EARLY SPRING 2012

Early Spring 2012 - Moving closer to present day—bringing readers up to date on what has been happening with our family since my book Beyond the Flames was published in 2004--this installment looks at early spring of 2012.

MARCH 29 – Last month I mentioned the inverter (tilt) table that Lynn uses to help his back and ease the pressure on his sciatic nerve. We’ve had several calls from people asking about this. There are many brands and models available at a variety of prices. Lynn paid $120 for his, which is probably less than a person would spend for two visits to a chiropractor!

In mid-March we had snowstorms and several inches of new snow.

Some of the cows were starting to develop udders so we brought them down from the field and sorted off the ones that were due to calve first. A week later, however, some of the rest were also showing udders, so we brought them all down. We don’t want any of them calving up there in the snow—with the coyotes and wolves! We had to put chains on the feed truck to get around in the snow and deep mud. Even though April calving is supposed to be easier than January, it looks like we’ll still have to put some cows in the barn to calve, so Michael helped Lynn put straw in our barn stalls. Michael, Lynn and Rick finished hanging new gates in the second day pens. They also set new posts and rehung the gates in the maternity pen; they are easy to open and close now.

Lynn is still having serious problems with his shoulder, so last week the doctor ordered an MRI to see how much damage there is. Part of the attachment is torn. We’re hoping he won’t need surgery.

Last fall an Idaho potato grower who bought a big ranch in Texas (and wants to grow potatoes there) asked Lynn to fly down there to locate water for wells. We were so busy with fencing projects that Lynn didn’t want to go. Last week, however, the farmer called again and talked Lynn into flying to Texas. Andrea and Emily drove him to Idaho Falls Monday evening, and he got on a private jet Tuesday morning. By that afternoon he was locating spots where they could drill wells. That area of Texas is really dry.



The farmer flew him back to Idaho Falls yesterday afternoon, and Andrea drove down to get him. He was really tired, and went to bed early. Then at 11 pm we heard a cow bawling and I looked out the window with the spotlight, and saw Cub Cake wandering around the maternity pen, bawling. We put her in the calving pen in front of the house, but it was so cold and windy that we decided to put her in the barn. She calved at 3 a.m. this morning—a nice bull calf. So we are officially started calving!

This afternoon Michael helped Lynn put up the yard light that we took down last summer when we took down the old rotten pole by the horse pens. They hooked it to the top of my hay shed. Andrea and Rick put a new floor in one of the calf houses that Lynn built in 1968. The old boards had rotted out. The little kids helped, and Dani picked handfuls of new green grass (which is just starting to grow!) to feed Maggie—the gentle old cow who eats it out of her hand.

APRIL 11 – Weather was still wet and cold for several days after we started calving, and the first calves didn’t get to go out to the field right away. We put straw in the shed barn across the creek, and used it for a second-day shelter for pairs after they came out of the calving barn.

Last Saturday we saw that our neighbor was preparing to move his cattle down to the field below our place, so we moved our yearling heifers around to the swamp pasture, where they won’t be adjacent to the neighbor’s cattle and bulls. We don’t want any cattle tempted to go through the fence. We don’t want our heifers bred this early, and also don’t want them to get trich. The neighbor had a problem with that disease last year, in his herd, and we he didn’t have all his bulls trich-tested. I called our heifers in from the field, and 7-year-old Dani helped follow them around to the swamp pasture. She loves to work with the cattle!

All the kids enjoyed “helping” during the week they were out of school for spring break, riding their bikes down here from Andrea’s new house. Dani was hoping to see a cow calve, since she didn’t get to see one born last year. She especially wanted to see Maggie give birth. She made us promise to get her up if Maggie started calving during the night. Dani had her clothes in a pile by her bed, ready to jump into at a moment’s notice. Maggie started calving on Easter Sunday morning, so Andrea brought Dani down at 5 a.m. Dani and I sat in the next stall in the barn, and watched Maggie calve. Later that day she and Sammy both sat in the stall with Maggie and the calf, and then Dani sat in the pen with Maggie and her calf (after we put them out of the barn), petting that calf. Maggie is so mellow and gentle, and she tolerates those little kids very nicely.

Dani has been helping us name most of the calves. She named one little heifer Shyterra, and was delighted that this calf would come up to the fence and sniff her hand. Emily enjoyed seeing Buffalo Girl (her old pet cow that we raised on a bottle); that cow always comes up to Emily to be petted.


Rishira (a 16-year-old cow) calved 15 days early—a very tiny bull calf. Andrea had to break the amnion sac that was still intact around his head and get him breathing; the placenta was detaching and coming out with the calf. He was very frail, so we put the pair in the barn, and had to help the calf nurse. He had trouble nursing, and we had to help him for several days, every 6 hours through the days and nights. He got pneumonia when he was only a day old, and we had to keep him on antibiotics for a week. Finally he is feeling better, and actually nursing without help.

Michael hauled more rocks with the dump truck to try to finish Andrea’s new road, then started working on two ditch heads on the upper place—clearing out a bunch of trees that blew down during a winter windstorm and hauling rocks to create a better spot for the headgate and weir we need to put in.

APRIL 23 – Last week Andrea took Sam to Pocatello for a dance competition, and Dani stayed with us. She enjoyed helping me do chores and feed the cows, and we put some of the cows with new calves up to the field. Michael did more work on the ditch, until the backhoe blew another hydraulic hose and he had to go to town to get a new hose. I went to the Salmon Select Horse Sale with granddaughter Heather and her roommate (they drove home from college for the weekend, to go to the sale), and bought a gentle young mare that will hopefully become a horse for Dani. Michael and Carolyn hauled the mare home in their trailer. Her name is Whatzit but we call her April because she was born April 15 (Michael’s birthday). We soon started calling her April Sprout and her nickname is now Sprout. Dani was excited about the new horse, and led her around and brushed her. Andrea rode the mare a couple of days and she seems pretty mellow. Dani rode her the next day, to the end of our lane and back, with Andrea walking alongside.



Last week Lynn started irrigating, and is enjoying how easy it is to turn the water on, with the headgates and improvements we made at each creek departure. We’ve had some warm weather, so the creek is rising.

Today Michael put shoes on Ed and Breezy for me, and then took the dump truck and backhoe up to the upper place to try to finish fixing one of the ditch heads before the water gets too high. All of our cows have calved now, except one. We are still waiting on Freddy. We are hoping she has a heifer, because ¾ of the calves this year have been bulls!

May 1 – Last week I dewormed the horses and Michael put shoes on Ed and Breezy for me. Andrea and I rode April Sprout a few times; the mare is still a bit green and inexperienced and needs more training.

Emily’s allergies and a bad cold suddenly escalated into pneumonia and she couldn’t breathe. Her oxygen level dropped dangerously low so she spent a few days in the hospital on IV antibiotics and oxygen. Andrea stayed with her during the nights, and Lynn took the other kids to the school bus in the mornings.

Lynn has been cleaning some of our ditches with tractor and blade, and getting more irrigation started. For several days we had cold rainy weather; then it dropped well below freezing for a few nights and slowed down the snow melt on our mountains, and the creek is no longer so terribly high.

On Saturday, Andrea came down to ride with me—and noticed that 2 of our heifers had gotten into the field above our cows and calves. We rode Breezy and Ed to round them up, and put all the heifers in my horse pasture until we can figure out where they went through the fence. Then we rode Sprout and Captain King (a horse we were trying, as a possible horse for the grandkids) on another training ride for Sprout. Captain King is spoiled and stubborn, however, and balked when we started up the driveway. When Andrea urged him forward, he bucked, then reared when she wouldn’t let him buck—and she had to spin him around to keep him from going over backward. She got him under control and we continued on our ride, but decided we don’t want that horse for the kids to ride! The next day we took Dani on her first real ride on Sprout—making a loop through the low range. When we got home, Andrea took Sammy for a ride on Breezy.


Yesterday was cold and rainy again. We’ve been watching Freddie at nights (our last cow to calve) because the weather has been so miserable. We want to be able to put her in the barn if necessary.

MAY 7 – After the ground dried out, Michael hauled more rock surfacing for Andrea’s driveway, and smoothed it out with the backhoe. Now it won’t get so slippery, deep and muddy when it rains.

The 4 grandkids were trying to guess which day Freddie would calve, and Dani won; her guess was May 3rd. Freddie went into early labor before midnight, but didn’t calve until afternoon. She had a black whiteface bull. On Friday night we went to the annual dance and gymnastics program and watched Dani and Sammy in their various dances and Charlie in the gymnastics.

Yesterday Michael put new front shoes on Sprout. She’s apparently had some bad experiences in her young life, and doesn’t like her feet handled, so Andrea and I have been picking up her feet a lot, trying to get her over her bad attitude. Michael was very patient while shoeing her, keeping each foot up for only a short time, and letting her put it down when she’d start to get nervous. She has to learn to trust us; she’s apparently been abused and is always expecting a fight. But with patience we got her front feet shod without resistance. We’ll do her hinds another day. Handling her feet in short increments works pretty well, and she’s becoming more at ease about it.

Yesterday afternoon our neighbor Alfonzo rounded up his cattle from the fields below us and took them up to the Gooch place to brand the calves. His corrals are flimsy, and partway through the afternoon 8 calves got out and came down through our fields, trying to get back to the lower place. We captured them in our corral and helped Alfonzo load them in a trailer to haul back to their mothers. Then he put his cattle back down below us again, but inadvertently separated several more pairs. That evening one old cow crashed through the wire gate into our field trying to go find her calf. We had to lock her in our calving pen and have Alfonzo come get her.

Young Heather got home from college in Montana, and this morning she, Michael and Carolyn left on their trip to Iowa to get Nick from college. It will take them 3 days to get there and 3 days to come back—and Lynn will do their chores while they are gone.

MAY 16 – Last week Lynn, Andrea and Rick spent a couple days working on the ditch on Lynn’s folks’ old place north of town, and I picked up the kids off the bus after school. They were eager to see Freddie’s young calf and thought he was cute, being the only whiteface calf this year. Dani enjoyed helping me do chores—feeding the horses and watering the cows. She loves to walk through the cows and calves, and pick grass to feed Maggie, who gently takes it out of her hand with her big rough tongue. It froze hard again for several nights, but now the weather is hot. Last Saturday we vaccinated the cows, calves, bulls, and yearling heifers, and put the heifers back up in the swamp pasture, now that we’ve fixed the fence where we thought they got out, and branded calves. Dani helped, by handing me syringes. While we got ready to brand the calves, she sat in the barn with them while we strung out the extension cords. The calves are so accustomed to her, they didn’t mind when she was helping gather and push the little bunches from the barn into the holding area by the calf table.


On Monday Michael put new hind shoes on Sprout and she was even more trusting (and less resistant) than when he did her fronts. She’s learning that we aren’t going to hurt her when we handle her feet. Later that day Michael and Lynn started hauling hay; we bought 50 tons for next winter, to make sure we’ll have enough. It’s last year’s hay, and reasonably priced at $130 per ton. It’s a nice mix of grass/alfalfa. They finished hauling it today. While they were hauling, Andrea and I made a long ride on Sprout and Ed to check range gates and part of the 320 fence—and repaired some places the elk knocked down. This afternoon Lynn and Michael put in a weir at the headgate of the uppermost ditch on our upper place. Now we have only one weir left to put in.

LATE WINTER (February-March 2012)

JANUARY 25, 2012 – Last week the weather was cold (about 5 below zero) and we had to break ice on the creek for the cows. The two holes I’d been keeping open in Fozzy’s pen got so thick with ice that we carried water to him in buckets for a couple days until we could get the holes chopped open again.

Michael spent a few more days working on the road into our 160-acre mountain pasture, until the backhoe got a flat front tire. He took the tire to town to get it fixed. The next day he started working on the road again and one of the big rear tires developed a leak. He took it off and hauled it to town to have a boot put in—so it would hold air long enough to drive the backhoe down off the mountain. We had to order a new tire.

We had a birthday party for Emily (14 years old!) at Andrea’s new house last week.

Andrea’s fragile skin (grafted) over one knee peeled off after a slight scrape a few days ago, and she ended up with an infection and had to be on antibiotics again. Her grafted skin tears open very easily. In spite of her swollen, painful knee, she drove Emily to Sun Valley last Friday for her hockey tournament. The roads were bad, with new snow. It snowed 4 feet on the passes that night, so Andrea was glad she went over the day before. Emily took a picture of their car covered with snow the next morning.

Our little team played well in their 4 games Saturday and Sunday and won two, with Emily making several goals.

On Monday Michael helped Lynn take the blade off our big tractor and put it on the smallest John Deere so we could clean the barn (something we’d planned to do much earlier than this!) We got the old straw cleaned out and then put the blade back on the big tractor, in case we have to plow snow this winter.

We worked on several projects while waiting for the new backhoe tire. Yesterday morning Lynn and Michael cut tin for several new headgates and got them installed in the ditch above the house. That afternoon they started digging post holes to rebuild the falling-down 2nd day pens next to the calving barn. Lynn took a big straw bale up to the cows in the field by Andrea’s house, and gave them a new tub of protein supplement. They are still grazing that field and hillside; we haven’t started feeding them any hay.

Today Rick helped work on the 2nd day pens, too, and Lynn used the tractor to pull the old netting upright, to hook it to the new posts. Then they put poles along the top. When it’s finished, these pens will be sturdier than when we built them the first time.

FEBRUARY 4 – Last week Michael and Rick worked several days digging post holes and setting new posts in the pens, and put the plywood back on the fence for windbreaks. The ground on the other side of the pens was too frozen to dig post holes, so Lynn and Michael created some “ovens” to thaw out the spots for the holes. Lynn cut vent openings in several old metal protein tubs and we used those to contain a fire over each spot, letting the fires smolder all night. By morning the ground underneath each metal tub was fully thawed for digging the post holes.


Last Friday Michael helped us vaccinate (pre-calving vaccines) and delouse the cows, vaccinate and delouse the bulls, and vaccinate, delouse and tag the yearling heifers, putting in their brisket tags. These tags work well for their permanent identification; they stay in for the life of the cow and don’t pull out.

Rick drove up the creek Saturday afternoon to get a load of firewood, and on his way home his pickup got stuck in the icy creek crossing about 5 miles above the ranch—just before dark. He started walking down the road and met a neighbor driving up there to check coyote traps. The neighbor pulled Rick’s loaded pickup out of the creek and then got his own truck stuck in the snow. So Rick had to pull him out of the snowbank. Andrea and Lynn had just started up the creek in our pickup to check on Rick, since it was long after dark by that time. They stopped along the way to put chains on, when Rick and the neighbor came driving back down.

On Monday morning we had a fierce blizzard, but it didn’t last. By afternoon it cleared off and Lynn took our flatbed trailer down to RJ Hoffman’s place and bought a load of big straw bales from him. We need some good straw for barn bedding, in case we need to use the barn when our cows calve in April. These past few years April weather has been worse than January-February, with lots of snowstorms.

On Thursday Andrea drove to Idaho Falls with Charlie for his appointment with a child psychologist who works with autistic children. He will ensure that Charlie gets the help he needs from state programs that work with autistic kids. Weather was nasty on their drive home—with wind, snow and poor visibility. It took them 6 hours to come home instead of 3.

FEBRUARY 12 – Last Sunday my computer had serious problems and I had to turn it off and couldn’t finish the articles I was writing. Lynn took it to town the next morning to Steve Dahl—a friend who repairs computers. It had several things wrong with it and they worked on it for more than a day.

My computer had more problems after we got it home, and Lynn had to take it back to town for more repairs. It’s had some glitches when I turn it on, so Steve is refurbishing a used computer for me and will put my data in it.

Rick helped Michael a few more days and they built several new pole panels for dividers in our 2nd day pens, and hung some metal gates.

Now it’s all finished except for a few more metal gates we’ll need to buy. These pens will outlast us, now, and will be handy for sorting as well as for pairs after calving. The old panels that were salvageable got hauled down along a stretch of bad fence toward the post pile pasture. We’ll use them to reinforce that fence.

Andrea went to the hospital on Wednesday for a biopsy of her thyroid gland. One side of it has been small and hard for several years and the doctor wants to see what’s wrong with it. Hopefully we’ll have the results back this week.
In the meantime, she took Emily to another hockey tournament on Friday, at McCall (a long drive). They got through some mountain passes just ahead of a snow slide that closed the road. They plan to drive home a different way—the long way around—because it’s snowing again and there will probably be more snow slides.

The new backhoe tire finally came, and Michael got the backhoe working again. He worked the past 2 days on the road into the 160-acre pasture and got the new section joined up with the old jeep track at the top of the first hill. Eventually we’ll create a new road on around the hill to some shale rock that we can use for road surfacing.

FEBRUARY 24 – After more computer problems, our friend Steve Dahl decided that my old computer was hopeless and he refurbished a newer computer for me. I’m still getting used to it (because it does things a bit different than my old one) and catching up on article deadlines.

The good thing about the computer problem is that when Lynn took my old one into town the 2nd time for Steve to work on, Steve talked him into trying his inverter table, to see if it would help his bad back and pinched sciatic nerve. Lynn has had back pain for a long time—and pain/numbness in his left leg for several years due to pressure on the sciatic nerve. Steve has had sciatic problems for 30 years, but using the inverter table (hanging upside down for 20 minutes a day) has helped, to where he only needs to stretch his back about once a month, and his sciatic pain is gone.

Steve loaned Lynn his inverter table for a week, and Lynn was amazed at how much it helps. After the second day, he no longer had any pain in his leg, for the first time in about 5 years. He stopped taking pain pills, and cancelled his appointment with the doctor who wanted to give him another cortisone injection into his back. We ordered our own inverter table, and Lynn uses it for 20 minutes every morning, hanging not quite upside down—and reads a book while he’s hanging. This stretches his spine (like traction, only a lot easier!) and takes pressure off the compressed/damaged disks in his back that were hurting the sciatic nerve.

Michael did more work on the road into our 160 acre pasture with the backhoe so he can take the dump truck up there. He’s been hauling loads of rock, to create a solid roadbed for the new road to Andrea’s house—so vehicles won’t get stuck in the mud during wet weather or spring thaw.

Last Saturday it was snowing hard all morning and too slippery to get up the new road with the dump truck, even with chains on, so Michael brought the backhoe down here and spent that day smoothing out the rocks he’d hauled, working on the new road, and started widening it, to make it safer. It was too narrow and steep for winter driving. With the backhoe he’s taking some of the steep bank behind her house (widening that area) and using that material to widen the road—and slanting it toward the hill instead of the field, so vehicles won’t go sailing off it in the wintertime.

Andrea and Rick helped us round up the cows, and we gave the pregnant heifers their pre-calving booster shot. These last few days have been stormy, but Michael was able to keep working on the road with the backhoe, even in a blizzard. We ran out of diesel (using the backhoe and dump truck so much this winter) and had our barrel filled again; the cost of diesel is horrendous!

MARCH 6 – We had more snow last week and finally started feeding our cows. They’ve done very well this winter with supplemental protein, grazing the big hill behind Andrea’s house. But that grass is about gone now. With snow covering what’s left, it was time to start feeding hay.

Last Monday Andrea, Rick and Dani came down here late afternoon, and Dani helped me do chores while Rick and Andrea helped Lynn put the fence back together in the field above the house (where we took it apart last fall, to clean the ditch). Dani enjoyed helping me feed the heifers, and seeing her favorite one (Mary Mary Quite Contrary). When we finished chores, Dani helped me make a calving calendar, writing the names of the cows on their expected due dates. We have breeding dates/due dates on almost every cow this year. Dani is very interested in the cows, and wants to know when the calves will be born. She made her own copy of the calving calendar to take home.

We moved the cows into the fields above our house, where there’s some grass left from last fall, and where it will be easier to feed them every day. We’re feeding a little alfalfa to augment the old grass.

A few days ago I forgot to turn off the hose when I was filling the heifers’ water tank while I did chores, and didn’t remember it until later, after the well ran dry and the pump ran out of water! Fortunately it didn’t hurt the pump. The water ran down the field, and melted the heifers’ salt block.

Rick helped Lynn clean up the old panels, posts and wire from our pen rebuilding project by the barn. The next day Rick and Andrea went up the creek and got a load of firewood for Michael and Carolyn. Dani and Sammy went with them, and helped load some of the wood as Rick split it. Young Heather was home from college for a week, for Spring Break. Sammy and Dani enjoyed visiting with her while Rick and Andrea unloaded the wood.

Michael was hauling more rocks, loading the dump truck with the backhoe, until the other big tire went flat. Lynn helped him take it off and haul it to town to have a boot put in it, and we ordered another backhoe tire.

Rick, Andrea and Lynn hung the rest of the gates in the new 2nd day pens by the calving barn, and Dani helped. She used a big wrench to turn the nuts onto the bolts for the hinges. Afterward, she helped me do chores so she could see the heifers again.




Yesterday was our wedding anniversary, so Lynn and I finally used the gift certificate (for dinner at a local restaurant) that was given to us by elk hunters last fall who camped here at our place.

MARCH 16 – Last week Michael had to work on the dump truck brakes, and found that it had been running all this time with just one brake. After he got the brakes fixed, it’s like a new truck! He also went up to Leadore two mornings, to IV a calf for one of his rancher friends. The calf had scours and got chilled in a snowstorm, and was too weak and dehydrated to benefit from oral fluids. The IV fluids helped, and the calf recovered.

On Saturday our friends Pete and Bev Wiebe from British Columbia came to visit, on their way home from a series of trips—to Africa, and then several weeks spent in the southern part of the U.S. helping build houses for people who lost their homes in hurricanes. They enjoy helping other people and have made this a major part of their lives. We always look forward to visiting with them when they stop here for a few days on their way to or from these journeys. This trip they were delighted to see Andrea’s new house, and we celebrated Pete’s birthday Sunday night with dinner and a cake that Emily baked.

On Monday Lynn and Michael set railroad ties for gate posts, and hung new gates across the 160 road. Tuesday it was windy (and blew one of our neighbor’s sheds apart). Michael had planned to put a new fan belt on the backhoe but it was much too windy (blowing dirt around) so he waited until the next day to fix it.
Now we need to finish up a couple ditch projects before high water. We’ll also be bringing the cows in soon to the calving pasture. They will all be calving in April.

WINTER 2011-2012

NOVEMBER 26, 2011 – Lynn and Michael have been setting posts for the new fence boundary on our 160-acre pasture, hoping to get as many set as possible before the ground freezes more. On Monday they hauled steel posts in Michael’s pickup and got 40 set that day. I sent a lunch with them. On Tuesday Michael and Carolyn drove to Helena to convoy home with young Heather (coming home for Thanksgiving holiday) and hauled home the 3 horses they loaned to the HAB program for the fall semester.

Andrea is still in the process of moving, getting the rest of her furniture and boxes of belongings out of the old rental house in town, putting some things in the new house and storing the rest in her old trailer house until the carpenters are finished. The building inspector came this week and gave a temporary “occupancy” permit so she can start moving in. The kids have been sleeping on the floor in the old house in town and Andrea brings them out here for supper. She needed to get everything out of the old house so she can thoroughly clean it before the end of the month. Sam wasn’t feeling well (with fever and sore throat) for a few days, so she stayed here with me instead of going to school.

Wednesday, Andrea took Sam to the doctor. Lynn and Michael got 40 more posts set, after hauling some up the fence line with their 4-wheelers. Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we had dinner at Andrea’s new house, even though she’s not moved in yet. She cooked the turkey and potatoes, and Lynn’s sister and sister-in-law and I brought the rest of the food. It was a “housewarming” celebration for the new house.
Yesterday it snowed. The weather cleared by afternoon, and Michael was able to haul wood posts (for braces) and barbed wire up to the fence project. Andrea and Rick brought more things out from town—and their dogs and cats--and worked until late at night cleaning the old house. They’ve spent several late nights on the cleaning project.


Today I rode with Michael and young Heather to pack wood posts and barbed wire up to the top of the fence where it’s too steep to take a vehicle. Michael came with the trailer to haul Ed to the upper place, saving time so I wouldn’t have to ride 3 miles up there and back. He put packsaddles on 2 of their horses.

Then we rode another mile up to a flat area in the 160-acre pasture, where he’d left the wood posts and rolls of wire.

I held the extra horses while Heather helped Michael load 4 wood posts on Gus (2 posts on each side) and 2 rolls of wire on Thelma.
We started up the hill through the sagebrush, with Heather and Michael leading the packhorses from their horses. Things were going well, even though Gus had never been packed before, until we went through some tall sage and Gus got tangled up in the brush. He tried to jump one of the bushes in his path. The posts clattered together and startled him. He pulled his lead rope out of Heather’s hand, and took off down the mountain—running and bucking. He lost the posts about halfway down, then galloped around the mountain toward home.

We rode back down to where he’d bucked off the posts, and I held Thelma (with the rolls of wire on her pack) while Michael and Heather went to find Gus. Fortunately he stopped at the gate and didn’t try to go through the fence. They readjusted his packsaddle (which had turned under his belly) and led him back up the hill. This time they only put 2 posts on him—one on each side. He stood wide-eyed and trembling, but didn’t move. And wouldn’t move when we tried to start back up the mountain. I followed along behind him on Ed, tapping him on the rump to encourage him—until he realized the posts weren’t going to hurt him.

We made 4 more trips up the precarious, snowy slope with posts, and the horses did fine. It got dark and cold before we were finished; we’d lost some time with the first adventure, but at least it ended successfully.




DECEMBER 11 – Lynn and Michael spent several more days setting posts, and the last ones were difficult, digging holes for the brace posts through the rocks and frost. We had cold weather (down to zero degrees).

Andrea got the old rental house completely cleaned and scrubbed, basement rooms repainted, carpets shampooed, etc. I sent supper home for her and the kids several evenings. Now she finally has time to work at getting everything into her new house—all the boxes and furniture that she stored in the shed and trailer. This past week the carpenters got her cabinets finished. We’re waiting for a stovepipe for the wood stove, hoping it comes soon so we can start heating her house with wood instead of expensive electricity.

We’ve been breaking ice for the cows to drink at the spring in their pasture, but the grass hasn’t snowed under yet. We’re only feeding hay to the 2 bull calves. The heifers and cows are still grazing, with a protein supplement.
Last Sunday we went to town early and watched one of Emily’s hockey games then went to church. This week Lynn and Michael have been setting posts for a fence around Andrea’s new house—to keep our cows out and her dogs in. We’ll graze that pasture in a few weeks (if it doesn’t snow under) and need a fence around her new house. There’s about 12 inches of frost in the ground. Michael used our rock drill to chip through frost and rocks to create postholes. The posts are all set now, ready for wire.

Andrea’s car window quit working (she couldn’t roll up the window) and she had to bring the kids home from their dance/gymnastics and hockey practice in the cold weather that night with no window. We loaned her our pickup to take the kids to the bus the next morning, and she took her car to town to be fixed.

Michael hauled the last of his yearlings to the sale, except for a few to butcher later, and hauled their 36 pregnant heifers home from rented pasture. He and Carolyn will be talking to their banker this week, to see if they can keep these heifers or must sell them. The heifers are due to start calving mid February.

DECEMBER 24 – We’ve had more cold weather, but Andrea’s kids have been enjoying the icy driveways. Their sleds coast all the way down to the bottom of our field.
Michael helped us build a fence around Andrea’s new house, and got it finished last week. We can now graze the cows in the field and hill pasture.

The carpenters brought stovepipe for Andrea’s chimney so we can finally hook up her wood stove, and save the cost of electricity for the heaters. The power bill was horribly high these last few months while the carpenters finished the house and while Andrea was moving in. Lynn took coals from our stove to give a good base for the fire in her new stove, so it would be easier to start the fire and keep it going.

Michael and Rick took more materials up to our 160-acre mountain pasture to finish building braces in that new fence. Nick and Heather got home from college a week ago, for Christmas vacation. They both helped for several days on the new fence, enabling us to get it finished quicker—before more snow and colder weather.

Tuesday morning Michael helped me take the shoes off Ed and Breezy and trim their feet. That afternoon our “fence crew” finished putting in stays and started working on the top fence between our property and the BLM range. It needed new posts and stays. They rebuilt the part that our neighbor Alfonzo took down a couple summers ago to bring his cows home from the range.

It snowed again, but Lynn and Rick were able to drive up there, with chains on the 4-wheeler, and hiked up the mountain to finish putting in the stays. So the 160-fence project is done, except for rebuilding a small section on the bottom end.

Friday evening one of Andrea’s cats, Patches, was up on the power pole next to her house, sitting on the transformer, afraid to come down. It was too high to use a ladder to try to rescue him, and unsafe, right next to the power lines. Emily spent several hours out there in the cold (below zero) and dark, trying to coax him down. At one point he came partway down, got scared, and went back up. A short while later he came back down on his own, and Em brought him in the house to warm him up.
Yesterday morning Lynn wrapped a sheet of tin around the base of the power pole so the cats can’t try to climb it.

Last week one of our neighbors caught an 80 pound female wolf in a coyote snare. Tracks nearby showed that a much larger wolf was with her when she got caught. This morning at 5 a.m. Andrea’s dogs barked frantically and when she stepped out on the deck and turned on the light there was a huge white/gray wolf just 20 feet away. She didn’t have her gun, and as soon as the wolf realized she was there, he ran off. We hope he doesn’t keep hanging around—he was much too close to kids, cats, dogs and cattle.

JANUARY 6 – On Christmas morning after chores, Lynn and I drove up to Andrea’s house to watch the kids opening their gifts, and had Christmas dinner there. It’s nice having them living here on the ranch!

A few days after Christmas the weather warmed up and it rained during the night, but changed to snow within a few hours. Our power went off and I had to shut down my computer and write a few cards and letters by candlelight instead of writing articles. We ate breakfast by candlelight.

Lynn, Rick and Andrea spent a couple days taking wire off the old boundary fence on the southwest side of our place and took out the posts—so it won’t be an obstacle for the cows grazing that hill pasture behind Andrea’s house (the extra 20 acres we gained by putting the fence on the actual property line this spring). Rick and Andrea also split a lot of our firewood, using Rick’s motorized wood-splitter.

Michael and Carolyn sold their pregnant heifers to 3 different buyers, who came on Friday to get them. Our roads were still icy so Michael had a truckload of sand hauled in, to sand the driveway at the upper corral, and sanded the creek road. With chains on their trucks, and sand for traction, Michael and the buyers were able to pull their trailer-loads of heifers up out of the loading area and safely down our road without mishap. It was a good thing they hauled the cattle that day, because it snowed several more inches that night and the roads were much worse.

With all the rain and snow lately, I’m glad I have a hay shed for my horse hay.

With more snow covering our fields, we started feeding hay to our heifers. They have been really good about grazing through several inches of snow, but this was too much. So we moved them to the field below the lane, where we could feed them easier and plug in the tank heater. Having warm water they will drink more (and eat better) on cold days, and I won’t have to keep breaking ice for them.

Michael helped Lynn get our old dump truck fixed (getting power to the 2nd axle) so it will have more traction and stability on our slippery road, and put chains on the tires. Then they took the backhoe up to our shale hill on the upper place and hauled loads of rock and some dirt down here to finish fixing the ditch heads and install more headgates along one of the ditches. Michael also hauled 10 loads of rock to put along the creek in our lower pasture where the creek was starting to make a new channel down through our field. It’s good to have that fixed before high water next spring!

Our cows have been bedding along the ditch in the field by Andrea’s house. We were afraid one of them might get upside down in the ditch, so Lynn started the tractor and took two big straw bales (the old rotten ones by our haystack) along the willows so the cows will bed there in the straw instead.

Today Heather and Nick drove back to Helena, and Nick will fly back to Iowa tomorrow, to start 2nd semester. It was nice having them home for 3 weeks!

JANUARY 18 – Last Monday Michael took the backhoe to the 160-acre mountain pasture and started rebuilding the road into it. There is a good deposit of rock and gravel (perfect for road-building and road surface) around the hill and we can haul it out of there for construction projects if we create a better road to accommodate a dump truck.

On Tuesday Lynn and Andrea drove to Idaho Falls for her monthly appointment with the pain management specialist, and Lynn had an appointment too, to try to find a way to deal with his back pain. The doctor gave him some new medication. Eventually he may need surgery, but he doesn’t want to do that until he tries some other options. He had another MRI on Friday, to see if there’s any more deterioration in his back since the last one a few years ago. We’ll know the results later this week. In the meantime, he hurt his back worse and is having a hard time walking.

On Wednesday he and Michael repaired a leaky valve on the backhoe; Michael ground off the old weld and Lynn re-welded it. Michael has been working on the new road and it’s looking good—he’s hoping to get it more functional before the next big snowstorm. Deep snow would make it harder to get up there with the backhoe.

We bought more protein for the cows; at this point they are still grazing on the hill pasture by Andrea’s house and we haven’t started feeding hay. We hope they can graze awhile longer (without more snow), at least until Lynn’s back is doing a little better, before we have to feed hay.

Andrea took Emily to Idaho Falls for her 3-day hockey tournament, and she made the winning points in a couple of their games.



After they came home, we had a birthday party for Sam (9 years old) Sunday evening. We’ll be having another birthday party for Em (14 years old) tomorrow.

FALL 2011

SEPTEMBER 28, 2011 – This past week we’ve had freezing temperatures and I had to start draining my water hose (for watering the horses). Andrea and Rick helped Lynn take down the old power pole for the yard lights next to our horse pens. The pole has been leaning for several years and we’d propped it with supporting poles, but a strong wind could blow it over and smash the fences. So we took it down—along with the old fence along that side of the horse pen. We’ll eventually hook the yard lights onto my hay shed. While the fence was out, a doe and her fawns came into that pen every day to eat some of the weeds. I took pictures of the fawns.

We need to rebuild the fence and use that pen for Veggie this winter. He’s 25 years old now and his teeth are wearing out. He eats slower than his 24-year-old sister (Rubbie) and she gets most of the hay. She gets too fat and he gets thin, so he’ll need to be in a pen by himself.

The carpenters are coming along on Andrea’s new house; this week they taped the inside walls, in preparation for painting. It will probably be a couple months before the house is finished, but Andrea keeps packing her things and hauling them up there to store in her old trailer house—so it will be easier to move when the time comes.

Our cows below heifer hill were running out of grass; Sunday we moved them to the field below our lane. Emily enjoyed seeing her old friend Buffalo Girl.



OCTOBER 7 – Last week Michael put new front shoes on Breezy and Ed for me. Their feet were getting long—not safe for chasing cows. Lynn took our backhoe up to the new house and moved more dirt, in preparation for pouring concrete for a sidewalk, then went to Leadore to locate water for a rancher who is putting in a water system for 250 cows.

The past two weekends, Andrea hauled more things out here, and the little kids took turns riding Veggie. Dani wanted to go for a longer ride, so one day I took her up the horse road, across our upper field, and down past the new house. She loves to ride.

Lynn spent 4 days hauling hay from a ranch near Leadore with our flatbed trailer. Hay is expensive this year. Good alfalfa hay is $225 or more per ton. We paid $175 per ton for this grass/alfalfa hay.

Michael and Carolyn drove to Helena to visit young Heather at college for a couple days. She was working there during fall break and unable to come home. Lynn did their chores while they were gone.

Andrea and I rode to the 320 pasture and checked on Michael and Carolyn’s yearlings, to make sure everything was ok (with hunting season and lots of hunters).


On Tuesday Andrea took 8-year-old Samantha to Salt Lake to a specialist, to try to figure out why she keeps having joint pain. The doctor thought her connective tissue might be too lax. This may be why she’s always straining the joints. The other kids stayed with us while Andrea was gone.

We finally got some rain, after more than 40 days of hot, dry weather. It rained for 3 days, with snow on the mountains. Today we started a fire in our wood stove, for the first time this fall.

OCTOBER 20 – We put a new metal gate in our chute corral, to replace the old board gate (that Lynn made 45 years ago) that a cow jumped over this spring and smashed.


We also took out the old pole gate into Snickers old pen that Lynn built in 1970 and replaced it with a metal gate. Andrea and Rick set a new gate post.


The gates and fences we built in earlier years are getting old and tired, like us! Andrea and Rick helped Lynn set new posts in the fence above the house and made new braces—and put a metal gate in place of the old pole panel that’s falling apart.


A week ago we preg-checked and vaccinated the cows (all of them were pregnant, to calve in April) and vaccinated and weaned the calves. We put the calves in the grassy pens by the calving barn, with their mothers in the field right through the fence. That’s an easy way to wean—on green grass, with their mamas nose-to-nose through the fence for security.

After 3 days the calves were essentially weaned and we put them in the horse pasture where there’s lush green grass. Sammy and Dani have been coming out to see the calves and were pleased that their favorite calves remembered them.

We had 2 more days of rain—and no longer have to worry about the irrigation water being short. This will help the dry spots in the fields, and our hill pastures. Michael and Carolyn’s yearlings are doing well on the 320—scattered out over the mountains grazing. They took horses and dogs to Preston, Idaho for 3 days to help Carolyn’s brother help a friend round up cattle. The friend had a serious horse accident earlier this year and needed help with the roundup.

Yesterday Andrea and Rick sawed up and hauled off the old crab-apple tree that blew down a few years ago in Fozzy’s old pen. We’ll rebuild the old fence. There are many projects to do before winter, but we’re started on several of them.

OCTOBER 30 – Earlier this month we hired a rancher with an excavator to help us rebuild the head of our ditch that serves this side of the creek (fields above and below our house, and one of the neighbor’s fields below our place). The creek washed out our headgate and diversion a few years back and we’ve had trouble getting enough water into that ditch. Now it won’t be a problem. Michael hauled several dump truck loads of rocks to put along the creek bank, so it won’t wash out again. Our dump truck is ancient, but it still hauls a lot of rocks.

Carolyn started working at one of the local veterinary clinics for a winter job. Last Saturday I rode with Michael to our 320 to help him gather their 45 yearlings to bring down to our upper fields, in preparation for selling them.



We found all but one heifer and rode back again to look for her. We found her carcass in Baker Creek—just the bones and a piece of hide. She was fine a few days earlier when Michael checked on them. We don’t know whether she was shot by hunters and they took the meat, or killed by a cougar or wolves (predators that can eat the carcass quickly).

The next day, Andrea and I moved our small herd of cows up there to graze, since there’s so much grass left on that pasture.


We rode again the following day to check on them, and the cows were all at the ridge gate trying to come home. They were spooky and nervous.

We herded them back up into Baker Creek and they were very upset when we tried to make them go past the bones, which had been strung around even more overnight.


We realized that whatever had been eating the carcass was coming back periodically and upsetting the cows. They were too scared to spend time grazing, or to go to Baker Creek for water. So that evening Lynn and Rick took the jeep up there and loaded the bones to haul away, hoping to deter the predator from coming back.
Andrea and I rode daily, checking the cows. It took them a few days to settle down, and they still went everywhere in one big group—not scattering out like they usually do—and going as a group to water just once a day. They must feel there’s safety in numbers!

Lynn and Rick finished rebuilding the pole fence for Veggie’s new pen. Andrea has been moving more things from her rented house in town, to store in her shed and trailer house next to the new house. Today Lynn and I drove the jeep to the 320 and took a tub of protein supplement to our cows. We carried a chain saw down into Baker Creek to saw out trees that had fallen over the main trail where the cows go in and out for water. Parts of the creek in the shady canyon have been freezing up on cold nights, but there’s a place where it stays open—where a spring comes out of the bank. We have a water trough there, and the cows can usually get a drink even in very cold weather.

NOVEMBER 12 – Michael helped us several days, fixing another ditch and headgate on the other side of our creek. Brush and trees had fallen over that ditch, so it took several days with chain saws and the backhoe to get it cleared out and the ditch rebuilt.

We’ve had cold weather, so Andrea and I rode every day to check the cows’ water on the 320-acre pasture. We took a short-handled shovel up there to break and scoop ice out of the water troughs.

Last Friday we sent our steer calves to the sale at Blackfoot Livestock Auction. They sold for $1.33 per pound and we were pleased with their weights. The larger ones averaged 647 pounds. The smallest steer weighed 520 pounds. Not bad, for April-born calves.

The next day we had more snow, which made it more challenging for Andrea and me to check cows. The snow packed into our horses’ feet, making ice balls, and slippery footing with no traction! Going around one hillside, Breezy slipped and fell down, but Andrea was able to dismount quickly, and didn’t get pinned underneath the horse.




Yesterday the weather forecast was for more snow and cold weather, so Andrea and I brought the cows down from the 320 to our lower field. The snow won’t be so deep down here, and hopefully they can continue to graze awhile longer before we have to feed hay. The weather was nasty today, so we were glad we rode yesterday to move the cows. Michael helped Lynn gather protein tubs off the 320, and it was really slippery driving up there in the snow.

NOVEMBER 21 – The carpenters are basically finished with Andrea’s house, the carpet has been laid and the cabinets in (not quite finished) but we have to wait for the plumping inspector, electrical inspector, etc. before she can have an “occupancy permit”.


Meanwhile, she’s been moving appliances, furniture, etc. into the new house because she needs to be out of the rental house soon and wants to get it all cleaned up—and leave it in better shape than when she moved into it 3 years ago.

Being in limbo between the two places, the kids have been sleeping on the floor at the old house, and I’ve been cooking supper for them here. It will be a lot easier once they can be in their new house.

Michael has been helping clean and rebuild part of the main ditch above and below our driveway, using our backhoe. He and Lynn hauled several dump truck loads of rocks to fill some bad washouts. Next summer the irrigating should be a lot easier! We’ve nearly got all the ditch work done, and plan to start some fencing projects. Lynn and Michael hope to put in a lot of steel posts before the ground is too frozen—starting today on a fence that needs to be rebuilt on our upper place.