Diary from Sky Range Ranch – September 25 through October 14, 2022

OCTOBER 4 – Last Sunday Andrea brought Christopher with her when she came down on her 2-wheeler, and she dumped the heifers’ water tank and rinsed and refilled it. Her washing machine quit working and Jim helped her take it out of her house; he hauled it and our old stove to the dump. That evening we called Bob Minor (in the hospital in Idaho Falls) to check on him and talked to him awhile. Lynn has been feeling a little better each day, getting over the worst of his COVID infection, but still has a cough.

Andrea sent me a photo of a couple young raccoons that were in the little trailer that night--where she feeds her cats. The raccoons come in regularly to eat the cat food, and they are fairly fearless.

young raccoons in the cat house

The next day Andrea checked on the yearling heifers in the back field and went to change water on heifer hill and discovered she has NO water in any of her ditches. She hiked up the creek and found that Alfonso had dammed the creek off completely to send it all down his #10 ditch. Our irrigation season is about over, but it would be nice to keep watering some of the fields a little, while the afternoons are still warm enough for grass to grow. We desperately need rain but it’s been a very dry fall.

Over the next two days a little trickle of water came through from Alfonso’s waste water, so Andrea has been irrigating a little with that. She moved the 8 cows from the upper swamp pasture to the little ditch pasture below her house but left the gate open between the two areas in case there’s not any water in that ditch for them to drink.

We had extremely strong wind Wednesday night that blew several branches off the big elm tree in our yard; fortunately none came down through our roof.

On Thursday I went with Andrea to check on the yearling heifers and she took a photo of me with Zorrina licking my hand.

heifers in back field

Jeff Minor brought his dad home from the hospital in Idaho Falls and got him situated at the Discovery care center. He’ll be there a while, and doing physical therapy to try to get stronger before he goes home. He is grateful that Emily works at Discovery; she can help take good care of him! He’s like another grandpa to Andrea’s kids; he and Jane took care of Emily a lot when she was little, and now it’s her turn to take care of him. She put a big poster board in his room with lots of photos from years gone by—that he enjoys looking at.

Andrea drove over to Vern England’s place to pick up our old stock trailer. Vern and his helper fixed the door hinges and welded up several weak and broken areas, and put a rubber bumper beneath the back door, to make it easier and better for backing up to the loading dock without a space for cattle to put a foot down through the gap. I took some photos of it when she brought it back, showing the repaired door hinges and how the little sliding door works a lot better now.

the sliding door slides better

repaired door hinges

Andrea parked it back up against the dock, and Lynn went outside for the first time in 10 days to hike around a little and look at the trailer repairs. 

On Friday Andrea took Christopher to town to see the parade, and took a photo of Dani and Christopher at Burger King.

Dani & Christopher

Andrea did all our town errands and got the mail after she took Christopher back to Emily at AJ’s house. When she got home she helped me trim Ed’s front feet. They were getting much too long and starting to split at the toe. We got them trimmed enough to remove the split and smoothed the toes to where they won’t be splitting again.

Tony the watermaster came by that evening to take all the locks off the headgates. Alfonso had already taken the locks of some of his and has been using water that technically was ours. The next day, Andrea had no water again; Alfonso dammed off the creek completely and also spent a lot of effort rechanneling some of his waste water from his ditch to make sure it wouldn’t come down into our ditch! 

She goes to town every day to spend a little time with Bob Minor; he has a lot of pain issues and it helps when he has visitors to temporarily distract him from the pain. He’s been able to sit up and get around in his wheel chair, and she took him outside one nice afternoon. Here are photos when she had him outdoors, and of Charlie visiting with Bob in his room. We try to call him now and then but it’s hard to find a time when the portable phone isn’t busy at Discovery. To remedy that problem, Jeff got his dad a cell phone so that he can call people and they can call him, more conveniently.

Andrea & Bob

Charlie & Bob

On some of her trips to town, Andrea took clothes to wash at the laundromat, since we haven’t found a new washer for her yet. No one sells appliances anymore in Salmon; we’ll have to find something out of town.

Yesterday evening on her way to town to visit Bob she stopped here with a young kitten that had been without its mother for a couple days, and was feeding it kitten formula with an eye-dropper. She took it to town with her and it curled up by Bob on his bed and was quite content while they talked, and Bob was more comfortable than he’d been for a while; he really likes cats.

Today I found a few more old photos (of Bob and Jane with Andrea’s kids when they were young) for Andrea to add to some she is putting together to make another poster for Bob’s room. I had a bunch of photos that were originally put together to illustrate my book Beyond the Flames; A Family Touched by Fire, but were never used in the book. The final chapter—an epilogue written after that traumatic year when Andrea was fighting for survival in the burn ICU in Salt Lake---would have included those photos of Bob and Jane with those kids, so those photos were easy to find. All of those early photos can be viewed on my first blogs (archived on this website).

The whitetail deer that spend a lot of time in our back yard were in there again this afternoon and I took a photo of them through the window, and also a photo of a guy in a paraglider going over our place, scaring the deer and the horses.

deer in yard

periglider

This evening our granddaughter Heather in Canada called to tell us that their 2 ½ year old boy James had a broken elbow. On Sunday he was riding Heather’s gentle old horse Danny, led by Heather from another horse, and they were just stopped and standing still in the corral. The old horse shook himself and James tumbled off—on the far side where Heather couldn’t catch him to break his fall. He apparently landed on his elbow but he didn’t complain about pain and seemed ok. They didn’t realize he had a problem until that evening when it was swelling up. They thought it might be dislocated so they took him to their nearest town to a chiropractor but it needed to be x-rayed and there was no one with an x-ray machine in that town. So they took him the next day to a larger town farther away and the doctors were able to determine that it was broken and needed surgery, but sent them home again to come back the next day. They ended up making three trips to hospitals before the surgery was actually accomplished, and now James has a cast and wires in that joint to hold things in place as it heals. 

He’s a stoic little boy and hasn’t complained about any pain, but is frustrated because he’s having trouble riding his tricycle with one arm in a cast! Heather and Gregory are trying to get the rest of their grain harvest finished and other tasks done, and James has been riding around with his grandpa John in the combine to keep him out of harm’s way. He loves riding in the tractors and combine; he can sit for hours watching the windrows behind the machine.

The exciting news is that they are planning to make a trip down here next week to finally have a chance to visit and we’ll get to meet those three great-grandsons we’ve never seen! We haven’t seen Heather and Gregory since their wedding here in 2016.

OCTOBER 9 – Last Wednesday Andrea helped me take the shoes off Dottie. Her feet were getting long and it was time to remove the shoes. We only got to ride a few times this summer (Andrea rode Willow 4 times and I rode Dottie 5 times) and Dottie was the only horse I put shoes on.

We didn’t take time to trim her feet after we took the shoes off; I had to do a phone interview. Andrea called the heifers from the back field and let them through the gate into the little “bunny basket” pen below the bull corral. The grass in that pen grew back quite a bit after grazing it earlier in the summer, and it would be enough for those 9 yearlings until we vaccinated on Saturday.

We started picking rocks in the main corral, so Dr. Cope’s van can be driven in there without danger of high-centering on a big rock. He’s confined to his wheelchair but Bart Stephanishen drives the van for him and has been taking him around to some of the ranches where he can still preg-check cows (reading the ultrasound screen while Bart runs the ultrasound probe in the cows). Andrea and I took a big piece of particle board and some smaller boards into the corral to put on the ground next to the chute, for Cope to situate his wheelchair on a level spot.

On Thursday Andrea visited Bob at Discovery, and was able to take him outside in a wheelchair again. Being out in the sunshine lifted his spirits tremendously! Two of our favorite people are ironically in the same condition (prostate cancer that spread to the spine and paralyzed their legs).

When Andrea got home that day she helped me trim Dottie’s feet, so she’s ready for winter. Willow, Sprout and Shiloh have been keeping their feet self-trimmed with their own exercise. She also sent me a photo of the new kittens at her house.

new kittens

On Friday I lured the weaned calves in from the field below the lane, bringing them into the grassy pen next to Sprout’s pen. The two little bulls were slow to come so we were able to just leave them in the field and didn’t have to sort them. We needed just the heifers to Bangs vaccinate the next day; all the calves have had their other shots.

We put the heifers in the big pen below the calving barn, where they would be easy to move to the main corral on Saturday. We moved the 8 cows from the ditch pasture to the lower swamp pasture above the corrals, where they would be easy to capture for vaccinating and preg-checking.

Yesterday morning when I did chores I called those cows into the hold pen above the corral, where there’s some regrowth on the grass they grazed earlier. Andrea came down soon after and helped me put them in one of the corrals, and bring yearling heifers into another corral. Then we brought the heifer calves around from the calving barn area and put them in the grassy runway to the chute.

We had everything ready when Charlie got here, just before Cope and Bart arrived. Cope had expected to just sit in the van to read the ultrasound, but when he and Bart saw the nice level board we’d set by the chute, he was able to get out of the van and roll to it on his wheelchair, to be able to sit right by the chute. Another friend, June Playfair, came about that same time. She often helps when Cope goes out to various ranches. We Bangs vaccinated the heifer calves first, with June giving the vaccinations and Bart putting the tattoo and metal clip in their ears (with the date and serial number of the vaccine). I took photos as we got things set up for Cope..

setting things up to vaccinate heifer calves

And more photos as Charlie caught each heifer calf by the head, and June did the vaccinating, and Bart did the ear tattoo and put in the metal clip ear tag showing the number and date they were vaccinated.

vaccinating & tagging heifers

Bart tattooing and tagging heifer's ear

And a photo of June releasing the squeeze when they were ready to let one of the heifers out after finishing with her ear tag/tattoo.

June releasing the squeeze

Andrea, Charlie and I put the heifers back to the field below the lane and started to get the yearling heifers into the chute. About that time Dani and her boyfriend Roger showed up to help, and they were good help moving the cattle through the chute.

Charlie ran the head-catch, Andrea took out the old fly tags, and I vaccinated. To use the ultrasound probe, Bart had to be behind the squeeze chute and Roger had to keep the next cow from coming up too close and bumping into him. Cope read the screen and was able to tell us the results. Here are photos of the cows being preg-checked.

preg-checking

Cope reading ultrasound

Luckily we’d monitored the cows and heifers closely enough to see the two heifers and one cow that were cycling (not pregnant) after we took the bull out in early July—and we sold them when we sold our steer calves. We wanted to check the rest of the cows and heifers, however, just to make sure we hadn’t missed any that were open. They all were pregnant so we won’t have to sell any more of them!

We put the cows back out to the swamp pasture and later put the heifers up on the ditch pasture above the horse pasture—after we vaccinated Babe. He didn’t want to go down the chute, however, and rather than fight with him and have a problem (since he’s now 4 years old and more headstrong) we got three heifers out of the pen where they were “on hold” and ran them down the chute with him, and he went willingly.

It was a nice sunny day, and it was great to have Cope out here again. He was so happy to be outside, and not just sitting in the van. He was right there at the chute like old times, with the cow shit and camaraderie, swapping tales with the crew. As he loaded up in the van again to leave, I thanked him for doing this, and he was just so happy to be able to do it. He said he’d promised his clients that he would continue to do what he can for them, for as long as he can, and he wants to keep that promise.

After we moved the heifers to their new pasture, I fed lunch to Roger, Dani, Andrea and her friend Russ (who came to spray paint the stock trailer welds and repaired areas so they won’t rust). 

Today was another nice day, but windier. We let the heifers into the horse pasture and orchard where there’s probably a week’s worth of grazing. Charlie came out again, and Andrea gave him a haircut. He fixed Andrea’s taillight on her car, and also helped Jim load his wood-splitter into his trailer. Jim is going to Missoula tomorrow to pick up a washer and dryer he found for Andrea, and loaning the wood-splitter to his friends that live near Hamilton.

OCTOBER 14 – It’s been freezing every night but temperatures have been up to 60 and sometimes 70 degrees in the afternoons so we’ve had some really nice fall days. The leaves are starting to turn, and the trees along the creek are beautiful. We desperately need rain, but we’re enjoying the nice days. We still have a tiny bit of water in a couple of our ditches so Andrea has been changing it every few days, trying to keep some portions of the fields green for the cattle to graze later this fall.

Monday evening we talked with granddaughter Heather in Canada; they were still planning to come later this week to hopefully stay awhile with Michael and Carolyn and have a chance to visit us. Joseph was really excited about it and talked to us quite a bit about his desire to meet Christopher and to pet all the cats and hold a baby kitten. 

Jim brought the washer and dryer (that we all helped purchase) home from Montana and on Tuesday he and Andrea got them into her house from his trailer. A.J. came by about that time and helped move them into their slot where the old ones were taken out, and get them installed and working. Andrea did several loads of laundry that day, to catch up!

Then she hiked up to the headgate on our #8 ditch and shut it off for winter. There wasn’t enough water coming through it anymore to irrigate with (Alfonso is using almost all the water upstream from there) and by shutting it off there would be a little bit more coming on down to our #7 ditch that needs to keep running a little to provide water for the yearling heifers in the ditch pasture and horse pasture.

After lunch Lynn went down to Baker to locate water for Gordon Stephenson on the little place on the highway corner where he keeps some of his cattle. Gordon doesn’t have enough water for those cattle in winter and was hoping to put in a well. Lynn hiked around on that little place for more than 2 hours and found several spots where there’s water, but it’s at least 160 feet deep. Gordon was hoping for a shallower well, since the cost of drilling a well has increased dramatically in the past year. Well drillers used to charge about $90 per foot but now it’s more like $116 per foot. Lynn was really exhausted by the time he came home; he hasn’t been out and about much yet after being sick with COVID and spending that much time on his feet really wore him out.

The next day he mostly rested and I cleaned house a little, in preparation for having our Canadian family come to visit. I did a couple loads of washing, and that took a bit of effort because our old washing machine decided to have more problems. 

A couple years ago the cold water intake quit working, but I resolved that by using a hose to add cold water, since we have a handy indoor screw-on faucet in that back room. I simply use a timer to make sure I don’t run it too long and overflow it. But that day I discovered that the hot water intake no longer worked, either! I had to carry buckets of hot water from the bathroom. At least that didn’t require as much effort as trying to pack ALL the water, since I only need a little hot water for the first cycle; the hose for the cold water takes care of part of that cycle and provides all the water for the two rinses afterward. 

But the next problem was finding out the darn thing now leaks when it spins. I was mopping up the floor after every spin cycle. Thus it took a little longer than usual to do the laundry, and clean up the floor. Fortunately I only need to wash clothes (for Lynn and me) about once every 3 weeks. I can probably get by with this old machine for a while longer and then hopefully we can afford a new one.

Yesterday I got up early and typed an interview and cleaned house a little more before daylight. I called Michael and Carolyn before I went out to do chores, to see if Heather and Gregory and kids had made it here from Canada. They did try to come the day before, but when they got to the border, Gregory was not allowed to come through, because he hasn’t been vaccinated for COVID. They had to turn around and go home again. So Heather and the 3 boys were going to come by themselves; Michael and Carolyn were getting ready to drive to the border (in Montana) to meet them and convoy back with Heather and kids. What a disappointment!

Andrea and Dani took breakfast (hot biscuits and gravy—his favorite kind of breakfast) to Bob Minor at Discovery. Lynn drove to town after lunch; this was the first time he’s gone to town since he got sick. He wanted to visit Bob at Discovery. Andrea had to go back to town that afternoon also, to her pain doctor appointment (for injections in her neck and back) and she and Dani also went to visit Bob again. Jane was there and she took him outside in his wheelchair, and they all sat outside in the sun for a couple hours and had a really good visit.

This morning I called Michael and Carolyn to see if they made it home safely last night with Heather and kids; they got home at 1:30 a.m. It was a long, slow trip! I went and did chores, typed another interview, and did some last-minute house cleaning. Michael and Carolyn had to go to Missoula with their truck and trailer today to get more fencing materials, so Heather and kids came down here after lunch. It was great to see her again, and finally meet our 3 great-grandsons! Joseph was excited, James (2 ½ years old) was more timid, and 8-month-old Ian was happy as long as his mama was nearby. 

It was a nice afternoon so we showed the boys around the barnyard. They looked at one of our old tractors, and checked out the alleyway toward the calving barn where one of our cats escaped from them into the ditch beyond the fence.

old tractor

looking for the cat

…… and they got to meet the horses that their mom worked with in earlier years (she started riding Dottie and Willow for their early training, trained Shiloh for the college professor in Helena who later gave that mare to us, and rode Ed when Michael and Carolyn had that old mare). The boys were also fascinated by the cats, but were most excited when we took them down to the creek in the main corral. They’d never seen a creek before. There are no creeks on their big prairie and grain farm in Saskatchewan. I took photos as the boys looked at the creek for the first time.

Joseph looking at the creek

They spent about an hour throwing rocks in the creek!

throwing rocks in the creek

At one point Heather had to take James back to their vehicle to change his messy diaper, and Andrea went with her to hold baby Ian. While they were gone, Joseph put rocks in our plastic sled to haul them closer to the creek so he could throw them in.

Andrea holding Ian

throwin rocks

gathering more rocks in the sled

Then they went up to Andrea’s house to see her cats, and pet the baby kittens. Emily and Dani brought Christopher out from town (Andrea will be keeping Christopher for about a week while Emily and AJ go hunting) so Christopher got to meet his 2nd cousins and they had a lot of fun together. After they played awhile at her house, Andrea took Joseph and Christopher down to the creek by heifer hill, where they had fun throwing rocks in the water and putting sticks in the creek as “boats”.

They stopped here again just as I finished chores, to visit with Lynn and me a bit more. By the time they went back up to Michael and Carolyn’s house, those kids were exhausted and so were we, but will be fun to have them here for a week. Heather wants to drive to Arco tomorrow to see her other grandma, but we’ll have a chance to visit with her and the boys several more times before they have to drive back to Canada next weekend.

Diary from Sky Range Ranch - September 1 through September 24, 2022

SEPTEMBER 9 – The weather has been very hot this past week. The creek is very low but Andrea is managing to keep watering some of our fields with just a trickle from a couple of our ditches, with our headgates locked down. Jack has more than his water right, so we asked the watermaster to please adjust the locks on a couple of our headgates so we could have part of our second right.

The weaned calves pooped in the big water tank in the orchard so I siphoned it out and rinsed it, and tipped it upside down and started watering them in the new little tank we bought.

On Saturday Andrea and Dani went to the funeral of Dani’s friend Jesse who drowned in the river this summer. His death was a terrible tragedy and he was well-liked by many people; there was a huge turnout at his funeral.

When I checked on the heifers that morning in the back field, some of them were in the brush and I had to look through a lot of that “jungle” to find them all. I discovered some old wire that was part of the old fence that Robbie buried when he went through there with a mini excavator to relocate the water channel. The wire is a dangerous hazard so I went back there and spent about an hour with the fencing tool pulling some of it out of the dirt and old grass and cutting off the parts I couldn’t pull out.

The next day was really hot again (90 degrees). That morning Lynn went up to Andrea’s house to babysit Christopher so she could change water and help me get the rest of the old wire cut loose so we could pull most of it out of the dirt and grass. Jim went to the woods to get more firewood for some folks that want to buy some.

After lunch Andrea brought Christopher down here and we gave him another ride on Ed. This time he rode her past the end of our driveway and down to the “Mexican haystack” and back home again. I took photos as Andrea adjusted his reins for him after we got to the top of our driveway, and as she led Ed on down the road.

Andrea adjusting the reins for Christopher

heading down the road

After we went partway down toward Alfonso’s field, we came back, and I took photos as Andrea started leading Ed back up the road to our driveway.

coming back up the road

heading for home

After we got back to our barnyard Andrea took a photo before we took Christopher off the old mare to unsaddle and put her back in her pen.

home again

Bob Minor called that afternoon. He is in the hospital in Idaho Falls and had been there for 5 days and we didn’t know it. He collapsed last Sunday, getting out of his pickup at his home, and Jane was unable to get him up off the ground. She called their son Jeff, who came and helped her, and they took him to the ER. The doctors realized he had a serious problem and sent him by life flight to the hospital in Idaho Falls.

Apparently he had prostate cancer that metastasized and went into his spine; lesions on his spine were putting pressure on his spinal cord and he suddenly lost the use of his legs. In Idaho Falls the doctors had put him on a course of radiation treatments in hopes of shrinking the tumors in his spine.

Jane had been staying there with him, and was worn out and needed to come home for a few days to get some rest, so Jeff was going to bring her home. Andrea immediately got ready to drive to Idaho Falls to take a shift with Bob in the hospital; she took Christopher to town—and AJ would take care of him while Em is at work—and got gas for her car, and went to Idaho Falls.

Bob spent more than 40 days of his summer in 2000 (22 years ago) being in the ICU in Salt Lake to spell off our family members when Andrea had her burn injuries; someone had to be with her continually because the nurses were short-staffed that year in the burn unit and Andrea was in critical condition. There were several times she would have perished if someone hadn’t been in the room with her to alert the nurses to what was happening with Andrea. So this was pay-back. Andrea wanted to help Bob and Jane in their time of need.

Sam and Colton drove to Idaho Falls that afternoon from Twin Falls, to visit with Bob for a couple of hours. Bob has been like an extra grandpa to all of Andrea’s kids, and Sam wanted to go see him. Andrea took a photo of Sam with Bob.

Sam & Bob

That same evening our neighbor Tom Stephenson called to tell us that his wife Ann passed away that morning; she has been in ill health for a couple of years, with kidney failure, and on dialysis. She needed a kidney transplant, but her heart wasn’t strong enough. We were sad to hear that she had passed.

We called Michael and Carolyn to tell them about Ann, and also about Bob’s dilemma. They hadn’t heard. They’ve been really busy with the custom fencing jobs and also having to worry about the neighbor’s range cattle that have come through the fence in upper Cheney Creek above their place and are trying to get into their place, since there is no water in Cheney Creek due to the drought.

While Andrea was gone (staying in the hospital room with Bob and helping the nurses with his care—he had several rough days and it really helped to have her there) she had only one ditch still running. She’s trying to irrigate the field below the lane where we are growing as much grass as possible for winter pasture for the heifer calves we’ll be keeping. I changed the water in that ditch several times.

Monday mid-day as I brought Sprout back around to her pen from the stackyard where I’ve been letting her graze, a cow and calf came down the lane; she’d probably come off the range somewhere up above us and was heading for our fields. I trotted Sprout as fast as I could lead her, and managed to head off that cow and calf before they got clear down the lane to our open gates to the calving pen (and my hay shed) and the pen next to the horses. The cow looked like a mean one; she threw her head in the air and looked like she wanted to charge at me, but with the horse beside me—coming as fast as we both could “trot”-- the cow decided to turn around and go back up the driveway. We are now leaving our driveway gate closed! It’s awkward for everyone who comes in and out of here, but we can’t risk having the neighbor’s cows coming into our place.

On Tuesday I checked the cows and calves and the heifers. One of them (Starlite’s daughter) was bulling again, so I know she’s not pregnant; we will sell her when we sell the steer calves. I changed the irrigation water again. Andrea called to tell us that Bob had a really bad night, but the doctors plan to move him to the 6th floor where he can still have his radiation treatments but also start some physical therapy.

Wednesday I changed water again, and that afternoon fed the horses part of their evening feeding a little early. Lynn and I went to town and visited with Cope and Terry for a couple hours. Dr. Cope has been our veterinarian for 40-plus years and a good friend, and it’s sad to see him confined to a wheel chair (ironically Bob Minor has the same condition—cancer that went into the spine). But Cope is in good spirits and it’s always fun to visit with him. 

Then we went to the gas station to fill up our tank before driving out to the mouth of Tower Creek to the first get-together for my 60th high school class reunion. While we were at the gas station we saw a huge plume of smoke rising up above the horizon, behind the mountain above town, from the Moose Fire that blew up again that day. By the time we left town, heading up river, the smoke had rolled in so thick that visibility was practically nil, with horribly strong wind. The fire, which had already grown to more than 120,000 acres the past 45 days, grew another 1500 acres in just a few hours that evening. Here are some photos that people took earlier that day.

Moose Fire - coming down the mountain

Moose fire in mountains northeast of Salmon

Moose fire coming down toward the river

Moose fire on mountain behind Salmon - smoke plume still very visible after sundown

We had a nice get-together at Phyllis and Bill’s place by the river, but the wind and smoke made it a bit difficult for the outdoor picnic. The fire had already burned down to the other side of the river in previous weeks, but now was making a big run closer to town, jeopardizing the watershed above the town.

Lynn and I left early to drive back home before dark, since the visibility was already poor and we don’t usually drive at night. The entire valley was filled with thick smoke, all the way home. Strong winds had blown down trees and tree branches, and one of our lawn chairs next to the house had blown out into the driveway. I finished feeding the horses the rest of their “supper” in the dark.

Jim came by about that time, to borrow our battery charger to take to his friend Ken Francisco (who was driving equipment, helping with the firefighting). One of his trucks needed its battery charged, so Jim loaned him ours that night. It was much too smoky to open our windows that night to try to cool off the house.

Here are some photos that several people took that night when the fire came over the mountain toward town.

Moose fire above town

Moose Fire the evening of September 7th

Lynn’s sister Jenelle sent us a photo she took of the fire that evening, from her place near the fairgrounds.

Moose Fire Sept 7 -view from Jenelle Thomas' barn

The smoke cleared out a little by 4 a.m. yesterday morning and I was able to open the windows. 

Jeff drove Jane back to Idaho Falls and Andrea came home that afternoon and by then it was very windy and smoky again.

Today Dani and her boyfriend Roger came out to help us get a few things done. They tromped down the tall grass that grew up along the hot wire above the horse pasture so we can turn it on again for when we have the cows and calves in that pasture for weaning. Andrea and I loaded a bunch of hay from my hayshed onto the feed truck to take around to the bull pen, and Dani and Roger helped us stack some hay there, and put some of the coarser hay into the barn to use as bedding this next calving season.

Then we took the feed truck down the lane toward the post pile pasture and gathered up all the old wire that Andrea and I threw over the fence into that lane when we dragged/cut it out of the bushes in the pasture where the heifers are grazing. We disposed of that wire (put it with other junk in the back of an old pickup in the barnyard) and took the truck up to Andrea’s house to bring down the 3 extra pieces of tin that were left over from the roofing project. We’ll use it to put on the backside of the calving barn where the wall boards are starting to rot.

Then Dani and Roger helped Jim split some wood to fill his trailer to take to the fellow who is buying a couple cords of wood from him, and Andrea changed water.

Michael and Carolyn came by with their truck and 6 big food grade barrels to fill with water at our hydrant. Their pump quit working and the new one won’t be here for several days, so they need water for house use and also for a couple horses in their corrals.

I fed the horses early again, and we went to town with Andrea. She picked up Christopher, since she will be taking care of him for the weekend, and then she drove us out to the restaurant where we had the last get-together for my class reunion. That way we didn’t have to drive home in the dark; she was our driver. So she and Christopher joined our reunion, and some of my old classmates already knew her and enjoyed seeing her and her grandson. 

On our way home it was nearly dark but I took photos of the fire equipment at the fire camp at the fairgrounds, with all the smoke in the background.

firefighting equipment at fairgrounds

smoke on mountain behind fire camp at the fairgrounds

The fire is still very much out of control above town, and getting closer to the ranches on that side of town, including Jenelle’s place. She sent us a photo she took as the fire started coming down on her side of the mountain.

Moose Fire coming over the ridge toward Jenelle's place

She was supposed to evacuate, but didn’t. She was prepared to evacuate, and gathered up some of her cats—and one of them bit her hand. She got a serious infection and now has to go to the hospital every 6 hours for IV antibiotics.

SEPTEMBER 18 – The weather suddenly changed; after all those hot, windy days above 90 degrees, it started freezing at night. I had ice in my hoses last Saturday and Sunday when I did morning chores. Andrea brought Christopher down with her Saturday morning when she came to help me hook up the hot wire in the pasture above the house, and put a hot wire around the calf houses. He played in the dirt by the gate, with his trucks and tractors and little cars.

playing with trucks & tractors

Then Lynn babysat him while she changed irrigation water, and I filled the water tank in that pasture, and put my orphan bull calf in the corral in front of the barn.

Jim took Christopher to town (and back to Emily) when he took another trailer load of wood to the guy he sold it to. Andrea, Lynn and I took the already-weaned calves (including Kung Fu) around to the corral and put them through the chute to vaccinate. Andrea took a couple photos.

vaccinating calves

Then we put all of them in the big pasture below the lane. Kung Fu is now part of the group and no longer needs grain. Even though his mama died 3 months ago, he grew nicely with the supplemental grain and isn’t any smaller than his buddies.

After lunch I helped Andrea move the 9 pairs from the field below heifer hill; we took them across the creek and into the lower swamp pasture. They would be handy there for bringing them to the corral to wean their calves. 

I cooked a big supper and we had Nick come out to visit and eat with us. Andrea was going to eat with us, but she’d run into Tony—our watermaster—that evening; he was out here shutting off our last little bit of water. She told him it wasn’t fair to shut off all our water, when Jack (with the first right) had water leaking under his weir/headgate that wasn’t being measured; he wasn’t really short. She told Tony that in years past we’ve had to fix Jack’s weir ourselves (putting plastic in it to stop the leak) since he refuses to fix it himself. So Tony agreed to leave us some water in our ditch and Andrea went down that evening to fix Jack’s weir, and by the time she got done, he had MORE than his allotted right. She took a photo of the weir measurement and sent it to Tony, and he agreed to leave our ditch running, and to keep him posted regarding how much water Jack actually has.

So, she didn’t quite make it in time to eat dinner with us and Nick, but when she got finished she got Christopher (Jim had been tending him) and brought him along and played a few rounds of Tripoli with us.

playing Tripoli with Nick

a winning hand

Nick won that round

On Sunday when I did morning chores and checked the heifers, there were some range cattle on that back side, nose-to-nose with our heifers through the fence, trying to get into our field. There’s no water in that dried-up bog on the outside of the fence this year, due to the drought, so those range cows are hungry and thirsty. There’s one really weak spot in the fence, where the new jack fence ties into the old wire fence, and a cow might push through or over it. 

So that morning when Andrea came down after breakfast, we took some steel posts and several poles over there and she set the posts and we tied the poles to them to make the fence higher and stronger. The heifers were curious and ganged around the 4-wheeler and also came up to where we were working, to check out what we were doing. 

When we got done with that project, I lured the cows and calves down into the hold pen next to the corral, and Lynn helped us sort the calves off. We put the calves through the chute, vaccinated them, poured them with insecticide to kill horn flies, and Andrea put in their nose flaps.

putting in nose flaps

Then we put the cows and calves in the pasture above the house for their weaning period. The calves can still be with their mothers for a week (and not be forlorn and insecure) but they can’t nurse. The cows start to dry up and the calves adjust to not having milk, and it’s the easiest kind of weaning, and the least stressful for both the cows and the calves.

Charlie came out that afternoon and changed the oil in Andrea’s old Explorer. Michael and Carolyn came again to fill their water barrels. Their new pump wasn’t here yet, and they needed more water.

Monday morning when I checked the heifers, some of them were up on the hill. When I hiked up there to check on them I had a close look at the fence we put up last year to fence off the deep eroded canyon where water comes down the hill from the upper ditch. The net fence was mashed down to about half its original height, probably by deer going over it, so there was risk of a heifer getting into that enclosure and falling into the chasm. So a bit later that morning Andrea and I took a bunch of steel posts and the post pounder across that field on the 4-wheeler, and carried them up the hill. 

We tried to call Dani and Roger (to hire them to help us) but didn’t reach them, so Andrea called Emily. It was her day off so she brought Christopher and Lynn babysat him while she helped us carry more posts up there. We set about 20 posts (in between the old ones) and pulled the netting back upright again and clipped it to the posts.

hooking netting to the new steel posts

When we got done and came back with the 4-wheeler one of the heifers was lying down, apart from the others, and I hiked down to check on her and make sure she was ok. The other heifers ganged around Emily on the 4-wheeler so Andrea took photos.

heifers checking out Emily

heifers checking Em & me

We’ve been seeing a lot of bear poop in our fields and in the brush, and that evening we saw a black bear gallop across the field above the cows and calves.

Tuesday was fairly cool and we actually had a tiny bit of rain that afternoon and evening. Michael and Carolyn got more water here, but their new pump was supposed to arrive the next day. Andrea and I hiked through the cows and calves to check on them and make sure none of the calves have lost their nose flaps or have been able to figure out how to “cheat” and nurse their mothers.

checking on the weaning process

calf with nose flap

bull calf with nose flap

Wednesday was foggy and cool all morning. Tom Stephenson came by with some squash and cucumbers from his garden and we commiserated with him about losing Ann. He stayed about an hour and we had a really good visit.

Andrea and I checked on the yearling heifers in the back field, and she took a photo of one of the yearlings lovingly licking another; those two are good friends.

checking on the yearling heifers

good friends

Then Andrea went over to Minor’s place and watered their garden, since Jane hadn’t been home for several days. The next day she changed her water and left it in spots where it could run for quite a while, and she drove to Idaho Falls again to stay with Bob in the hospital so Jane could come home for a while.

Lynn and I went to town to have our first appointment with our new doctor. We haven’t been to a doctor for quite a long time—since before COVID—and the one we used to go to is no longer here. We needed to choose a new one, so we opted for the one that Andrea started seeing, that she really likes. We like him, too. It was time to have some checkups on several things—Lynn’s prostate, and to schedule his heart checkup, assess our skin lesions (some precancerous ones that probably need to be removed) and both of us are overdue for colonoscopies. So the doctor got us set up with appointments for those things at a later date.

Michael and Carolyn got their new pump installed and are glad to have water again! On Friday Lynn went up to Andrea’s house and fed her cats and dogs for her. Yesterday she drove home again, since Jane was able to go back to be with Bob in the hospital. When she got home she went to change water and discovered she had NO water in the ditch by her house. She hiked up the ditch and found that Alfonso had put one of her sandbags down into the creek in front of the head-gate, to block off the water! She had to wrestle it up out of the creek and out of the way. It’s a sandbag that Andrea took up there last fall when Alfonso failed to shut off the ditch (since he used it last) and it was threatening to flood Vicki’s basement. Andrea blocked off the ditch for winter, then removed the sandbag this spring, to start the ditch again. Apparently it was too handy there, however, when Alfonso decided to deprive us of our water.

Alfonso and the Millers rounded up most of their cows off the range, but when they sorted them in the little area across the road from my brother’s house, some burst through the back fence; a big bunch came down along Michael and Carolyn’s fence and some got into their field. Michael and Carolyn tried to get them out that evening, and one mean old cow charged at Carolyn and the only thing that deterred her was Carolyn jumping up and down and waving her arms and screaming, and the cow went around her instead of hitting her.

Earlier that day, when some of the riders were bringing cattle down the road, they failed to shut Mark Myers’ gate and a few cattle went into that field. Instead of herding them back out the gate, the riders jammed them through the fence into Art Turner’s pasture, and then jammed them through the fence to get them back out onto the road. A few didn’t make it back out, and ended up in Louck’s yard, and were still in Louck’s place the next day. Nick happened to be up at his folks’ place (they were gone that day) and saw it all happen. So now Michael has more fences to fix (since he is leasing Mark’s and Art’s places).

Today Charlie came out to help us, and we gathered the cows and calves from above the house and took them to the corral. Charlie and Lynn guarded my hay as Andrea and I brought the cows and calves out of the pasture and past the hay shed to go around to the corral (they like to try to eat the hay or rub on the hay bales).

Charlie & Lynn guarding the haystack

We sorted them off and put the calves down the chute again so Andrea could take out their nose flaps. Then we put the calves with the other weaned calves in the good pasture below the lane, and put the cows in the lower swamp pasture. Andrea took photos as Charlie and I took the newly weaned calves past the house and down to the pasture to join the already-weaned calves.

taking the weaned calves to past the house and barn

taking the newly weaned calves to join the other calves

Then Charlie helped Andrea retrieve her sandbag from the ditch head and bring it back on the 4-wheeler. While I was fixing lunch for all of us, Charlie helped Andrea take a few steel posts and the post pounder up the hill from the back field and fix one more place in the range fence, where the elk mashed it down this spring.

After lunch we took a couple bales from my hay shed to put in the corral for the cows we’ll be selling, and Charlie helped us straighten out the old feeder. The young bull that lived in that corral this summer (until we sold him) had beaten up on the feeder and smashed it together and we had to widen it out again. Charlie spent a little time at Andrea’s house before he left, and Andrea took a photo of him with one of his favorite old cats.

Charlie & cat

SEPTEMBER 24 – Last Sunday evening Lynn started feeling sick, coughing and very congested. He spent all day Monday in bed. Andrea took me to town for my dental appointment. The dentist had tried to pull the one tooth that became wobbly a few weeks ago, and put fillings in a couple others. 

While I was at the dentist office, Andrea got the mail and groceries, and some vitamins and supplements for Lynn, and some COVID tests. She checked Lynn when we got home, and he does have COVID. So we started him on several medications and lots of fluids. 

I had severe bleeding from the tooth that was pulled, in spite of the gauze stuffed into the hole; it bled through the gauze for several hours. When I took that gauze out it bled severely again, and I stuffed another piece of gauze into the hole and bit down on it. It bled through that so much that I was spitting out blood every few minutes, and swallowed a lot of blood. But it finally quit bleeding by the time I went to bed, and I left that gauze in for 24 hours. When I finally took it out I soaked it in cold water in my mouth for 10 minutes and gently worked it loose with my tongue, and it came loose without pulling off the blood clot.

We got an e-mail message from granddaughter Heather in Saskatchewan, updating us on their family news, and a photo of Joseph with a young rabbit that wandered into their garden. Gregory caught it and the kids have made it a pet.

Joseph & rabbit

For several days I fed the newly weaned calves a little hay in the calving pen—some of my very best horse hay--so they can eat that as well as their pasture. I wanted them used to eating hay, and gentle (coming to me for hay when I called them out of the pasture) before we sold them.

We had a tiny bit of rain (only a few drops) one evening and there was a nice rainbow when I was doing chores. I took photos of it, and of the blooming vine that grows on the willows next to the creek by our bridge.

rainbow

vine in bloom

By Tuesday Lynn was feeling a little better, and actually felt like eating a little. We had soup (something that sounded good to him, and also something I could eat without having to chew, because my teeth are really bad on the other side of my mouth as well), and made sure he drank a lot of fluid. 

That morning Andrea and I got in the 2 open heifers we need to sell. The whole group followed us out of the field to the gate into the lane, where we were able to slip 9 of them into the post pile pasture and keep back the 2 we want to sell. We brought them up to the corral and then lured some of the cows (including Pimples, the open 3-year-old cow) into the round corral and sorted Pimples into the main corral to be with the heifers. We had a lot of hay in the feeder for them, so they’d have plenty to eat until we haul them to the auction yard. Then we put the rest of the cows into the upper swamp pasture where they’ll have enough grass to last a week or more. The weaned steer calves we plan to sell were doing nicely in the orchard and horse pasture. I fed them a little hay a couple times in the calving pen, so it would be easy to lure them in on the day we’d be hauling them to the sale. I took photos of some of them lounging in the calving pen.

lounging around

Lilligator's steer calf

Outlandish's steer

Alligator Eyes’ steer was standing by the gate into the calving pen when I took his photo, next to the new little water tank.

Alligator Eyes' steer

Andrea brought her pickup down here and hooked it up to our stock trailer and checked the tires. Some were a bit low on air so she used our air compressor to get them up to proper pressure. Her truck tires were also a little low so she added air to them, too.

checking air pressure

adding air to truck tire

adding air to trailer tire

We checked out everything on the trailer—door latches, etc. Andrea put a chain around the door as a safety measure, since the old latch needs some work done on it. We plan to take the trailer to Vern England to do some welding and fixing after we get done hauling these cattle to the sale, but for now the safety chain will be a good idea.

checking out trailer

adding chain around door

chain around door

Then Andrea took the trailer for a test drive down to Baker and back to make sure everything was working ok, since we haven’t used it for a year. I helped her check the brake lights and tail lights as she started out, and took photos as she made it to the top of our driveway and headed out the lane to the main road to go down to Baker.

heading out the lane for a test drive

heading out the lane to go down to Baker

When she got back we discovered that rattling along on our very rough creek road, the trailer mats (which are too big for the trailer) had shifted a little toward the back of the trailer to where the sliding door would not open or close. So we had to pull those forward again, and this time screwed them down. She got backed up to the loading dock, ready to go on Thursday. We put a board in the slot between the trailer and the dock supported on a tire underneath it), so a calf wouldn’t put a foot down through that space and break a leg.

I talked to Carolyn that afternoon; she is helping us prepare our applications to send to the Idaho Department of Water Resources. All water users with irrigation rights in the Lemhi River drainage now have to apply for a high flow water right in addition to our decreed right. Our traditional high water use must now have a permitted right, in order to use it. Otherwise we may lose that traditional use at some point in the future if other interests decide they want to deprive us of that use.

Wednesday Lynn continued to feel a little better but still had a bad cough and spent most of the day resting. Andrea irrigated and I did a couple interviews, then the new brand inspector arrived to check the steer calves and the heifers and cow we are selling. I gave them a little more hay. They will do better these last few days eating hay and not lush green pasture grass; their manure won’t be so loose and they’ll have better fill and not be so empty when they get to the sale (and stay cleaner and look better!) 

At chore time I took a photo of our nicely covered round bale stacks next to the driveway. We hope those stacks will be enough to feed our weaned calves this winter.

our tarped stacks

Thursday morning was cold and windy. A young cow moose walked past Andrea’s house when she looked out the window when she got up. It spooked the cows in the upper swamp pasture, then wandered down across the creek.

Dani and Roger came out at 8:30 and helped us get all the gates ready for loading the cattle, and we got the steers moved around to the corral. I took photos of our trailer at the new loading dock, and Dani and Roger ready to load cattle.

trailer ready to go

backed up to the new loading dock

Roger & Dani ready to load cattle

We loaded the 3 adults first; Andrea and Roger followed/pushed them through the loading chute into the trailer, Dani and I encouraged them from the side, and Andrea and Roger shut the partition gate to lock them in the front half of the trailer. Then we loaded the calves, and Jim pulled the board out of the slot between the dock and the trailer and Dani pushed the gate shut. They all fit nicely, with a little room to spare.

Jim went with Andrea to haul the cattle to the sale yard in Montana (a 3 hour trip); it’s always nice to have a little extra help in case of a flat tire or any other emergency, but they had a safe and uneventful trip except for some rain on their way home. There were a lot of cattle arriving that day (the day before the sale).

Dani and Roger stayed a couple more hours after helping load the cattle, and trimmed some of the young willows that grew up this summer in the hold pen by the sick barn. The willows will take over again (after Michael cleared some of them out last winter with the skid steer when cleaning up some of the junk in that area) if we don’t keep them controlled. The heifers ate a lot of the young willow shoots in the “jungle bunny basket” pen next to that hold pen, but we still need to trim the rest of them, too.

Roger & Dani trimming off willow sprouts

Dani and Roger want to earn enough money for gas to make a trip to Oregon this weekend for a wedding, so they came back again yesterday and spent a few more hours trimming the rest of the willows out of the hold pen. Andrea took the trailer up to her house and hosed it out and got the mats clean again. Here’s the trailer all cleaned out.

trailer all clean again

Then she took it to Vern England to have him fix some of the worn out parts. The door hinges have been repaired at one time but are not very sturdy, and the frame they are attached to has a serious crack in it. Vern can fix it to where it will be dependable for a long time. Fixing up this old trailer will still be cheaper than buying a new one or even a newer used one. 

The calves wasted some of the good hay I fed them in the calving pen, so I am letting Ed clean that up, putting her in there for a couple hours each morning and evening to augment her regular meals.

Granddaughter Heather sent us another e-mail and a photo of the two little boys with some of the produce they helped harvest from the garden.

James & Joseph and garden harvest

When Lynn and I went to the doctor last week I mentioned to the doctor that for a number of years I was on oxygen at night (until Medicare would no longer pay for it and thought I should use a C-PAP instead, which I tried for 9 months but couldn’t tolerate). The oxygen helped me a lot; I didn’t wake up every morning with a headache from breathing too shallowly and infrequently. These past few years I’ve just tried to manage, but now for some reason Medicare is paying again (though maybe temporarily) for oxygen use, so the doctor prescribed it. We set it up yesterday and I used it last night, and this morning was the first time in a long time that I didn’t wake up with a headache.

Today I typed several interviews, including an update with one of the ranchers I interviewed a couple weeks ago about the Moose Fire. He was finally allowed to go up into that allotment to look for his cattle but still hasn’t found them all. The Moose Fire is still burning and will probably continue to burn until we get snow this winter.

Andrea has Christopher this weekend, but Jim tended him while she changed the irrigation water. Christopher was upset because he couldn’t come in and see Grandpa Lynn when she brought him by yesterday to give us our mail and groceries after she picked him up from Emily in town. We don’t want to expose him to COVID, and even though Lynn is feeling better he’s still probably contagious. Christopher couldn’t understand why he couldn’t just run in here and have fun with great grandpa.

Bob Minor had a CT scan on his back earlier this week and it showed several more new tumors. So he’s having 4 more radiation treatments, but still may get to come home next week.