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.
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| Andrea adjusting the reins for Christopher |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| Moose Fire - coming down the mountain |
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| Moose fire in mountains northeast of Salmon |
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| Moose fire coming down toward the river |
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| 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.
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| Moose fire above town |
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| 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.
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| firefighting equipment at fairgrounds |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| playing Tripoli with Nick |
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| a winning hand |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| checking on the weaning process |
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| calf with nose flap |
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| 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.
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| checking on the yearling heifers |
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| 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).
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| rainbow |
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| 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.
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| lounging around |
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| Lilligator's steer calf |
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| 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 |
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| adding air to truck tire |
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| 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 |
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| adding chain around door |
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| 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 |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| trailer ready to go |
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| backed up to the new loading dock |
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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