Diary from Sky Range Ranch - August 20 through September 5, 2017

AUGUST 26 – We’ve had a lot more hot, dry weather and the creek is dropping every day.  We’re now down to just part of our water right, in using only one ditch.

Jim has been working long hours in his shop and finished the lovely two-shelf entry table he was making, and Andrea took photos of it.

Jim's entry table

entry table

table -bottom shelf

table top

He is hoping to sell the antler lamps and furniture that he creates.  Anyone interested in his antler lamps and tables can contact him at 775-346-0054 (cell phone).


Now that they’ve finished the boundary fence on our lower place (much of it jack fence, so posts won’t loosen in the wet ground)….

jack fence boundary

 …our family fencing crew can tackle some of our internal fences that are old and deteriorating.

On Monday Michael and Nick rented the hydraulic post pounder from Sy Miller again, and set all the posts for the new fence between the lower back field and the little pasture by the creek.  The old fence they tore out was one we built in 1967 and most of the old posts were rotting off.

That was the day of the total solar eclipse.  Lynn washed off the face-screen of one of his welding helmets and he, Michael and Nick used it to safely watch the eclipse.

Lynn watching eclipse with welding helmet

Andrea, Robbie and kids were still camping at Lone Pine and stayed one more night so they could watch the eclipse; it was a total eclipse where they were camping, whereas it was only about a 97% eclipse here at the ranch.  It didn’t get completely dark, but the light was dim and the temperature dropped about 15 degrees for a short time.

Afterward, the traffic on the highway all afternoon was nearly bumper to bumper; thousands of people came to our remote area to watch the eclipse.

The next day Andrea, Dani and I rode out through Gooch’s Basin to go up the ridge to the 320 and out onto the high range, for Willow’s 11th ride (and first ride this year with 2 extra horses).

Andrea on Willow and Dani on Ed, starting up the ridge

We rode up through our 320-acre pasture and checked to make sure no range cattle had gotten in.  We hope to save that grass for our own cows after we sell their calves.  Here are photos of Andrea and Dani riding through the 320.

riding through the 320

Going up through the 320

We went on up into the high range and continued up Baker Creek a ways and there were too many cattle in there; the grass is all eaten.  The folks who use the range now (since we sold our range permit) don’t ride often enough to monitor the range and the cattle, and the range and the cattle have all suffered.

We gently moved the lowest cows a little farther up the creek, in hopes they might go out on the hills above—where there’s a little more grass.  This was Willow’s first experience following cows.  Here are photos of Andrea and Dani moving the low cows up, showing how little grass is left on that part of the range.

moving cattle up Baker Creek

Andrea & Dani moving cows

We then rode out through the timber to the ridge and came down into the south side of the 320 and down the road.

Phil Moulton brought the first loads of hay we are buying from him, and stacked it in the hold pen next to Shiloh and Sprout.  It will be handy there again, for feeding the heifers this winter.

the hay Phil hauled to us

round bales stacked

On Wednesday Nick and Robbie put poles along the bottom of the net wire on Willow’s pen, to keep the wire from curving up where Willow has tried to push through to eat grass on the other side of the fence.  They also moved the hot wire that was on Breezy’s side of the fence so that it sticks out on Willow’s side as well.  Now both horses can reach under it far enough to keep the grass trimmed clear away (not growing up tall on Breezy’s side and temping Willow to try to reach it through the netting) and yet they won’t rub on the fence.

hot wire on both sides & pole on bottom of the net wire

While I was taking a photo of the fence, Willow came to see what I was doing, so I took a photo of her, too.

Willow

That afternoon Andrea and I rode for 2 hours (Willow’s 12th ride)—a fast ride across the low range over Coyote Flat and up into the middle range and up the 2nd gully.  We stopped to let the horses drink at the water trough partway up that gully.  Here’s a photo of that trough, and Willow learning how to drink out of it.

trough in 2nd gully

Willow is learning how to drink out of troughs on the range

We went on up the 2nd gully, which is a steady climb…

Andrea riding Willow on up the 2nd gully

Then as we came on up toward the bear trough (named because our neighbor Galen Kossler years ago found a bear taking a cool-off bath in the trough) we discovered that a bear had very recently been eating chokecherries in the grove of chokecherry trees halfway between the two troughs.  Branches and trees were broken down, and many piles of fresh bear poop were evidence of the recent feast.  The evidence was so fresh (leaves still drifting down off the broken trees) that we decided not to go on up the draw—in case the bear was still around and just ahead of us.  Instead we went back out on the open hillsides and over to Crawley trough and back to the low range and home.  Willow is starting to get in shape; she made that trip fairly easily and we did a lot of trotting where it wasn’t too steep.

That evening we had an early birthday party for Charlie and had a pot-luck dinner at Andrea’s house.  His birthday wasn’t until the next day, but the kids had to go back to their dad that day, so we celebrated a day early.  He got some school clothes and a couple “gift certificates” from us—for a future tank of gas for his pickup, and a future “mystery” surprise gift that I ordered, which hasn’t arrived yet.

Yesterday Nick and Robbie rebuilt the old broken jack fence in the bull pen.  Over the last few years the bulls have rubbed on it and fought and pushed each other into it, and since the poles were getting old (built in 1993) some of them had broken.

new fence in bull pen

We didn’t ride yesterday (too many other things to catch up on) so today Andrea and I took Willow and Dottie for a short loop up the ridge and around to the salt ground across Baker Creek (for Willow’s 13th ride) where we met Alfonso with a pack horse, packing more salt to the high range.   Then we hurried home so Andrea could drive to Rexburg to watch Dani’s cross-country meet.  Lynn went to town to do the town errands and meet up with Edna and Ed (his older sister and her husband) who were driving through Salmon.  They also met up with sister Jenelle and all had lunch together in town, and had a good visit.


AUGUST 31 – Last Saturday Jim finished the fancy bluebird house he was building, and I took photos of it when Jim brought it in to show us.

bluebird house

Jim's bluebird house

It has a handy door for cleaning it out, with door latch made of antler, and Jim did some meticulous decoration above the bird hole, using turquoise.

Jim unlatching the door that opens for cleaning the inside

turquoise above the door hole

Andrea and I made a short ride on the low range that afternoon—Willow’s 14th ride—and when we went down off the ridge to the Baker grove we spooked a cow elk.  She apparently thought we would ride right on by (because she could obviously hear us talking as we approached); she didn’t move out of the brush where she was hiding.  But when we started across the bottom end of the grove, to cross the trickle of Baker Creek in the gully, we were coming right toward her—which she didn’t expect.  She burst out of the bushes, crashing through the trees, which startled our horses—especially Willow, who has never seen an elk up close.  Willow jumped and looked around, bug-eyed, then stood there trembling and watching the elk—who paused to look at us and then trotted over the hill.  Once she realized the elk was leaving, Willow settled down and just watched with intense curiosity as we followed the same trail and then went down the jeep road to finish our short loop.

On Sunday Andrea and her dogs changed the irrigation water early, then she and Robbie put several of the old small bales in the bulls’ feeder.  That afternoon Andrea and I rode Dottie and Willow and went up Baker Creek on the high range.  This was Willow’s 15th ride and her longest ride so far (4 ½ hours).  On our way through the 320 we found a calf of Alfonso’s in our pasture, and a bull hanging down on the gate.  We got the calf out our place and took it and the bull farther up the creek to join up with other range cattle, and pushed that group a little higher.

Willow following a few cows and calves up Baker Creek

As we went on up Baker Creek we discovered a dead calf (belonging to John Miller) that looked like it had been run into a big tree.  The hindquarters and brand were already eaten.  The ear tag was still intact and that’s how we know it was Miller’s calf.

dead calf by tree

We don’t know if it was killed by wolves or a cougar, or if it simply staggered into the tree and died from respiratory disease.  Several calves out there are coughing and having respiratory problems—probably from all the dust and smoke, and the stress of hot days and cold nights (perfect weather for pneumonia).

We rode a little farther up the creek, and found another dead calf, right in the creek, only about 30 feet from where a calf was killed last year by wolves.  This calf was freshly dead, still limp and not stiffened up yet, and we couldn’t see any signs of trauma.  It may have died of pneumonia rather than killed by predators.   I held Willow while Andrea checked it more closely, and picked up the head to read the ear tag.  It belonged to John Miller, too.

second dead calf

We rode on up the creek and out to the ridge to check the Cat Hole trough at the top of the ridge.  There were thirsty cattle around it, and no water; the pipe into the trough was only dripping.  It looks like that spring isn’t running enough now to keep ahead of the cows or else the flow has cut down because the float at the trough got broken off and the valve sticks shut.  These new troughs that got put in last year by the BLM and the range users have a very poor design for our type of springs.  There’s less to go wrong if you don’t have to depend on a float.  Our water developments always worked nicely without a float.

We rode over the top and Andrea led Willow down the steep hill to Peach Pit trough, which isn’t working at all because the cattle have broken the plastic pipe that goes into the trough.  Again, there were a bunch of thirsty cows hanging around the trough.  I wish those guys would ride often enough to check troughs, find the problems and fix them before the cattle have to suffer from lack of water!

We rode down Withington Creek and found no cows in that canyon, but lots of tracks and horse tracks.  Millers and Alfonso had pushed them out the day before, and over the top into Baker Creek, which overloaded Baker Creek (where there’s not enough feed or water).  This is a shame, because there is a lot of grass on the Withington Creek side of the mountain.

We got home late and fed the horses late.  I called John Miller to tell him about the dead calves, and mentioned to him it might be wise to put some protein supplement up Withington Creek.  The grass is so dry this year that the protein level is much too low, and the early-season grass the Forest Service planted after the 2003 fire is worthless after it dries out.  It’s like straw, with very little food value, and the cows don’t even want to eat it.  They just want to come home.  On a dry year like this one, a protein supplement would make a big difference and those cows and calves wouldn’t be losing weight.

That evening I took photos (through the window) of a young mule deer fawn in our front yard.  The fawns are still pretty small for this time of year and still have spots.

fawn in yard

mule deer fawn

Monday was hot again, up to 86 degrees.  Robbie and Nick have been working on my brother Rocky’s fence along the road by his new house.  Andrea went to Idaho Falls to her first appointment with the new pain doctor (her old one retired).  This new doctor has never had a burn survivor patient before, and was intrigued by some of her problems with contracted scar tissue and hopes to try to help her.

Tuesday the temperature was up to 90 degrees.  We checked on the cows, and since they were running out of grass on the back field, we let them into post pile pasture.  I had just started typing another article (to meet one of my deadlines for a horse magazine) and the power went off for 2 hours (big disadvantage of a computer compared to my good old typewriter in years past!)  I called it in, since it seemed to be only our creek, and the power company guys came out to find the problem.  This time of year it’s usually due to huge flocks of blackbirds as they eat the chokecherries, group up in preparation for migrating south, and land on the power lines.  When several hundred birds take off, the wires flap and hit each other and short out, blowing the breaker fuse down at the mouth of the creek.

Andrea and I rode 4 hours that afternoon, Willow’s 16th ride.  We went to Baker Creek again and killed a big rattlesnake in the 320.  The dead calves are nearly all gone, eaten by predators, and the cows were a little spooky (maybe leery of the cougar or wolves that have been eating on the calves). We rode up through the timber and I took a photo of Andrea and Willow.

Willow heading up through the timber

We rode over into Basco basin and discovered that trough wasn’t working either.  The pipe was broken off and the water running out on the ground instead of into the trough.  This probably happened right after the cattle were all jammed in there when the Amish and Alfonso moved them all into the high range from the middle range in one day.  With only one water source it couldn’t handle that many cattle and the thirsty cows ganged around the trough and probably broke the pipe.

I held Willow and Andrea fixed it.  She used my leatherman knife to cut the plastic pipe and use a different elbow from an old piece that was there, put it together and got it running into the trough again.  Then she put a lot of poles, boards, and rocks on the eroded area where the cows have been stepping on the horizontal pipe on the ground, so they won’t break it.  I took photos of her piling rocks, etc. over the pipe to protect it, after fixing the trough.

Andrea fixing Basco trough

piling stuff on pipe to protect it

We spent about an hour there, fixing the trough, then came home through middle range and were late with chores.

Earlier that day Michael hauled Miller’s mini excavator up the creek and let them go through our 320—and showed them how to go across the top to get around the steep draws and timber.  Yesterday they drove it on up there to work on Witteborg spring, which is only a few drips, but they were hoping to dig it out enough to capture all the water in a springbox and pipe it down to a tank for their range cattle.  They wanted to do it last year, but we advised them not to, because there’s not enough water there to service a trough, but the BLM manager wanted them to do it.  We felt it was foolish to try to develop a poor spring that would only be an enticement to thirsty cows to hang there in that corner by our 320 instead of going on around to Baker Creek—where there is a really GOOD spring that we developed a long time ago, but which they’ve allowed the old trough to rust out and it doesn’t hold water anymore.  It needs to be replaced, and that spring would water more than 100 cows, like it always used to do.

On our way home we saw another dead calf—that very recently died—on the hillside below that spring.  This one belonged to Alfonso, and it looked like it may have died of pneumonia.

Early this morning my brother Rocky called to say he saw another dead animal just above the cattle-guard on the road by his house.  Michael and Carolyn drove up there to check on it and saw that it also belonged to Alfonso, and probably died of pneumonia.  This has been a really bad year for those cattle out on the range, especially this fall with hot days, cold nights, lots of smoke, and all the dust from dry conditions.  The dust and smoke irritate the respiratory passages, and the stress from temperature extremes hinders the immune system.  This makes those calves more vulnerable to respiratory infections.

We had a similar situation one really dry year during the 1980’s when we had daytime temps up to 90 degrees, dropping into the low 40’s or high 30’s at night.  Three of our biggest steer calves got pneumonia out on the range that year, but Andrea and I were riding every day and we discovered them when they first got sick.  We were able to gently bring them down off the mountain to our upper corrals and treat them—and we saved them all.

This afternoon we moved our cows into the field by Andrea’s house.  We have only a couple more green pastures and are hoping they last long enough for the cows and calves; we don’t want to run out of good green forage before we sell the calves.  After that, the cows can do fine on drier pastures, when they aren’t producing milk.

Andrea and Robbie drove to Mud Lake to watch Dani’s cross-country meet.  She did well, coming in with the first group of runners (in the first 20, out of more than 120 runners).


SEPTEMBER 5 – On Friday Michael, Nick and Robbie tore out all the old falling-down fence between heifer hill and the field below it, so they can start rebuilding that fence.  It was built in 1967 and had been patched in a few places, but was basically worn out and some of the posts were broken off.  Cows are hard on a fence, rubbing on it, and we’ve also had herds of elk crashing over it and knocking posts over.

After she finished irrigating, Andrea and I made a short, fast ride over the low range—Willow’s 18th ride.  We just made a loop down through the bentonite dunes, across Baker Creek (totally dry now) and up the old jeep road and home.

Andrea on Willow going through dunes

Willow is starting to get in better shape and doesn’t wear out as readily, and her respiration rate doesn’t stay so high so long after exerting (climbing hills or doing a long fast trot).  She’s starting to become a real horse!

We had to get home quickly so Andrea wouldn’t be late to get to town for an MRI on her shoulder.  The new pain doctor she went to last month wants to figure out all the problems with that shoulder (damage from the burn injury and the contractures from skin grafts that have pulled everything out of place) to see if there’s anything that could be done to relieve some of those problems and pain.  She won’t know the results of the MRI for a few days.

On Saturday it was hot again (90 degrees).  Michael used the backhoe to repair the creek bank next to the field below heifer hill, where high water keeps eating away the bank, undermining our fence and threatening to remove the base of support for the power pole that carries the power line over to Andrea’s house.   He created a more gradual bank so create a watering area for cows when they are in the field below heifer hill and used the extra dirt and rocks to bulk up the area of the bank that has been washing away.

repaired bank

That morning, before it got too hot, Jim helped Lynn take out all the steel posts that we used for the temporary electric fence to divide the field below Andrea’s house.  That fence enabled the cows to graze the portion below the ditch and not get into the hayfield.  Now that the hay is harvested and the grass has grown back a little, we let the cows have the whole field to graze, and took the fence out.

Andrea and I had planned to do another ride (since Willow needs a lot more training rides this fall before we have to quit for winter and bad weather), but Andrea sliced her finger while irrigating, pulling debris out of the ditch.  A stiff, sharp blade of dry grass caught her grafted finger and sliced deeply through the skin at the joint.  It was bleeding profusely so she used her shirt to wrap tightly like a tourniquet to slow the blood flow until she could get home, clean it up, and have Sam help her super-glue the separated skin back together at the finger joint.  Not wanting to risk tearing it open again, we didn’t ride (since she still needs both hands and four reins on Willow).  That young mare will have several days off while the finger heals and while Andrea is gone for a few days.  She and Robbie and the kids left later that afternoon to drive down to his folks’ place near Idaho Falls, where they stayed overnight and then took the kids to the State Fair at Blackfoot the next day.

On their way to Robbie’s folks place they were delayed a bit, stopping to help a guy along the highway who had run out of gas.  They took him a can of gas and then had to help him start his truck again; he’d run the battery down with his flashing lights.

That afternoon a couple of Miller’s cows came through the bad fence along the county road by Rocky’s house.  Miller’s and Alfonso’s range cattle are coming down into Alfonso’s leased hill pasture next to Rocky’s place, and are trying to come on home.  The two cows that came through the fence traveled down the road to Michael’s place, and went into his yard.  Michael and Carolyn took them back up, and Alfonso put a pole through the worst of the hole to make a temporary patch in the fence.

Jim caught the pack rat that was creating havoc and bad smell in the old trailer house he uses for a shop.  He had tried poison, and several kinds of traps, with no luck, so he bought a small cage trap and put an apple core inside it—and the rat was tempted to go inside.  Jim brought the cage over by our house to show us the rat.  Here’s a photo of the rat, and of one of our cats intently watching it in the cage.

cat watching rat in cage

pack rat in cage

We reset that trap in Lynn’s old shop, across the driveway from our house.  There’s been a pack rat in there for a long time and Lynn gave up on trying to catch or kill it, but that night it took the bait and got caught in the cage trap.

Sunday was very smoky and it stayed smoky all night.  Michael put new hind shoes on Dottie and Sprout.  I’ll put their new front shoes on later.  The old shoes were worn out and their feet were getting long; it was definitely time for new shoes.

On Monday Michael and Nick rented the post pounder from Millers again and set all the posts for the new fence between heifer hill and the fence below it, and yesterday Nick and Robbie put on the wire—until they ran out of staples.  They hope to finish that fence today.  Here’s part of the new fence.

new fence

Monday morning we had visitors from Minnesota—Bob Cheney and his daughter Carey.  Bob is the grandson of Laura Cheney who was originally a Bartlett.  Her parents homesteaded part of our upper place in the early 1900’s, and there is still evidence of the old root cellar, some old lilac bushes, and the cabin foundation (the cabin itself was later moved to the lower part of the ranch my dad bought).  Laura married a Cheney (they homesteaded the little ranch adjacent and below the Bartlett homestead) and planted the maple trees that still stand along the ditch at upper end of that place.  Cheney Creek, the little stream that comes through the south side of our upper place was named for the Cheneys who homesteaded part of the ranch my dad bought in 1955 from Ida Witteborg.  One of the Cheneys also homesteaded what is now our 320 acre mountain pasture.

We first met Laura Cheney and her son in the late 1960’s when they came out to see the old homestead, and then later her grandson and great granddaughter came to see the place and we showed them around.  They wanted to come back again, so it was nice to see them again and have a visit.  We showed them the old abstract of title that includes the original homestead papers that stated Arthur Cheney was granted title to the land (from the Forest Service) in February of 1916.

Yesterday was the first day of school for the kids and Charlie drove them to school in the old Velma truck he restored.  It’s nice that he now has a driver’s license and can drive to the bus or to school!  Andrea and I rode Willow and Dottie 3 ½ hours for Willow’s 19th ride and went up through the 320 and into the high range.  We encountered 2 rattlesnakes but didn’t stop to kill them because they were in thick sagebrush.

The range cattle are losing weight because they’ve eaten all the grass in Baker Creek and are not grazing much on the mountain between Baker Creek and Withington Creek; the grass is completely dry, with no protein—like eating straw.  They are also short of water. The new trough Millers and Alfonso put in next to our 320 isn’t working; they dug out the old spring with Miller’s excavator, but it didn’t have enough water to service a trough.  Some cows were there trying to get a drink but there was no water.

cow trying to drink

empty trough

While we were there Andrea tightened her cinch on her saddle, and fixed a broken wire in our fence, tying the broken pieces together with baling twine.

Andrea tightening Willow's cinch

Andrea fixing broken wire in fence

Then we drove the group of very thirsty cows back up around to go to Baker Creek so they could get a drink.

moving the cows up around the 320 so they can go to Baker Creek

Diary from Sky Range Ranch - June 21 through July 22, 2017

JULY 1 – We had hot, windy weather but didn’t get started with haying quite as soon as we’d hoped. It took awhile to get all the machinery ready.

Andrea and I made a long ride on Sprout and Dottie last Wednesday after I trimmed Willow’s feet. We checked some of the troughs on the range and Andrea got Crawley trough working again; the spring-box had plugged up again. I held her horse while she took off the spring-box lid and unplugged the holes so water could run into the spring-box.

Andrea uncovering the spring-box so she can unplug the intake holes

Then we rode on up the ridge and I took another photo from the ridge above Crawley, looking out over the valley.

Andrea on ridge above Crawley trough

A couple days later we rode up Baker Creek on the high range and were pleased to see that the little creek is still running a strong trickle in spite of the hot weather, and the grass in the canyon is still green. Many years by now it’s fairly dry.

Andrea riding up Baker Creek on high range

It was so wet this spring that there are wild iris growing in one of the meadows in Baker Creek and they are blooming now.

riding past a patch of wild iris

We stopped at the trough near the head of Baker Creek (the lower Cat trough) and Sprout got a drink. We were pleased to see that our pipe/splice fix from two years ago is still holding together and that trough is still working!

Sprout drinking at Lower Cat trough

Then we took a swing through upper Basco before going back into the middle range to come home. I took a photo of Andrea as we headed down toward the Basco Trough but when we got down to that trough we discovered that the in-pipe was split and no water was going into the trough. 

Upper Basco

The next day was cooler and very windy; it only got up to 70 degrees. Andrea turned off a couple of our ditches to start drying up those fields for cutting hay. That evening she and Robbie went to town to watch Dani’s soccer game. Dani has enjoyed playing soccer this year; she’s the only left-footed kicker on their team and she makes a fair share of the team’s goal points.

Dani playing soccer

On Friday Dani’s friend Sekoya was here for the day and helped us move our cows down to the field from the hill pasture. Dani rode Ed, I rode Dottie, and the rest of the crew (Andrea, Lynn, Charlie and Sekoya) were “foot soldiers” going up the road on 4-wheelers to head the cows the right direction when they came down off the mountain, and going ahead of them to block various “wrong directions” on the way home. Our cows move very easily, but the calves don’t always know the way if it’s somewhere they’ve never been before.

After we got them moved and the horses unsaddled, Dani jumped on Ed bareback to ride her back to her pen. Dani is pleased that she’s now tall enough to swing up onto Ed’s back just holding onto her mane.

Dani riding bareback on Ed

Charlie and Robbie changed the oil in the swather and got it ready to go. Andrea and the girls put up a fake hot wire across the stackyard and we put Buffalo Girl and calf and George and his mom in the upper end of the stackyard to eat the tall grass before we stack hay in there.

Saturday I checked on the cows in their pasture and patched the fence in the brush by the creek, where trees had fallen over it and mashed it down. I put a few branches in the hole and tied them there with twine until we can fix the fence for real. We don’t want our cows crawling through into the neighbor’s field.

Lynn put air in the swather tires that morning and cut the hay on heifer hill and the field below it. Charlie drove up to Rocky’s place for the ham radio gathering, and enjoyed talking to people all around the country. He has his own radio now.

Michael and Carolyn brought their trailer down—to bring the yearling bull we bought from them and to haul their 2-year-old bull home (that we wintered here in the corral with our 2-year-old bull). Their bull didn’t want to go into the alleyway to get in the trailer, and ran by us several times. Michael finally had to let their yearling bull out of the trailer (that came along as company for our yearling bull) and then load the two together. The yearling he hauled here for us was not happy in the back corral with our 2-year-old bull and crashed over the jackfence into a side pen. Andrea and I patched the fence and the little bull settled down with his new buddy.

The next few days were hot (good hay-drying weather). We had to work on the little John Deere tractor (the one we turn hay with) to get it started. Robbie and Lynn worked on it and Andrea and kids helped me move the rest of my hay out of the hay shed so we can put new hay in it. We made a stack over by Sprout and Shiloh’s pen and by Willow and Breezy’s pen, and tarped those stacks. 

Tarped stack by Sprout's pen

Tarped stacks by Willow and Breezy's pens

The kids also helped bring the water troughs home from the hill pasture on the flatbed truck, and the girls helped me get the tall grass away from the hot wire along the horse pasture and field next to it so we could turn that hot wire back on again without it shorting out. We put the cows in the field above the horse pasture and turned the bull out with them, and put the 10 heifers in the orchard and put the yearling bull out with them.

Monday Dottie wasn’t feeling well—a little dull and not eating much hay. I took her temperature but it was normal. She wasn’t colicky, just dull. I put her in the front yard to eat grass but she only nibbled at it—not her usual greedy self at all. She wasn’t passing much manure, and what she did pass was firm and dry. I had our vet come out to check her because I was afraid she was impacted. She still had good gut sounds, however, and the vet thought maybe she had ulcers—and ordered some ulcer medication, but also took some blood tests.

Andrea baled heifer hill that evening, just ahead of a rain storm, and Robbie took the stackwagon up there and got it hauled. The last load wasn’t a full load so we just parked the stackwagon under my hayshed. We had a hard rain and some terrible wind. It blew some of the windrows away on the field below heifer hill, and piled the hay against the fence.

I put Dottie in the calving pen in front of the house for two nights, under the yard light, so I could watch her. She didn’t eat much, was periodically uncomfortable, but never down and out colicky. Her blood test results were all normal, but she didn’t have much appetite, wasn’t passing very much manure, and was eating dirt. She finally started passing manure normally by the 3rd day and then was back to normal. I gave her ulcer medication for 4 days, but by then she seemed to be doing fine again. I’m not really sure what ailed her, but it was good to see her feeling well and eating with her usual vigor.

Dottie feeling better - eating her hay again

Some of the bales we hauled from heifer hill were damp and we didn’t put them in my haystack because they would heat up and might burn the stack. We opened them up so they could dry out instead of heating, and not mold, and I’ll feed those first. 

We had more rain showers on Wednesday so we weren’t able to turn or bale hay. By yesterday afternoon the hay had dried out enough again to turn it (so it would dry more fully) and today Andrea got it all baled. Lynn turned the hay in the field below the lane, in hopes we can bale it tomorrow.


JULY 13 – Last week we baled and hauled the rest of our hay, filling my hay shed and stacking the rest of it in the stackyard across the creek (to feed the cows next winter). Robbie worked on the stackwagon a little more and put more teeth in the baler. We managed to get through this haying season without any major machinery breakdowns. All of our equipment is getting old (like us!). We bought the stackwagon (used) nearly 20 years ago and all of our tractors are more than 40 years old.

When Robbie took the stackwagon down to the back field to start hauling hay (while Andrea was finishing the baling), he got stuck; there’s a muddy area where you pull into the field. But since it wasn’t loaded with hay yet (which would have been several more tons of weight) and only one front tire was down in the mud, Lynn was able to pull it out with the little tractor (with the turner rake on it) and we didn’t have to use the big tractor Andrea was baling with.

Some of the hay from the field below the lane was a little wet when we baled it, so we opened up those bales over by Sprout and Shiloh’s pens, and I will feed those before I start feeding the tarped stacks or hay from my hay shed. 

wet bales opened up and spread out to dry

We finished the haying Thursday evening. Andrea was baling the last of it and Robbie hauled it (and Lynn stacked it in my hay shed). I cooked a big supper for the whole family and got chores done, and Charlie brought the girls home from their week with their dad, since everyone here was too busy to go to town to get them. It’s handy that Charlie has a pickup and a driver’s license! Emily stopped here on her way home from work and joined us for supper.

Friday it got up to 95 degrees, with threat of thundershowers. Sam and Lynn helped me tarp the two loads of hay sticking out from under my shed. 

tarped hay at the end of the shed

We moved the heifers and yearling bull to a new pasture and put the cows and their bull down to the pasture part of the field below the lane.

Saturday was very hot, with thunderstorms and lightning. This made it more risky for the 199 marathon runners doing the 50 K and about 100 runners doing the 100 K run along the continental divide across the valley from us. This is the most rugged terrain of any marathon in the world, and people from all over the world come to try it. With the heat this year, and high altitude, many of them didn’t finish. Local people helped with the check points along the ridge; Andrea, Robbie and the girls helped with the first checkpoint for the 50 K run (manned by the cross-country/track team and coaches). Grandson Nick had been preparing all spring and summer to run in it again (like he did last year) but he fell several times and hurt his feet and legs (suffering from tendonitis) and had to pull out of the run.

Here at the ranch we had a lot of lighting, rain and horrible wind that afternoon. The wind really tested our tarping job on my little haystacks. I’m glad we had them tarped or the top bales would have been soaked.

Heather and Gregory sent us a cute photo of baby Joseph wearing one of the little shirts Andrea gave him.

Baby Joseph

Sunday morning about 25 range cow pairs came over the hill and headed down into Alfonso’s hayfield but he saw them in time to head them off. Then he saddled his horse and took them back to the range. The gate in Baker Creek (between low range and middle range) was open and they’d come down through it, and came home.

Robbie and Michael put a new weir in one of our ditches and cemented it in so that it will work properly and not wash out or shift (and read wrong) like it has in the past. Nick was laid up for a couple days with his tendonitis and micro-fractures in his feet, so Michael used the backhoe to do the digging to install the weir.

With the hot weather our creek is steadily dropping, but we are trying to keep juggling and adjusting the water so that the 1st right (Jack), at the mouth of the creek doesn’t get short and call for water. Last year, with the manipulations by Bob Loucks (who did everything he could to get our water shut off or cut down early—putting our creek into regulation earlier than it ever had been, for no reason) the water master came out many times, and cost us all a lot of money. Alfonso decided to try to work with us this year instead of against us, cooperating on the use of our shared ditches. That way we can try to keep the water going longer, and not have the water master come out as much. He and Andrea also decided to not have a lateral water master on our shared ditches (which will also save money). So far, we’re getting by ok, trying to work together, and Jack hasn’t been short of water yet.

On Monday Nick started helping Michael and Robbie again on their custom fencing projects, even though his feet are still very sore. It’s just going to take a lot of time for them to heal.

We have a young doe with a fawn and an older doe with twin fawns living here 
and they often wander through the yard and barnyard. I snapped this photo as the mom and two babies went past the house and across the bridge.

doe & fawns

Emily has been busy making plans for her wedding; she and Sam and Dani went to Idaho Falls on Monday to get some of the things she needed. The girls are going to be in the wedding party as bridesmaid and flower girl. 

That afternoon Michael and Carolyn moved their cows down from the 320-acre mountain pasture, bringing them down to the green fields on the upper place. There’s still grass on the mountain, but it’s drying out and no longer high enough protein content so it was time to bring the cattle down. The calves will gain more weight (and the cows will milk better) on the green feed. This year their fields are still green because they haven’t had to shut off their irrigation water yet. Last year Bob Loucks, with his manipulations trying to shut their water off, had succeeded in making them turn off their water early, and their fields were dry—which cost a lot of money in lost weight gain on their calves. Mr. Loucks hurt himself by doing that, however, because his trespass water development (up into our place, to add more water to the system that supplies his house water a quarter mile away) also dried up; there was no sub-water coming into his system from our place. He’s also never understood that if we keep the irrigation water going at the top of the creek (our upper place) it is reused multiple times on down the creek and also helps keep the groundwater “full” so the creek doesn’t drop so fast in late summer.

On Tuesday Charlie’s best friend Cayson was here for the day, and the two of them moved the electric fence along the ditch pasture—taking out the steel posts and moving the fence out into the cut part of the field so the tall grass won’t short out the fence. Now we’ll be ready to put the cows back there when they run out of grass below the lane.

Today Andrea made 4 big pans of lasagna for Emily’s wedding dinner and put them in our freezer. Robbie, Nick and Michael started working on one of Alfonso’s ditches that needs a new headgate and weir. Then Robbie helped Art Turner (who owns the 15 acre piece that Loucks rents for horse pasture, who comes here for a month each summer with his camper trailer) with his well pump. It quit working last week and Robbie and Andrea helped him pull it up out of the well. He got a new one and Robbie helped him install it, and now Art and his wife have water again.

Andrea helped create a hot wire fence so we could put Buffalo Girl, George’s mom and their calves in the tall grass behind the barn, to eat that down before we park all our haying equipment back there again for winter.

I made a special card for Emily for her wedding gift, using a couple of old photos of her when she was not quite 3 years old.

JULY 22 – Last Saturday we moved the cows to new pasture and Jim brought his trailer out here to park it near the shop he created in the old trailer house. He’s moved back here from the job he had in Kentucky and will be staying with Emily and Robert or at Andrea’s house, and working here in his shop.

Andrea found a huge rattlesnake in one of our ditches when she was irrigating. We have lots of snakes this year.

On Sunday when our Amish neighbors were hurrying down the road to go to church at the Amish place around the hill, their buggy wheel came off, so one of the guys came to get some bolts from us to fix the wheel.

Robbie helped Michael finish the cement base for the new headgate and weir they put in for Alfonso’s ditch below our place.

Carolyn put together a spreadsheet showing how much the water master cost per trip out here (how expensive Gary was last year compared with the former watermasters during the past 3 years). Gary came up the creek last week-- the first time this year-- checking weirs for no reason; the creek is not short of water yet—there is plenty for Jack’s 1st right-- but Jack and Bob are eager to put us in regulation.

It was a sad day last week when Michael and Carolyn had to put down their old dog Tuff. He was 13 years old and dying of cancer. Tuff was one of their best cowdogs through the years and was just a pup in 2003 when he and his littermate Tiny helped rescue all their cows off the range just ahead of a terrible fire.

Here’s a photo taken several years ago of Baxter (Tuff’s younger brother) and Tuffy following granddaughter Heather’s horse on a range ride.

Baxter & Tuffy

Monday evening Mike Boyott came by from Tennessee to visit us. He is a professional photographer and took photos here at our ranch in the early 1980’s for the New Holland News cover and my article on calving.

Sam and Dani have been helping Emily make decorations for the wedding. 

Tuesday night a cow was bawling just before we went to bed. Andrea and I hiked up to the swamp pasture with flashlights to see what the problem was and found that Rosalee had a big udder. We brought her and her calf down to corral thinking the calf might be sick, but he was bawling too (very hungry). The next morning in the daylight we could see that the cow had mud caked on her udder from going through the deep bogs, and her udder was sore. She wouldn’t let him suckle. So we put her in the headcatch, washed off the thick mud, milked her out, and put vaseline on her teats but she still wouldn’t let him nurse. By the next morning, however, her udder wasn’t so sore. The calf had nursed and all was good, so we let them back up with the other cows and moved the herd to the next pasture.

Ned and Pam got here that evening from Texas. They flew to Salt Lake the night before, then rented a car and drove here, staying with Andrea for several days. That evening we all had dinner at Andrea’s place.

Charlie went up to Michael and Carolyn’s to get instructions for feeding the dogs and house-sitting at night while they and Nick are gone to Canada. They left early yesterday morning and will be gone a few days visiting Heather and Gregory and celebrating their first wedding anniversary. 

Yesterday Andrea helped us move the heifers and bull to the post pile pasture and put Buffalo Girl and calf and George and his mama on the ditchbank pasture above the horse pasture. Pam and Ned helped Andrea and Sam make a bunch of salads and desserts for Emily’s wedding dinner. Lynn and I made a huge potato salad. Robbie, Charlie and Jim loaded up 22 bales of hay from our stackyard and took them to Kolemans to create benches (with boards over them) for the outdoor wedding, then they all went to the Elks Hall in the evening to decorate it for the wedding dinner.

Emily’s friend Audra (best friends since they were in kindergarten, and they played hockey together for many years) came for the wedding to be her maid of honor, and then learned that her boyfriend Tristan had been in a serious accident. He was a truck driver, and his truck got broadsided by a big milk tanker truck—and Tristan was life-flighted to a hospital in Boise. Audra left immediately to drive to Boise to be with him, but he died before she got there. Yesterday she drove back here, bravely going ahead with her promise to Emily to be her maid of honor.

Today was Emily’s wedding and we were grateful for good weather. Even though it was hot, it was not windy, and there were no lightning storms like we’ve had many afternoons lately. The decorations were lovely and Em was dazzling in her beautiful dress. Jim walked her down the grassy “aisle” and Emily’s friend Jeremy did the wedding ceremony.

Jim bringing Em down the aisle 

Em & Robert

Here’s another photo of the newly married couple, and Jeremy, who married them, and Audra, the maid of honor:

married

Here are candid shots of grandpa Lynn giving Em a hug, and a proud papa (Jim).

Em & grandpa

Jim & Em

After the wedding, Lynn and I hurried home to do chores and heat up one of the big frozen lasagna pans from our freezer, and took a lot of the food in our pickup for the dinner that evening at the Elks Hall. Pam and Ned helped with the food preparations in the kitchen. 

Here are photos taken just before the dinner, of Emily and Robert, and Emily and her dad, Jim.

Robert & Emily

Emily & her dad

It was a lovely wedding, a wonderful dinner, with dancing afterward. Here are photos of Em and Robert on their first dance, and photos of Em dancing with her dad:

Em & Robert dancing

Em & Robert

Em dancing with her dad

Jim & his daughter Em

Partway through the dancing they cut their cake:

the cake, made by good friend Anita

Robert & Em cutting the cake

Lynn and I brought home leftover food to put in our refrigerator, and brought Charlie home to house-sit at Michael’s place. Everyone was exhausted, but grateful for a wonderful day.