SEPTEMBER 6 – This past week we had hot weather except for a couple of cold nights that got below freezing.
A week ago we saw some cows in the corner of Michael’s Cheney Creek mountain pasture, next to the fence between that pasture and Alfonso’s leased place, and figured that some range cows from the south side must have gotten in, since Michael and Carolyn don’t have any cows in that pasture. So Andrea and I rode up there to check on those and found that they were two pairs belonging to John Miller. There was no way they could have gotten into that pasture (since Miller’s and Alfonso’s cows are on the range bordering our ranches on the north side) except through Alfonso’s place.
Andrea had seen some cattle in Alfonso’s field the day before, and we realized that these were the same cows. They’d come off the range on the north side into his field (since he always leaves his field gates open so he doesn’t have to open and close them when he drives through to irrigate), and he’d put them up into Michael’s place. The cows on both ranges are starving, due to lack of grass in this drought, and trying to get into any place they can find something to eat.
The two pair up along the fence were trying to come back (since there’s not much grass in Cheney Creek—already grazed earlier in the season by Michael’s cows—and what’s left is very dry). There’s no way John Miller would be able to get them from that pasture, except through Alfonso’s place, so we put them back down into Alfonso’s field (and they knew exactly where the gate was, since Alfonso had put them through it just a few hours earlier), and when we came home we called John Miller to tell him where his cows were. Alfonso should have called John, rather than putting those cows onto Michael’s place! Michael and Carolyn are working on a fencing project down river and won’t be home for several days, and weren’t here to defend themselves.
I took a photo of one of those poor starving cows.
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| starving cow of Miller's |
They were happy to get back to some green grass when we put them through the gate. Michael has had problems before, with cattle coming into his place, so he put a lot of steel posts in the fence last year, to repair it and keep range cows (and Alfonso’s cows) out of his pasture. There were a couple other pairs in there, from the range on our south border, and we wondered how they could have gotten in, and then discovered that someone had taken the top wires off the new gate Michael built last year, at the top of his Cheney Creek pasture.
While we were up on the hillside bringing Miller’s cows down to the gate into Alfonso’s field, we noticed the ditch on the far side of the creek had water in it. After we got the cows through the gate, we rode over to the creek and Andrea looked at the headgate and discovered that it wasn’t locked, and that the ditch indeed had been full of water earlier in the morning. This explains why we’ve been short of water on our ditches. Alfonso has been using water illegally at night (since his right has been shut off for a while, with the creek being low), shortchanging the senior rights on down the creek.
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| Andrea riding down to the creek to check the ditch |
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| view from the hill behind Andrea's house |
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| Andrea riding Willow on hill above fields |
The next few days were very smoky; we’re getting a lot of smoke drifting in from nearby fires, and some from as far away as California. The Dixie fire in California is burning up a tremendous amount of timber and grassland, not only destroying ranchers’ rangelands but also wiping out several small towns.
Andrea and I made a fast ride to the 320 to make sure no range cows are getting into that pasture. Then we made a temporary fence above the haystacks (with panels) so we could let the heifers graze that top portion for a few days, without them getting into the haystacks.
The next day we moved the cows and calves from the lower back field and took them to heifer hill. Lynn went to Jeff Minor’s shop and picked up a new rasp and the old chaps Jeff repaired for me. Those chaps are close to 100 years old and were in need of repair; some of the stitching was coming out. I use them for shoeing, to protect my legs, rather than a leather shoeing apron. Those chaps belonged to the Pepper Witteborg, the son of the ranchers my dad bought our upper place from, in 1955, and I’ve used them ever since. The chaps were old when I got them in 1955, so they’ve seen a lot of use.
After Andrea and I got back from moving the cows, I put hind shoes on Willow. Her feet are really hard and tough; she went 16 rides without hind shoes—but they were worn down enough that it was time for shoes.
Thursday morning we had a vet (Cid Hayden) come out and look at the lump on Dottie’s hind leg (up high on the inside of her thigh) because it’s in a place that gets rubbed when she travels. It looked like a melanoma. It came on fast and we hadn’t noticed it until now. It was close to a vein, so we couldn’t burn or freeze it off. Cid sedated Dottie and put a tight band around the lump, to hopefully kill the blood supply to it and have it dry up and fall off. We’ll see how that works.
Later that day Andrea and Stan went for a long drive in the mountains in her jeep and we babysat Christopher. The watermaster stopped by and mentioned that he’d found Alfonso using an illegal diversion (putting a dam in the creek where there is no headgate or weir) on the lower place (below us) so that’s another reason that the first right (below Alfonso’s place) was short.
On Friday Andrea and I rode again to check the 320, and I rode Ed this time, to give Dottie some days off while her melanoma is hopefully resolving. Ed is nearly 30 years old but still a tough old gal; she can go a lot of miles even when she’s not in shape, and does pretty well in spite of a bit of arthritis.
As we were riding up Baker Creek I took photos of a pine squirrel in one of the fir trees along the trail.
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| pine squirrel |
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| skinny cow and calf |
Saturday, Stan and Andrea took a chainsaw, steel posts and wire to the 320 on 4-wheelers to fix the fence between the 320 and the middle range along Baker Creek. Stan sawed several big trees off the fence and he and Andrea rebuilt the portion of fence that had been smashed. The last few years, we’d cobbled up barricades over those trees on the fence, to keep cows out, but it’s better to have those bad spots fixed for real.
Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent us an e-mail message to catch us up on their family news, and sent a photo of the two boys.
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| James & big brother |
I’ve been letting Sprout graze in our driveway every morning for a couple hours and she’s cleaned up all the tall grass and weeds. Grazing her around various places in the barnyard and corrals has saved some hay, and she likes to eat the grass and weeds.
Yesterday we moved the heifers to the post pile pasture. Hopefully it will last them several days; it’s regrown a bit since we took the cow herd out of there. That evening we all had dinner at Andrea’s house.
Today I put new shoes on Dottie’s front feet. The old shoes were worn out and her feet were getting long. Andrea helped me take off one of the old shoes and trim a bit; she wants to learn how to shoe.
SEPTEMBER 14 – We’ve had more hot weather, into the high 80’s most afternoons, and more smoke. Stan drove back to California, hoping to get called to one of the California fire camps with his wash station.
Dani found a reasonably-priced used pickup to replace the one that burned up. It needs a lot of work, but her dad is going to help her fix it up.
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| Dani's old new truck |
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| riding through 320 |
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| deer in driveway |
The next day Andrea and I redid the electric fence in the field below the lane and re-activated it, so we could put the heifers on the pasture part of it for a few days, and keep them out of the hayfield regrowth (that we are saving for later, for the calves after we wean them). That evening we had strong winds again and a tiny bit of rain, but not enough to wet the ground.
Friday and Saturday Em had those days off work. She and Dani, Andrea and Christopher went to Bay Horse Lake on Friday to visit her friend Audra and boyfriend who were camping there, and took some photos.
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| Bay Horse Lake |
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| getting firewood at Cougar Point |
Sunday morning Lynn woke up with a serious nose bleed that took all day to halt. It finally stopped by late afternoon, and I helped him remove the huge clot that was hanging out a couple inches from one nostril. It was dried out around the edges so I soaked it in a cup of cold water (held up to his nose) to soften the stuck part so it wouldn’t start bleeding again as I gently pulled it out. He later realized that he must have swallowed quite a bit of the blood because his bowel movements were black all through the next day.
Yesterday morning at 1 a.m. Rocky called me to get Alfonso’s cell phone number; the cows in Alfonso’s pasture across the county road from Rocky’s place had broken the fence down; the whole herd was in Rocky’s yard, garden and meadow. Alfonso answered Rocky’s call but refused to come do anything about the cattle until later in the day. That was the day Alfonso and Millers finally started rounding up their range cows to take them home.
They had a lot of them gathered by afternoon, and brought them down the road and sorted them by Alfonso’s big field on the Gooch place, putting Alfonso’s cows in that place and letting Millers’ cattle come on down the road. They started trickling past our place a few at a time, very thin, weary and lame. Most of the cattle were quite sore-footed, after having been chased multiple times back up the creek every time they made the loop and tried to come home. We kept our gate shut all day and night in case any more starving cows trickled down later, to keep them from coming down our lane.
Today Stefan came out with another load of wood that we bought from him and he spent the day splitting 4 cords we purchased earlier from another wood-getter. Andrea and I rode to the 320 to make sure no cattle got forced through our fences on the big cattle roundup yesterday.
Charlie and some of the youth work crew brought a pickup and trailer out here to cut and haul off some willows that they need for a streambank repair project. We donated as many willows as they’d like to take, since we have an abundance of them growing along the creek and some of our ditches. Andrea took photos of Charlie and crew collecting Willows along her upper driveway.
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| Charlie & crew cutting willows |
SEPTEMBER 22 – Last Wednesday we preg-checked and vaccinated the cows and weaned the calves. When I did chores that morning I called the heifers in from the pasture below the lane; it’s so handy having them trained and trusting! They were down at the far corner grazing, but when they saw me at the gate and heard me call them, they came galloping up the field and into the pens by the barn. I fed them a few flakes of hay as a reward.
And photos of 129’s calf trying to nurse, but unable to get a teat in his mouth. The calves are frustrated, but not upset and bawling, because they still have mom!
Stefan came out again and split more wood for Andrea, then they took his pickup and more materials (including two rolls of old net wire that we can recycle) up to the 320. They spent several hours creating a fence across the slot in the rock cliffs, setting several steel posts (a tough job in that rocky terrain) and putting the netting on. Now there’s an actual fence that the cows won’t come through!
After breakfast Andrea came down from her house and we took the heifers around to the corrals and put them in a side pen, then brought the main herd into the corral and sorted the calves off the cows. By that time Dani came down, too, and we were ready to start when Dr. Cope arrived. We preg-checked and vaccinated the cows, and were pleased that we had only two open cows and one open heifer; the new little bull did his job very well.
Then we put the calves through the chute and Dr. Cope gave all the heifers their Bangs vaccinations (and ear tattoos and clips to show they’ve been vaccinated) and we gave all the calves their other vaccinations—and Andrea put in their nose flaps. Dani kept them pushed up in the alleyway, and braced against the rearmost one to keep it from backing up. I took a picture of her manure-coated jeans afterward.
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| Dani with manure on her butt |
We put the cows and calves in the pasture above the house, where they can still be together for a few days but the calves can’t suckle. This is the easiest way to wean them; they still have mom for companionship and comfort but can’t get any milk and the cows can start to dry up.
We took the heifers to the upper swamp pasture; there’s enough grass left in that pasture for them. We only have a limited amount of pasture where the pairs are weaning and we want to make sure it will last through the 5 days of weaning.
Stefan came out that morning to help us work the cattle (he ran the head-catch on the chute) and then split some wood for Andrea. Later that afternoon Lynn and I took care of Christopher (Emily was at work) so Andrea and Stefan could take more steel posts and the post-pounder up to the 320 to take up the steep slot in the rocks where we need to build a fence to keep the range cows from coming down through those rock cliffs.
Christopher enjoyed hiking around with me to do chores and feed the horses; he likes to stuff hay through the fence for each one of them. Here’s a photo of him feeding some hay to Willow.
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| Christopher feeding Willow |
The next day was cold and windy. The wind was terrible and really battering the black plastic on our round bale stacks by Shiloh’s pen, so Dani and I put more ties over the top of them in several places (tying a bunch of baling twines together to make a long “rope”, tying a rock to one end and throwing it over the stack, so we could tie it down on both sides).
I checked on the cows and calves and took photos of calves with the nose flaps.
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| calf with nose flap |
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| calf can't nurse |
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| trying to get teat |
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| can't get teat in mouth |
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| fence in rocks |
Friday was cold (23 degrees that morning). Andrea had an early morning appointment with her pain doctor, for injections into the knotted muscles in her neck and shoulders. These injections give her some relief from her constant neck and back pain.
The next day was warmer; it didn’t freeze, and temperature went up to 82 degrees by afternoon. Andrea helped me take out the cross-fence (temporary hot wire on step-in posts) above the house so the cows and calves could graze the other side of that pasture and have some new lush green grass.
It was warm enough by late morning that Lynn was able to start the tractor and we took a big round bale from the stackyard to put by the bull pen; I’ve run out of the little bales I was feeding the bull and his companion heifer (Panda’s daughter named Pandemonium). She’s the one we had to lock up in the corral earlier in the summer because she was nursing her big sister—stealing milk from her sister’s calf.
More range cows are trickling home and coming down the road to Alfonso’s fields. We kept our driveway gate shut that afternoon so they wouldn’t come down here.
Sunday was cold; it never got above 50 degrees. I was going to put new hind shoes on Dottie but decided to wait for a warmer, less windy day. Andrea sent me a photo she took of Christopher lounging around with his favorite cat.
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| pals |
Monday was a nicer day. Andrea and Dani helped me bring the cows and calves back to the corral. We sorted the cows into their various groups (some that we’ll take up to the 320 for grazing the rest of the fall, the young cows that will stay home on pasture, and the open cows that we’ll haul to the sale along with the steer calves to sell) and put all the calves through the chute to take out their nose flaps. We took the calves to the orchard, where there’s some nice green grass. They are essentially weaned.
Yesterday was cool but sunny, without much wind. I took advantage of the pleasant weather and took off Dottie’s worn-out hind shoes and put new shoes on her. I put Sprout in the stackyard that morning to graze, and saw some piles of fresh bear poop in there. Emily told us that she saw a young bear by the stackyard when she came home in the middle of the night after her late shift at work at the care center. Her headlights scared the bear and he took off running. Hopefully he won’t try to eat chokecherries along the creek in the stackyard while Sprout is grazing in there, or he may scare her!
We have a lot of wildlife living here, including a big skunk that keeps eating the cat food that Andrea puts in the little shelter where her cats eat. She startled him one evening when she went in there to give the cats a little more food and found him in there cleaning up some of the cat food she fed earlier that day. No wonder the cats hadn’t eaten it all; they were staying out of that stinker’s way and letting him eat it.
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| extra cat |
Today Andrea hooked up the stock trailer. She and Lynn took it for a test drive to make sure the brakes work ok after being adjusted, so we can haul cattle to the sale tomorrow.
Then Jerry Greggson came out and helped Andrea take a couple protein tubs to the 320. Only one at a time would fit in her jeep (these are bigger tubs than we used last year) so they made two trips. The cows will need a protein supplement when we take them to the 320 for fall grazing; the grass is so dry this year, with the drought, that the protein level in it is very low.
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