MAY 20 – For nearly a week we had cold weather, sometimes freezing at night. Last Wednesday, May 11th, Lynn’s sister Edna and two of her daughters (Stacy and Mary) were in Salmon briefly, on their way to a family reunion in Boise. We took advantage of that opportunity to get together with them for dinner and a visit, at “The Ranch” (a supper club north of town). Lynn’s sister Jenelle set it up, and we all met there, including Andrea, Dani and her friend Roger, Emily and AJ, and Christopher. Emily couldn’t stay because she had to work that evening, but it was a chance for a nice visit. Here are a few photos from that get-together. Andrea took a photo of Lynn and his sister Edna, and in the background is Emily talking with Stacy.
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| Lynn and Edna |
Next she took a photo of Lynn and his two sisters, and of Emily & Christopher talking with me and Lynn, as we waited for some of the others to arrive… |
| siblings - Lynn, Edna & Jenelle |
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| Em & Christopher & us old folks |
…and a photo of the older generation (me, Lynn, Edna and Jenelle). |
| the older generation |
…and of Christopher and Stacy, and Christopher getting acquainted with the other relatives. |
| Christopher with Stacy |
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| Christopher getting acquainted |
The next morning when I did chores, one of the yearling heifers (now named AWOL Alice) was out in the field, having crawled through the hot wire. In order to get her back in, I called the other 10 heifers into the pen by the calving barn, where there’s a little green grass (there’s none in the small area where their feeder is, because we are keeping them off the field so it will grow). They were happy in there, grazing, and not trying to come out into the field when I had to take down the electric fence to get Alice back in. I put her in the grassy lane with her buddies and locked them in while I shut off the hot wire and fixed it.
After Andrea and I fed the cows, we put up a second hot wire out in the field—about 15 feet from the first one—to create a buffer zone so that if any heifers get out again, they would be contained in that zone and happily eating green grass. This would make it much easier to get them back into their pen because they wouldn’t have the whole field to run around in.
That afternoon Lynn helped Andrea put more rub poles on the net wire fence in Breezy’s old pen where Pandemonium and her calf are in jail. She’s been rubbing on the netting and stretching it and we don’t want her to break the fence.
That evening Dani and Roger went to Sharkey hot springs to soak in that pool for a few hours. When they came home, Dani realized she’d forgotten her glasses, so they drove back up there to get them. We’d already gone to bed, but I heard her truck driving out and then stop and back up. I got up to see what was happening, and realized Dani and Roger were running around, and some heifers were running around in the driveway. I got dressed and went out there, and helped them put the heifers back in their pen.
They’d seen AWOL Alice in the driveway as they were starting to drive through, and when they got out of Dani’s truck to put her back, all the other heifers were coming out, too. Apparently they’d shoved the metal gate so hard that the pin came out of the post it hooks to (since the post was no longer firm in the ground and had some give to it, and the gate had come open. It was luck that they came along at the right time to get the heifers back in before they went anywhere on the ranch or out to the main road. After we got them back in, we tied the gate shut so it didn’t have to depend on the pin to hold it.
The next day we took another big bale to the heifers’ feeder, and also got the last round bale out of the stackyard (since that area is subbing water from the irrigating above it) and put it by the bulls where it won’t get wet. We’ll save that bale for Pandemonium, for when she runs out of the current bale in her feeder.
Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent us an e-mail and a couple photos – of baby Ian, and big brother Joseph (now 5 years old) riding on his tractor.
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| Baby Ian |
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| Joseph |
Saturday was cold, windy and rainy but we got things ready for branding (since the weather prediction for Sunday was supposed to be clear, with no rain). Andrea and I had to fix the hot wire by the calf houses when we fed the cows that morning; one of our plastic step-in posts got broken off by the cows.
While she irrigated, I raked all remnants of the old dusty hay out of the “sick barn” and hauled it off in a cart, then strung out hoses from the house outdoor faucet and sprinkled that barn stall to settle the dust. Then I spread a little bale of coarse grass hay over that for bedding, to make a clean, dust-free place to have the calves during branding. Roger helped Lynn put new pull ropes on the various levers on our old squeeze chute. I cooked a big pot of chili to feed the branding crew the next day.
Sunday morning I did chores early and got gates ready for moving cattle. AWOL Alice was out again, but grazing in the buffer zone between the two hot wires, which made it easy to get her back in. I locked all the heifers in the second-day pens so they’d be quick and easy to bring around to the corral for their vaccinations. I also locked Bimbo (the yearling bull) in the corridor to the new loading chute, so he’d be out of the main corral. There’s some grass in there, so he was quite happy.
Charlie came to help brand, and Dani’s friend Jack, so we had enough crew—with Andrea, Dani, her friend Roger, and me. Lynn strung out the extension cords for the branding iron and clippers. Jack got here first, so he helped Andrea and me get the jailbird cow (Pandemonium) and her calf out of Breezy’s old pen and we took them around one of the side pens by the bull corral. Then we brought the cows and calves in from the pasture above the house and took them to the lane by the sick barn. By that time Charlie and the other kids got here and we sorted the calves off and locked them in the sick barn stall, then vaccinated the cows.
Charlie caught their heads, Jack worked the tail gate, Dani and Roger kept the cows coming up the alley to the squeeze chute, and I vaccinated the cows. Andrea put the insecticide ear tags in.
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| chute crew |
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| Charlie & Jack |
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| Andrea putting in fly tag |
Then we locked the cows in one of the side pens and brought the two bulls to the chute and vaccinated them and put in their insecticide ear tags, and put them back in their pens. Then we put Pandemonium down the chute and vaccinated and ear-tagged her, then took the pair down the lane to the calf table, so we could brand, vaccinate and put a fly tag in the calf—and then take that pair back to their jail pen.
After that we vaccinated, branded and put fly tags in all the calves. Dani and Roger brought the calves into the little hold pen from the sick barn, a few at a time, and pushed them one at a time into the calf table chute where I caught their heads, Charlie squeezed them and tipped the table (so the calf is lying flat), and I vaccinated. Andrea took a few photos when she had a moment.
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| vaccinating a calf |
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| Kids waiting to put the next calf in the chute |
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| Lynn supervising |
She was generally pretty busy, however; she clipped the area for the brand, and branded each calf while Charlie held the tail straight up to immobilize the calf, then when we stood the calf back up Andrea put a fly tag in its ear. |
| Andrea clipping the hair |
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| Andrea branding |
We got done mid-morning and took the cows and calves back to their field, then got the yearling heifers and brought them to the corral.
Lynn brought the tractor into the corral and parked it in front of the chute with the hay fork up high so we could tie a rope to it. After I vaccinated each heifer we put a halter on her and stretched her head and neck up a bit so Andrea could put in their brisket tags, with their permanent “cow” number. Here are photos of Dani putting on halters and pulling the rope tight.
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| Dani haltering a heifer |
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| pulling the rope tight |
Then Roger held the rope tight while Andrea put in the brisket tag. |
| Roger pulling rope tighter |
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| Roger holding the rope tight while Andrea puts in brisket tag |
To install a tag, Andrea punched a hole in the brisket skin.. |
| preparing to punch hole in brisket skin |
…then put the hasp through the hole… |
| putting the hasp through the hole |
…slipped the tag onto the hasp |
| putting the tag on the hasp |
…and then bent each end of the hasp over so the tag can’t pull off. |
| bending the ends of the hasp to hold the tag in place |
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| bending the other side |
While their heads were caught, she also put in their fly tags; it made it easier with their heads restrained. They couldn’t sling their heads as much as the cows did when Andrea was trying to install their fly tags.
The fly tags are expensive, but they really paid off last year—not only in giving the cattle some relief from horn flies (which suck a lot of blood) but also face flies that spread pinkeye. We didn’t have any serious cases of pinkeye last year, whereas we had many that we had to treat, the year before. So we decided to use the fly tags again, choosing a different kind, so the horn flies won’t develop resistance to the insecticide.
After we got finished and put the heifers back to their pen, we fed the cows and calves their hay for the day, and were finally able to have lunch ourselves! It got hot that afternoon, which was a bit stressful for the calves after being branded, etc. and some of them sought shade in the calf houses.
The next day was cooler, with a little rain. I raked up the bedding hay out of the sick barn so Lynn could park his 4-wheeler back in there again.
Tuesday was Lynn’s birthday; he turned 79. All of his sisters called to wish him a happy birthday. That was also the day Christopher had an appointment with a heart specialist in Missoula, Montana, to have his heart murmur checked, but he still had such a bad cold and cough that Emily rescheduled the appointment; it’s postponed until August.
Lynn and I went to town to vote, and pay the second half of our property taxes. Going to town wears me out even more than hard physical work. We came home and took a nap.
These past few days have been very cold and windy. The grass isn’t growing much, and we are still feeding hay to the cows and heifers. Fortunately we have some hay left; it’s too expensive to buy. Hay supplies around the West are in very short supply after last year’s drought.
We received another e-mail from granddaughter Heather in Canada and she sent photos of the guys getting the fields ready to plant—Gregory hauling rocks off a field, and little James checking out one of the fields.
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| Gregory hauling rocks |
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| James in field |
Christopher has been getting a bad cold, and it was much worse by Wednesday, with a cough and fever so Emily and Andrea took him to the ER where the doctor x-rayed his lungs. He doesn’t have pneumonia this time, which was a relief.
Roger went with Jim that afternoon to get firewood up the creek and they came back with a nice trailer load, which they took to Andrea’s house.
Yesterday was very windy and cold. The weather was too cold and miserable to do any major projects—we simply got the cows fed and the irrigation water changed.
Today was cold again, but after we fed the cows we got rid of the magpie nest in the elm tree in our yard. We don’t need a bunch more magpies hanging around and stealing the cat food. Then Roger helped Andrea put some poles across the triangle corner in the heifer pen next to the 2nd day pens. The heifers are so hungry for green grass that they’ve been pushing that makeshift barricade apart, so it was time to secure some poles and make a real fence. Then this afternoon Roger helped Jim get another load of firewood.
Christopher has been feeling much better and today he needed to get out of the house for a while, so Andrea took him irrigating with her. I took photos from our window as he went with her to change the water above the horse pasture.
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| Christopher helping Andrea irrigate |
She took some photos of him digging with his little shovel when they went to the other side of the creek to change water in the ditch below her house. He loves to go along with her to irrigate. |
| Christopher digging in a ditch |
MAY 31 – Weather continued cold for quite a while. Last Saturday it was down to 30 degrees and snowing hard when I did morning chores, and my coat got thoroughly soaked. Andrea hiked down here to help me feed cows; her 4-wheeler wasn’t running very well. By afternoon it quit snowing, so Jim and Roger went to the woods again to get more firewood. Then it rained hard for more than an hour, and they had to quit and come home with only a part load.
AJ and Emily came out and Christopher wanted to show them one of the mama cats and her kittens. Andrea has a protected place for them on the porch of the old trailer house, and the kittens are learning to eat solid food.
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| Christopher showing kittens to Em & Aj |
The grass still wasn’t growing very well with the weather so cool, so we loaded another big bale on the feed truck, to feed the cows hay a couple more days. With the cool weather we were still building a fire every morning in our wood stove. Roger spent a few hours cleaning up some old hay twines and junk in the old stackyard below the barnyard, and Jim helped him one day; they took a couple trailer loads of junk out of there so it will be safer to graze the heifers in there later. They also got another load of firewood from up the creek.
Alfonso and John Miller finally put their cows out on the low range last week, so Andrea hiked along the 320 fence next to the low range to make sure it would hold cows. She fixed a couple places where the wires were detached. On her way home, hiking down the ridge, she picked up some petrified wood and other interesting rocks.
Last Tuesday we finally let the cows out to pasture. I locked Bimbo, the yearling bull, in a side pen so we could bring the cows up through his corral. We called them out of their pasture and took them around through the barnyard and corrals and up into the lower swamp pasture. They are so hungry for green grass—so tired of eating hay!
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| taking the cows up through the pen above corrals |
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| cows and calves eagerly spreading out into the pasture |
Andrea got the little tractor started and took the harrow up past my hayshed and harrowed the pasture we took the cows out of—and spread all their manure around. Now we can start irrigating that field and hopefully it will grow quickly so we can graze it in about a month.
Then she went to town to do all the town errands and get more electric wire and step-in posts for pasture divisions and rotational grazing. Lynn drove to a subdivision near town, to determine depth for the well site he located for some folks a few weeks ago. The day he located the water, the wind was blowing so hard that he couldn’t use the bobbing willow to determine depth, so he went back again to do that for them.
The past few days have been a little warmer and the grass is really starting to grow. I trimmed Dottie’s feet and Willow, and Ed; their feet haven’t been trimmed since last fall and were much too long. They need to be trimmed before we start riding.
Andrea and I pulled the black plastic back over the big bales in the stackyard; the windstorms had torn out some of our “ears” that we’d tied to earlier, and blown most of the plastic off the stack. We need to keep it protected from weather, so it will still be good quality this fall and winter. It’s good to have a little bit of carryover, so we won’t have to buy as much hay; it’s going to be very expensive this year.
Charlie came out and changed the oil in several of Andrea’s vehicles and got her 4-wheeler running again. Roger shoveled out the squeeze chute and got buckets of water from the creek to rinse off all the manure (from when we vaccinated the cows), so it won’t corrode the metal floor of the chute, and will be clean for the next use.
Lynn started the big tractor and used it to carry the heavy tire chains (that we hopefully won’t need until next winter) and put them out of the weather in the sick barn. Then he put the harrow on top of the big tractor tires by Babe’s corral—out of the way for another year. Then he put the last big round bale in the heifer’s feeder. Once they ate that one, we’ll put the heifers out on pasture.
Andrea helped Lynn take the hay fork off the tractor and put on the loader bucket so he could haul a bunch of big rocks up to heifer hill to put around the ditch culvert up there. Lots of ditch repair work to do this spring.
Saturday we had a little more rain. I let the cows and calves into the hold pen above the corrals, to graze that area for a day, and helped Andrea finish putting electric fence around the lowest segment of ditch pasture above the swamp pasture. That afternoon Andrea and Lynn went to town to get the mail and groceries and more hot wire handles, and picked up Christopher from AJ’s and brought him home. He’d had a very full and exciting morning; he and Emily and AJ went for a free airplane ride. Emily sent me photos of their airplane adventure.
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| Christopher ready to fly |
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| getting ready for the ride |
Here are the photos she took during the flight…
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| looking out the window |
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| view from the plane; Williams Lake |
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| view from the plane |
…and as she and the other passengers were getting out of the plane afterward
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| Christopher inspecting the propeller after the flight |
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| Em, AJ, Christopher & Landon |
They went back to AJ’s place where Christopher played in the back yard with a friend and they had a good time. |
| Christopher playing with Landon at AJ's place |
After Andrea and Lynn picked him up, he went to sleep on the way, so they left him here to nap on our couch while Andrea did more irrigating.
He slept until almost chore time and played a bit, finding all his favorite toys to strew around the livingroom. Andrea brought his boots, and he helped us do chores and feed horses and bulls. Then she took him home on the 4-wheeler.
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| Andrea ready to take Christopher home from our house after she irrigated |
The next day we moved the cows to the lowest end of the ditch pasture. This year Andrea made that piece a little larger, including some area on the hill above the ditch, with a lot of tall sagebrush where the calves can get a little protection from wind and rain. Andrea called the cows up to the gate, opened it, and let them through into that segment of the ditch pasture. |
| Andrea called cows through the gate |
Lynn and Christopher and I came along behind the cows and I took photos of them following the cows, and another photo after we got them all through the gate into their new piece of pasture. |
| Lynn followed cows through barnyard |
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| Lynn & Christopher following cows |
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| cows in new pasture |
Then Christopher went irrigating with Andrea until it got too cold and windy. I took photos of him on the 4-wheeler with his little shovel, waiting for her to get on and go irrigating with him. |
| ready to go |
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| come on Grandma! |
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| let's go irrigate! |
When it started to rain, she brought him here for a while to play in our livingroom while she finished irrigating.
Yesterday it rained again. We moved the cows and calves to the lower segment of the upper swamp pasture, then Andrea and Lynn went out to the cemetery to meet up with Jenelle and nephew Craig Hillis (who drove here from Oregon). Afterward they had lunch in town and had a nice visit.
Today was cool and cloudy again—cold enough that we had to start a fire in the stove again. I helped Andrea create cross-fences in the pasture part of the field below the lane, so we can start grazing it in segments.
JUNE 10 – We let the heifers graze the lane and pen in front of the barn, the first day we moved them to grass, and let them graze the main driveway before putting them into the ditch pasture above the orchard and horse pasture. They were happy to finally get out of their little area with the hay feeder. Jim went to the woods that day and got another load of firewood.
Granddaughter Heather in Canada sent a couple photos of the boys—one with Grandma Barb leading Joseph on a pony, and one with young James getting acquainted with one of the new foals.
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| Grandma Barb leading pony |
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| James with new foal |
We need to start getting ready for haying, and Lynn got a piece of culvert from Bob Miner to extend the short culvert we have to drive equipment over to get from heifer hill to the field below it. Andrea dug out the ditch and put that extension on the old culvert and placed rocks around it, then Lynn took the tractor up there and carefully put a bucket-load of dirt over it. Now it will be easier to take the wide machinery across there without risk of putting a tire off the edge.
Last Friday Andrea and Christopher and Emily drove to Helena to get a used car that Emily found for sale online. It’s a 2013 Explorer in really good shape and just over 100,000 miles on it. Those cars are durable and last a long time and get good mileage, so she bought it—with her savings plus insurance money from her old car that was totaled earlier this year when a deer jumped in front of it. She’s been borrowing Andrea’s older Explorer but it has major issues and it was time to find a car of her own. Here’s a photo of the car she bought in Helena.
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| Emily's new used car |
On Saturday we moved the cows and calves to the first segment of pasture below the lane. They were goofy and running around and 3 calves ran through the hot wire and into the hayfield. We had to take a little portion of the electric fence down temporarily to get the calves back in. Hopefully they won’t do that again!
It was also time to move the heifers; they’d eaten most of the grass in their ditch pasture. Andrea and I brought them back to the driveway and split the group—we put 3 of them in our back yard and 8 of them in the larger area by Sprout and Shiloh’s pens, where the hay was stacked, until we used it all up. I put a hot wire around my little stack of horse hay so they couldn’t get into that.
Those little pastures lasted till the next day, and we moved the heifers all down to the post pile pasture, which had finally grown tall enough to graze.
Meanwhile, the range cows of Alfonso and Millers are running out of grass on the low range but they probably won’t move them very soon. Michael and Carolyn spent several hours fixing fence where the range cows broke off several posts trying to get into their 160-acre pasture. They had to put in new braces and resurrect the broken fence.
Monday we had more rain. After a very dry year last year, and dry winter and spring, we are finally getting enough moisture to really help the grass on all the mountain pastures. That morning when I did chores, I discovered AWOL Alice had crawled through a really good fence to get in with the cows and calves, coming across the creek and through the brush from the post pile pasture. She was bulling, and decided she had to go try to find a bull!
She came through the main fence below the segment of pasture the cows are grazing, however, and so she went through the electric fence as well, to get in with them. I had to fix two places in the electric fence she broke down; she broke off one step-in post and stretched the electric wire and it was on the ground. I got it fixed, and then I put the whole herd in the lane by the barn to contain them. When Andrea came down to irrigate, we repaired the electric fence even better, and put a third strand of electric wire on the fence between the pasture segments and the hayfield.
When we let cows back out, we kept Alice and one pair in that lane (a young cow that was also bulling). We locked them in the pen below the barn.
That afternoon Andrea brought Christopher and he stayed with us while she irrigated, then she took a photo of him driving his three-wheeler around her driveway while he waited for his mom to come.
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| Christopher driving around Andrea's driveway |
Emily and AJ came out to get him, and went for a drive up the creek with Jim to look for places to get firewood. Emily took some photos of Christopher while they were up the creek. He enjoyed exploring while they were looking for good firewood trees. |
| checking for places to get firewood |
Christopher discovered some nice flowers and picked a few for his mom. |
| look at my flower! |
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| picking flowers in the woods up the creek |
On their way back down the creek Emily took photos of twin fawns by the road. |
| twin fawns by the road |
They were very new, and didn’t go very far; one of them plopped down in the bushes by the road to hide and wait for mom to come back, and Em took more photos. |
| fawn hiding |
On Tuesday Lynn went to locate water for some folks from Wyoming who are buying property in a subdivision near town. Andrea helped me make a barricade of poles and tree branches across the spot where AWOL Alice went down along the fence in the brush and wiggled through the fence. Then we took her back to rejoin her buddies in the post pile pasture, figuring that maybe she won’t try to crawl out again because she was no longer bulling. By the next time she comes in heat, we will have the bull with the cows and heifers and hopefully that problem will resolve! We moved the cows and calves to their next segment of the pasture they are in.That evening Andrea took a drive down the river to some of the campgrounds where Charlie and his work crew recently installed the fire pits and picnic tables they built this spring for the Forest Service. She took pictures of those, and also of an elk she saw along the way.
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| Fire rings & picnic table Charlie made |
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| Elk down river |
The next day Lynn went with Jim up the creek to get firewood—mostly for company and moral support since Lynn isn’t physically able to be much help with that task anymore.
Andrea took her dogs irrigating with her (she didn’t have Christopher that day—he was in town with Em & AJ) and I took photos of them when they stopped by our house. Those dogs love to go with her.
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| Andrea with Olive & Jasper |
Later that day she took them with her to town in her pickup, and took Chewy along. Chewy is getting really old and senile and this might be her last trip in the pickup. Andrea will probably put her to sleep before winter and cold weather. |
| Chewy on her bed in the pickup |
Yesterday was hot for a change, up to 80 degrees. Lynn has a really bad cold and cough and stayed in bed most of the day. I trimmed Dottie’s long front feet a little more (so she won’t stumble so much), then Andrea and I rode Willow and Dottie for a couple hours to check fences around our state land pasture and the lower fence on the 320. I took photos as we rode up the ridge and started checking the fence around our hill pasture, and had a good view of our fields. They look really good this year—nice and green. Andrea has done a good job of irrigating them. |
| riding up the ridge from our house |
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| view of the fields |
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| checking the fence |
The range cows (belonging to Millers and Alfonso) have eaten almost all the grass out there and have been reaching through our fences trying to find something to eat. I took a photo as we rode up the fence line between our place and the low range, and it was nice to see that “Mable” the maple tree (on our side) is doing nicely this year. |
| riding up the fence between our hill pasture and the range |
I took a photo of Andrea and Willow as we paused at the next ridge. There’s no grass at all left on the low range. |
| no grass left on the low range |
Then we rode on up the ridges and around toward the 320 and I took some photos as we went along. The mountains above our 320 still have some snow; the view was nice but no grass—just lots of sagebrush and weedy plants and wildflowers the cows don’t eat. There were a few cows down toward the 320, lounging around a water trough that hasn’t worked for several years; Alfonso and Millers haven’t repaired the spring box. |
| riding around toward our 320 |
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| view from the saddle looking toward 320 |
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| a few cows by non-working trough |
When we came on down along our 320 and 160, we saw where Michael and Carolyn had to build a new brace and put in a bunch of steel posts to repair the 160 fence that the range cows broke down. We rode on down through the tall sagebrush on the low range, to the gate into our upper place. |
| riding through tall sage on low range side of fence |
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| riding down to gate into our upper place |
Today was hot again, up to 84 degrees. Andrea irrigated, and Michael brought his skid steer and smoothed out the dirt piles that Allan Probst hauled in for us earlier this spring—to make a smooth pad by the new loading chute, to create a place to park our machinery. I took photos while he was doing it, spreading out the 4 piles… |
| Michael spreading dirt piles with skid steer |
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| spreading the last pile |
…and smoothing it all up and packing it down. |
| packing it into a smooth surface |
And afterward when it was all smoothed out.. |
| new parking area for machinery |
Jim got another load of firewood today and Andrea went to town to pick up Christopher so Emily could go to work, and she took Christopher with her this evening to change water. He loves taking his little shovel along to help irrigate. |
| going irrigating |
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| irrigating |
When they came back from the fields, they ate supper with us and Christopher was pointing out some of the photos of people he recognized, on our walls. |
| looking at a photo on the wall |
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| Christopher eating with us |
JUNE 16 – After two days of hot weather it got cold and stormy again, with a little rain off and on. On Saturday we moved the cows down to the next segment of the pasture below the lane, and put up an electric fence to make a corridor so they can still come back up to the first segment to drink from the ditch, but fencing them off from the pieces they’ve already grazed, so those can start to grow back again. The secret to rotational grazing is short grazing periods on many small pieces, and long rest periods so each piece has adequate time to regrow.
Emily and AJ came out that day and took Christopher up to the woods with them to get firewood with Jim. The weather got really windy and stormy, however, so Andrea drove up there a little later and brought Christopher home. He was having fun but getting pretty cold. He went to sleep on the way home and she let him take a nap when she got him home. The rest of the crew sawed up a lot of firewood to bring home in Jim’s trailer and AJ’s truck.
I took photos of Ed after I let her out to graze during morning chores. I’ve been letting her graze in the lane by my hay shed a couple hours each morning, to eat down the tall grass before we stack hay in there again. She is getting rid of the grass and putting it to good use (saving hay!) and it won’t just be mashed down by the stackwagon and wasted. She is very happy to have some green grass; she’s starting to show her age (she’s nearly 30) and it’s good for her to have the extra protein and vitamins in the green forage. She’s shedding out better now, and her hair coat is sleeker.
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| Ed grazing in lane by my hay shed |
I also hiked down to check on the heifers in the post pile pasture, to see how much grass was left down there, and how many more days it might last for them. I took photos of them; when they saw me, they all came up to the gate to see me. |
| heifers grazing in post pile pasture |
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| heifers came to the gate to see me |
The next day was cold and windy with a little more rain. Andrea and I gathered more junk, old twines, etc. from the barnyard area below the corrals. I trimmed off the young chokecherry shoots that were growing prolifically by the fence in the hold pen next to Shiloh and Sprout (a 2-hour project) so we could take the loader bucket off the tractor and put it there, out of the way, and put the hay fork back on the tractor.
Andrea took a photo of the other batch of kittens at her house (a young mama cat with her first batch of kittens) that are now getting big enough to start eating food.
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| colorful kittens |
That evening Andrea, Jim and Christopher went out to dinner with a friend who will soon be moving to Colorado, and they had a nice visit. Andrea took this photo of Jim and Christopher. |
| Christopher & grandpa Jim at restaurant |
On Monday the new dirt pad by the corrals had dried out enough that Andrea and Lynn were able to pull the manure spreader in there and park it, and put the turner rake in front of it. This will be a great place to park the machinery so it won’t be taking up space in areas we can graze. We’re getting as much stuff out of the barnyard areas as possible, so we can graze those places again—to provide feed for the cattle and keep down the weeds and tall grass that serve as a fire hazard later in the year. Jim pulled an old trailer up to the end of our driveway, to get it out of there. It’s one that was useful in the past for hauling poles and firewood, but we don’t need it anymore and Michael can use it. He will pick it up sometime when he has a chance, and it will be handier for him to get it out by the road—and it’s no longer taking up space in our barnyard.
That afternoon Jim, Andrea and Lynn worked on our little pump and got it running again. We need it for pumping water for cows in our state land pasture—which we haven’t used for two year, and haven’t used the pump either. This year we’ll need that pasture, to have enough feed for the cows this summer.
At chore time the next day, I put mesh panels around the old baler that’s still in the barnyard, where there’s also some stacks of old rolls of fence wire. The panels will keep the heifers out of that hazard. The next morning I finished tying up all those panels and let the heifers into that barnyard area to graze. After breakfast Andrea came down and helped me fence off one last hazard—a junk pile that needs to be hauled off next winter when Michael and crew come back to do more fence projects. Andrea set some steel posts and we used those to secure a little “fence” of deer netting around that junk pile so the heifers can’t walk through it and possibly injure their feet and legs.
Later that day Dani and her friend Roger came out and they helped Lynn load up the pump, hoses and long plastic pipe (on our old feed truck) to take up the road to pump water for the state land pasture. I took photos as Lynn was loading on a couple brooms and a bucket; the brooms were for sweeping/cleaning out the water trough up there.
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| loaded up & ready to go |
Andrea took Christopher over there on her 4-wheeler, and by good fortune Charlie happened to come along about that same time, so we had lots of help to get the long pipe through the culvert under the road, hook the hoses to it, get the pump started (to pump from the ditch in the heifer hill field next to the road) tip the big tank up and rinse it out, and pump it full of water. The water will be there for when we take part of the cows up there later this week. After the trough was full Andrea took photos as the crew gathered everything up again. Roger was entertaining Christopher on the feed truck (to keep him out of harm’s way if traffic came along), Charlie helped Lynn get the pump and its big hose back up out of the ditch, and Dani rolled up the long hose that they’d put through the fence and over to the water trough. |
| Roger entertaining Christopher on the feed truck |
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| Charlie helping Lynn gather the pump and hose from the ditch |
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| Dani rolling up the hose |
When they got finished, the kids all went to Andrea’s house, and Christopher showed Charlie the older batch of kittens. He calls Charlie “Unker” because he can’t quite say Uncle. |
| Christopher showed Charlie the kittens |
Andrea took a few photos of the kids lounging around in her livingroom. |
| Dani & Roger |
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| Christopher entertaining them |
Yesterday our cows were very restless, even though they still had grass left in their segment of pasture below the lane. The range cows on the hill above the road were bawling and moving back and forth, some of them trying to come through the fence to find some grass, and there was a bull bellowing at our bulls in the corral. Andrea saw a couple of calves crawl through the fence by the Gooch place, to find some grass to eat by the road. The cows are pressing the fences on all sides of the low range pasture, trying to find something to eat. We started shutting our driveway gate in case more of them get through the fence onto the road.
Andrea brought Christopher down on the 4-wheeler with her when she irrigated, and he helped carry the horseshoes and shoeing tools out from the house for me. He picked some grass for Dottie and petted her, then helped me lead her around from her pen so I could put front shoes on her.
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| Christopher petting Dottie |
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| picking more grass to feed Dottie |
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| feeding Dottie grass |
Andrea and I moved the cows and calves up through the corrals and out to the lower end of the ditch pasture toward Andrea’s house, and moved the heifers to the slot next to the creek, above the post pile pasture. There’s enough grass there to last them a few days. I let Babe into one of the side pens to graze, so he can be used to green grass before we put him with cows this weekend. I’ve been picking some tall grass for him morning and evening to add to his hay, to help his gut adjust to green feed, so it won’t be an abrupt change from hay to lush green grass.
Jim went to the woods again to get more firewood and Christopher stayed with Lynn and me while Andrea finished irrigating. Then we took the last big round bale to Pandemonium (the cow in jail in Breezy’s old pen). Christopher rode in the tractor with Lynn to bring the bale to her feeder.
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| Christopher riding in tractor with Lynn |
That afternoon Alfonso rode over the low range and opened the gates into the middle range so the range cows can start moving to their next pasture. He realizes they are out of feed and he doesn’t want them getting into his fields.
Dani and Roger were getting ready to go to Oregon to stay awhile and help take care of his younger brother (who is continuing to recover from the serious accident he had this spring, and is now home from the hospital). Andrea, Em and Charlie joined them for dinner downtown, since they were going to be leaving this morning.
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| Dinner for Dani |
Today was hot—up to 90 degrees by afternoon. In the early morning before it got hot, I put hind shoes on Dottie. Her feet are soft (from irrigation water running through her pen) and I don’t want her to stone bruise; she needs shoes before I ride her again.
Alfonso and John Miller rode this morning to gather their cows off the low range. They missed a few, but took most of them up to the middle range. Andrea and I hope to ride tomorrow and check our 320 fence next to the middle range, to make sure there are no bad spots (trees blown down over it, or wildlife tearing it down) where range cattle could come through and get into our upper pasture.
Andrea changed more water then brought Christopher down with her, and he “helped” Lynn and Andrea get the old stackwagon started and he rode in it with Lynn to take it around to the new machinery “parking lot” that Michael created by the corrals. Then we went to hook up the swather to the mid-size tractor to take it around there, too. We want to park all the machinery in that new spot, out of the tall grass, where we can work on it (fix the stackwagon clutch, get the swather ready for cutting, etc.) and eventually be able to graze that area behind the barn instead of having machinery there.
When we started to take the swather out of there, however, we discovered that one of the hydraulic cylinders on the tractor was leaking badly. We got the swather moved, but had to unhook it again and leave the tractor in a spot where we can remove that cylinder and send it to a place in Idaho Falls that can repair it. So we are not quite ready to start haying yet!
Jim took Christopher to town, to Emily, and Andrea finished irrigating. Late afternoon Lynn went to town for mail and groceries and borrowed an impact wrench from a friend so we can hopefully get the leaking cylinder off the tractor.
JUNE 22 – Last Friday Andrea and I moved the cows and calves to the next segment of pasture along the ditch below her house. Then we rode Dottie and Willow for 3 hours to check the 320 fence that borders the middle range. On our way up the ridge we saw about a dozen range cows and their calves, and two bulls that Alfonso and John missed when they moved their cattle to the middle range. We were not happy to discover the bulls still there, because we don’t want any bulls next to the cows we’ll be putting on our state land pasture—the bulls will try to come through the fence to breed our cows.
Then we went into the middle range and rode along the fence between the 320 and that range pasture. I took photos as we checked that fence, and the place along an aspen grove where Michael and Nick put in a bunch of steel posts a few years ago.
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| checking fence between the 320 and the middle range |
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| Andrea riding Willow along the fence |
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| checking the fence where Michael and Nick fixed it a few years ago |
I took a few more photos as we went across Baker Creek and all the down trees on the middle range side. |
| riding through down trees |
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| Willow crossing over the logs |
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| going to the creek crossing |
The 320 fence was in pretty good shape on that side; the repairs we made last year were still holding, and no new trees have blown down yet over the fence. Andrea did tie a couple of logs to the fence where it crosses Baker Creek, because the cattle last year had pushed up the bottom wires so much that something might be able to crawl through.
After she got that spot secure, we rode on up along the fence, and took some photos of the logging project in the 320, and the logging truck and equipment.
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| logging in Baker Creek |
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| loggers widened the old jeep road |
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| logging truck and equipment parked in Baker Creek |
We went on up around the mahogany trees and cliffs, then checked the top end of the fence and came around through the top gate in Baker Creek and took more photos. |
| going up and around the fence that ties into the rock cliffs |
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| coming down to our gate |
On our way around through that little part of the high range we ran across a big pile of black poop—from some large predator (wolf, cougar or bear) that had been eating meat. It was the same area where we’ve found wolf-killed elk and cougar-killed deer and a calf of Alfonso’s in previous years.
We took a few more photos as we rode down Baker Creek, on the old jeep road that the loggers widened. One of their trucks was down in the meadow, loaded with logs, but no one was working there today. The loggers had eliminated the big bog at the main creek crossing; they’d put logs in it (that the water could run alongside and go through) and covered them with dirt to make a firm road for their trucks and equipment.
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| coming down Baker Creek on old jeep road |
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| the old trail across creek has been widened |
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| logging truck and equipment |
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| bog at creek crossing eliminated |
The wind was horribly strong on our way home down the ridge, blowing right in our faces and making it hard to travel against it. The horses didn’t like it very much either. It was blowing so hard into my nose that I could feel the air hitting the back of my throat! We were glad to get down off the ridge and home again.
The next day I called John Miller and Alfonso to let them know there were still some cows and 2 bulls on the low range. Alfonso rode that afternoon and got them moved to the middle range pasture.
Andrea and I put an electric fence across the orchard and put the heifers and Babe in the lower half. We’ve officially started the breeding season.
Emily, AJ and Christopher came out to work on the firewood. While Jim was getting the wood splitter started, Christopher wanted to get on our little John Deere tractor so Em helped him climb up there and they sat on it for a while.
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| Em & Christopher |
Then Jim split wood and AJ and Emily loaded the split wood into AJ’s truck. |
| Jim splitting wood |
Christopher helped for a little while, taking some of the blocks of wood to the front of the truck for his mom to stack, and even tried to stack some of it himself. |
| Christopher helping |
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| Christopher carrying wood to his mom to stack |
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| grabbing another piece |
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| stacking it himself |
They also drained the old gas out of our generator and got it started, so we can use it to run the impact wrench to take the leaky steering cylinder off the tractor. Charlie came out after lunch and helped Lynn take that apart, so we can send the leaking cylinder to a place in Idaho Falls to be fixed.
Emily had to go to work (and Jim and AJ kept splitting and loading firewood) and Andrea went to the memorial service for Trevis French. He was the son of some good friends and neighbors who have a ranch nearby. Trevis was just a little older than our kids. He died unexpectedly in December. We wanted to go to that service also, but Lynn needed to help Charlie work on the tractor and someone had to babysit Christopher—so I took care of him that afternoon.
We’ve all got bad colds again; I had a severe sore throat that night, and Christopher was coughing so much in his sleep that he gagged and vomited and nearly choked himself. Andrea was taking care of him that night because Emily was working until 2 a.m. Fortunately Andrea heard him coughing and gagging and took him to the bathroom to finish throwing up. He never did fully wake up, and might have choked to death on his vomit if she hadn’t helped him. He still has a bad cold and cough but is doing a little better by today.
Sunday was cloudy and cool and supposed to rain. The rain held off long enough for us to take down the division electric fence in the orchard pasture and get the cows and calves down to the corrals and sorted. We took most of the pairs to the orchard to put in with the bull and heifers, and then I saddled Dottie and we took 6 pair (the older cows we plan to sell this fall) up to the hill pasture across the road from heifer hill. Lynn and Andrea went up the road on 4-wheelers to open the gate and head them into that pasture and I followed the cows up the horse road on Dottie.
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| Following the cows up the horse road |
Then I took the cows up the jeep track and out over the top part of the hill pasture where there’s some good grass, and let them spread out to graze. |
| taking the cows on up to the top of the hill pasture |
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| top of the hill pasture |
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| letting them spread out to graze |
There’s no sense in putting those cows with the bull, and it will stretch our field pastures farther if they aren’t in the breeding group. The 70-acre hill pasture is really good this year; we didn’t use it the last two years and all the bunch grass went to seed and created a thicker stand of grass, and this year with all the rain and cool weather that grass is still green and nice. When we got the 6 pair up there, we let them drink at the trough (that we filled a few days earlier) and then took them up the mountain to where the grass is really good.
We checked the fence (between that pasture and where the hungry range cows had been pressing it trying to get in) and discovered that those cows broke off several brace posts, reaching through the fence as far as they could. The only thing holding the fence are the steel posts between all the braces. We’ll have to fix those braces.
It started raining that afternoon and rained hard through the night and off and on all day Monday. We sent the tractor’s steering cylinder to Idaho Falls to be fixed. Andrea and I put up an electric fence across the horse pasture in the rain and then let the cows out into the first half of that pasture.
I was doing a phone interview that afternoon and looked out the window and saw a calf wandering around in the calving pen. I wondered how a calf could possibly have gotten out of the horse pasture and orchard and then I saw his ear tag and realized he’d come down from the hill pasture! I finished the interview and ran out to lock him in the calving pen, and Andrea came down to help me resolve the problem. We drove up to the hill pasture on her 4-wheeler and up the hill to where the cows were. Alligator Eyes (the mother of the wayward calf) didn’t even realize he was gone. We brought her down to the gate and put her through it and out onto the road. About that time it started raining hard again, but as we started her down the horse road she could hear her calf bawling down in the calving pen, and then she was easy to bring down that trail. Andrea went ahead, down the road, on her 4-wheeler, to get some gates ready, and I followed the cow on foot. When she got down to the barnyard Andrea let the calf out of the pen and we put the pair down in the little pen below the barn. Then we both had to get dry clothes on; we got thoroughly soaked in the rain.
Yesterday was sunny and warmer. Andrea changed a little irrigation water in the morning (but we’ve shut most of our water off now, to get the fields dried up enough to start haying), and in the afternoon we rode Willow and Dottie to take Alligator eyes and her calf back to the hill pasture. She and her calf started climbing back up the steep jeep trail when we got them up there, and we checked the fence up from the gate, where the calf might have come through. It was all in good shape except for one short section where the wires were stretched. We’ll probably need to put in a couple more stays in that part to tighten it up.
Later that afternoon we saw that the old cow and her calf ended up in the corner above our house; she apparently didn’t find the rest of the group. Andrea and Christopher went up there on her 4-wheeler to the end of the jeep track and hiked over to the far side and had a picnic snack by “Mable” (the brave little maple tree that has been growing there for about 40 years in the far gulley next to the range). Emily named that little tree 18 years ago when she was riding with me as a young child (Mable the Maple).
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| Christopher & Mabel |
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| after the picnic snack by Mabel |
The photos Andrea took show the grass in that corner of our hill pasture, compared to no grass at all on the low range outside the fence—where the neighbors’ cows ate every bit of grass.
After they had their snack, Andrea and Christopher hiked to the brink of the hill where they could look down and see Alligator Eyes and her calf. Andrea called the cow, and the old cow hiked up the hill and followed them around to where she could see the other cows and join them. On their way back to the 4-wheeler Christopher got tired and Andrea carried him piggyback. Andrea took a photo of him back on the 4-wheeler and ready to go home. They came home and Christopher told me about his adventure!
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| back on the 4-wheeler |
My brother Rockwell sent me a photo of the poppies blooming at his house. When he and Bev built their house at the upper end of the upper place a few years ago, he wanted some poppies like the ones that we enjoyed as kids at the little cabin up the creek where we spent summers before Dad got the ranch. There were amazing poppies growing all around the old outhouse up there, and we have some that grow prolifically in our front yard. So when Rocky wanted some, I dug up a few of ours for them to transplant at their new home. A few of them survived the winter and struggled through the next couple summers, and now they are thriving and expanding on Rocky’s place. |
| Rocky's poppies |
Today is another sunny day. We need to start haying soon, but the tractor part probably won’t be fixed for a few more days. We might have to start cutting hay with the big tractor (the one we use on the baler).
The cows have eaten the grass in the orchard and bottom half of the horse pasture so today Andrea and I will let them into the rest of the horse pasture, and put up the next electric fence—out in the big pasture above it—so they can graze part of it next. The bull has been doing his job; several of the heifers and cows have been bred already.
We had an extra critter this morning when I went out to do chores. The tiny little pony belonging to one of our Amish neighbors had come visiting during the night. She spent the night eating hay by my hay shed, and socializing with our horses in their pens next to the hay shed. She made himself very much at home--tearing up a couple bales of hay and pooping in the hay. I locked her in the calving pen (where the grass is about as tall as he is!) until his owners could come get her, and took a few photos. She’s so short that the grass in that pen was almost as tall as she is. David and his little boy came later this morning and the boy rode the little pony home.
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| Amish pony in the calving pen |
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| grass is almost as tall as the pony |
This afternoon we had another unexpected visitor; a bald eagle perched on the fence between Willow’s pen and the field above it, and stayed there all afternoon. I took photos of him from the house window.  |
| Bald Eagle on fence |
He didn’t leave until I went out to do chores; when I went up by my hay shed he thought I was too close, and flew off. Later we realized why he stayed all afternoon. We found a big sucker fish on the ground just above that fence. We don’t have any of those in our creek. The eagle probably brought it from the river and couldn’t eat all of it, and left it there below him on the fence--and was guarding his future meal.
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