FALL 2012

SEPTEMBER 25, 2012 – Andrea and Emily had an inspiring and exciting time at the World Burn Congress in Milwaukee, Wisconsin earlier this month. They made many new friends and got very little sleep, spending most of their time visiting with other burn survivors and their families. Emily quickly got over being shy, realizing that most of the young people she met were more insecure than she was, and she enjoyed helping a few of them feel more at ease.




While they were gone that week, Lynn and I took care of the other kids. The 2 little girls had coughs and a fever so we took them to the doctor and got prescriptions for treating their respiratory infections.

Michael spent a day cleaning out all the old manure (many years accumulation!) from all our horse pens, so they’ll go into the winter without being a boggy mess.

We rebandaged Sprout’s foot several times this month, using a poultice and keeping the foot in a boot to keep the bandage clean and dry. Then we kept it in the boot awhile longer after the abscess cleared up, to protect the big hole in her sole until it fills in a little more with new horn growth.

Sammy and Dani were feeling better by the weekend, and helped us move our cattle from the field below the lane up to Heifer Hill. We didn’t want the girls to be outside very long, however, because the air is still very smoky from all the fires. We’ve had 2 months of thick smoke in our valley.


Right after Andrea and Em got home from Wisconsin my cousin Ned and his wife Pam (from Texas) came to stay a few days, on their way to his 50th college class reunion in Oregon. They stayed at Andrea’s house and ate meals at our house, and we had a good visit.

We brought the cattle down from Heifer Hill, sorted off the heifer calves into the grassy pen below the barn to wean (with their mothers right through the fence in the adjacent field) and left the steers with their mothers overnight in the orchard. Michael came with his trailer the next morning and we sorted off the steers to haul to the sale at Butte, Montana.

We left all the cows in the field below the lane for a few days until they quit bawling for their calves, then took them back to Heifer Hill—and put the weaned heifers in the orchard and horse pasture where there’s still some green grass.

Lynn and Michael took our tractor and post-pounder out to Michael Phillips’ place north of town and spent several days setting posts and building jack fence across the swampy part by the river—finishing the division fence on that property. Michael will be able to take his yearlings down there for fall pasture—trading fence work for pasture rent.

OCTOBER 8 – We actually had some rain last week. It cleared the air for a couple days, and then the smoke drifted back in; the big fire north of town is still burning.

Last Saturday Jason Beyeler hauled 2 Morgan fillies out here for us, the ones we looked at a few weeks ago at his place. We’re buying a dark chestnut weanling that will eventually be Dani’s horse, and a palomino 2-year-old for Sammy and me. The weanling hasn’t had much handling and was very shy. The 2 fillies will live together in the big pen where we kept Veggie last winter, when he was separate from Rubbie for the first time in their lives. We separated them so he wouldn’t lose weight—since his teeth were getting bad and he couldn’t eat hay as fast as Rubbie. This year they both eat slower (at age 25 and 26) and Veggie is able to eat his share, so we’re letting them live together again.

Emily spent an hour in the pen with the 2 fillies after we turned them loose, feeding them grass. Eventually Em was able to get close enough to pet them both. The next morning Dani and Sammy came down to see their “surprise” and were delighted with the new horses. They named the young one Willow and the palomino Spotty Dottie because of her dappled color. We have to patiently corner Willow to catch her, using the bigger filly to help block her escape.


The next day, Willow had a big glob of pus in the corner of her left eye. We had a vet come out and look at the eye. She had an infection, but the eye itself was ok. We had to put antibiotic ointment into the eye morning and evening for a week. The filly didn’t like to be cornered and caught so we left a halter on her for a few days, making it easy to just snap a lead rope onto it. After she got accustomed to being caught without a fuss, we removed the halter. The eye infection cleared up after a week of treatment.


Andrea and I have been handling both fillies every day, leading them, picking up feet, etc. Willow was reluctant to lead at first, so we used a rump rope “come along” and she is now leading nicely. The older filly is already trained to tie up, and we’ll gradually train the weanling to tie.



Michael took his swather out to the University Ranch south of town and cut 100 acres (3rd cutting) of alfalfa—putting it in windrows for their weaned calves to eat this fall. They’ve had problems in the past with cattle bloating when pasturing that field so they decided to cut it and windrow-graze it instead. Michael cut all night and got done by morning—just ahead of a cold spell that would have frozen the plants and diminished their nutrient quality.

We’ve been covering our little trough gardens every night, but knowing it was going to freeze harder Lynn and Andrea picked the rest of the tomatoes and cabbages.



The past several days Michael has been helping Lynn fix corral gates—the ones that no longer work properly because the frost keeps pushing the posts up out of the ground. Michael dug new post holes with the backhoe and hauled rocks to pack in around the new posts. We now have functional gates again!

Yesterday Sprout lay too close to the fence and rolled into it, sticking a hind leg under the netting and was caught there, on her back. Lynn looked out the window and saw her stuck, so we ran out to her pen and were able to pull her back away from the fence to get her leg free. We were glad she’s gentle and trusting; she didn’t try to struggle or fight when we were pulling her and flipping her over. After we rescued Sprout, we put a row of old tires along that side of the fence where she likes to sleep—so she can’t roll into the fence again.


Yesterday we put the cows in the swamp pasture above the corral, and today we brought them down to the corral at daylight and the vet came out to preg check. It’s nice to have gates that work! We vaccinated the cows and the weaned heifers. We didn’t preg check Rishira (she’s 16 years old and we plan to butcher her) or DingleBelle—the 4-year-old cow that was bulling a few days ago (we will sell her). The rest were pregnant.

OCTOBER 25 – Michael and Carolyn have been taking protein supplement to their cows and calves on the 320 and 160-acre mountain pasture to encourage them to graze the dry feed, but they ran out of grass last week. They took a few pairs out to the rented pasture north of town and brought 13 pairs down here to graze our little field across the creek.

We met our new neighbors—the 3 Amish families that bought the Maurer place around the hill from us. We’re looking forward to getting better acquainted with them.

Michael used the backhoe to tear out the falling-down side of our main corral and clean up a pile of old boards and junk behind it. He and Lynn set new posts along that side and hope to make a new hold pen in the area we cleaned out. We also had to dig a trench through the corral and put in a drain pipe, so the spring-water on the back side of the corrals won’t keep flooding the corrals. We repaired the old fence in the bull corral before Michael brought back the 3 bulls he and Carolyn borrowed this summer.

One day a couple weeks ago it wasn’t very smoky and we took Sam and Dani for a ride. It turned out to be our last ride for this year. With the very dry conditions, the dust was bad, and we came home covered with dust.


The smoke finally cleared up after some rain (and snow on the mountains). The big fire north of town is finally under control after burning more than 500,000 acres.

Andrea and I drove 800 miles to California to see my twin cousin, Kit Moser. Kit has been suffering from Parkinson’s disease and dementia, in failing health. I wanted to see her again while she still knows who I am.



We had a good visit (as good as could be expected) with her and her husband. Now I am trying to catch up on all my writing and other projects, taking shoes off the horses for winter, etc.

Andrea and I are working with the fillies every day, making up for the 5 days we were gone. Yesterday we led them a couple miles, out into the low range pasture. Lynn took a photo of us as we were leading them back home.


NOVEMBER 1 – Last week Lynn and Michael finished setting posts to rebuild the side of our big corral. Andrea helped nail up poles.



They also used some of the old pole panels (salvaged last year when we rebuilt the pens by the calving barn) to create a better fence along the lane to the lower pasture. Thick brush, fallen-down trees and wildlife travel had obliterated the old fence. Now we can let Michael’s small herd of cattle use that part of our lower pasture without risk of them getting out.

Andrea went to town on Thursday and bought a lot of instant dinners (the kind that keep at room temperature, to be warmed up in a microwave) for Michael to take with him to North Dakota. On Friday Michael helped me take shoes off Ed and Breezy and trimmed their feet, and spent the rest of that day getting ready for his trip.
On Saturday he left early morning and drove all day, and made it to Crosby, North Dakota in the middle of the night. After an orientation/training session on Sunday, he started driving a water truck on Monday, in the oil fields. He is working for Chris Bird, our local tire shop owner who has several trucks on that job, needing another driver. Michael hopes to work there all winter, to earn enough money to make some payments to the bank. We’ll help Carolyn take care of their cattle while he’s gone. He gets to come home occasionally, and plans to get their calves trucked to market and some hay hauled when he has a couple weeks off in December.

Andrea and I have been working with the young fillies nearly every day, leading them up the road, down the road and over the low range pasture—getting them used to many things. We’ve had rain and it’s no longer dry and dusty; the mud was deep and slippery on one of our hikes over the hill. We are thankful to finally have some moisture. The horrendous forest fire north of town is finally out.

Yesterday I dewormed most of the horses and today Andrea and I dewormed the rest of them. When we bought them, the two fillies were not very cooperative about having their mouths handled. For the past several days we’ve been putting our fingers (dipped in molasses) into the corner of Willow and Spotty Dottie’s mouths, to get them used to having something put into their mouths. The molasses tastes good so they didn’t resist. This made it a lot easier to administer the oral syringes of paste dewormer today.

NOVEMBER 7 – Sammy and Dani hiked along with us on Friday when Andrea and I led the fillies up the road. They enjoy helping with the fillies when they aren’t in school. They skip along and sing and chatter, and this helps get the young horses accustomed to more things. Sammy likes to brush Spotty Dottie, and lead her around in the barnyard. Emily sometimes helps lead Spotty Dottie on our longer walks.



The yearling heifer that was living with Michael’s cows and calves on our lower field disappeared. Lynn has been checking on them periodically and last Wednesday he didn’t see her. He looked in the brush but couldn’t find her. He looked again the next day, but found nothing. She might have gotten sick during the wet weather, and maybe she went off in the bushes, but there’s no sign of her. She’s still missing so we don’t know if she went through the fence into the neighbor’s place or died. We haven’t seen any magpies or smelled anything dead, however, so we are thinking she either left our field or died or got killed and totally eaten. We worry about wolves, since there have been several in our area.

We’ve talked to Michael a few times on the phone. He’s been busy hauling water, and a few loads of pipe. He’s had several problems with his truck, however, and had to fix the brakes and some of the wiring.

NOVEMBER 16 – Last week we celebrated Dani’s 8th birthday with a party at one of the pizza places in town. She invited a few of her friends for pizza, cake and ice cream. It was snowing hard that evening when we drove to town (making it hard to see the road) and still snowing the next day. Rick and Andrea went up on the mountain to get a load of firewood for one of Rick’s wood customers, and took Sammy and Dani with them to go sledding. There’s 2 feet of snow up there, and they had to chain up the truck. The girls had fun sledding and made snowmen. Rick and Andrea built a big fire so they could warm themselves and dry out their gloves.

There was a big snowstorm in North Dakota. We talked to Michael on the phone awhile when he was snowed in and waiting for the parking area to be plowed. The next day the roads were plowed but he got stuck in a snowdrift and had to shovel for several hours, moving his truck a few feet at a time. A farmer in the adjacent field, feeding cattle, saw his predicament and brought a tractor and loader to help. The farmer was unable to pull the truck with the tractor, so he used the loader to plow through the rest of the snowdrift so Michael could get unstuck—which saved 3 more hours of shoveling.

We had cold weather for a few days and now it has warmed up a little and most of our snow is settling. Andrea and I are leading the fillies again, most days, but we’ve been staying on the main road because the trails over the hill are slippery.

Christmas 2012 Newsletter

Christmas 2012 & Happy New Year 2013
P.O Box 215
Salmon, Idaho 83467

Dear friends,

We are thankful for blessings we celebrate at Christmas, and grateful for God’s love that gives us Hope, Peace and Joy–and strength to continue or complete our journeys. We are especially thankful for the many friendships that enrich our lives.

Last winter we accomplished several projects before we started calving in April. With the help of our son Michael we rebuilt several ditches, fences and pens. We didn’t have much snow; our cattle grazed until mid-February before we had to start feeding hay.

It’s been nice having Andrea and kids here on the ranch in their new house. Young Dani (just turned 8) loves the cattle, and her favorite thing is helping Grandma do chores and feed cows. She “adopted” a gentle old cow named Maggie as her special friend, because Maggie lets Dani walk up to her and feed her a bite of hay or grass.

Dani had never seen a calf born, so she made us promise we’d let her be present when Maggie calved—even if it meant getting her out of school, or getting her up in the middle of the night. She had her clothes handy in a pile by her bed, ready to jump into and come to our place.

Maggie calved Easter Sunday morning (April 8) at 5 a.m. and we got Dani down here in time to witness the birth. It was a cold, snowy day so we had Maggie in the barn. Dani and I sat quietly in the next stall, and Maggie wasn’t a bit nervous having extra people around—she just lay there peacefully and calved. Later that day (before we put Maggie and calf in the field with the other cows and calves) Dani spent a lot of time in Maggie’s pen petting the calf and the old cow didn’t mind at all. She is very tolerant of that little girl.

We spent many days repairing and cleaning most of our ditches (hiring Michael to help us rework the ditch heads with our backhoe, and hauling countless loads of rock from our upper place to rebuild ditch heads and put in headgates and weirs). Michael also finished the new road to Andrea’s house, down through our field and barnyard, and hauled many dump truck loads of rock to finish it. It now has a better slant and surface. No one will get stuck in the mud or go shooting out over the field when it’s icy in winter.

Summer was busy with riding and haying. Granddaughter Heather was home from Carroll College in Helena, Montana and trained horses all summer. Her brother Nick helped his folks on the ranch and also worked at University ranch north of town Now they are both back at school, Nick in his second year at William Penn University in Oskaloosa, Iowa on a running/track scholarship, and Heather in her senior year at Carroll majoring in the Human Animal Bond (psychology department).

Andrea’s kids enjoyed the summer, riding around in the tractor with her while she was baling hay, and riding. Samantha rides 26-year-old Veggie, Charlie and Dani ride a 20-year-old mare named Ed. We bought a 6-year-old mare nicknamed Sprout that turned out to need a lot more training before the younger kids can ride her, but she is making a good horse for Emily.

On July 5, the 12th anniversary of Andrea’s burn accident, and start of “the rest of her life”, we all went on a ride (6 miles up into the mountains behind the ranch) for a picnic. A friend came along and brought an extra horse, so we had enough horses for all the kids. Lynn and Andrea’s friend Rick drove the jeep up there to meet us at a meadow in the timber, brought all the food, and we had a great picnic. It was a wonderful way to celebrate the fact we still have a daughter, and 4 wonderful grandkids (3 of which would never have been born if she’d perished in the fire).

Late summer ended up hot and dry, with many fires. Andrea worked on a fire camp pressure-washing crew (weed-washing vehicles coming and going from the fire) at Big Piney, Wyoming and at the Halstead fire near Stanley, Idaho. It was almost as smoky in our valley as it was 12 years ago. The Mustang fire north of town threatened homes along highway 93 north toward Montana and burned more than 340,000 acres.

Andrea left the fire camp at Stanley early, and she and Emily went to the annual World Burn Congress Sept 11-16 held this year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The WBC was such a wonderful experience when Andrea and I attended 4 years ago; we always hoped to attend another one. This summer we felt Andrea and Emily should go. Em was now old enough (mentally and emotionally) to benefit from this--possibly helpful for her in dealing with issues that stem from that summer her mom disappeared and was gone for 2 months. It was also a great chance for her and her mom to do something together.

They came home exhausted and inspired, with many new friends. Emily (who is normally shy) came out of her shell and made friends among the young burn survivors. She realized they were more insecure and shy than she is, and she bonded with several of them that she plans to keep in touch with.

Now the kids are all back in school: Em 9th grade, Charlie 5th, Sam 4th and Dani 2nd grade. The youngest girls are busy with dance and gymnastics. Em, Charlie and Dani are playing hockey. This fall I got two young Morgan fillies—a weanling and a 2-year old—and the grandkids are helping Andrea and me work with them. A fun project!

Carolyn works at a local veterinary clinic and Michael has been driving truck in North Dakota (near Crosby and Williston) in the oil fields since October and came home for a short break at Christmas. Weather and roads were bad. On his way home his car slid off the icy road near Livingston MT, but fortunately just tore a tire off and didn’t roll.

While he was home he tried to get caught up on all his cattle work—hauling hay, bringing cattle home from rented pasture, hauling yearlings to the sale at Butte, Montana and preg-checking, vaccinating cows and calves.

Snow and bad weather created a challenge bringing cattle from the leased pasture to corrals for hauling—one cow slipped off the road, rolled down a 20 foot bank, upside down against the fence. They got her pulled back up to the road but she’d broken her hip and had to be butchered. Hauling hay was also a challenge but we got it safely hauled, until Michael went back to get our tractor and loader. Again, it was snowing and horribly slick roads. The truck couldn’t make it up the grade and spun out, sliding backward. The trailer with tractor slid off the road, down over a bank, landing upside down. Fortunately the twist in the tongue popped the hitch loose and the truck (with Michael and young Heather in it) stayed on the road and wasn’t dragged down off the bank, too. We are SO thankful that it was just vehicles and equipment damaged/totaled and nobody was hurt. We hold our family close to our hearts, in gratitude.

Life is full of setbacks and struggles, but we rejoice in the Love of One who continually cares for us, and leads us through the tough times as well as the good ones.

[for updates on our lives see www.heathersmiththomas.blogspot.com and to read some of my “critter” stories, see my posts on http://insidestorey.blogspot.com ] With love and best wishes from Withington Creek, Lynn & Heather Thomas

LATE SUMMER 2012

JULY 24, 2012 – Two weeks ago Andrea went to help our neighbor Bob Minor on a forest fire at Big Piney Wyoming. They are pressure washing all vehicles and heavy equipment that come and go from the fire. This is a Forest Service regulation to prevent spread of weed seeds.


She was gone for 9 days. While she was gone, Lynn and I helped Rick take care of her kids, and Emily rode with me several times to check fences and fix a couple water troughs.


Em has also been earning a little money this summer helping me sort and file articles, trim the brush around my stackyard, and other odd jobs indoors and out. For a few days she helped me flush the old abscess on Sprout’s right hind heel. That mare bruised her heel in the rocks and has been lame for 2 weeks and we haven’t been able to ride her.

Michael and Carolyn and kids chopped larkspur in the 320 in Baker Creek, so it won’t be a danger when they move their cows in there. We also need to fix the fence so the range cows won’t get in there when they get moved to the high range.

The weather has turned hot and dry. Last week we finally started haying. This was about 3 weeks later than planned, because we needed to keep irrigating some of the fields a little longer, due to shortage of water in our creek this summer. On Saturday Rick helped me move the rest of my hay out of the hay shed (and we made a little stack by the horse pens) so we can put new hay in the shed. Andrea started baling and Lynn stacked, and we got my hay shed filled again.



Lynn put the rest of the hay in the main stackyard across the creek. Yesterday Dani rode Veggie for a short ride around the hayfields while Lynn was stacking hay.


When we got done haying Andrea rode with Dani, Sam and me. Today I rode with young Heather and Carolyn while they led and rode a couple of the green horses Heather is training this summer.



I also made plane and hotel reservations for Andrea and Emily to fly to the World Burn Congress in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in September. Emily is old enough now to benefit from this experience. It will help her to better understand all the things that happened when her mom was burned 12 years ago—when her mom disappeared from young Emily’s life for the rest of that summer. Andrea and I have wanted to attend another WBC ever since our first one in 2008, but this time its best that Andrea and Em do it together. We are scrambling to find the money to send them this year.

AUGUST 5 – Friday a week ago our neighbor Alfonzo told us he saw a big red steer out on the low range. Michael was missing a steer from our mountain pasture, so the next morning Andrea and I rode Breezy and Ed and checked the low range. We saw the steer’s tracks near the far corner, and found him in some brush next to the middle range fence. He tried to go through the fence and join some range cows but we were able to get him away from the fence and around the hill. We took him 2 miles back to the 160 acre pasture where he belonged.

That evening Lynn and I went to my 50th high school class reunion dinner. We went to another get-together picnic on Saturday—and a brunch on Sunday.



Andrea helped Alfonzo and Lowell move their range cows from the middle range to the high range Sunday morning. That afternoon she and I rode again to gather more cattle the neighbors missed. Breezy worked 12 hours that day. We rode again the next day to move a few more cattle that got missed.

Michael and Carolyn moved their cows and calves into the Baker Creek side of the 320, now that the range cows and bulls are not pressing that side (they are on the high range instead). They had to take one cow home that lost her calf the night before—drowned in the new water trough. Her calf probably got knocked into the trough when the bulls were fighting, and couldn’t get out. They grafted their spare twin calf onto her. This is the calf named Opie that Michael rescued and stitched its belly back together again after the mother abandoned it and magpies ate the calf’s navel and belly skin.

Weather continues hot and very dry. More forest fires are cropping up nearby. Andrea left last week to help Bob on another fire near Stanley, Idaho (the Halstead fire). Rick has been going to the woods nearly every day to cut firewood to sell, and we’re hoping the Forest Service doesn’t close the forests to vehicles because of high fire danger. While Andrea was been gone, Em rode with Sam, Dani and me a few times.

Veggie had a close call last week. During the night the 26-year-old gelding got on his back in the ditch by the barn—in the little pen where he’s been grazing. He must have struggled awhile to get out, bruising his back and ribs, and neck. He probably lay too close to the ditch and rolled. Fortunately he was able to get out, or he would have died, stuck on his back. I gave him bute for several days (dissolved the pills and mixed them with water and molasses). This helped ease the pain, swellings and inflammation. He was feeling better enough that Sam was able to ride him again yesterday and today, on short rides. She loves that old horse and I’m glad he survived!



AUGUST 17 – Sprout got over being lame and Em started riding her, but the mare still gimps on that foot once in awhile in the rocks. We may have to give her more time off to completely recover from the stone bruise.

We loaned Michael and Carolyn our big flatbed truck to haul hay for their horses, but yellow jackets had built a nest in the driver’s door—which made an interesting challenge getting in and out of the truck without getting stung! Michael had to spray the nest.

Nick drove back to Iowa last week to start his second year of college at William Penn University. He has a running scholarship, and went a couple weeks early for cross-country practice with their team.

Andrea drove home late one night after working on the fire at Stanley, to see the kids briefly, then left at 4 a.m. the next morning to drive back to work. She hopes to do that again tomorrow night; she’s been on that fire now for 18 days and is really missing the kids, and they miss her.

On Saturday Michael helped me put new shoes on Breezy and Ed. We’ll wait on Sprout to see if she gets over her foot problem—before we put new shoes on her. Yesterday and today Michael helped Lynn and Rick set posts for a new fence.

Granddaughter Heather left for college yesterday—her final year at Carroll College in Helena, Montana. She and 2 friends are renting a small place not far from town where they can keep their horses. Michael and Carolyn will haul Heather’s horses over there tomorrow.

Yesterday Sam and Dani rode with me in the morning before the smoke from the fires got too thick, and today Emily rode with us also. We try to ride in the mornings before it gets so hot and smoky—we hope to do a few more rides before school starts next week. Where did the summer go?



AUGUST 26 – Andrea is still working on the Halstead fire near Stanley. It’s still burning out of control (approaching 100,000 acres) and the firefighters are trying to contain the portion that’s threatening people’s homes along the highway and the river. While Andrea’s gone, Lynn and I have been taking care of her kids. The girls have been riding with me, and helped move the cows to a new pasture. Lynn took 11-year-old Charlie to his hunter safety field day and he passed all his tests. A friend took Emily and another young hockey player to hockey camp for a week in Portland Oregon. Emily enjoyed that experience and placed 2nd in the speed-skating.

Last Saturday a week ago Andrea drove home from Stanley (a 3 hour drive) late in the evening—to have a chance to see the kids—and drove back again in the early morning after only 2 hours sleep. We were afraid she might be too tired to drive, so Rick went with her. On Sunday Lynn and Charlie drove to Stanley to get Rick, and Charlie got to see the fire camp where his mom does the power washing, and he got to ride in a pumper truck. Dani and Sam helped me wrap birthday presents for Charlie.

On Tuesday we moved the cows again—up to heifer hill—after taking them to the corral to sort out the bull and leave him in the corral. Sam and Dani enjoyed riding Veggie and Ed to help move cows.


Sam and Dani helped me bake a birthday cake for Charlie. Andrea drove home Thursday night, to surprise Charlie for his birthday. We had a late dinner and invited Jane Minor to come for cake and ice cream. It was wonderful having Andrea here briefly again, and she left at 4:30 the next morning to drive back to Stanley.



The girls rode with me to check the cows in their new pasture, but it’s been so smoky these past few days that we didn’t ride again. It’s hard on their lungs to be out in the smoke, especially with their asthma and breathing problems.


Emily got back from hockey camp yesterday, after stopping at the fire camp at Stanley on their way home. She visited briefly with her mom in between truck washings. We had a thunderstorm this evening but it wasn’t much moisture. The lightning started a few more fires.


SEPTEMBER 4 – The kids started school last week. With Andrea still gone, working on the fire, Lynn went to the kids’ teacher meetings and orientation and got the information packets for Andrea to fill out. Emily helped us get their school supplies.

Emily went for one more ride with me the day before school started—since it was less smoky that day. She rode Breezy, since Sprout is still lame. I cleaned out Sprout’s feet that day and discovered that she’s starting to shed the frog on the lame foot.

Lynn has been using oxygen at night and this past week he started using a C-PAP machine (that keeps the airways open when a person with sleep apnea stops breathing while snoring). It may help keep his oxygen level from dropping so low at night.

Emily has been helping get the kids to bed early, and up early for Lynn to take them to the school bus. Andrea drove home Wednesday evening, and the road was closed right after she went through—due to smoke and no visibility. She spent a couple hours searching through her papers to find Emily’s birth certificate, which she needs in order to get a photo ID for the airplane flight later this month to the World Burn Congress in Wisconsin.

The next morning Andrea signed the necessary forms for Emily’s ID, and went to school to meet with all the kids’ teachers. She left at noon to drive back to fire camp at Stanley. The road was still closed but they let her through because of her job there.

Meanwhile, the Mustang fire the other side of Salmon has been steadily growing, threatening some of the homes and ranches along highway 93 north. Our valley is filled with smoke from that fire.,br>


On Saturday we took shoes off Sprout and cleaned her sore foot again, and found it’s oozing serum from the area under the point of the frog. We thought we got the earlier abscess cleared up (that broke out the back of her heel) but there must still be some infection. We scrubbed up the foot and put another poultice on it, and wrapped it—and put a protective boot over the wrap.



Our range neighbors who have cattle on the Forest Service above our BLM allotment have been rounding up their cattle early—to get them out of harm’s way in case of fire. Their range burned after a lightning strike in July 2003 and they lost some cattle in that fire. They want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Yesterday evening when we did chores, we heard a calf bawling down below our field across the creek. Lynn drove out there with his 4-wheeler and discovered that one of our calves had gone through the fence out to the range, to join some of the neighbor’s range cattle drifting homeward. So we called our cows up the hill toward the fence, and their bawling attracted the calf back up the fence to our herd. Lynn cut a couple wires and let the calf back through, then put the wires back together. We’re glad our cows and calves are gentle and easy to handle. We took them to a different field until the range cattle are no longer going back and forth along our fence.

SEPTEMBER 11 – This past week the smoke has been so thick we can’t see the hills around us; it’s like heavy fog. The Mustang fire north of town continues to grow—now up to 281,000 acres burned. It’s the largest fire in the U.S. right now, and larger than the Clear Creek fire that burned here 12 years ago. Most of the people living along highway 93 north have been evacuated, and firemen are trying to protect the buildings.

Last Thursday we changed the poultice and boot on Sprout’s foot, and again on Sunday—and by then we were able to see part of a wood sliver sticking out from under the frog area, and pulled it out. It was a greasewood thorn about 1 ½ inch long, jammed into the bottom of her foot at an angle. That’s probably why the infection never did clear up. Now that we have it out of there, her foot can get better. We put a new poultice and bandage on it.,br>
Andrea came home from the Halstead fire on Sunday to get ready to leave for the World Burn Congress. Michael and Carolyn branded the last of their late calves, and borrowed our other bull to put with a dozen late-calving cows on the upper place. They hauled him up there Sunday afternoon in their trailer.

Andrea and Emily left Sunday night to drive to the fire camp at Stanley, where a fellow from north Idaho wanted to do a video about Emily the next morning—with interviews before and after her experience at the World Burn Congress.



After filming the first segment at fire camp, Andrea and Em travelled to Boise yesterday evening, stayed with my brother overnight, and this morning he drove them to the airport at 5 a.m. They are off on an exciting new adventure!

SUMMER 2012

JUNE 1, 2012 –It’s great to have our two oldest grandkids home from college for the summer. Young Heather finished her 3rd year at Carroll College this spring (still with straight A grade-point) and is again helping her folks on the ranch--and training horses for various people as an additional summer job.
Grandson Nick finished his 1st year at William Penn University in Iowa, where he has a scholarship from the track/cross country program. He plans to go back again this fall (the athletic program offered him more scholarship money, to return, since he’s one of their best runners). This summer he is helping his folks with irrigation and fence-fixing, and working part time at the University Ranch on the other side of town.
Last week our son Michael helped Lynn put in one more weir, so all our ditches now have headgates and weirs for measuring water. The heifers got out of the swamp pasture again, so we put them in the little pasture by the house overnight, then put them with the cows and calves in the field below the lane. A few days later Lynn walked around the fence in the swamp pasture and found where they’d gotten out. Someone had cut the wires—where the fence goes through the brush—to make a trail for deer. The person who vandalized the fence also cut the wires on one of the gates.
Andrea and I have been riding nearly every day (even on cold, rainy days) to check gates and fences on the range and to put a lot of miles on April Sprout—the young mare we bought at the horse sale for Dani. We take turns riding her and our old dependable mares (Ed and Breezy). On a couple of rides Emily rode with us.


Sprout is interfering badly, however (hitting her right hind fetlock joint with her left hind foot), so we started using protective “boots” on her hind legs. These help; the bloody raw area where she kept striking her fetlock joint is starting to heal.

Michael spent a few more days hauling rocks and finished putting the final surfacing on Andrea’s driveway behind her house. We had cold, windy weather, and a little rain—with snow in the high country. Andrea’s friend Rick went up in the mountains to cut wood and got his pickup stuck in 10 inches of new snow. Lynn and Andrea drove up there in our jeep and took him some chains and he was able to drive out.
Yesterday we went to Emily’s 8th grade graduation ceremony at school. That afternoon when Lynn was irrigating in the field above the house he found the carcass of a freshly killed deer. This morning Andrea and Rick saw a young wolf traveling up through the field but didn’t have a chance to shoot at it.
This afternoon we took Sammy and Dani for a ride—with Sam riding 26 year old Veggie and Dani riding Sprout. I rode Rubbie for the first time since she injured her stifle joint a year ago, and she seems sound again (finally!) on that hind leg. Maybe she will be sound enough for short rides this year.

JUNE 24 – Andrea and I helped Alfonzo and Lowell (our range neighbors) move their cattle from the low range to the middle range pasture. Their friend Bob missed a bunch of cattle in the area below our 320-acre pasture where he was gathering cattle, so Andrea and I moved them the next day. Two of Alfonzo’s cows had just calved (one calf was only about an hour old when we found him and his mother) so we left them behind—and went back a few days later to move them. These past 3 weeks we’ve been riding nearly every day to put more miles and training on Sprout—checking (and shutting) gates, fixing water troughs and fixing fences. One day was so windy it nearly blew us off the mountain.


Granddaughter Heather is busy training several young horses for various clients. She also spent a couple days riding Gus (the 9 year old gelding that bucked off the fence posts during our packing project, building fence last winter). Andrea and I rode with her the first day, and Dani rode with the 3 of us the second day, on Sprout. She was delighted to be able to ride with her older cousin.

Michael and Carolyn went to several cattle auction sales this month and bought some pairs, some pregnant cows, and a few yearlings. They paid reasonable prices at the Montana sales; that region has been very dry this spring and short on grass, and some ranchers are cutting down their herds. We’ll loan Michael and Carolyn our 2 yearling bulls this summer to breed their cows. They will be using our upper place (the meadows, and the 320 and 160 acre pastures). This past 2 weeks they’ve been rebuilding and adding to the little corral on the upper place, so they can brand and vaccinate the cattle, and Rick has been helping set posts.
Last week Rick and Andrea drove up into the 320 with her little jeep and sawed out the down timber that was blocking the jeep road. Rick also sawed out the brush along the fence in our swamp pasture so we could fix the fence where someone cut the wires.
I put front shoes on Rubbie so I can continue to use her on short rides without her getting tenderfooted. Andrea and I took all the kids for a ride over the low range—with Dani on Sprout, Emily on Ed, Charlie on Breezy, and Sam on Veggie. We made several more rides these past few days, and the kids are all doing better with their horsemanship.



Michael and Carolyn’s new cows are calving. One cow had twins and abandoned one of them. Michael found it the next morning, nearly dead, with its belly torn open by magpies that had been eating the navel cord. He brought the calf home, fed it colostrum by stomach tube, gave it antibiotics and Banamine (an anti-inflammatory drug), and sewed up the belly. The calf is doing much better now, and living in their basement until they fix a pen outside.
Yesterday Michael put new front shoes on Sprout, and put new hind shoes on her today. That mare is getting much better about having her feet handled.
JULY 10 – Michael, Carolyn and kids got their cows and calves branded/vaccinated, and moved them to the 320 acre pasture. Michael, Lynn, Rick and Lynn worked for several days putting in a new water trough in the fenceline between the 320 and 160. We had an old water trough there for many years, but after the earthquake in the early 1980’s, that spring went farther underground and there wasn’t much water for the trough.
Lynn water-witched at that location and discovered that the water is now 7 feet down, so Michael dug down to it with the backhoe. They put in a new springbox and water line, and a new trough—and now it’s running about 2 gallons per minute. A week ago Saturday young Heather, Andrea and I drove to Leadore and up Holly Creek to a cow camp to look at a mare for sale. She’s had several owners and her current owner had sent her to the range riders at the cow camp to put more training on her but they discovered that she was totally inexperienced. She’s about 7 years old and still very green. After the range riders realized how green she was (hasn’t been ridden), they knew they didn’t have time to work with her.
The price was cheap ($400) and we decided to gamble on her—and I am hiring young Heather to start riding her. So now “Angel” (the name Dani gave the mare) is at Heather’s training corrals as a pupil for the next few weeks. Heather has been saddling and bridling her, ponying her out in the hills, and has ridden her a few times in the round corral, and so far the mare is doing well.
This past week Andrea and I took the kids on several rides. Then on Thursday we did a “picnic” ride 6 miles up into the mountains behind the ranch. Lynn and Rick met us up there with the food (in coolers) in the jeep. We tied the horses to trees and had a really nice picnic in the forest, then rode home again.

This was a very special event, marking 12 years since Andrea’s burn injuries on the night of July 5, 2000. With this ride, we were celebrating her survival and the fact she was able to go on with her life. We are grateful for being able to do this as a family, with 3 little grandkids that would never have been born if she’d perished in that fire. Our “picnic ride” was a fun and special day!