Diary from Sky Range Ranch - November 18 through December 18, 2017

DECEMBER 1, 2017 – We had our Thanksgiving dinner early, the Sunday before Thanksgiving, while Andrea’s kids were home (they spent Thanksgiving this year with their Dad). Bob and Jane Miner, long-time family friends, came also, so we had a full table. Andrea had all her kids there; Emily and Robert were able to come. Andrea took a photo of her three girls –Dani, Sam and Emily

three sisters at Thanksgiving

We had a few days of warm weather, up in the 40’s during the afternoon, with some rain (and snow on the mountains), but now it’s cold again. Andrea and I made a couple of rides to the 320 to check on the cows.

Andrea and Sprout on 320

Grandma and Dottie on 320

While we were there, she broke ice again on the little trough, and threw out the ice so the cows could drink.

getting the ice out of the trough

Andrea flipping ice out of the water

A week ago Monday, Michael and Carolyn went up to the 320 on their 4-wheelers and let the cows down into the road pasture along our upper fields. They opened the gates into the wild meadow so the cows can go in there and get to the creek for water. They brought down the 2 protein tubs that still had some protein in them, so the cows can finish eating those. Andrea and I moved our yearling heifers from heifer hill to the upper swamp pasture where there’s a little more grass.

Michael and Nick measured the little field above the house where we need to rebuild the old fence (the posts we set nearly 50 years ago are rotting off). After we moved the weaned heifers out of that field, Michael and Nick started tearing out the old fence, rolling up the old net wire. We will re-use the old netting later, on some jack fences.

Charlie split more wood for us and the girls helped move the weaned heifers down to the field below the lane, and helped Andrea rinse and fill their water tank, before they went out to their Dad’s place for Thanksgiving and the weekend.

On Thanksgiving Day I took Willow’s shoes off. We won’t be riding her any more this year, and her feet are getting long—and the shoes are worn out. The next day I took Ed’s shoes off. The only horses now that still have shoes on are Sprout and Dottie, because we may ride them a few more times to check the cows on the road pasture on the upper place.

We had rain and a horrible wind that took shingles off Andrea’s roof and more of the old roofing off our old barn/shop. The next day Andrea and Robbie went to town and bought more shingles, and some rolled roofing for the shop. Robbie put new shingles on Andrea’s roof to replace the ones that blew off, then he and Lynn started putting new roofing on our old shop, into the dark. The next day (Sunday) Andrea, Lynn and Robbie finished putting rolled roofing on the shop, until they ran out of rolls.

Robbie, Lynn & Andrea putting on new roofing

putting new rolled roofing on the old shop

Andrea putting tar on the rolled roofing

Michael and Nick cut and split more aspen from our upper place, and brought a pickup load to us and a load to Andrea. This will help augment our wood piles and maybe we’ll have enough to make it through the winter! We had more strong wind a couple nights ago. It scattered some of the hay I had in piles to feed the horses, but the new roof on the shop held on. On Tuesday Michael brought his skid steer down here, and he and Nick took out more of the old fence, and I fed them lunch. Nick has a bad cold and cough, however, and was wasn’t feeling very well. Michael left the skid steer down here, for me to plug in early the next morning, so it would start.

The next morning (yesterday) was cold (15 degrees) and one of Michael’s heifers was dull and not eating. I’ve been feeding the heifers some of my horse hay every morning, but in this cold weather they are not grazing enough and their pasture is about gone. It’s time to give them more hay. So as soon as Michael started the skid steer to go to work on our fence project, we plugged in our tractor. By afternoon we were able to start the tractor and take a big round bale of hay out to the heifers to put in their feeder.

Nick was too sick to work, so Andrea helped Michael all day on the fence project, taking down the old elk panels along the creek side of the pasture. Those were put on the fence about 30 years ago to keep the elk out of the stackyard across the creek. The old posts were rotting off and leaning, and the fence and elk panels have been tipping over into the brush. The only thing holding up that stretch of fence was the brush and trees.

taking out the old fence

Michael working on fence

This morning Michael’s heifer was still dull and not eating much, so when Michael came down to work on the fence he helped us put her in the headcatch by the calving barn. I took her temperature and it was 104.5 degrees, so we gave her antibiotics and Banamine. The Banamine is a good anti-inflammatory medication to help ease her pain and fever. By afternoon she was eating again.

Andrea helped Michael all day on the fence tear-down project again.

Michael sawing out tree that grew up though elk panel

Andrea helping take down old fence

Michael & Andrea taking out old fence

At chore time this evening I noticed that one of our heifers was also dull and not eating, so we got her in and treated her, too.


DECEMBER 9 – I’ve been working on book revisions for my 3 books that Storey wants to update for new editions: Storey’s Guide to Raising Beef Cattle, Storey’s Guide to Raising Horses, and Storey’s Guide to Training Horses. This will be the 4th edition of the Beef Cattle book and Raising Horses book, and 3rd edition of Training Horses.

The day after we treated the 2 sick heifers they were doing much better, and so far none of the other heifers have gotten sick. They are enjoying their big bale—having hay to eat all the time and never going hungry—and their heated water. They drink more in the winter with the warmer water, and I don’t have to chop ice out of their tank!

A few days ago I took some photos, including one of Willow enjoying the sunshine, napping on the high spot in her pen.

Willow resting

Nick has been sick with a bad respiratory infection and hasn’t been able to help Michael on the fence project, so Andrea has been helping him. Last Saturday they sawed out more trees along the creek side, to make sure none will fall down on the new fence we’ll be building, and pulled the trees out of the fence line.

dragging trees

sawed-out trees, ready to be cut up

Robbie helped Lynn put on 2 more rolls of roofing on the shop. That was just in time, because it snowed that night and the next morning.

The kids got home from their weekend with Mark and all had dinner here at our house (our Sunday evening tradition on the weekends they come home).

Monday Michael and Andrea worked on the fence project again, piling and cleaning up the brush and trees (sawed into log lengths) to haul down to the post pile pasture where we will burn the brush later and cut the bigger logs into firewood next year after the wood dries out.

hauling the brush

We started treating Shiloh’s left eye again; it’s infected, weeping, and the eyelids are swollen. Carolyn helped me and Andrea put antibiotic ointment into her eye. Shiloh doesn’t like it, and it’s easier to do with 3 of us, especially since Carolyn is taller and can reach the eye when Shiloh puts her head up high to try to avoid the medication!

On Tuesday Andrea helped me doctor Shiloh’s eye (we have to do it daily for about 10 days) and also helped me loosen up the frozen top of the big bale in the heifers feeder so they can eat it. We also hauled 15 bales around for Sprout and Shiloh from my hay shed, so I won’t have to keep bringing their hay in a wheelbarrow.

Michael skipped a couple days working on the fence project because it was so cold, and then Andrea helped him again on Thursday. First he used the skid steer loader tines to break the frozen top and pick up the remaining core of the heifers’ big bale and tip it over so they can reach it better in their feeder. Then Andrea helped him load and haul the rest of the brush piles out of the field above the house. Now all that’s left are the logs that we’ll eventually use for firewood.

unloading the brush

piling the brush in lower pasture to burn later

It’s been really cold and damp the past few days, with an air inversion and fog, with low-hanging clouds. Without sunshine, the days are nearly as cold as the nights. We’ve been putting the tube of eye ointment for Shiloh in hot water when we take it outside, so the ointment will come out of the tube easier and not be so solid. Michael didn’t work on the fence project; it was too cold.

Today was frosty and cold again. Michael helped Lynn drill a hole through our house wall so we can put a cord through it and be able to plug in a vehicle, tractor or the skid steer here by the house, in case we need to have two outfits plugged in at once. The extension cord from the barn won’t service more than one.

skid steer plugged in

DECEMBER 18 – We had 2 weeks of cold, damp weather with lows at night hovering about 10 degrees (down to 4 degrees one night) and daytime highs in the mid to low teens. Some days were just too cold to do much work on the fence project. I took photos of the frost on the trees along the lane, and the frosty young bulls in the orchard.

frosty lane

frosty bulls

Last Sunday a week ago was a challenging day. Early that morning I was working on several articles (deadlines looming) and the letter o on my computer keyboard quit working. When Michael came down to help us take a new big bale to the heifers’ feeder with the tractor (and to help me doctor Shiloh’s eye—which we were still doing every day), he brought a keyboard he no longer needed but it was incompatible with my computer. Fortunately my brother had another one--that he brought later that day--and I was able to type again! Using a zero for an o doesn’t work!!

That wasn’t the end of the day’s problems. The long hose that I use for watering the heifers was frozen (I didn’t get it drained quite well enough the day before) and I had to bring it into the house to thaw out. That was minor compared to other water problems and their consequences; the steady cold weather caused the creek to freeze over and Andrea broke ice for the heifers in the swamp pasture. She’d already chopped ice away from one of the ditch headgates at the creek so she could put dirt in around the headgate to seal it off solidly so it won’t leak this winter and create an ice flow across the field. Then on her way down the creek she broke another water hole for the heifers—and fell through the ice (in a deep spot, and went over her boot) and landed crooked on that foot. Her ankle was seriously painful and she was afraid it might be broken. She went home to get dry clothes but instead of icing it she just wrapped it and had Charlie help her fill buckets with dirt to take to the ditch head and shut off the leaking water.

She then put ice and DMSO on her ankle and elevated it, and had a miserable night, and went in to the clinic Monday morning to have it checked. In spite of the ice on it all night, her ankle was too swollen to tell anything from an x-ray, so the doctor told her to come back in a week to have it checked again. She was fitted with a walking boot as a brace, but was supposed to stay off it as much as possible for a few days.

She wasn’t able to help Michael finish clearing the piles of tree logs out of the field above the house (and Nick was still too sick to help) so Michael did the rest of it himself with just the skid steer—working a few hours a day until he got too chilled-- for a couple of days, in the bitter cold. He also helped me doctor Shiloh’s eye, and helped Lynn put the battery charger on our pickup because it wouldn’t start. The cold weather may have damaged the battery. When Lynn went to town that day to do a lot of town errands he had to leave the pickup running everywhere he went.

The cold damp air (with no sunshine) created thick frost on everything. I took photos of frost on the trees and horse pens.

frosty elm tree

frosty pens

The frost was so thick on the net wire that you could hardly see the horses in their pens. Here’s Breezy eating her morning had, and Rishiam in his frosty pen.

Breezy's pen

Rishiam in his frosty pen

The next day was really cold, and Michael came down to break ice on the water holes (since Andrea can’t) and helped me doctor Shiloh’s eye. He spent an hour and a half hauling away the rest of the log piles with the skid steer. We also started putting medication in the heifers water tank (daily for 5 days) to treat them for coccidiosis. Most of them have loose manure (like pea soup) and we need to get them over this infection!

Charlie filled our woodbox when he came home from school on Tuesday. We are going through a lot of wood in this cold weather.

I took photos of Willow in the frost, with frost on her mane and whiskers, and her frosty pen by my hay shed.

frosty Willow

Willow's frosty pen & hay shed

Willow's frosty pen and water tub

Wednesday it warmed up, with a high of 24 degrees, and snowed a little. We picked a lull in the weather that afternoon to treat Shiloh’s eye. She doesn’t like the medication being put in, on a good day, and we didn’t want to try to do it in a snowstorm! With the warmer weather (24 degrees instead of low teens) I did a couple loads of washing, knowing that the drain line from the washer wouldn’t freeze.

Sam was sick (with a high fever Tuesday night) but felt a little better that day and insisted on going to school, and singing that evening in the school Christmas program because she had the lead part in a trio the choir was doing.

On Thursday Lynn took the pickup to town to get new tires. With snowy roads the old tires are not safe; they were worn out last winter and we barely made it through the winter with them, but they have no traction left and are NOT safe for going through another winter.

Emily cut her own hair, getting rid of her long lovely curls. Short hair is easier to handle in her cleaning job at the hospital, and it also looks pretty cute.

Emily's new haircut

Michael didn’t work on the fence for a couple days, waiting for the posts he ordered from a local supplier who had to cut and treat them. Some of the posts were finished by Friday so he went to get those, and he and Nick set those (47 posts) in the fence line across the top of the little field. They rented Sy Miller’s hydraulic post pounder, which makes it a lot easier and faster. We were worried about frost after all the cold weather, wondering if we could drive the posts, but there were only a few places the frost was too thick. There were some areas where it was 12 inches deep, but most places it was only 3 inches deep, which was fairly easy for driving the posts. We’re using very tall posts, to make a fence that the cows won’t be able mash down and the deer and elk will be hesitant to jump over. This may help keep the elk out of my hay shed below that field, if we have another winter like last year, when the elk came down here to eat our hay and got into my shed.

new posts along the top boundary of the field

When they finished that afternoon, Michael helped me treat Shiloh’s eye one last time. It had been looking better for several days (we treated it for 11 days) and we hope it is safe now to quit treating it.

Friday the temperature got up to 32 degrees. It would have been a good day for driving posts but there weren’t any more ready yet. Michael spent a couple hours sawing sagebrush out of what will be the new fence line on the west side of the field, since we are moving the fence several yards that direction, so he’d be ready to drive posts there.

Saturday Michael and Nick spent a couple hours hauling off the huge pile of sagebrush. Michael used the skid steer to gently lift up the ancient manure spreader from its resting place where it was parked for more than 40 years along the ditchbank with the sagebrush growing up around it. The new fence will be going there, and we needed to move it. He was able to get it loose from its resting place, and that afternoon Michael carried it up to his house with the skid steer. Carolyn is going to use it as a lawn ornament and plant flowers in it.

Heather and Gregory sent us photos of little Joseph, who is 8 ½ months old. Here are photos of him in his crib, wanting to get out and try to walk around.

Joseph in his crib

Joseph in his crib

He is already trying to walk, and holds onto the furniture to walk around. His mom has a little harness for him to keep him contained, so he can’t get too far out of sight or fall down. He went shopping with mom the other day, and when they went into a tack shop he enjoyed sitting in a saddle.

Joseph trying to walk and dance

Joseph trying out a saddle

Yesterday was cold (4 degrees in the morning) but got up to 20 degrees in the afternoon. Andrea and Robbie drove to Missoula to get Jim at the airport; he was flying home from New Jersey where he’s spent several weeks doing some carpentry work for his twin sister. They didn’t get home from Missoula until 9 p.m. Charlie brought his sisters home (they spent the weekend with their dad) but they didn’t stay for supper here as they usually do; they were all very sick. So we just sent some supper home with them.

We treated Shiloh’s eye with antibiotic ointment for 11 days and it cleared up nicely, so we stopped treating it, with our last treatment on Thursday. It looked normal again, for several days, and then yesterday evening the lower lid was swollen again and she was holding the eye half shut. Discouraging! I hope we don’t have to go through another round of treatment—which neither she nor us would enjoy very much.

This morning Michael got more posts, so he and Nick laid them out along the creek side of the pasture (where they tore out the old fence and sawed out a lot of trees).

posts laid out along fence line

Then they spent the rest of the day setting posts, and got most of them driven. Here are photos of the skid steer with hydraulic post pounder, setting some of the tall posts. We’ll put the elk panels back on this part of the fence when we get it built, to keep the deer and elk from getting into the stackyard right across the creek.

Nick & Michael pounding posts

pounding posts

I’ve had several book orders already for my “Tales” books (Horse Tales, Cow Tales, Ranch Tales) as people start thinking about Christmas gifts. They make a good read any time of year for folks who like animals and true stories about animals. Details about these books are posted at the end of previous blogs. I also have some of my late father’s books on hand, if anyone would like those.

Best wishes to everyone for the coming New Year!

Diary from Sky Range Ranch - February 14 through March 26, 2017

FEBRUARY 20 – We’ve had warmer weather, barely freezing at night. Michael, Nick and Robbie have been working on the new fence for Breezy’s pen and I’ve been cooking lunch for them the past few days. 

On Thursday Andrea got a call from the school to tell her that Sam had slipped in the mud during the noon hour, and had fallen down and hit her head on the concrete sidewalk—breaking her glasses and briefly knocking her unconscious. She was being taken to the ER in the ambulance. Andrea rushed off to town and got to the hospital about the same time the ambulance did. The ER doctor thought at first that she might have broken some of her facial bones (along with a mild concussion), but her face was just badly bruised. We are glad she wasn’t hurt any worse than that.

On Friday Andrea held Willow for me while I trimmed her feet. They’d grown very long over the winter and I wanted to get them trimmed before we put her in her new pen. She has very hard, durable hooves and even though they were a bit softened by being in the muddy pen, they were still difficult to trim and had not broken like most horse’s feet would do when growing that long.

On Saturday we put Dottie, Ed and Breezy in the 2nd day pens by the calving barn to get them farther away from the noise of pounding posts. Michael hauled Sy Miller’s tractor and hydraulic (jack-hammer) pounder over here on our flatbed trailer, and Sy set all the new posts for Breezy’s pen. Some of them were a little hard to pound through the frost, but they used a metal pilot post to start those holes, and managed to get them all into the ground far enough.

Yesterday it rained, so the guys were glad they’d set posts the day before. Today the weather was nicer so the guys worked on the fence again.

FEBRUARY 28 – We had a lot of windy weather last week, and a blizzard on Tuesday afternoon. The guys had to quit early that day, after they got soaked and cold. That was the afternoon we were going to have a vet come look at Shiloh’s eye (it has been running and irritated and we thought there might be something embedded under the eyelid). We postponed until the next day and even then it was so windy we took Shiloh to the top of her pen where we could stand behind a big sagebrush that blocked some of the wind. The vet couldn’t find anything in the mare’s eye, but the third eyelid tissues were swollen and the eye was discharging mucus so she inserted cortisone/antibiotic ointment into the corner of the eye. We continued that treatment daily for several days and that seemed to resolve the problem. While the vet was here we also had her look at Breezy’s remaining eye, to make sure it is staying healthy. There are rough red areas on the white part, but they are not cancerous. Keeping a face mask on her all the time helps protect her eye from sunlight, insects and dust.

The strong winds blew more shingles off Andrea’s roof and we had to replace them. We had a few cold days, down to 17 degrees at night.

Lynn’s appointment with orthopedic surgeon went well, with good news. He doesn’t need surgery. The shoulder attachments are partly torn, but not all the way through, and will probably heal. The surgeon injected cortisone into the inflamed areas and prescribed several weeks of physical therapy to help restore strength and range of motion.

Charlie took his drivers’ test and passed the driving and written tests so now he has his drivers’ license. He can drive to the school bus, leave the car there at Baker and drive home again.

On Friday the guys finished Breezy’s new fences and we moved that old mare into her new pen and put Willow in her rebuilt pen. Here are some photos of those two new pens.

new horse pens

Willow's new pen

Now the side pen where Willow spent the winter can be used for calving again. We also put more poles on the calving pen fence so cows can’t stick their heads through. We sawed up some of the old fence poles for firewood, since we are running low on wood after the long, cold winter.

The guys made a little gate in the side of Willow’s pen (in addition to the main gate at the end of the pen) so I can carry hay through to feed her, and use the slow feeder for that greedy mare. 

little side gate into Willow's pen

Willow was frustrated the first few days because it takes more time to eat, pulling the hay out through the grate a little bit at a time, so she pawed it and tipped it over, but eventually learned how to use it. She still tips it over and over and plays with it like a toy but doesn’t get her foot caught in it anymore. She mostly flips it over with her nose.

Willow eating out of the slow feader

On Sunday we got the cows in and vaccinated them with their pre-calving vaccine and deloused them all again. It’s been a bad winter for lice, with it so cold. Michael, Carolyn and Nick helped. Michael brought his tractor down for diesel and after we worked the cows he moved some of our hay bales around for the heifers and loaded the feed truck.

Yesterday morning cold again, down to 18 degrees. Sugar Baby (a 3-year old second calver) had a premature calf. Andrea and Robbie discovered the tiny baby when they came down to help me feed cows. All the young cows and first-calf heifers were grouped around it, sniffing and helping lick it. The calf was very tiny, with short, velvety hair, and probably 6 or 7 weeks premature. Robbie carried it to pickup and held it while Andrea drove. Even though the calf hadn’t been born very long, it was chilled, with sub-normal temperature of 92 degrees. Normal for cattle is 101.5 degrees. We warmed the little guy by the wood stove and dried him with towels. Here is a photo of him resting on his bed of towels.

calf sleeping on towels by the stove

I warmed up some colostrum but the calf wouldn’t suck a bottle, so we tubed him, inserting a tube into the nostril, to the back of the throat where he swallowed it, and on down into the stomach. Then we could attach a funnel and pour the colostrum into the tube and feed him that way.

feeding premature calf with nasogastric tube

We fed him by tube every 4 hours. Lynn went to town and bought milk replacer and we started feeding it today after we ran out of colostrum.

After school the kids stopped by to see the calf. Dani curled up with him for a while on his bed of towels.

Dani taking nap with premature calf

The calf was stronger by evening and trying to get up. Lynn helped me tube him in the middle of the night.

This morning Andrea helped me tube-feed the calf after the kids went to the bus. She also checked on the young cow that calved prematurely. She was little dull and off by herself. We brought her down to the corral and gave her antibiotics and Michael checked her (on his way to work on another fencing job) to see if there was a twin still inside her. No twin, but the cow was slow to clean, which is common with a premature birth. We put her in orchard with Buffalo Girl so we can watch her, and kept feeding the calf every 4 hours.


MARCH 9 – The premature calf only lived 2 ½ days. He was getting stronger for awhile and then went into decline, with a slight fever. Even though we had him on antibiotics, to head off pneumonia (since the lungs are not well developed yet at that stage) something went wrong; his body systems were too immature to sustain life on his own. 

Wednesday afternoon Andrea went to town to attend the awards assembly at the middle school, where Sam was receiving her student of the month certificate. Then she helped Lynn on a water-witching job, locating a site of a well on Carmen Creek. The property owner wanted Lynn to put in a steel post to mark the site, and Lynn’s impaired shoulder made that impossible, so Andrea went with him to pound the post.

Lynn is now doing physical therapy once a week and some exercises at home to help strengthen his shoulder, and he’s getting more range of motion.

This past week we’ve had warmer weather—a couple days up to 50 degrees in the afternoon in spite of freezing at night. The snow is almost gone from our lower fields.

Charlie looked at old 1967 Chevrolet pickup that we bought years ago from Velma Ravndal (the elderly lady that boarded her horses here for a few years). Charlie wants to get it running again and drive it, so this will be a good project for him.
On Sunday Andrea helped me feed the cows early, then she and Robbie went up to Michael’s place to help Michael, Carolyn and Nick vaccinate and delouse their cows, and put nose flaps in the 6 big calves (late summer calves that wintered with their mothers) to wean them.

A couple days ago it snowed again, but was warm enough to melt off by evening. Yesterday and today were warm, feeling like spring. We are short of hay, however, after feeding so much during all those weeks of extremely cold weather, so we are buying 50 more big bales (alfalfa/grass) from a rancher across the valley from us. He delivered 10 of the bales yesterday afternoon. We only had one bale left for our heifers, so before Phil arrived with the load of hay Andrea moved that bale out of the way, and we took the 2 oat bales out to my horse pasture (where we will soon be moving the young cows, before they start calving). That left just one more oat bale we will probably feed to the bulls.


MARCH 20 – A week ago Saturday we moved the young cows (first calf heifers) from the lower swamp pasture to the horse pasture and orchard where we can watch them when they start calving. They are enjoying the oat bales in the feeders.

cows enjoying oat bales

We cleaned the old bedding out of the barn the next day and left all the doors open for a couple days to help the dirt floor dry out before we put new bedding in. We started training the heifers to go into the barn, using Buffalo Girl to lead them in. 

Even though the weather is fairly mild in late March through April, we sometimes get storms and snow, so we want to be able to put a calving cow or heifer into the barn if necessary. We lured the heifers in with a little alfalfa hay, to teach them that being in the barn is not scary.

We brought a big straw bale around for barn bedding and put a tarp over it to keep it dry until we use it, and took a big bale out to the calf houses in the field above the house—to put bedding in those little houses for the young calves when we have cows and calves up there.

Now that the days are getting warmer and the mud is starting to dry up—and afternoons are longer with Daylight Savings Time—Dani has been spending time here after school, working with Willow. That young mare is 5 years old this year, and still very green, since we didn’t have time to do anything with her last year. Dani has been catching her and brushing her, and we hope to start riding her again in a few weeks, to resume her training.

Dani brushing Willow

Tuesday it got up to 64 degrees. After school Charlie brought in some wood (we still need a fire in the early mornings when it’s cold) and then helped Andrea saw up a few old poles (from the fencing projects) for future firewood, while Dani worked with Willow. She led Willow around, and brushed her while she was eating out of the slow feeder.

Willow eating at slow feeder

Willow pulling out hay

The heifers are enjoying their training sessions, going into the barn to eat a little alfalfa hay. They come eagerly into the calving pen when we open the gate, and troop across the driveway to the barn. 

Lynn went to Agency Creek on Wednesday to locate water for a lady who needs to put in a well. That day Michael and Robbie finished up the horse pen project and re-hung a gate, so I could move Sprout back into her creek pen the next morning. Michael brought down the backhoe and started taking out the ancient fence along the field below the lane. That fence was old when Lynn and I moved onto this ranch in 1967 and the posts were rotting off and falling down, the net wire was saggy (we’d propped the fence up a few times with steel posts) and rose briers had overgrown it. We are rebuilding that section of fence, along with the old fence between the field and the 2 horse pens where Rubbie and Veggie lived for nearly 30 years, and where Sprout and Shiloh now live. Sprout can stay in the creek pen until we get that side rebuilt. In one afternoon the guys got nearly all the old fence and brush torn out and hauled off. The heifers in that field now have access to the ditch bank pasture and can graze the tall grass (that got snowed under last fall before they could use it). They are enjoying the extra space and grass, as well as the hay in their feeder.

heifers have access to ditchbank with fence gone

heifers eating hay at feader

Also that afternoon Phil Moulton brought us the last loads of hay we are buying from him—50 big bales, total, to make sure we have enough hay to make it through until there’s adequate grass for the cows. He hauled a couple loads to us, which we stacked by Shiloh’s pen, and 3 loads up to Michael’s stackyard.

more hay for heifers

The next morning was cold, down to 22 degrees, but warmed up by afternoon. Robbie and Nick worked on the fence and got all the rest of it taken down and hauled off. Andrea went to town for Sam’s doctor appointment/checkup physical so she can start track and cross-country this spring. 

Carolyn met all afternoon with Cindy Yenter, our local IDWR person (Idaho Department of Water Resources) and together they got the errors straightened out in the water district bookkeeping for what the water users’ assessments will be. Cindy is now more aware of the major problems we’ve had the past several years—especially last year—with one neighbor (who was the Secretary-Treasurer of our water district) trying to manipulate things, falsify water use records, and cause us as much trouble as possible. We’re hoping for a better irrigation season this year, with more oversight from IDWR and more enforcement of the locked headgate rule, so certain people can’t steal our water.

Saturday was very warm, up to 70 degrees in the afternoon. Our tractor started without being plugged in, for taking a new big bale to the heifers and loading the feed truck for the older cows. Strong winds in the afternoon made it necessary to tie the barn doors open, however, so the props wouldn’t keep falling down and the doors banging open and shut. We are still trying to get the dirt floor dried out a bit more after all the snow slid off the roof and made a slow-melting ice pile behind the barn—seeping into the backs of each stall. With the doors open and some air flow through there, it’s drying out.

Yesterday we gave the heifers another training session (going into a couple barn stalls to eat a little alfalfa hay) and sorted off a few of the earliest-to-calve cows in the field above the house. It’s easy to sort the ones we want by feeding some hay on both sides of the gate and then quietly bringing the ones we want and putting them through the gate, with one person guarding the gate to make sure we don’t get any extra volunteers.

Today Robbie and Nick sawed up the old posts and poles from our fence rebuild project, for firewood. Maybe with this addition to our dwindling woodpile we won’t run out of wood before we run out of cold weather!


MARCH 26 – We had a few warm days, up to 55 degrees in the afternoons, then it got cold again, down to 22 degrees at night. We brought a few more cows down from the field to put in the “maternity ward” in preparation for calving.

We had our first “real” calf (since the premature baby that didn’t live) on Wednesday. Zorra Rose (a first-calf heifer) calved quickly and easily—a black brockle heifer calf. It was a nice afternoon so she didn’t have to go in the barn. The calf was up and nursing very soon, and Zorra Rose was a good mom. She wasn’t due to calve until April 9th; the calf was 17 days early, but strong and healthy. Here are a couple photos of the new calf after we put her in a windbreak pen with her mom. She is checking everything out, and curious about the hay that mom is eating.

Zorra Rose - new calf

baby trying mom's hay

We probably won’t have any more calves for a day or two, but we started putting the most likely candidates in the orchard pen at night, where there’s a good yard light, and we can see them easily from the house with a spotlight and binoculars.

Our fields are drying out enough to harrow and spread the manure piles around, so on Friday Andrea started harrowing and then let Charlie do several of the fields. He enjoys driving the tractor. Yesterday Andrea harrowed the last field (below the lane, where the heifers are). The heifers thought it was great fun chasing the harrow around the field until they got tired and bored with this novelty.

A couple days ago Emily found an arrowhead while hiking, and took photos of it. This is the first arrowhead she’s ever found. There are many arrowheads and other ancient artifacts scattered around this area, from long ago when the Indians were living in this area and traveling back and forth from winter to summer hunting areas.

Emily's arrowhead

Today Andrea and Robbie burned some of the tall grass out of the ditch that serves the field by her house and started a little water through the ditch. Even though we had a lot of snow and the fields were moist for a while as it melted, we’ve had a lot of wind lately, drying things out. The grass is trying to grow, on warm days, so it’s probably time to start thinking about cleaning ditches and irrigating.



***For interesting stories about calving, baby calves and other adventures with cattle, you might like my book Cow Tales: More True Stories from an Idaho Ranch.  This book is part of a 3-book series that includes Horse Tales: True Stories from an Idaho Ranch, and Ranch Tales: Stories of Dogs, Cats and Other Crazy Critters.  These are $24.95 each and autographed copies can be ordered from me at 208-756-2841 or hsmiththomas@centurytel.net  or P.O. Box 215, Salmon, ID 83467, with a discount when all three books are purchased.