hole—but was able to use the bucket to lift the front end of the tractor and get unstuck.
While he was burying Breezy, Andrea, Dani and I moved our cows to the field by Andrea’s house. Dani led them up into heifer hill and across the creek/bridge with the 4-wheeler while Andrea and I followed them. They were glad to have new pasture.
Then Andrea helped Lynn take the loader bucket off the tractor and put the hay fork back on—which took some time because it wasn’t hooked up completely and fell off when he started to take the tractor back toward the house. We eventually got it hooked up right, and he used the hay fork and a chain to load Stan’s wood-splitter into his pickup to take back to California when he goes back in a week or so.
Lynn helped me put the deer netting back around our haystack next to Shiloh’s pen (after taking it down to get out the 8 bales for Michael).
Yesterday was cold again (down to 8 degrees). It’s a relief knowing that Breezy is no longer having to endure cold nights. The deer are really hitting our hay; even though I wrapped tarps around the big bale we’re using for the bull (after the deer dug around in it and pooped and laid on the hay they dug out), they got into his manger feeder along the fence and pooped in his hay. So today Andrea brought a piece of deer netting around from the stackyard and made a barrier along the manger so they can’t get into it. I can throw hay in over the barrier, to feed him. Now the only way they can get into his manger is to go into his pen and come into it from his side, and they are less likely to do that because it’s more awkward for them.
Andrea and Stan broke ice on the creek for the cows, and chopped a drinking hole for the young cows in the lower back field. Stan and Lynn tied some blue dam material onto the fence corner of the bull pen next to the old log building, to make a two-sided windbreak for him, while Andrea and I took the front shoes off Willow. We won’t be riding the horses any more this winter. Then Andrea and Stan took the two protein tubs (that we’d stored in the stackyard) up to the cows in the field by her house.
That afternoon Lynn started the little tractor (with the post pounder on it) and Stan helped him set a dozen posts along the bad fence by the creek side of the field below the lane. Andrea sawed out the trees that had fallen down over the fence and mashed it down in several places.
Today they set the rest of the post in that fence line. Now all we need to do is put in staples and stays and that old fence will be almost as good as new.
I took the shoes off Dottie, and Dani came down and practiced her new skills by helping take off her front shoes. Now all the shoes are off all the horses, and the snow won’t be balling up so badly in their feet.
This evening it started snowing.
DECEMBER 15 – A couple weeks ago Andrea and Stan drove to Idaho Falls for her appointment with her pain doctor, who gave her an epidural injection of cortisone in her spine/neck to try to give her some relief from the constant pain of bone spurs and damaged discs that she’s had for quite a while.
Our cold weather continued, dropping down toward zero every night—which meant breaking ice on the water holes daily for the cows to drink at the creek.
We had to move the young cows out of the lower back field because it was getting too difficult to keep their little trickle of water open (that comes from a spring) and we were also getting an ice flow down across the lane where we had to bring them up from that field. We needed to move them before that ice flow (from the spring) got too treacherous for them to cross.
So we started the tractor and took a big bale and feeder up to the field below heifer hill, and moved that group up there.
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| bringing hay to feeder |
That Friday Andrea and Stan drove back to California. She will stay there visiting him for a while. Dani has been breaking ice for the cows and we’ve been tending Christopher in the afternoons/evenings that she goes to work (while Emily is at work at the care center).
Last Sunday we took the feed truck around to the stackyard and Dani helped us load 19 little bales to stack next to the calving pen, where they will be handy. That evening Emily didn’t have to work, so we all had dinner here.
By Monday the continuing cold nights were making it harder to keep the bull’s water hole open, so Dani added that to her daily chores, chopping out ice in his watering spot as well as breaking ice on the creek for the cows.
A fellow in Belgium wants Lynn to locate water for a well site on some property he is considering buying up near Challis in the Pahsimeroi Valley. He contacted us by e-mail and then called Lynn on Tuesday to discuss that possibility. He is a lawyer in Belgium but has been to the U.S. a few times and wants to buy property here. He likes horses, and sent us a photo of the horse guard at the Royal Palace in Belgium.
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| Horse guard in front of Royal Palace in Belgium |
By Wednesday the young cows in the field below heifer hill had nearly eaten all of their big bale but still needed to clean up some that they’d wasted, so Lynn and I took a little bale out there on his 4-wheeler and fed it to them over toward the brush (that serves as a windbreak, and where they have their mineral feeder), just to give them a little new hay while they cleaned up the old. The next day we took another big bale out to their feeder; Dani helped me move the feeder to a new location. This way we scatter a little more manure/fertilizer over the field, moving the feeder each time we give them a new bale. Then Dani filled our wood-box and broke ice for the cows.
Andrea sent me a photo of a used saddle that she and Stan found for Dani, to give her for Christmas. It needs a little work but looks like a decent saddle.
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| saddle for Dani |
We took care of Christopher quite a bit while Andrea was gone and Emily was at work. He often watched movies while he played in his playpen or enjoyed swinging in the swing. He especially likes it when you push him high. |
| Christopher swinging |
He also likes to look at pictures in magazines, and sometimes entertained himself for quite a while looking at them—even in his swing. |
| Christopher reading a magazine |
Emily took Christopher with her a couple times to the care center where she works, since the elderly folks really enjoy seeing him and he likes interacting with them. She took photos of him with one of our favorite residents there, who is 100 years old. He was especially interested in her walker and was trying to help her push it. |
| Christopher helping Madge with her walker |
The Christmas decorations were already put up at the care center, and Christopher was fascinated with the table-top artificial tree. |
| checking out the Christmas tree |
Jim arrived home from Colorado; he will spend a few months here for the winter and then go back to his ranch job in Colorado in the spring.
On Friday Dani and a friend drove to Idaho Falls for her orthodontist appointment to get her braces removed. She has worn them for 2 years, 2 months and a couple weeks, and it was great to finally get them off. Emily brought Christopher down here when she went to work that afternoon, and we kept him until Dani got home that evening from Idaho Falls.
By that time it was snowing, and it snowed more before Emily came home from work after midnight. Her car doesn’t have snowtires and there’s no way she could have made it up the driveway to Andrea’s house (snow on top of ice, on that steep driveway). So we had her leave her car here and take our pickup (with 4-wheel drive) on home.
Granddaughter Heather sent a photo of baby James, who is not quite a year old, but getting around nicely in his little scooter.
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| baby James |
Saturday was cold and snowy, with several more inches of snow, and snowing again on Sunday. Lynn and Jim put an old irrigation dam over the top of the windbreak corner in the young bull’s pen, to keep his bedding area a little drier so he can be out of the snow in a bad storm. I took photos of it, and our snow-covered woodpile. |
| windbreak for bull |
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| snowy wood pile |
Dani broke ice on the creek for the cows and took a little bale of coarse grass hay home in her truck to use for bedding for the dogs at Andrea’s house, in this cold weather.
It snowed again that night and Monday morning I took photos around the barnyard and fields, of the heifers, horses, etc. Some of the heifers were licking salt and mineral, and one of them (Sweet Pea) came to see what I was doing.
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| heifers by their mineral feeder |
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| Sweet Pea |
The deer made a hole in the covering on the bull’s bale and ate some of the hay. I’m glad we have the deer netting protecting his feeding area or they would be getting into it, too, and pooping in his hay. I took photos of the snow-covered netting over his feed manger, and the deer netting we put up to keep the deer out of our haystacks. |
| netting over Babe's manger |
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| Babe's covered haystack and manger |
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| Babe's feed manger |
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| deer netting to keep them out of haystack |
I took photos of the young cows eating at their feeder in the field above the house, and photos of some of the horses. |
| sprout eating hay in the snow |
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| Ed cleaning up breakfast |
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| Willow |
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| Willow begging for more hay |
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| Dottie in snow |
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| young cows eating at feeder |
As I came back to the house, our two oldest cats (fencing cat and Edna) were having an argument. They are both 12 years old and should know better! |
| oldest cats |
Today Dani filled our woodbox and helped me get some more hay out from under tarps for the horses, and we put an old dam over the hole the deer made in the protective covering on the bull’s bale.
Some of the cows went into Andrea’s yard to eat the pile of old lawn clippings by her house, so it’s probably time to start feeding them hay, since their pasture is snowed under.
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