FEBRUARY 20 – Last week continued cold, getting down toward zero most nights and only up to 17 or 18 degrees in the afternoons. We were breaking ice daily on the creek to keep the water holes open for the cows, and in the bull pen.
Michael and his fencing crew finished the new pen below the barn last Thursday and it was good they were done because that night it started snowing and blowing and the next day was too miserable to be building fence. Andrea helped me feed the cows and we put an extra little bale on the truck to go with their big bale, to make sure they had enough food for the cold weather.
It was still snowing and blowing the next day, on my birthday. Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent me birthday wishes by e-mail, and photos of the two boys.
 |
| Joseph with the Valentine he made |
 |
| Joseph's coloring project |
 |
| James ready for dinner |
When we went to feed cows we had a hard time getting to the field through deep drifts. The portion of big round bale that was left was precarious so we tied it down in all directions so we wouldn’t lose it off the truck as we bounced back down from the field.
I took a few photos that day, of the snow on the woodpile and vehicles, Lynn bringing in an armload of wood, Michael’s skid steer plugged in, and the lane toward the barn.
 |
| woodpile |
 |
| Lynn bringing in wood |
 |
| skid steer plugged in |
 |
| lane toward barn |
 |
| feed truck with big bale tied on |
The next day was worse, and even harder to get up to the field to feed the cows. Andrea’s driveway was also impassible for a car, so after we fed the cows and the feed truck was empty, Andrea and I put 22 little bales on the feed truck for traction, tied them on so they wouldn’t bounce off, and she used the feed truck to buck the snow drifts on her driveway. After a trip up and down the driveway with the truck, breaking trail, she was able to drive in and out with her car.
We unloaded the little bales in a stack by the calving pen and Lynn got the tractor started (after being plugged in all night and a canvas over the hood to help insulate against the cold) and loaded another big bale on the feed truck, and took our last bale of straw to the cows for bedding—then used the tractor to plow our driveways. Andrea drove to Idaho Falls to spend some time with Dani for part of the day. She stayed overnight and was able to visit with the doctor the next day and bring Dani home on Tuesday.
Michael came and got his skid steer, to plow his driveway and clear snow in his stackyard over the weekend, then brought it back down here on Monday to plow snow along the lane below the old milk barn, where his crew will be building new fence. He left the skid steer here and Lynn gave him a ride home.
It just kept snowing; we had several more inches of new snow on Tuesday and the roads were pretty bad (and poor visibility in the snowstorm) for Andrea and Dani’s trip home, but they made it ok, getting home that evening.
Another problem arose; Jim called early morning from Andrea’s house to tell us there was no water. He checked the pump house, and the heat lamp had burned out; the line was probably frozen. Lynn and I fed the cows while Jim worked on the water problem, then got the tractor started and took a new bale to the young cows below heifer hill. The snow was more than a foot deep and he had to plow a path up to the feeder.
Wednesday was a little warmer, up to 24 degrees, with more snowstorms, but Michael and his fence crew worked on the lane fence in spite of the bad weather. They also pulled out the old cattle guard next to the fence along the creek in the field below the lane—that Lynn put there years ago to keep cattle from falling in a hole that the ditch eroded under the fence. Michael got the old cattle guard out and filled the hole with rocks, and the guys built a jackfence there.
Dani’s friend Jack was here that day, and they helped me clean out the old hay in the bull’s manger and put it in his protected corner for bedding, then they used scoop shovels to shovel the deep snow away from the corral gates we’ll need to be able to open and close when we vaccinate the cows. Lynn plowed more snow, and made a path along the chute runway in the corral.
On Thursday we vaccinated the cows. After chores Andrea helped me shovel the deep snow away from a couple more gates and away from the squeeze chute. Dani and her friend Jack came down a little later and helped bring the cows down from the field to the corrals. We vaccinated and deloused them. Dani and Jack moved the cows through the chute runway, Andrea caught their heads, Jack worked the tailgate and squeeze, Andrea and I vaccinated, and Dani did the pour-on for lice, since she is tall and has long arms and can reach along their backs very easily. I took several photos of her pouring the delousing product on the cows—from head to tail.
 |
| Dani delousing |
Then we put those cows in a side pen and went to get the young cows (first and second calvers) from the field below heifer hill.
Those young cows were not at all hungry (they have hay in their feeder all the time) but they followed me down through the next field. Then they got goofy – bucking around and playing—and decided they didn’t want to come into the lane by my hayshed. It took all 4 of us (Andrea, Dani, Jack and me) to patiently outwait them (keeping them from running back up through the field in the deep snow) and they finally decided to go through the gate. We took them around to the corral and vaccinated and deloused them.
We left them in the corral while we took the older cows back up to their field and fed them with the feed truck, then took the young cows back to their field, and Dani and Jack took a bucket of loose salt and mineral to put in their mineral tub.
I fed everyone lunch (a big pot of chili) and then Dani and Jack took a pickup load of firewood up to Andrea’s house. It was good to have the cows vaccinated; they need enough time to develop antibodies to have good-quality colostrum for the calves they will be having in about 6 weeks. Vaccinating the cows ahead of calving helps protect the calves from various diseases—if they nurse the colostrum soon after birth.
Yesterday was warmer and Andrea had Christopher outside when Emily went to work. That little guy started running down the driveway, following his mom’s car, and he was toddling so fast and got such a head start that Andrea had to drive the 4-wheeler down the driveway to catch him. So she brought him on down here on the 4-wheeler to come visit us for a few minutes. While he was down here he climbed on an old snowmobile that was parked off in the bushes and was trying to start it.
 |
| Christopher trying to start an old snowmobile |
MARCH 1 – We had a few days of warm weather, above freezing in the afternoons, so the snow is starting to settle in places, then freezes hard at nights and is so crusted in the mornings that you can walk on it. Coming home from work one night Emily slid off the driveway going around through the corrals and got stuck in the snow and had to walk home. The next morning Michael and crew were here early to work on the fence between the field and the upper swamp pasture, and Michael used his skid steer to pull the car out of the deep snow. Then he used the skid steer to plow a path through the 18-inch deep snow along the fence where the guys will be working and setting new posts, and plowed an area where they can park their pickups.
Someone took photos of Andrea and her 3 girls, and also a photo of Dani chasing Christopher around the parking lot trying to keep track of him.
Stan drove back from California and got here late Thursday afternoon. The next morning he helped us feed cows; he and Andrea brought Christopher down on the 4-wheeler and Christopher “helped” me drive the feed truck while they fed the hay.
He also found an old tricycle in the snow next to the house and was wanting to dig it out and try it.
Yesterday was also baby James’ birthday, in Canada. He’s now a year old. Granddaughter Heather sent us some pictures.
Then we checked out the new pen below the barn –where we will put mamas with new babies—and the windbreak corners, and I took pictures of her in the corners. We will eventually put some bedding in those corners for the calves to snuggle into.
She also made a new calving calendar to put on the wall --over top of the old one from last year – with all the cows’ names/numbers on their respective “due dates” in the month of April. It’s handy to have it on the wall so we can check to see when a certain cow is supposed to calve (even though some will calve a week or more ahead or their due date, or sometimes a bit later), and Dani likes to cross them off as they actually calve.
It thawed a little that afternoon then froze, and Andrea’s driveway and ours was a sheet of ice. When Emily came home from work late that night, her car spun out on the steep part of Andrea’s driveway and when she got out to see if she’d be able to get it going again, she fell down on the ice and slid about 10 feet down the driveway. She managed to get the car a little bit off the ice and make it home, but the next day Andrea spent a couple hours hauling dirt from Shiloh’s pen (with 4-wheeler and calf sled) to spread on the ice on her driveway.
That day the fence crew got all the new posts set in the old fence along that side of the field. We built that fence in 1967 and some of the old posts were rotting off. It was a little difficult driving the new posts in frozen ground. Some of them went in fairly easy (only about 8 inches of frost) but others had to go through more than a foot of frost. The hydraulic post pounder is amazing, however and just keeps pushing the posts down. It was interesting to see how much heat was created by the friction of the post doing down through the frost; little “worms” of thawed mud oozed up from the ground next to the post as it was pounded down.
When Andrea went to town that afternoon to accompany Dani to her first therapy session she left Christopher here with us (since Em was at work) and we took care of him until she picked him up again after chores. I took a photo of him swinging.
 |
| Christopher swinging |
On Wednesday we had a little new snow but the fence crew worked in spite of it and Michael brought a tall gate post for them to set, to replace the old one. They were having trouble digging out the old one; it took a while.
That afternoon Andrea, Dani, Em and Christopher went to town and Emily took photos of Sam for her senior pictures. Andrea also took a photo of Sam with Christopher.
 |
| Sam & Christopher |
 |
| Andrea & her 3 girls |
 |
| Dani keeping track of Christopher |
On Thursday Lynn went to Kirtley Creek to locate water for a well for a guy from California who is buying property there. He and his wife were staying at the motel where Dani works part-time.
Christopher got into one of Andrea’s cupboards, got out a sack of flour and spilled it all over the floor and was skating around in it, and then decided he needed to clean it up. Andrea discovered him trying to sweep it up with a broom and took a photo.
 |
| Christopher trying to sweep up the flour |
 |
| Christopher in the truck |
 |
| Christopher helping drive |
 |
| Stan feeding hay while Christopher helped drive |
Michael and Carolyn drive to Helena on Friday to get a trailer load of materials and chain link fencing for another job. It was a treacherous trip with the bad roads.
Saturday we fed off the last of the big bale on the feed truck and put gas in the truck; it was nearly out of gas. The gas gauge hasn’t worked for years, so we just mark on the calendar to keep track of how many days it’s been since the last time we put gas in. It doesn’t take much gas, just driving it to the field to feed, and a tank of gas lasts more than 3 weeks, but it had been 4 weeks since we gassed it up last and we were lucky we hadn’t run out.
We’re having more cold weather. Yesterday morning was down to 6 degrees but it warmed up a bit after the sun came up. Andrea and Stan brought Christopher with them again when we fed cows. All bundled up, he looks like a little Eskimo. He climbed up on Andrea’s 4-wheeler and I took a picture of him.
 |
| little eskimo |
 |
| finding the old tricycle |
The winter coat that Andrea got for him is still pretty big, and his arms are too short to come down through the sleeves, so it’s a little handicapping when he wants to grab things, but it helps keep his hands warm!
 |
| long sleeves |
 |
| One year old! |
 |
| James is now a yearling |
Today was cold again, but by afternoon it got above freezing. We opened the barn doors to try to help dry things out in there—letting some sunshine in. Every summer the irrigation water subs in there and it gets really wet, and we need to get it dried out before we start calving.
Michael plowed a bunch of snow up at their corrals and today they vaccinated their cows. They had hoped to do it sooner, but they’ve been too busy. It was a job getting their gates functional, with 2 feet of snow obstructing everything.
MARCH 9 – Last week Andrea and Stan shoveled the deep snow away from the water tank in the orchard so we will be able to turn it over and use it to water the cows when we put them in there for calving. Stan brought some tin around from the stackyard (some old tin that has been stored there for many years) and put it in the new pen below the calving barn, to use it to make windbreaks in the corners.
After Lynn loaded another big bale on the feed truck and took hay to the cows’ and heifers’ feeders, he bladed some of the deep snow away from the calving barn so it won’t all be running into the barn as it melts.
Heather and Gregory in Canada started calving, and sent us photos of some of their first calves.
 |
| new Canadian baby |
 |
| cow & calf in Canada |
We started getting ready for our annual water meeting and called a couple people to make sure they would be there. We’re hoping that Steve Adams will be our watermaster again. He did a good job last year and was the first one we’ve had that was impartial and wouldn’t be bullied by a couple of the water users who like to do things their own way and steal water. We also need to find someone for secretary/treasurer since Bob Loucks emphatically announced that he will no longer do that job. We were hoping Alyssa Peets might do it because she is a good accountant but she’s been very ill with an autoimmune disease and will not be able to. We then asked Vickie Colston, but she doesn’t want to do it.
Our water meeting was Thursday afternoon. We fed cows early and went to town late morning to do all our town errands, then went to the water meeting. Bob Loucks ranted and raved and yelled and left, and then we had a fairly decent meeting with him gone. We voted in Steve Adams as our watermaster, but since he will be very busy this summer with another job he will be training an assistant watermaster to do most of the work—and we will have to pay both of them. It will be a very expensive year, since we don’t have much carryover from last year (Bob Loucks didn’t think we needed to have water assessments last year); most of us will be paying 4 times the water fee that we’ve paid in the past. But if we can have a peaceful irrigation season with a good watermaster, and not have to be constantly fighting over water (like we have in the past when our earlier watermasters allowed themselves to be bullied or swayed by the ones who steal water), it will probably be worth it.
Since no one wanted to be secretary/treasurer Andrea said she would do it, even though she’ll need a lot of help figuring out all the stuff that goes with that job. It used to be pretty simple, but not anymore, with all the government stuff that has to be dealt with now in the accounting, workman’s comp for the watermaster, forms to fill out for the Idaho Department of Resources, etc.
After the meeting Stan took Andrea, Lynn and me out to dinner (first time we’ve been in a restaurant since last summer) and it was a nice meal—sort of an early anniversary celebration for Lynn and me, since our 55th wedding anniversary was the next day.
That next morning Stan, Andrea and Dani helped me bring the young cows down from their field and into the horse pasture, to be ready for calving. We want them down here ahead of the older cows so we can take a few days to train them to go into the barn. This time it was easy to bring them down because Lynn had plowed a path through the deep snow through the little field below their field, straight to the horse pasture gate, and they came along that path and followed me down through the field Andrea took a photo of Dani on the 4-wheeler after we got the cows moved.
 |
| Dani on 4-wheeler |
We’d already put a hay feeder in the horse pasture (it took a lot of prying with a bar to get it loose from the snowdrift and frozen ground where it had been stored all winter next to the bull pen) and a big bale of hay, so those cows were happy to come down to their new place. I’d filled the water tank for them that morning.
That afternoon Stan and Andrea went to town to do all the town errands and took Christopher with them, and Lynn went to Kirtley Creek again to locate a well site for a guy from Montana who bought 5 acres there and wants to put in a house and horse-training facility.
The last three days have been warmer, without much ice on the creek or the bull’s water hole. It makes chores easier, not having to break ice for the cattle. On Saturday we put a little hay in the calving pen and put the 6 young cows in there for about an hour, to get them used to coming into that pen when we want them to. We also need them to tromp around in the deep snow and mash it down and help it start melting quicker. Stan put up some of the tin around the corners of the pen below the barn, to make windbreaks. Lynn and Christopher “helped” while he laid out the tin along the corners.
 |
| putting tin along the new fence for a windbreak |
 |
| Christopher helping Lynn |
That afternoon Lynn loaded another big bale on the feed truck about the time Andrea and Christopher hiked down from her house, and he rode with Lynn in the tractor while Andrea brought the feed truck out of the stackyard. That kid loves riding with Lynn in the tractor! Then Lynn plowed a little more of the snow away from the calving barn (in the little pen in front of the barn) but accidentally hit the electric wire overhead with his loader, and broke it. We didn’t notice it until a couple days later, however, and then Stan climbed up on the shop roof and fixed it.
We put the young cows into the calving pen again on Sunday, to eat some hay and tromp more snow, and Stan put up more tin to make windbreak corners in the new pen.
Yesterday we put some good hay in a couple barn stalls and started the barn-training program for the young cows. The three that have been in the barn before (the second-calvers) were good leaders for the three young ones (first-calvers) that have never been in a barn. Andrea and Stan also helped me put another tire on top of Willow’s pile of tires (that elevates her water tub). We’ve always had her tub high off the ground to keep her from pawing it and putting her feet in it, since she plays with anything in her pen, but lately she’s developed a new trick—sidling over it and straddling the tub to rub her belly on it! Andrea took a photo of her doing that, a few days ago:
 |
| Willow itching her tummy on water tub |
Her constant rubbing of her belly on the water tub is squashing it sideways a bit and also leaving hair in her drinking water, so we had to come up with a solution and decided to make it taller. Putting another tire under it will probably help.
After we got all the morning projects accomplished, Stan and Andrea drove to Idaho Falls and stayed overnight; she had an appointment with her pain doctor early this morning.
Today Lynn helped me put the young cows in the barn for their second training session, and then helped me feed the cows. We had just a small portion of the big round bale left on the truck and had to tie it on with ropes and hay twines to make sure it didn’t fall off when we came back down through the rough field with its frozen cowpies and frozen ruts. Emily didn’t work today, which was nice because she was able to take care of Christopher while all the rest of us were gone or busy.
MARCH 18 – Last week we gave the young cows a few more barn training sessions and they will probably do fine if we have to put any of them in the barn to calve if the weather is bad.
On Friday Jim left to start his trip to Colorado for his summer job on the ranch he worked on last year. Bad weather (parts of Colorado got several feet of new snow) but his roads weren’t too bad. That afternoon Stan shoveled snow out of pen corners.
These last few days have been warmer and the snow is melting a little more each day. It’s actually gotten up to 45 or 50 degrees the past few afternoons. Maybe by the time we start calving we won’t have snow drifts and mud puddles!
Andrea and Christopher hiked down from their house to help feed, and she took a photo of him when he climbed up on the old land plane that’s parked along the fence.
 |
| Christopher checking out old land plane |
Most of the field by Andrea’s house is baring off where we’ve fed hay, and we were feeding on the last few “clean” snowy areas. On Monday we fed down on this end, near the gate, partly because there was still some snow, and also to have the cows come down to this end so they would be more willing to come down out of that field the next day when it was time to bring them down to the calving pasture. The last part of that bale was not very big so we laid it down on the truck bed and tied it on—and then it wouldn’t teeter back and forth and fall off as we drove back down through the bumpy field.
The next day we used the feed truck, with its partial bale of hay, to lure the cows down out of that field. Andrea drove, Stan pretended he was going to feed them, and I followed them to make sure the suspicious stragglers kept coming. Since they last time we brought them down was when we put them through the chute to vaccinate, they were a little reluctant to come back down to the corrals, but the greedy ones followed the hay truck and I kept the stragglers coming.
We took them through the corral and around to the horse pasture and orchard to join the young cows, so we can watch them more closely and not have any of them calve up in the field. We have too many opportunistic coyotes hanging around, and we also want to monitor the calving cows; if a cow has any kind of problem calving we want to be able to assist.
The sunrise was a golden glow the next morning and I took photos from the back porch when I went out to do chores.
 |
| golden sunrise |
Lynn put another bale in the horse pasture—so there are bales in both feeders, to accommodate the additional cows. Then he used the tractor to smash the deep ruts in Andrea’s driveway (the thaw has made a lot of mud) and plowed the snow from her upper driveway so it can be used until some of the deep mud dries up.
Lynn and I dumped and cleaned out the heifer’s water tank and unplugged the tank heater. With the warmer weather we probably won’t get really thick ice on it now, and we won’t need the tank heater.
Yesterday I did chores early, and we didn’t have to feed cows (they are all in the maternity pen with hay feeders). Andrea had a doctor’s appointment (to check her swollen thyroid glands and swallowing problems) and Lynn and I went to town for our first COVID vaccination. We stood in line outdoors for about an hour but it was a fairly warm morning—about 45 degrees with just a slight breeze—so it wasn’t bad. We will have our second shot in early April while we are calving, so we hope we don’t have any calving problems that day when we have to come back to town!
Today was fairly warm again. Dani helped us put 2 big bales in the cows’ feeders and move some little bales from my hay shed to the barn for future bedding. Last fall when I was feeding the horses, I saved some of the coarser hay to use for barn bedding and it works better than straw because it’s not so dusty. We hauled it into the barn with a cart and I took a photo of her as she put the cart away.
 |
| putting the cart away |
 |
| windbreak corner |
 |
| Dani checking out the windbreak |
 |
| Dani making calendar |
No comments:
Post a Comment