APRIL 26 – This past week has been cold and windy. Granddaughter Heather in Canada told us that the foal she was treating didn’t survive. They never were sure what caused the diarrhea. One of their other mares foaled the next day and had a healthy filly.
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| new filly in Canada |
The creek is still very low; with all the cold weather none of the high snow is melting yet, and it may be a few more days before we get much more flow in the creek. It was really low going through our place after Alfonso dammed off the whole creek to turn on one of his ditches on the Gooch place above it. Jack (who has the first water right) was so short of water that he drove up the creek to see where it was all going, and called the watermaster. Alfonso may have to share some water with the other users.
On Thursday Jim drove to Missoula to pick up his twin sister Melanie, who flew out here from New York. She is spending a few days here, to celebrate their mutual birthday on Saturday.
Heather and Gregory have quite a few mares due to foal this spring and they got a couple more new babies recently. It was cold, so they were using a foal blanket on one of them to keep it warm enough.
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| new baby |
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| foal wearing baby blanket |
When we fed cows Friday morning, I was starting to fill their water tank while waiting for Andrea to bring the feed truck, and noticed that Pandemonium (one of our first-calf heifers) was sucking Sweet Pea, one of the other first calvers. This was bad news. When she was a baby calf, Pandemonium robbed milk from a first time mama named TW (Training Wheels), even though her own mother (Panda) gave plenty of milk. We’d often see TW nursing both calves at once. This isn’t unusual—first time mamas letting other calves nurse besides their own.
But Pandemonium never outgrew her desire to nurse. After she was weaned, she occasionally nursed on other heifers in the weanling group that winter, even though they didn’t have any milk. When they went to pasture that summer as yearlings, we thought she’d quit.
Then last year, when we put the heifers with the cows so they’d all be together to be bred by our new bull, about a week into the breeding season we noticed Pandemonium trying to nurse TW—the young cow she’d suckled as a baby. TW tried to fight her off, but Pandemonium was persistent and would nurse from behind while TW’s own calf was nursing. That poor calf wasn’t going to grow very well, with competition for the milk from that big yearling!
So we put Pandemonium in “jail” by herself in the corral and fed her hay, until we could decide whether to sell her or eat her. After the breeding season was over we put the bull (Babe) in the corral with her and she kept him company so he wouldn’t be so upset about being separated from the cows. That fall, when our vet preg-checked the herd, we figured Pandemonium would be bred—after living with the bull the rest of the summer and fall—and she was, but she was bred very early (before we put her in “jail”) and was going to have an early calf. So, we decided to keep her, thinking that maybe after she became a mom herself, with “grown up” responsibilities, she might forget her bad habit, especially since we’d sold TW—the cow she insisted on nursing.
So it was with frustrated discouragement that we realized she was still a big robber. Sweet Pea (one of her own “classmates” as a first-calver) didn’t seem to mind being nursed by this big friend of hers, but her own little calf (Popeye) was being seriously shortchanged. So Andrea and I brought Pandemonium and her little heifer calf (Panther) out of the field day and put them in the corral below the barn. Pandemonium was furious and upset, being separated from the herd, even though she had the yearling heifers through the fence for company. She paced and bawled and was very unhappy. She’ll have to live this summer apart from the herd while she raises that calf, and then we will definitely sell her or eat her! We decided to let her live in Breezy’s old pen but she’ll stay in the pen below the barn until we get a feeder figured out for her.
Meanwhile, Lynn tried to fix my cook stove. The big burner quit working again. We’ve bought 3 new burners in the past several years. He realized that the part going to that burner had a problem and was shorting out and had a burned spot, so he’d ordered a new part. But when he tried to put it in, it didn’t fit right, so we still don’t have a big burner that works. We’ll have to make do with the little ones.
Granddaughter Heather sent us a photo of baby Ian who is now two months old.
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| baby Ian |
Saturday was Jim and Melanie’s birthday. It was a cold, windy day. Andrea and Charlie spent that morning at Fire School (to get recertified for working on wildfires) but Andrea came down here early, and helped me feed cows before she left. While we were feeding we saw Jack Jakovac drive up the creek and figured he was looking to see who was irrigating, since he’s probably short of water. He must have called Tony (the watermaster) because Tony came out later that day to check, also, and saw that Alfonso has the creek dammed off to put all the water out on the Gooch place above us. Tony stopped by after checking the creek, and we discussed the problem. Afterward, Andrea called Alfonso and told him that he needs to “share” some of the water.
That evening Lynn and I were supposed to go to dinner at Andrea’s to celebrate Jim and Melanie’s birthday, but when I did chores I discovered that the hot wire was shorting out by the upper calf houses, and wasn’t working. I got that fixed, then when I fed Sprout and Shiloh I saw that the heifers had stretched their hot wire and one of them was out in the field. Fortunately she hadn’t gone very far, and none of the others had gotten out yet, so I was able to call the rest of them into the lane by the barn and feed them a little hay to keep them there. Then I was able to take down the hot wire where the heifer got out, and drive her back over it, so I could lock her in the lane with her buddies. That gave me a chance to turn off that section of electric fence and get it fixed. I reinforced the “fence” with another strand of hot wire (to make 3 strands instead of 2) and make it more visible, and made sure it was all working before I let them out into their little area (with their feeder) again.
It took a while, and I was reminded of a couple other times we were detained because of cattle getting out. The day of Michael and Carolyn’s wedding in April 1989 (which was here at our house, with my dad doing the ceremony) they were delayed getting down here from the Gooch place—where they were staying in the old original farm house up there—because the bulls got out. They had to change clothes and get the bulls back in, and then change back to their good clothes and come down here. The wedding had to wait until the cattle were taken care of!
The other time that came to mind was when Lynn and I were driving out our driveway to go to grandson Nick’s high school graduation ceremony, but we ended up being a little late because we discovered the range cows had broken through the range fence and were out on the road. Alfonso (his first summer here) had turned out a bunch of bulls that day and they were fighting the neighbor’s bulls. The bulls broke through the fence, letting cattle out on the road, and the herd was about to come down our driveway. That would put them adjacent to our own cows, and the bulls might try to get in with our cows. So I chased those cattle back through the hole in the fence and chased them over the hill, in my good clothes, while Lynn went back to our barnyard to get steel posts and the post pounder. He fixed the broken fence while I chased those darn bulls over the hill! We did get to town in time to see Nick graduate, but we were a bit late.
At least in the present situation it was much easier getting our heifer back in and fixing the hot wire, but by that time I was late getting done with chores, so Lynn and I had to hurry to get to Andrea’s house for dinner, to celebrate Jim and Melanie’s birthday. Charlie, Emily, AJ, Dani and Roger were there, and Emily’s friend Audra.
The next day after we fed the cows and the feed truck was empty, Andrea and I loaded a round bale feeder onto the truck and took it around to Breezy’s old pen. We only have 2 round bales of cow hay left in the stackyard (the rest is big square bales that we feed with the truck). Lynn brought a round bale to Breezy’s pen with the tractor and situated in a place that will stay dry and not get boggy. Then we brought Pandemonium and her calf from the pen below the barn and put them in their new home.
That afternoon Dani and Roger cleaned out the calving barn and hauled the old bedding up to the field, and some of it out in the heifer pen. Now the barn will be clean for next year’s calving season.
Yesterday was a little warmer, up to 60 degrees (after freezing hard that morning). It was actually a pretty nice day, which was good, because Lynn was asked to go locate another water well that afternoon. Emily and Christopher had lunch in town with Jim and Melanie before Em had to go to work, since she wouldn’t have a chance to see Melanie again. Jim took Melanie to Missoula today to the airport, to fly home to NY. Emily sent me a photo of Christopher playing at the city part playground.
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| Christopher enjoying the playground |
Alfonso moved his cows to the Gooch place yesterday, but had quite a rodeo trying to do it. A bunch of them missed the gate when he and two other cowboys took them out of the field below us, and those were all jammed up in the fence corner. It’s a good thing we rebuilt the old fence between us and that pasture a few years ago, so no cattle can ever get through it, or we’d frequently have his cattle in our field. The riders ran those poor cattle around and around and finally got some of them out the gate, but there were still several calves they couldn’t get. They pushed some of them through Alfonso’s bad fence and out onto the road, but some wouldn’t go through the fence, and the riders gave up on those.
Later, Alfonso brought some cows back down the road, back to their calves, and managed to get them together and take them all back up the road. But he left 3 bulls—and left his gate open. So, we’ve had to leave our driveway gate shut for 2 days, to make sure none of his wandering cattle (that keep going up and down the road) don’t come in.
Today after we fed our cows, Andrea harrowed the field above the house where they are (except the small strip where we fed their hay). She hopes to start some water on the field above that pasture, as soon as there’s enough water in the creek, and needed to harrow the pasture before we have water subbing down through it.
Lynn is getting a bad cold; he finally caught the severe cold that Jim and Andrea have had for several weeks.
MAY 3 – We’ve had a little rain and even though it hasn’t been very warm (not much snow melting yet on the mountain behind us) there’s more water in the creek. Andrea was able to put a little water in a couple more ditches and try to get our fields watered, little by little. She put some black plastic in the ditch by her house where Michael filled the deep chasm with rocks. With the rock fill, the ditch is no longer deep and a danger for cattle falling in it, but the rocks act like a French drain; the water goes through them, making it hard to try to get any out of the ditch to water the field. The black plastic lining the ditch made it work so she can set dams and get the water out where she needs it.
One of Andrea’s favorite cats (one that has extra toes) had kittens, and Andrea sent me a photo of them—after she and Jim got them untangled and cut apart; they were all connected and tangled up in their umbilical cords, tightly wrapped around their necks and legs. She and Jim had to carefully clip them apart, clipping each cord to each kitten, and untangle them. They seemed to be ok, after they were cut apart.
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| new kittens |
Lynn was asked to locate another water well last Wednesday, but the weather was nasty, with rain and snow, and his cold was worse, so he postponed it until a later day. His cough is pretty bad.
The next day we fed cows early, then Andrea and Charlie drove to Idaho Falls in her truck to get a bunch of parts for Bob Miner; he hasn’t been able to make the trip and desperately needed more parts for his sprinkler repair business. It was raining hard when they got home that night. We need the moisture. This will help our irrigation and also bring the creek up. The next morning everything was very wet and there was snow on the upper place.
It was too wet and muddy to take hay to the heifers’ feeder without getting the tractor stuck, so Andrea dragged another big bale feeder around from the barnyard where we stored them (pulled it with her 4-wheeler), and dragged it down past the barn into the little grassy pen below it. We used her 4-wheeler and put several little bales of my horse hay into that feeder. We can feed them the heifers that way until the mud in their pen dries out enough to get a big bale to their other feeder.
Sam and her boyfriend were here visiting over the weekend, and stopped in to see Emily, AJ and Christopher—and Christopher showed them his newest toy.
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| Christopher showing off his new toy |
Andrea started making a shelter corner in Breezy’s old pen, so Pandemonium’s calf can get out of the snow and rain. She made a roof with long boards across that corner and is using some old pieces of tin along the fence for the sides.
That night I woke up at midnight hearing a cow bawling in the pasture above the house. She was still bawling at 1 a.m. so I got up and went out there. All the calves were snug in the calf houses, and out of the bad weather. China Doll had a big udder and was bawling. Her calf came out of the house and was thinking about nursing, but he had white mess on his butt—the first case of scours we’ve had this year—and that’s why he wasn’t feeling well and didn’t want to nurse. We’ve been lucky so far, to have no sick calves for this long, but it’s partly because the ground was so dry. The scour “bugs” always seem to thrive better in wet conditions and mud and the calves are also more stressed (less immunity) when they get wet and cold. At least the calves are old enough now to not be so vulnerable to the serious effects of scours; they don’t get as dehydrated as younger calves, and are more likely to handle it without needing treatment.
Since I was up in the middle of the night, I plugged in our tractor, knowing we’d need it to load hay the next morning, and it never starts very well if it’s cold. It was already freezing at midnight. We hoped to feed early while the mud was still frozen.
Andrea came down from her house early, right after I finished chores, and she tried to start the tractor so we could take a big bale to the heifers before the mud thawed out, with risk for getting the tractor stuck. But the darn tractor wouldn’t start! It acted like the batteries were dead, so we put the battery boost charger on it for an hour, and went to feed the cows while it was charging. It barely started, after that, and even though the mud was starting to soften up by that time, we were able to take a bale to the heifers and get a big bale from the stackyard to reload the feed truck.
Meanwhile, we called Chris Bird at the tire center (who works on tractors) to see if he had the kind of batteries we need for that old tractor, and he did. He sent a guy out later that morning to put the new batteries in our tractor. The old ones are more than 10 year old and haven’t been holding a charge very well for several years, and getting worse. It never would start without being plugged in for a long time if the weather was cold.
We got an e-mail from granddaughter Heather in Canada, and a photo she took at Joseph’s birthday party (he’s now 5 year’s old) with one of his cousins and her mom. His dad (Gregory) and Grandpa John are also in the photo.
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| Joseph's birthday party |
Yesterday was warmer, up to 60 degrees in the afternoon. Andrea did all our town errands, since Lynn still has a bad cold and isn’t feeling very well. Alfonso didn’t feed his cows, and a bunch of them got out through his bad fence and were grazing along the road and hillside next to the Gooch place.
Today it started raining about 6 a.m. and rained hard for several hours—the most rain we’ve had all spring. Water was running down our driveway and pouring off our roof. This will be like a good irrigation for all our fields! The mud was deep and slippery when we fed the cows, making it tricky to drive up past my hayshed and into the pasture where the cows are, but we didn’t get stuck.
After we fed, we needed to load another bale on the truck but the tractor wouldn’t start! We checked the battery terminals but they were ok. Probably the new batteries were not charged when they got put in. So we put the battery boost charger on, and it started, and we let it run for an hour. We got the rest of the little bales out of the stackyard (not very many left) while the truck was empty, and brought them around by the calving pen, then loaded a big bale on the truck. We use a few little bales every day to help stretch the big bales (1st cutting alfalfa, which is a mix of grass and alfalfa), so we’ll be sure to have enough hay to finish feeding this spring and maybe have a few left over for next year—and not have to buy so much. Hay is really expensive right now, about three times the price it was a year ago—after the drought last summer.
MAY 10 – The water crisis is over. With a bit of rain, snow and then some warmer weather, the creek is up, so everyone is trying to get as much water going as possible on the fields. Our high water may not last very long this year, with less snow than normal in the mountains. The creek may get short of water by mid-summer. So we want to get our grass and hayfields growing, and grow as much grass and hay as we can before we run out of water.
After all the wet weather, several of the calves now have the scours, but they aren’t very sick—just off feed a bit for a few days. At least they are old enough that they don’t get very sick, which is a blessing.
Last Wednesday Lynn felt a little better (though he still has a cold) and went to Carmen Creek to locate a well site for the guy he had to postpone the week before. Andrea went with him; it’s easier on him if she drives. She took a photo of him using a bobbing willow to determine the depth of the water.
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| Lynn counting with the bobbing willow to determine depth of the water for the well |
Christopher started going to a day care facility a couple days a week, but with weather getting better, Andrea can probably take care of him easier now for part of the time, because she’ll be able to take him with her when she goes irrigating. He loves to be outside, and is getting old enough to follow instructions and not go near the creek, etc. when she’s changing water.
Dani’s friend Roger is trying to get a job in town but in the meantime is helping us. He raked all the old branches out of the creek in the main corral before the water got higher, and is leaning to irrigate. He’s been helping Andrea get some ditches started, shoveling mud and grass sod out of the ditches, putting rocks in the diversions to funnel more water into the ditches, etc.
We started the tractor again on Thursday to load the feed truck again, and this time the tractor started fine. Probably the batteries weren’t charged before they were installed, and now they are charged and working.
That afternoon Andrea took a kitten to Dr. Cope to have a hind leg amputated. When the kittens were born a few days earlier and all balled up and tangled together with umbilical cords (before Andrea and Jim cut them apart) one kitten ended up with a hind leg strangulated with no blood circulation. That leg was withering and dying, and the bone was starting to stick out. Even though Cope is now confined to a wheel chair (his legs no longer work, due to bone cancer in his spine) he still tries to do what he can, and thought he could take care of that kitten’s leg.
So Andrea took the kitten to town, and helped Cope remove the leg and stitch the stump—with the kitten on a board across his lap. It worked ok, and Cope felt good to be able to still do something useful. He loves cats and dogs and was glad to help Andrea’s kitten. Cope’s wife took photos with Andrea’s phone while Andrea helped Cope deal with the kitten. Andrea also got the vaccine from him that we’ll need for vaccinating the cows and calves when we brand next week.
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| Cope & kitten |
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| Cope amputating the leg & stitching it |
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| Cope stitching the amputated leg |
The light switch in our dining room quit working and we had to leave the lights on all night. Lynn was able to fix it the next morning, turning off the power to that part of the house and replacing the switch.
Later that day he went to another ranch to locate water for a well. Andrea went with him and took this photo of the land owner watching Lynn determine the depth of the water he located.
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| Lynn checking depth of water |
Roger helped Andrea irrigate again, and put a rub pole on part of the fence in Breezy’s old pen where Pandemonium and her calf are living now. That young cow keeps rubbing on the fence and we don’t want her to break the net wire. There are still a few more places we need to put rub poles, but Andrea didn’t have time that day; she was getting ready to drive town to Twin Falls to help Samantha and Colton move out of the tiny trailer they’ve been renting, to a nice old farmhouse that they were able to start renting. We were going to send a nice old chair (part of an old couch set) down for them, but the weather was so windy and rainy that we were afraid a tarp over it in the back of Andrea’s truck might blow off. It can go another time.
I took photos of some of the cows and calves that morning after we fed. The calves are really growing and are very sassy in spite of the cool, windy weather.
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| calves checking out the hay |
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| Charlotte and a buddy playing in the hay |
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| Kung Fu and one of the older cows |
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| magnolia with a partly full udder |
Sunday was really wet. We had rain in the night that changed to snow, with an inch of new snow that morning. Andrea was still in Twin Falls helping Sam get moved so Roger helped me feed the cows. Andrea sent photos of the house they are moving into—one photo of the outside, and a photo of the dining area.
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| the house |
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| dining area |
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| Colton, Sam & Charlie |
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| Andrea with Sam & Charlie |
Andrea brought Christopher home and left him here sleeping on our couch (he fell asleep in the car on the way home from town) and she changed the irrigation water. When Christopher woke up he wanted to go outside so he and I hiked around outside and checked on the post-setting project and he looked at the baby calves. He also wanted to play in the yard for a little while, on the swings and slide.
When he got tired of that it was nearly chore time so I took him around with me to feed the bulls, and take the net wrap off a new bale. Then he helped me finish chores and enjoyed helping feed the horses. When we went down below the lane to feed Sprout and Shiloh, our old cat Edna came with us, and Christopher enjoyed petting her and showing her a dandelion he picked.
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| Christopher petting Edna |
Today Andrea, Christopher and Roger helped feed cows. I took some photos as Christopher and I hiked up to open the gate, while Roger was helping Andrea load a few small bales from my horse hay shed to add to the partial big square bale on the truck.
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| Christopher looking at the cows |
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| Christopher watching the calves |
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| Christopher looking at calves |
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| Roger supervising the getting acquainted process |
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| Christopher wanted to run right over to see the calves, and needed a little chaperoning |
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| Roger, Andrea and Christopher checking the cows and calves |
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