Ranch Diary: November 7 - December, 2014

NOVEMBER 13 – Saturday was colder—down to 22 degrees.  Two of the heifers managed to crawl into the calf houses (where they sheltered this spring as babies), even though they are too big for the doorway!  One of them was able to get out on her own but I had to shoosh the other one out because she thought she was stuck.  Andrea and Dani came down at noon and we rode to the 320 to check the cows.  Dani helped us move the low ones back up the ridge to the high grass.   

Then we rode down Baker Creek to check on the water.  It’s running more than usual this fall, and even though the ground was frozen solid in that shady canyon, the little creek was still open and accessible for the cattle to drink. 

On Sunday we didn’t ride; Andrea and kids and Robbie drove to Idaho Falls for his niece’s birthday party.  Lynn and I went to church, and visited with friends afterward, including our new neighbor, Kera, that we just met.  She’s the daughter of a good friend who lived a couple miles down the road from us—who died suddenly last winter of a heart attack.  He left his house to his daughter, and she recently moved here.   

Weather turned cold and windy that evening by the time Andrea and kids got home that night—with blowing snow on Gilmore Pass.  Monday was cold and windy all day, with some snow, so we didn’t ride.  Andrea and Robbie drained the hose and emptied water troughs at the upper corral so they wouldn’t freeze up.  Michael and Carolyn were on the road, coming all the way from Iowa where they’d visited awhile with Nick at his college.  The artic storm moving down across the country was hitting the Dakotas and Montana so they chose a more southerly route to come home, through Wyoming and up to Idaho.  Instead of stopping at a motel they drove straight through, hoping to beat the worst of the storm.  They drove for 22 hours and got here at 4:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, exhausted after driving through wind and bad weather. 

It was 12 degrees here that morning and never got much warmer.  Later in the day after they’d rested and caught up with chores Michael and Carolyn drove their little truck up to the 320 and checked on the cows and the water situation.  With all the wind and cold, Baker Creek froze up, so they opened the gate and brought the cows down to the lower half of that pasture, with southern exposure and more sunshine where they could use the water trough next to the 160 acre pasture.   

A few years ago we dug out that spring with the backhoe and put in a deeper spring-box to collect more of the water, and buried the pipe to the trough.  The water comes out of the ground fairly warm (55 degrees) and the pipe doesn’t freeze.  We have to take ice off the top of the trough in really cold weather, but the water keeps running. 

It got down to zero that night (probably the equivalent of 10 to 15 below zero with the wind), so yesterday Michael and Carolyn were busy trying to get a few more things taken care of—taking shoes off some of their horses and moving the horses to a better winter pasture, and taking panels out of the creek at their water hole before they freeze in solid.  Lynn drove his 4-wheeler up to the 320 (bundled up against the bitter wind) to break ice on the water trough for the cows.   

There is still a lot of feed in that pasture and the cows were still happily grazing.  They are on the sunny side of the mountain instead of the shady, frozen canyon, with they have some places to get out of the wind.  The water trough had a small open area where warm water comes into it, but the ice was 2 inches thick on the rest, so Lynn broke it into pieces and shoveled it out.  Michael and Carolyn’s horses on the other side of the fence also use this trough, but don’t use it as much when there’s snow, preferring to eat snow. 

On his way home he stopped to check on the builders at Rocky’s house site who were pouring concrete for the back wall of the basement—and covering it with straw to keep it from freezing as it set up. 

This morning it was 4 below zero, but the wind stopped, and it was much more pleasant doing chores and breaking ice out of all the horse tubs and for the weaned heifers.  What a difference the wind makes!   When Lynn drove up to the 320 this afternoon he didn’t get as cold, and the ice was only 1.25 inches thick on the water trough.  This afternoon it warmed up to 16 degrees, but a snowstorm is coming in.  If it snows very much we’ll have to bring the cows down. 

Michael, Carolyn, Andrea and Robbie drove their pickups up the creek today to get some firewood.  We have a lot of pine wood hauled and split but no fir to mix with it.  The fir produces more heat and holds a fire longer in the stove.  During cold weather it’s nice to have some fir, so they are hoping to get a few loads before we get a lot of snow.  At this point the jeep road up the creek is bare, but will get treacherous if it snows. 

NOVEMBER 23 – We had cold weather for about a week (below zero F) and worried that we’ have to bring the cows home from the 320-acre mountain pasture.  Even though Michael and Carolyn let them through the gate into the lower end—where the snow wasn’t as deep—Lynn had to drive up there every day with the 4-wheeler to break ice on the trough, and most of the grass was snowed under. 

After one snowstorm the cows were all down by the bottom gate, wanting to come home, and Lynn could see that they hadn’t been up to the water trough for 2 days—no tracks in the snow since he’d broken the ice the day before.  He drove down to the lower gate to check on them and they were just waiting there and not grazing.   

So that afternoon Andrea and I went up there on the 4-wheeler and Carolyn joined us on hers, and we drove up there to chase the cows back up.  We were bundled up with coveralls and scarves on our faces in the cold.  When we got up to the trough, the cows had climbed up to it from the lower gate and were drinking.   

That saved us some time and effort to bring them up to that level; we only had to herd them on up to the top of the next basin.  We made sure they all had a chance to get a drink, then started herding them up, on foot.  After we got them started, Andrea skirted around the herd and got ahead of them and called them, and they followed her up the hill.   

There was more grass above the cross-fence, even though the snow is deeper, so she opened the gate and led them on up into that part, below Preacher’s Spring.  Carolyn and I brought up the rear, and once the cows were all through the gate and starting to graze—rooting down through the snow to the grass—Andrea slipped back around the herd and we hiked back down the mountain.  We left that gate open so they could come back down the water trough, since Baker Creek was probably still frozen. 

A couple days later, all but 4 cows were back down again, discouraged by the deep snow and cold weather.  I went up with Lynn that day on the 4-wheeler to break ice on the trough, to move the cows back up again in case they were down.  

 After getting all the ice off the trough, we drove down to the bottom gate where the cows were standing around, hoping for hay.  Lynn called the cows and led them back up the mountain with his 4-wheeler and I followed them.  

We let them drink at the trough, then took them on up through the next gate again.  He was able to drive his 4-wheeler partway up there, and hiked the rest of the way, calling them.  After they got up into the better grass they spread out again, grazing. 

On our way home we saw the Power Company putting up poles for my brother’s new house, putting in the power line to the house site.  The building contractors were finally able to put in the foundation and pour the concrete, but the rest of the construction will have to wait until warmer weather in spring. 

The next day Andrea helped us and we herded the cows back up again.  When they come down for water they haven’t been climbing back up to the good grass. 

During the coldest weather Andrea helped me with morning chores for a week, breaking ice out of the horse tubs and the heifer’s water tubs.  Any water left in their tubs at night froze solid, so it was a chore to break ice daily before we could water them.   

The creek here at home had thick ice on it.  Our neighbor Alfonzo was trying to get a couple of his ditches shut off before he went south to Mexico for the winter so there wouldn’t be ice flows down over his fields.  He hadn’t shut the headgates clear down this fall, and they were frozen in place, with water leaking underneath.  He thought he could pile some gravel against them from the creek channel but everything was frozen. So he had Sy Miller bring their tractor/loader up to move some dirt, but it got stuck in the creek.  They came to our place to ask if we could take our tractor up to pull it out, but we weren’t able to help.  In this cold weather our tractor would have to be plugged in for at least 8 hours before it would start, and we’d also need chains on the tires to get around.  They were able to find another neighbor with a backhoe that would start. 

They still weren’t able to get the ditch shut off, and it was going to create an ice flow and flood another neighbor.  Alfonzo had to leave to go to Mexico, so Lynn offered to take a look at it and realized that the problem was simply water leaking under the headgate.  All we needed to do was bar down through the frozen mud and remove the obstruction.  Lynn started on that project, then the next day Michael finished the job, getting all the frozen gravel out from under the stuck headgate.  He brought dry dirt down in his pickup, and shoveled it in above the headgate and packed it down, and got the water stopped. 

Michael, Carolyn and young Heather spent several days hauling hay (small bales) that Heather bought for her horses and for the horses she’ll be training next summer.  They had to get one stack hauled right away—purchased from some people on the other side of town—because the elk were coming down every night and eating it.  The snow and cold weather have brought the elk down out of the mountains and into many people’s haystacks.  Andrea and Robbie helped them haul a few loads on Andrea’s pickup. 

They also spent several days cutting and hauling more firewood from up the creek.   With Andrea and Robbie helping, they were able to saw and load enough wood in an afternoon to fill 3 pickups.  After several days’ hauling, we all have enough wood to see us through the winter. 

With this cold weather, deep snow, and frozen water troughs, the missing bull that Alfonzo wasn’t able to find decided to come home off the range.  He showed up in the field below our place after the 3rd day of bad weather. 

Emily had an elk tag and a late-season deer tag, and went hunting several days with her dad, but they didn’t get close enough to the elk for her to shoot one.  She did get her deer, however, in the field next to Andrea’s house.  She’s a good shot, like her mom. 

On Thursday the weather moderated and the temperature actually got above freezing during the day.  Lynn and I realized that some of the places in Baker Creek where the water springs back out of the ground would be free of ice and the cattle would be better off in that part of the 320-acre pasture again (and we wouldn’t have to keep chasing them up to better grass).   

When we found them all down at the lower gate that day, we took them back to Baker Creek (Lynn leading them with the 4-wheeler and me bringing up the stragglers on foot) and shut the gate so they couldn’t come back to the lower Basin.  They will be better off up there now that they can drink again in Baker Creek.  Even though the snow is deep, there’s a lot more grass.  The cattle can hike in and out of Baker Creek to water. 

On Friday the editor of our local paper interviewed me, to do an article about my new book Horse Tales.  She wrote a nice review and told me she enjoyed reading it.  I am glad the book came out before Christmas; it solved the question of what to give to family and special friends this year! 

Anyone who wants an autographed copy can order one from me (see details on earlier blogs, or call 208-756-2841, or email hsmiththomas@centurytel.net).   

I also have copies of some of my other horse books and cattle books, and my book Beyond the Flames, if someone wants autographed copies.  I also have some of my Dad’s books to sell (his series of Meditations from the High Country, which include By the River of No Return, Wild Rivers and Mountain Trails, Sagebrush Seed, The Open Gate, and Short People Need a Tree to Climb, along with his historical novel Murder on the Middle Fork). 

Yesterday the weather started warming up and rained a little instead of snow.  We’re glad we stuck it out through the cold weather and didn’t bring the cows home to start feeding hay.  If we have some moderate weather they might be able to stay on the 320 for several more weeks.  We didn’t check them that day, however, because it was too slippery to drive up there safely on the 4-wheeler. 

The rain stopped for a few hours yesterday afternoon so Michael came down and helped me take the shoes off Sprout, Ed and Dottie for winter.  He did Dottie last, and she waited her turn tied to the fence. 

Just as he was finishing Dottie’s hind feet, another storm blew in, with strong wind gusts, and she got nervous, but he was able to finish trimming her. 

Andrea took Emily to her hockey tournament this weekend in Idaho Falls, and we fed the other kids meals here.  Lynn stayed with them at her house those nights.  Today he and I drove up to the 320 again on his 4-wheeler and checked the ice along Baker Creek.  There are several places now that are ice-free, where the cattle can drink. 

DECEMBER 3 – Our weather warmed up and the snow settled.  The cows are happily grazing again, rooting down through the soft snow to the green regrowth that’s about 5 inches tall.  This will add enough protein to their diet to augment the tall dry grass.  Even though we got several more storms and new snow, it keeps settling and isn’t very deep. 

Last Monday Andrea caught Rishiam again—first time since her last ride on him November 8 when the weather turned bad.  She worked with his feet a little, rasping the clinches off the nails in preparation to try to get his shoes off.  He’s still not very cooperative about having his feet handled, but she plans to work with him a lot this winter to try to get him more trusting. 

Last Wednesday Michael and Carolyn hauled the last load of horse hay for Heather.  She is in Canada for a couple of weeks visiting her friend Gregory (who has a grain farm in Saskatchewan) and his parents. 

The next day Robbie went with Lynn on the 4-wheeler to check the cows on the 320 and they were all spread out grazing and doing well.  Andrea and I worked with the horses, handling Rishiam’s feet and rasping them a little bit to trim them. 

Then she left him tied awhile as we worked with 3-year-old Willow and trimmed her feet.  That evening we had Thanksgiving dinner at Andrea’s place. 

We finally located some straw to buy (to mix with the alfalfa hay for the cows this winter).  We thought we had some located earlier this fall, but that deal didn’t materialize, so we asked Andy Wagoner—the rancher near Lone Pine who sells us alfalfa hay—if he knew of any straw.  He found some that he’d be able to haul to us soon, and we hoped to get it accomplished while our driveway was thawed out and not too icy for his son Heath to get in and out of here safely with his big truck, and not have to put chains on it. 

Another big storm was predicted for the weekend, so Andy and Heath brought our straw on Friday.  The roads were perfect, with no ice/snow, our driveway was bare for the first time in a month, and there was still enough frost in the ground for him to turn the big truck around in the hold pen near our stackyard without sinking in and getting stuck.  Michael brought his 4-wheel-drive tractor down here to unload it, and they went back for a second trip.  We got it unloaded just before dark, and before the storm hit. 

We had several inches of new snow, but the weather stayed warm and it soon settled.  That first day of the storm, however, Alfonzo’s cows broke into his haystack on the Gooch place.  We called Millers (who are tending Alfonzo’s cows while he is in Mexico this winter) to let them know.  A couple of the Miller boys came up and patched the stackyard fence. 

We borrowed a wood splitter and Robbie and Andrea used it to split part of our wood and some of Michael’s.  Andrea finished cutting up Emily’s deer and grinding part of it into hamburger. On Monday Lynn drove his 4-wheeler up on the 320 to check on the cows and they are still spread out and doing well.  I finished writing our Christmas letter, early this year instead of late!

November/December 2014

Last Monday morning Lynn and Michael hauled the 2 open cows and one of our yearling bulls to the saleyard at Butte, Montana. We kept 3 bull calves last year, but it turned out that we only needed 2 of them, so we sold the extra one.

Andrea and I rode Sprout and Dottie that morning, and met Carolyn at the upper place. She had already gathered the cows into the corral, just before we got there. We helped her prop up and tie together a fallen-down fence and brace post for the gate next to the road (that the neighbors’ cows crashed into earlier this fall when they brought their cows down the road after they rounded up off the range). Ralph the goat helped fix the fence, and at one point tried to climb up on the prop Andrea set against it.

We took our cows up the road to our 320-acre mountain pasture to spend the rest of the fall. The grass is really good this year, with the rain we had earlier in the fall, with new green regrowth amongst the tall mature grass. I took photos of Andrea and Carolyn as we moved the cows into Baker Creek, and Dottie got her head in one of the photos.

After we got back home, Andrea and I made a shorter ride—on Rishiam and Dottie—since this will be the last time she has a chance to ride him until she gets back from the World Burn Congress in California. She and Emily spent the evening getting packed and ready for their trip.

At chore time I gave the weaned calves a little hay, mainly to start gentling them and get them used to people. Our calves are already pretty gentle because they’ve seen us a lot, but Michael and Carolyn’s calves spent the summer on our mountain pasture and are not used to seeing people up close. The next morning when I fed them again, our calves came eagerly to the hay and others were not so scared and followed them.

That morning it started raining. It was a downpour by the time Andrea and Emily left here to drive to California. It rained most of the day. Carolyn and I had planned to ride and check the cows we’d put on the 320, and Lynn was going to take some salt up there on his 4-wheeler, but it was too wet and slippery. During a brief let-up in the rain, Michael and Carolyn went up on 4-wheelers just far enough to get a look at the cows and make sure they were doing ok and hoping none were trying to come home to their calves. Thanks to the nose-flap weaning of their calves, and the cows already drying up, none of them were very upset about being moved up there and they were doing fine.

Wednesday we moved the weaned heifer calves into a larger pasture. They are gentling down and were easy to move. It was still too slippery on the mountainsides to safely ride up to the 320 to check the cows, but the jeep track wasn’t bad, so I went with Lynn on the 4-wheeler when he took salt, and we checked the cows on foot. Andrea and Emily made it to Anaheim (for the World Burn Congress) by late afternoon, in time for the Walk of Remembrance. They were among more than 4000 people doing the walk to honor friends, relatives, firefighters and others who have perished in fires. Later that evening they met up with many friends they met at earlier WBC gatherings and talked with some of the firefighters.

Yesterday Lynn took Sam for her appointment at the hospital for an ultrasound of her abdomen to check her old hernia repair (the doctor wanted to check it because she’s been having discomfort). Later that morning he had to drive to town again to pick up all the kids. There was a gas leak at the school and they were closing school early and sending all the kids home.

Carolyn and I rode to the 320 to check on the cows. It was still muddy and slippery from the rain 2 days earlier, but not as bad. When we started up Baker Creek, a young cow and a yearling heifer were bawling and coming down the creek. They were quite upset, and when they saw Carolyn’s dog they ran on past us and down to the bottom. I rode down to get them, and took them back up the fence along the ridge while Carolyn rode up Baker Creek to see if there were any more cows coming down. There were no cows up there—just a bear! He was in the timber above the jeep road, and scared her horse as she rode by. The rest of the cows were out on the mountain. Apparently they’d all come in to water at the upper end of the pasture, and then gone back out—except for these 2 that must have gotten separated from the others and scared by the bear. Hopefully he won’t stay in our pasture. Dani and I rode this morning to check on the cows and move them again, since Carolyn has to work at the vet clinic.

NOVEMBER 1 - Andrea’s kids cleaned their rooms and cleaned up the house to surprise their mom when she got back from the World Burn Congress in Anaheim, California. Andrea and Em had a wonderful experience. The first evening, they participated in the walk of remembrance. The next 3 days were filled with inspiring speakers, other burn survivors sharing their stories and the struggles and high spots of their various journeys.

Featured speakers included Mark Nepo--a cancer survivor, poet and philosopher who talked about finding inner courage. Robert David Hall (who stars as Dr. Al Robbins in the CBS series CSI –Crime Scene Investigation) inspired the audience by sharing his journey as a burn survivor, after being seriously burned—and losing both legs--in 1978 when an 18-wheeler struck his car, which exploded. Another speaker was Justina Page, a delightful person that Andrea and I met at our first WBC in 2008 in North Carolina. Justina was severely burned some years ago, dramatically changing her plans for life. In her speech she used extraordinary humor and wisdom, challenging her listeners to live bold, purposeful lives filled with hope, faith and compassion.

Various workshops throughout the 4-day event focused on dealing with stress, alternative healing and self-care, self-compassion, reclaiming your life after a burn, etc. One workshop focused on choosing happiness (pain is inevitable after a burn but misery and happiness are optional). There are ways of make healthy changes to find happiness. Andrea and Em spent most of their time reconnecting with friends they met at earlier WBC gatherings, and meeting new ones—the WBC is one great big support group in which they help one another and celebrate life after a burn.

After the WBC was over on Sunday, Andrea and Em started their trip home, but made several stops along the way to visit friends and relatives. They made one detour down to San Diego to see Emily’s friend Eduardo. Emily met him at an earlier WBC when he was a new burn survivor, struggling to adjust, and they became good friends.

He had planned to drive to the WBC this year but his car broke down and he didn’t make it. So Andrea and Em drove down to San Diego to see him.

Then they drove north to Sacramento and visited with Ray (my cousin Kit’s husband; Kit is my twin cousin, who died earlier this year). He was glad to see them, and delighted to finally meet Emily.

They left his place late Monday night and drove as far as Reno, Nevada to stop for a few hours of sleep before heading on home.
During the week they were gone, we helped take care of the younger kids and Robbie took them to and from the school bus on his way to and from work. On Saturday Lynn took another block of salt to the 320 on his 4-wheeler.

It was too foggy in the morning to ride and check the cows, but the fog lifted a little by mid-afternoon so Dani and I made a fast ride on Ed and Dottie to see the cows.
On Sunday Lynn shut off all our ditches—before the weather gets colder and they start freezing up. The next day we let the weaned heifers into the little pasture above the orchard, where there is a lot of green grass regrowth.

Tuesday I rode Ed up to the 320 to check the cows and most of them were down on the low end so I moved them back up to the top. It was a little tricky, with the ground frozen and the steep hillsides very treacherous (no traction). Ed and I had to gather some of the cows in lower Baker Creek and it took awhile because I didn’t want to risk having my horse fall down on the steeper slopes where there’s no trails.

That afternoon we went to town and picked up the kids at school—and took Charlie’s good clothes for him to change to before his performance at the Salmon Idol. Andrea and Em were driving home and hoped to get here in time to hear Charlie sing, but arrived a bit late. Charlie did a great job, singing the convoy trucking song. Robbie made a video of his song, however, so Andrea and Em got to hear it. They stayed for the rest of the program but Lynn and I came home before the senior performances, to feed the horses and bulls (in the dark). Robbie gave Andrea a nice bouquet of roses when they all came home after the concert ended.

Andrea was exhausted after the trip and we didn’t ride the next day; she needed some sleep. We rode again Thursday, and Rishiam was pretty good. This was his 65th ride after 9 days off. We rode up the ridge to the 320 and found most of the cows down again. We moved them up Baker Creek and out through the timber at the top. Rishiam hasn’t had much experience yet moving cattle, and he got upset and worried when we first started, but then became more at ease. At one point Andrea left me holding him from my horse (Dottie) while she scrambled up the steep, frozen hillside on foot to move a few cows that were not wanting to follow the herd.

After we crossed Baker Creek and started up the little jeep track through the timber, some of the young cows—that haven’t had much experience being driven by horses—tried to go down across Baker Creek and up the other side of the canyon. Andrea and Rishiam held the back end of the herd (so they wouldn’t turn around and go back down the creek) while Dottie and I charged across the creek and up the other hill to turn them around to get them back to the herd. About that time some of the others headed up the bank on the other side, trying to go out through the timber, and Dottie and I had to hurry over there, lunge up the bank, and turn the cows the proper direction. She’s getting better about working cattle (and likes it!) and Rishiam is becoming less nervous. We got the herd back to the top area where there’s a lot more grass.

After we got home, I took Dottie’s bridle off and was just starting to lead her across the driveway to tie her up to unsaddle her when she suddenly fell forward into me. I thought for a second that she’d tripped and fallen down, then realized that her front leg had gone through the driveway surface into a deep hole—up past her knee!

The old culvert that Lynn put under the driveway more than 40 years ago (for the ditch) had rusted out and water eroded a big hole alongside it. There was a small cavern down in there, and Dottie just happened to step on the right spot to fall through. Luckily it was her (and not Rishiam, or a vehicle tire), and I was just leading her and not on her. It was a good thing she was just walking, and not trotting, or it might have broken her leg. Andrea and I put an old tire over the hole so no one would step in it or drive over it.

Yesterday Lynn drove past Gibbonsville to locate water for a well, for people who are planning to build a house on property they purchased there. On his way through town he ordered two long lengths of culvert, which were delivered in the afternoon.

Andrea and Robbie (on Sprout) rode with me on a 3 hour loop over the range (into the middle range) where we again tracks and fresh manure from Alfonzo’s bull that is still out there. Sprout was a bit naughty after several weeks of not being ridden, and tried to buck. Andrea had tied her head up fairly short (halter rope tied to saddle horn) before Robbie got on her however, and Robbie was able to keep her from bucking hard.
Charlie, Sam and Dani went trick-or-treating for Halloween, and had a great time.

They stopped along the way at Jade and Anita’s place, with their kids, and saw the huge pumpkin they grew. We gave them several trailer loads of manure for their garden this spring, and they had a little pile of manure left over; they planted a few pumpkin seeds in that pile and grew some huge pumpkins.

Today Andrea, Robbie and I rode again, this time up the ridge to the 320 to check on the cows. Some were down again, so we herded them up the ridge, taking them along the fence. Rishiam is figuring out the following-cows job and is actually enjoying it now instead of being nervous. Sprout behaved better today for Robbie than she did yesterday, and didn’t try to buck—even when it started raining. We rode home in the rain and a lightning storm. This is very late in the year for lightning!

NOVEMBER 7 – Last Sunday and Monday Michael helped us take out the old rusty, broken culvert in our driveway.

He dug it out with the backhoe, then he and Lynn placed the new culverts (coupled together to be long enough) and realized we needed 10 feet more. The old one was always too short, leaving a deep ditch that people sometimes drove into unexpectedly when turning around at our place (the ditch that Rishiam fell into after Andrea got on him, on one of their early rides). We put the new culvert 10 feet farther that direction thinking we could just fence off the ditch on the other side, toward the barn, but realized that would create problems on the barn end. Trying to save money on the length (the whole project was an unexpected expense that was definitely not in the budget!) was going to leave us with a situation we wouldn’t be happy with, so Lynn went to town Monday morning for another piece of pipe.

Michael hauled 3 dump-truck loads of dirt from his place to bed the pipe and smooth out the driveway, and also filled a dip in the gateway toward the lower field. It was a major project, taking till dark both days. There is still a small dip in the driveway on this side of the culvert and Michael hopes to bring one more truckload of dirt to finish smoothing that out. The material at his place makes great road surfacing because it packs beautifully and makes a firm surface that doesn’t get muddy.

Andrea and I didn’t ride Sunday while they were working on the culvert, but needed to ride on Monday to check the cattle on the 320. Rishiam was nervous about the machinery and noise, and didn’t want to be caught, so Michael shut off the backhoe. Andrea got him saddled, but when she tried to bridle him he was still upset and reverted back to his earlier phobia—raising his head up and stepping backward. I tried to help her, like we did earlier, holding his head down while she bridled him, but he was too upset to cooperate. She finally had to resort to our earlier trick, taking the bridle apart and putting it over his ears first. She felt badly that he regressed so much, after all the progress she’d made, the past couple months, on that aspect of his phobia.

The good note was that after we finally got past that situation and rode to the 320 to check the cows, Rishiam did really well. We had to move the cows higher again, and he did a great job. He’s becoming more at ease around the cattle and Andrea was able to go up one side of Baker Creek while I went up the other, and he held up his end of the move without becoming nervous about the cattle. He is going to be a useful cow horse. The ground wasn’t frozen that day, and we were able to safely scramble around on the steep hillsides to head a few wayward heifers. Our two green horses are getting better at moving cattle, and the young cows are learning how to behave and stay with the herd.

November 4 was Dani’s birthday. That morning Lynn gathered up all his irrigation dams before they snow under, and Andrea and I rode again (her 69th ride on Rishiam since she got him a few months ago). She is still having to take the bridle apart to get it on him, but at least he’s standing still for that and not trying to rush backward. It’s just going to take time to regain the ground she lost. We made a short ride that day—a loop around the low range—since Andrea had to go to town to get things ready for the birthday party.

I drew horses on T-shirts for Dani, and a Garfield cat for Charlie. They had friends for a party at the pizza place in town. We celebrated their birthdays together because we never did have a party for Charlie; the kids were at their dad’s that week.

My first shipment of books arrived that afternoon (Horse Tales: True Stories from
an Idaho Ranch) so I was able to give one to Dani for her birthday. She was delighted to discover that she is in 3 of the photos in a couple of chapters. The other kids will get their copies for Christmas. This book will be our Christmas gift to several friends and family members. It will give a bit of insight into our lives as well as that of our horses.

On Wednesday morning Andrea and Charlie got up at 4 a.m. to drive to town and go on the school bus for the choir trip to Shelley, Idaho. Andrea was one of two parents who traveled with them on the bus. Five schools sent their best singers for this regional meet.

The kids practiced all day and put on a concert that evening. Charlie was chosen as one of 3 soloists from the 5 schools, so we were proud of him. It was a long day for them; they got back home at 11 p.m. that evening.

That same day Lynn and Robbie helped Michael on a custom fencing job all day, leaving here at daylight and getting back just before dark. Michael wanted to get it finished that day because he was leaving the next morning for Wisconsin. He and Carolyn and Fred the dog left early yesterday morning for the first leg of their trip, making it as far as Bismarck, ND to spend the night. They’ve never had time to go to one of Nick’s track meets or cross-country competitions while he’s been in college in Iowa, so they wanted to go to his final regional meet (in La Crosse, Wisconsin) and surprise him. They called his coach earlier this fall to see if it would be alright if they picked up Nick after the meet, to take him back to college (rather than him riding the bus with the track team). The coach kept everything a secret, and helped them make motel reservations.

Andrea and I rode to the 320 again yesterday, and there were only a few cows down low. We moved them back up to the high grass, and Rishiam did very nicely; he now enjoys herding them. When we got home we dewormed the rest of the horses, and picked bot eggs off Willow and Veggie. It was such a warm fall that a couple more bot flies hatched out last week and attacked the horses. Hopefully there won’t be any more!

Today I moved the heifers to the little field above the house. We let that grass regrow after grazing it mid-summer, and the green grass is about 8 inches tall. We saved it for the weaned heifers this fall.
Andrea came at noon and took the shoes off Breezy, with a little help and advice. She’s helped me trim feet, but has never taken shoes off, and wanted to practice on some of the other horses before she tries to take the shoes off Rishiam later this year.

We talked to Michael and Carolyn this evening. They made it safely to La Crosse and got there in time to meet up with Nick as he and his teammates got off their bus. Fred the dog went to greet Nick and it was a wonderful surprise! He’d been very homesick and having his family come to his track meet really lifted his spirits.

OCTOBER 2014

OCTOBER 7 – My publisher sent me the final proofs last week for my new book Horse Tales.   It looks good. [this book is now available; see the end of this month’s diary]

            

We had a little rain for a couple of days, and after the rain Andrea took a picture of a rainbow behind her house.

            

With the cooler weather we built a fire in our stove for the first time this fall. It’s been a long summer and a very mild fall this year. Last winter we only used the one stove (in the kitchen area--our really old stove that Lynn’s parents had when he was a child) because the chimney was completely plugged on the newer stove in the living room. Last Tuesday Michael helped Lynn take the stovepipe apart and they cleaned out the packed soot and debris above the firebox. We bought a new section of stovepipe and got it put back together, so this winter we can use the stove. It heats the house much better when temperatures drop below zero.

On Wednesday it wasn’t raining so Andrea and I made a short ride on Dottie and Rishiam—her 50th ride on that horse since she started working with him 2 months ago. It was a bit muddy and slippery, with a lot of puddles in the jeep road over the low range. Rishiam is finally starting to get over his phobia about walking through water, since he had to walk through some of the larger puddles.

Michael helped Lynn reset the gate post between the 2 fields above the house. It’s been leaning more the past few years, to where it’s almost impossible to open and shut that gate. They dug a deeper hole for the post and added a brace wire to help hold it so the post will stay upright and support the gate better.

The next day we moved our cows to the field above the corrals and sorted off the cows with steers, to leave in the holding pasture, and left the yearling heifers and cows with heifer calves in the larger field. Carolyn got their cows into the corral on the upper place and the brand inspector came and looked at their steers and ours. That afternoon Dani rode with Andrea and me on a short ride over the low range. We went up and around our hillside pasture where Mable—the young maple tree that Dani named—has suddenly turned from green to golden. Mable was just a 2-foot high sprout 26 years ago when we fenced that pasture, and now she’s grown into a small tree.



We fed the steers and their mothers a little hay that evening, and then got them into the corral before daylight on Friday. Andrea and her friend Robbie helped us sort off the steers (with flashlights) and put them in the main corral about the time Michael and Carolyn came down with their 5 steers in the trailer. We loaded ours with them and they were on the road by 7 a.m. (just as it started getting light enough to see) and took them to the sale in Butte, Montana.

They got there as the sale started at 10 a.m. but there were more than 1500 calves at this feeder sale and ours didn’t sell until 2 p.m. But they sold well and brought more than $1400 apiece. The yearling steer, Peabody, the orphan twin that Carolyn found last spring abandoned by his mother, and raised on a bottle (and he then spent last winter with our heifers) brought more than $1800. He was definitely worth saving!

Later that day Andrea and I rode up through the 320 acre mountain pasture to check all the gates. On Sunday Robbie and Andrea helped Carolyn and young Heather get a load of small bales that Heather bought for her horses. They used Andrea’s pickup. That afternoon Andrea and I made a longer ride up through the 320—Rishiam’s 53rd ride.





Yesterday afternoon we made a loop through the middle range and came down the Second Gully canyon. The weather was quite hot (very hot for October!) and Andrea took off her shirt; she has trouble dealing with hot weather because her grafted skin cannot sweat, and if she gets too warm she is at risk for heat stress.



Today Andrea went to Idaho Falls for her pain medications, so I rode Dottie up to meet Carolyn and we made a short ride up through the middle range. On our way home we met 2 men setting little wood posts along some of the cow trails; they are marking out numerous routes for bicycle trails crisscrossing our low range and middle range pastures, and setting posts as trail markers.

The two retired gray horses, Rubbie and Veggie (age 27 and 28) are now in their split pen for winter. We have to keep them separate because she eats faster than he does and would eat more than her share of the hay if they were still together.



OCTOBER 14 – After a ride last Wednesday (55th ride for Rishiam) we dewormed Rishiam and Dottie. He probably hasn’t been dewormed in his life, but was pretty good about it. We will deworm the rest of the horses soon, but are waiting for the weather to get colder so there will be no more bot flies. We usually don’t have any, but with all the horse traffic this year (people riding by our place, and the new Amish neighbors and their buggies) there were probably a few bot larvae shed this spring in the horse manure along the road; a few bot flies hatched out on warm days this fall. A couple weeks ago we picked about 100 bot eggs off Rishiam and Sprout.

The fall colors have been beautiful this year, as the trees along the creek have been turning gold. Lynn took some photos last week, here and on the upper place.

Andrea has been diligently handling Rishiam’s feet and trying to get him over his fears. He’s become fairly tolerant of having his feet cleaned before and after every ride, but he is still fearful about use of nippers. So Andrea is trying to get him used to the sound and feel of them, clanking them around, pretending to use them like she would do for pulling a shoe or trimming a foot. It’s going to take a lot of time. He is so phobic that we are sure someone tried to trim his feet at some earlier point in his life and beat on him with the nippers.

On Saturday we brought the cows down from the field and Michael helped us put nose flaps in the heifer calves.





We’ve wanted to try this weaning method for several years, so this fall I ordered enough nose flaps for our heifers and Michael’s. These small plastic “paddles” fit into the nose and hang down over the calf’s mouth, making it nearly impossible for the calf to get a teat into the mouth. The calf can still eat grass or hay, and drink water, but can’t nurse mama. It’s the least traumatic way to wean calves because they can stay with their mothers and have her companionship and security (which is the biggest thing they miss at weaning time). Since the calf can’t nurse, the cow dries up her milk. It’s a wonderful way to wean calves without the emotional trauma.



After we put in the nose flaps and turned the cattle back up into the field, we made a short ride—this time with Robbie (on Sprout) and Sam and Dani. Sprout hadn’t been ridden for 3 weeks and was feeling goofy, and started bucking after we’d gone about a mile. Robbie was able to get her stopped but we could see that Sprout was in a really bad mood and might try it again, so Andrea tied her halter rope up to the saddle horn with only a little bit of slack—so Sprout wouldn’t be able to get her head down far enough to buck very hard. She’s a really smart horse and knew she couldn’t buck much, so the rest of the ride went smoothly and Robbie didn’t have any more problems with her.



Our friend Danny Ashenbrenner arrived that afternoon from north Idaho, to hunt elk. Andrea went with him up the creek, to show him how to get up the big draw and over the top into the head of Baker Creek. It got really windy and stormy, and a couple of bull elk came out of the timber just before dark—and Danny was able to shoot one of them. About that time it started raining hard, turning to snow and hail, with lightning striking all around them. They left their guns (which might attract lightning) on the hill and went down off the ridge a little ways into a swale and waited out the pounding rain under a plastic rain poncho. Then they quickly gutted the elk with flashlights, put the rain poncho over its antlers to try to deter wolves and bears from approaching the carcass, and hiked back over the mountain in the dark (grateful for flashlights) to their 4-wheeler.

The wind was horrendous that evening; it ripped the tarp in two that was over my small haystack, and blow a big tarp (the one that earlier covered our trough garden) out of the backyard, over the fence and into the brush along the creek. We worried about Andrea and Danny up there on the mountain in the lightning storm, but Andrea was able to call us from the ridge with her cell phone to let us know they were ok, had got an elk, and were coming home. They finally got home at 10 p.m. They wanted to go back up and retrieve the elk with 4-wheelers but it was much too dangerous in the dark with the wet conditions. The hillsides and jeep track would be too slippery.



The next morning at daylight Andrea, Danny, Robbie and Sam took two 4-wheelers up through our mountain pasture into the high range and were able to get fairly close to the elk, quarter it, and bring it down to Andrea’s pickup at the bottom of the mountain. Fortunately no wolves or bears had found it yet.

Yesterday morning Andrea and Robbie helped Michael and Carolyn put nose flaps in their heifer calves on the upper place.



Then Andrea and I went on a short ride. On our way home, as we were coming down off the hill toward the road, several vehicles went by (lots of hunters!) and a couple of them were really noisy. One pickup and trailer went rattling by very slowly, coming up behind us, and the incessant noise upset the horses and they both started jumping around and bucking. We realized we didn’t want to end the ride on that note so we trotted and galloped them up the hill and make a longer loop to come home a slightly different way, and they were settled down again by that time.

Michael has been using our backhoe and dump truck to move a lot of dirt from behind their house and make a loop driveway and also enough room to park several vehicles. It’s looking really good.

This morning we had a beautiful sunrise when I went out to feed the horses at dawn, and I went back inside, grabbed my camera, and took a photo from our porch.



This afternoon young Heather had a serious accident and we are thankful she wasn’t hurt worse. She’s been working with two very spoiled Quarter Horses that someone brought her to train. They are about 5 years old, barely started under saddle a few years ago and not ridden since. One of them isn’t too bad, but the other one is nasty. She has ponied both of them several times and started riding them. Today she was riding the undependable one and had just started up the trail over the hill from their place when the horse just lost his mind and started bucking. He spun around and bucked straight down the hill toward a 5-strand barbed-wire fence. Heather was trying to stop him but he’d gotten her partly out of the saddle and was pounding her against it. She went off the side away from the fence (or she would have been catapulted right into it) and landed on her face. The horse ran back toward the horse pens but was on the outside of the range fence. Their dog Fred barked, and Michael (who was working in the backhoe) saw the horse running back, and Carolyn came out of the house and they both realized Heather had been bucked off. Michael jumped over the fence and caught the horse, but as he grabbed the reins the horse wheeled and struck at him. Michael realized this horse had bucked people off before and probably got beat. This horse was a total nut case with a nasty attitude.

He and Carolyn started hiking around the hill to go find Heather, but she was hiking home down along the road and saw them. She is pretty sore and stiff tonight and can hardly walk. We are thankful that she didn’t hit the fence or break her neck.

OCTOBER 20 – Young Heather was really sore for the past two weeks (badly bruised and some pulled/torn muscles) but nothing broken. She started riding again a couple days after the accident, working with the other horses she’s training (the bronc is going back to its owner). It was painful, especially getting on and off, because her left leg wasn’t working very well and she couldn’t raise it much. It’s doing better now.

Last Friday Charlie played his trombone with the band in the Homecoming parade and at the football game. He didn’t have his music but wasn’t worried about it because he plays most things from memory.

When Andrea and I rode up through the 320-acre pasture to check gates, we found another tree blown down across the little road up through the timber. Fortunately it was broken off partway, leaving 5 foot space between it and the steep bank, and we were able to get around it with our horses. The bank above and below the jeep track was too steep (and covered with old branches and trees) to go around it that way. This was her 61st ride on Rashiam. He’s becoming much calmer about obstacles and scary things than when she started riding him. We went out through the gate at the upper end of our place. Andrea is able to do the gates now that Rishiam is more accustomed to her getting on and off, and standing patiently as she opens and closes them.



We heard a bull elk bugling in the timber above us, as we rode on up into the high range. We rode on up Baker Creek and then out to the big salt ground.

As we came back down the ridge we startled 2 bull elk that went crashing down through the timber. Rishiam and Dottie startled a little at the noise, but they are getting more accustomed to seeing elk and deer.

On Saturday Michael worked all afternoon with the backhoe, fixing the eroded ditch channel below the old barn—eliminating that ditch (which we no longer use) and repairing the creek channel. Andrea and I made a longer ride that day and came home through the middle range. We found very fresh tracks--Alfonzo’s bull. We saw that bull the end of July after Alfonzo and Millers moved their cattle to the high range, and told Alfonzo about it, but either he never rode out there to get the bull or didn’t find him.

Sunday morning Michael and Carolyn hauled their heifers down here, and then hauled their cows down. We got our cattle in to the corral, and the vet came that afternoon to preg check for us and Bangs vaccinate the heifers. We took the nose flaps out of the heifer calves and put all the heifers in the little pens below our calving barn. There’s green grass there and they happily went to grazing—already weaned. There was no bawling, no stress.

One of Michael’s old cows was open. They bought her 4 years ago as a “one-timer” older cow, and she’s had several good calves; her latest calf is a nice big heifer that will replace the old cow. We had one open cow, too—Maggie—our oldest cow. Dani is sad because that cow was her favorite pet, and now we have to sell her. She started making friends with Maggie several years ago when she was only 5 years old and Maggie was a middle-aged cow that was curious about this small child.



My new book, Horse Tales: True Stories from an Idaho Ranch can be ordered through any book seller, or from the publisher - A.J. Mangum ( thefrontierproject@gmail.com 719-237-0243 ).



Autographed copies can be ordered directly from me by calling 208-756-2841 or by e-mail at hsmiththomas@centurytel.net

The price is $24.95 plus shipping.