Freeze Branding

  Saturday we freeze branded our Replacement Heifers.  This is only the 2nd year that we have done this.  Last year, we branded nearly 200 head with our Replacement Heifers, 2s and 3 year old cows.  It's a lengthy process but we are hoping that it helps with our tagging system by keeping the same number for a particular cow for her entire life.  We had a pretty good turnout with the numbers showing up but felt that there was room for improvement.  So, Hubs got the internet and did some internet and YouTube research.  We will see in a few months if this year is better!

  We had a neighbor come over to help Hubby brand.  Boss Man ran the chute, while I pushed the cattle in the alleyway.

I grouped them in 3s, to fit in the alley way better.

Got a lot of butt views :)

A little view of the action!

   I got the heifers in the alley, then hoped over to blow the sand of hide where we needed to clip them, then clipped them.  This year, we double clipped them to get a closer shave for hopefully a better brand.  Then I blew them clean again.  If I had time I scrubbed them with 99% Rubbing Alcohol.  Our neighbor that come to help, usually helped me with the clipping/blowing/cleaning after he got his number 3 on each one. It was a pretty good team effort.

Closer view - the clock is for the guys to keep track of how long they have the iron on the heifer's hide. 

All done!

  We had a really nice day, it was in the 40s however the wind blow all of the hair right back in our faces.  I was a sticky mess of hair by the end!!!  Mr T helped out as well, the first 4 hours, he played with his toys in the barn, then he had lunch and thought he should help us.  However it wasn't a project that he could help with.  Mr T was super happy to be done with the freeze branding!

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Send a Prayer

  As I put pen to paper fingers to keypad this AM, I am of mixed emotion.  I find myself spending a lot of time thinking about the storm Atlas and what havoc it wrecked upon my fellow ranchers and farmers.  I feel that the lack of media shows a true picture of what our country has become and the focus that it has lost.  I can not imagine what it must be like to be searching thru what snowbanks are left for the rest of your missing cows, sheep, horses or what it is that you are missing.  We took a drive up to Spearfish for our chiropractor appointment on Tuesday and seen firsthand cattle tangled up the fence-lines or where they dropped from exhaustion and it was literally gut wrenching.  I pray daily for those ranchers and their livelihoods.
   
  I am thankful that we were on the edge of Atlas and received some rain and then 3 inches of wet snow.  All of our livestock made it thru just fine.   The last numbers that I was hearing was well over 60,000 head of cattle in the just South Dakota alone.  Devastation is one term that comes to mind.  I fear for the ranchers that won't be able to continue on with their livelihoods, bring an end to tradition in their family or operation.

   I think that it is important to try to educate as many fellow Americans as possible about the impact that Agriculture has on this great country, especially in a time like this.  Due to social media influencing, it's important not to believe all that you read online!  Pictures get Photoshop and captions get changed.  Let's try to help keep fact and fiction separate, keep positive thoughts heading to the Heartland of America.   If you can't send a donation or help out in the recovery effort, at the very least - send a prayer.

 

A Really Quick Update!

  There has been some unrest among my readers about no new posts for several weeks now.  In response, I thought it best to get a really, really quick update on here before future mutiny is acted on!  Just kidding, I have the most well-behaved nicest readers that a blogger could ask for!

  We left on the 6th for a quick trip back to ND for a rather dear friend's wedding.  She had an amazing outdoor, rustic setting to work with and being a rather creative person, made the wedding site and ceremony into a beautiful work of art! 

The ceremony site

  I didn't ask permission from the bride to post pictures on the blog, so this is all that I am going to share here, but let me tell you - it was amazing!  The weather was a bit on the rainy side and despite that, she was a happy bride.  From the professional pictures that I have seen, the cloudy skies helped with awesome wedding photos to treasure for years to come!!! 

  Since the wedding was in ND, we were fortunate to leave Mr T with his grandparents for the night!  He got to go to McDonald's and be spoiled, I doubt that he missed us!!!  We had a blast (one of us, a little more so than the other ;) ) dancing, visiting with old and new friends and just being kid-free for the evening! 

  Sunday was spent with the rest of Trav's family, going to Applebee's (which is now a treat for us!) and hanging out visiting.  It was a short trip but we are glad that we were able to go. 

  Returning home to the hot weather, we found out that Boss Man had been having sick cows.  We jumped in and started helping with the Doctoring.  Thankfully, the weather broke and turned cooler which helped the cows, however then the calves started getting sick.  We are Doctoring calves every day, usually roping them off of the Ranger and then administering some LA300, turning them loose and on to the next one.   After discussing sick calves with some neighbors, we think that do a water shortage this summer for the calves, that is resulting in the sick calves now.  We also had a calf commit suicide be sticking his head in a tight spot, I guess you can't save them all. 

  Wednesday the 11th, we shipped out the rest of our yearlings.  I had MOPS with Mr T and Hubby managed to end up in the ER with a nasty cut finger that resulted in stitches.  The next day, we preconditioned my Uncle's calves and the rest of ours.   Just another ranch day around here!

  Since then, it's been Doctoring and checking cattle everyday.  I am hoping that things can slow up a bit so that I can get Mr T's 3rd (can that possibly be right - 3?) birthday planned and a house fall-cleaned for company!!!  On of these days, I will get some house updates on here as well.  In spare time, we have continued on with painting and doors!

 Have a Blessed Day!
  ~C~

Laboring on Labor Day Weekend

  Life has been crazy around here to say the least.  We went back to haying our low ground around the lakes last week.  Boss Man drove the swather in one meadow and got stuck 4 times.  Hubby finished up the other meadows and got stuck once.  Then it rained Friday night before we were able to get windrows baled up.  Since I had raked it once, I then had to flip the windrows over as the top of the windrows dried out.  We tried that on Saturday and abandoned it since the windrows wouldn't flip over. 
  With the rain on Friday, it brought cooler overnight temps and settled the dust in the corrals for a few nights which made it perfect for us to start preconditioning the calves (giving them a shot to help them from the stress of weaning) and then we sprayed the cattle to help kill the flies.  We started on Sunday morning at 5am down at H's place (our leased pastures).  We have three pastures (two from H's and one from H's sister E) leased.  This year they let us take 30 pairs and a bull for each pasture.   I gather the cattle and bring them into the corral for Boss Man and Hubby to sort the calves from their mamas.  Then they run the calves thru the chute for their shot.  After that Hubby sprays all of the cattle for flies.  E usually helps me gather the cattle and E's husband K usually helps the guys in the corral.  It takes more time for me to gather the cattle and bring them into the corral then it does the guys to work them.  So, I keep pretty busy!  We got done with our 90 head and brought the three bulls home with us.  Then we stopped at our corral and brought in 58 head of freshly weaned calves and worked then. 

30 head of Herefords headed to the corral.

Heading back with 30 head of black angus cows.

      After working the calves, we stopped and had lunch and then it was on to the hayfield for Boss Man and myself.  I tried reraking hay again.  This time I got stuck three times before I quit.  Boss man was able to get the majority of the hay bales without getting stuck.  I was glad to have that job done!!!

  Monday 5AM rolled around and we headed out to work our cattle here at the home place.  We had 250 plus head to gather, sort, give a shot to the calves and spray the fly spray on all of the cattle. 

Gathering cattle in the dawn of the morning.

  We had tried to find a neighbor for some help but didn't find anyone.  So, that left Hubby and I too gather while Boss Man and Mr T went to the corrals with the pickup to open gates and help turn the cattle into the corrals.  Everything was going really well....I was up in the hills pushing cattle over into the flat while Hubby brought up the back end and checked the rest of the hills.  Then I hit a cattle trail that I didn't see and my 4-Wheeler's front wheel was no longer in a straight line. Good news is that it was still drivable (kinda) but you had to go slow with it.  At this point, we were committed to getting the cattle in but I knew that I wasn't going to be much help.  Since Hubby hasn't helped get very many bunches of cattle into the corrals from the direction that we were trying to and it can be tricky...I went and switched 4-Wheelers with him.  I needed speed to control the front and the sides and Hubby was going to be able to go slow and easy on the broken 4-wheeler to bring up the back.  Luckily, we got the cattle into the corral without any issues, got them sorted and worked all by 10AM. 

  Laboring over the weekend is just something that comes from being on a ranch.  You work when needed and take a break when the work is done (if that ever happens!).  I am proud of our heritage and proud of our family for keeping on! 

  Hope that everyone enjoyed their labor day weekend!

  Have a Blessed Day!
  ~C~

Water Issues.....

  This summer, I thought it was my good fortune to be put in charge of checking the cows here at the home place.  We have 250 head of pairs at home for the summer and normally we check them every other day.  I take them salt & mineral, check water, pasture conditions and then monitor the cattle for any sickness.  However, what I didn't know was that the wind wasn't going to fully cooperate for me this summer and keep our tanks full. 

Out of water - time to move them!

  I have spent the majority of my time this summer moving cattle from one pasture to the next and then back again when the tanks were full.  It's been 'special' to say the least!  But, it's also been job security as well.  Mr T has been helping me recently and he can yell at the cattle with the best of them to get them moving. 

Strung out and heading towards the gate.

This little calf was sick this spring, nearly died but looks good now!

Boss Man helped me on this move, he got to herd his Buffalo.

  These pictures are from July, things are not quite as green around since the temps have been in the 90s with no rain for about 10 days now.  I can not complain too much with the cooler temps and timely rains, we haven't had to doctor anything at the home place for sickness (knock on wood) which is huge!  I am looking forward to things cooling off so we can start working the calves thru the chutes for their shots to help keep sickness at minimum and to get ready for weaning!  Fall is on my mind but summer is in the air!

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

In the Hayfield

   Hubby cuts the hay down in the hayfield with our Bi-Directional tractor with a header on it. 

 
Boss Man drives the baling tractor.

 We are cross-trained as well!  Hubby helps rake if needed - like when we first moved and I couldn't help out.  If needed I can fill in on the baling however I haven't run this new John Deere baler much.  I had spent a fair amount of time running our Vermeer baler.  Boss Man has to fill in on the swather when we have to help out Hubby since I hate cutting.  When we used to use bar mowers, I would help out during the lunch hour but cutting isn't my thing! 

  The Swather has to run longer hours since it only cuts a 16 ft swath so Hubby stays rather busy during the haying season.  That leaves me time to do the raking, check cows and try to keep Mr T happy.  This year, he has had to go the hayfield which he does enjoy for the first couple of hours.

 Mr T usually rides in the rake tractor with me.

  Mr T either tries to lay down and sleep or sits next to me on this bench and plays with some toys.  We drive the tractor without air-conditioning and at times it is a little on the warm side. But, he has been a trooper so far.  I can't send him in the swather with Hubby since the only place for him to sit is on Hubby's lap and that only works for a short time.  The baling tractor is too loud for him to ride in (I worry about damaging his ears) and that tractor is pretty much limited to standing for him since the only place for him to sit is right by the door and we worry about it coming open.  We have good reason to worry about that since I fell out of the baling tractor (the rake tractor when it was the baling tractor 30 years ago!), the door came open and I fell out.  Scared Boss Man due to the fact that he did not know if he drove over me or not since he couldn't see me after I tumbled out.  Luckily, the tires missed me since I fell far enough away but now we are a little more cautious about letting toddlers sit near a door. 

 

  Anyways, I drive the rake tractor....

 



 

...when it's not stuck.  I tried to go between the fence and the lake which I just barely fit however Hubby had left some tracks which my rake dropped down into.  I didn't have enough traction to pull the rake back up out of the ruts and pull the heavy rushes into a windrow.  Lucky for me though, I had cell service where I was (doesn't happen...cell service that is....on this ranch much) and called Boss Man who called Hubby to come rescue me.  I just needed more muscle power to get the rake closed up and a little pull to get out of the ruts. 

  Needless to say, I don't mind haying but I enjoy seeing a field looking like this....

 

and knowing that we are done with it!

It's back to the hayfield for me again today.  I seen a lot of tracks from Hubby around the soft ground - let's hope that I don't wind up in the same predicament today :)

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Goat Wrangling

  This AM, Boss Man arrived over to my house and asked me to go check our cows to the west of the Home Meadow.  They were bunched up and mooing like crazy.  We assumed that they were out of water and needed let them out the gate into the next pasture for water.  I quickly dressed Mr T and let him outside to play with Cat while the guys were doing some work on the baling tractor in the shop.  I grabbed the 4-Wheeler, some Salt & Mineral, then took off to check water and cows. 

  Got to the first windmill and we had a half tank of water (enough water for the time being), realized that something else had to have these cows all wound up.  So I started driving the pasture, seeing nothing out of the ordinary, they had plenty of grass and water.  I went down to a gate that I knew needed a little tightening and a top wire replaced that was broken, fixed that.  Then I drove the last little bit of hills that were left and then I found these critters hanging out.

Goat #1 and Goat #2

  I went back home and reported my findings to Boss Man, then I started calling a few neighbors that might have goats.  I didn't find the owners so I decided to go corral them and let them eat our weeds out of our corrals instead of keeping our cows all nervous.  Mr T went with me on this mission. 

Mr T chasing the goats...it was hot, he thought they should go faster!

 
  One of our neighbors (R) that I had called to see if he had any goats or was missing any, showed up to help us wrangle the goats.  He didn't know who owned them either but had gotten called the day before over a goat sighting to the South of us by the highway.  He had decided to take them home and keep them until someone called.  Since I already had them headed to our corrals, we decided to take them there and he went on his merry way.  I don't think either one of us really wanted to wrangle goats!  Mr T and I got the goats in the corral, gave them some water and then came home...it was lunch time!

Silly Boy!

  I guess one of us was really, really hungry!!!  This was taken after he had already eaten a decent sized meal and had gotten down out of his booster seat.  Still hungry, I guess!  Silly boys! :)

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Helping with the Horses

  This past week or so, Mr T has been helping me with the horses.  We have been doing some 'cleanup grazing' in our tree rows.  There is no water source in the tree rows so we have to catch the horses and bring them into the corral for water.  It's not that hard of a job when you got somebody this cute to help you bring them in!

Telling Cat where the horses are.

Mr T leads 'Leroy' while Star follows along.

I lead three head:  Duece (aka Crazy Mare), Doc and Cactus.

Mr T trying to help Leroy get out of his halter.

Oh, some nice cool water to drink and then it's off to give a little boy a ride in his new saddle!

Of course, Cat has to come along for the ride.

Keep going, MOM!

  Hope that ya'll have a Blessed Weekend!  We are going to try to take in the local county fair and rodeo this weekend.

~C~

Checking Cows

  Monday morning was nice and cool so Mr T and I loaded up the Ranger with some salt & mineral and headed out to check cattle.  We first had to check on some late calves that we just branded last week.  Found one in a wild sunflower patch but he was headed to mama as soon as he heard us!

  Then we ventured over to the big bunch of cows.

One of the bulls with some mama cows.

Our trusty longhorn with her baby.

 

Happy cows :)

The Buffalo...got a baby this year!

 Then it was on to check in on the 5 head of calves that we have recently weaned and sold their mamas.

Content calves!

 

Mr T and I enjoying some cow checking time!

After that it was time to head home and clean some house!

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Splitsville

  Gotcha!  Not the Hubs and me but we recently split a tractor so my awesome (the mechanic in the family) could take the transmission out, fix it and put it back.  Let's just say that by the end of the project, our mechanic was about to shove the tractor over the cliff.  However, he did get it fixed so now we can start haying.

  Since the transmission needed rebuilt, the guys took off the front tires and had some work done on the front end as well.  My brother was really happy that we got the concrete poured in the shop that is attached to the house.  He remembers (as do I) the countless hours that we worked on machinery out in the yard under a shade tree in the grass.  Nothing like hearing "lost a bolt, don't anybody move, I think it landed here somewhere" and then spending an hour searching for the lost bolt with success of finding it about 50% of the time. 
 
  I helped out when needed but spent the large part of this project keeping glasses filled with Ice Tea or Water and cookies available when needed.   On Brother's second trip to put the tractor all back together, he brought my nephew to play with Mr T.  Oh, the fun that was had at least by Mr T was priceless! 

  We now a tractor that runs better and I enjoyed getting to spend some quality time with my nephew and feeding the guys a few meals.  However, I think we all glad that this project is over!

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

It's a..............?

Pioneer Woman move over, we have a new animal in residence at the Ranch and this new animal has a truly unique name.....

Introducing.....Cat....no, that's really his name!

  On a recent trip thru Sturgis, we stopped at the Animal Shelter to pick up some barn cats.  They usually have a selection of 'wild' cats that they like to send to live on ranches to mouse.  This time however, they only had one wild cat in residence and he escaped when they tried to put him in our kennel.  However, they had two 'tame' cats that needed a home and we decided to take them.  I am not sure if the other cat (a Siamese) is still around but "Cat" is still here and Mr T found him today to play with.

Mr T is very happy that Cat has a tail.

Sometimes you have to carry Cat around.

Sometimes Cat will chase you...can you see his tail in the tall grass right behind Mr T?

Sometimes you have to jump into the rafters when a naughty ranch dog chases you.

Sometimes, a nice human will leave you a treat for being carried, for chasing and being chased!

  Hopefully, Cat will stop howling at night outside Boss Man's house so he (the cat) can stick around to entertain Mr T.  I think Cat is a great companion for Mr T.  As long as Cat is a mouser, he can stick around.

 

Have a Blessed Day!

~C~

Twins

 This isn't our first set of twins and I doubt that it will be the last.  No, I am not talking about Hubby and I having twins!  Right at the tail end of calving, we had a cow have twins and so far we haven't needed a calf to put on another cow.  So, this mama is raising her twins!  I spend the better part of two weeks teaching her to accept both calves and now she does!  I do good work :)!

The Twins :)  One steer and one heifer calf.

Sometimes they nurse on different sides.

Sometimes they try to nurse on the same side.

  I have decided that if you are lucky enough to have twins either bovine or human....you have to have a ton of patience.  When we were pregnant with Mr T, I was hoping that we were having twins so we could have our two kids and we done all in one shot.  However, I am very glad that God only gave us one sweet little boy instead since I don't know if I have the patience that twins require.  As always, God knows what he is doing :).

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

New Tires

  This summer has proved to be as busy as always and it's not even summer yet!  Since we have the house project on hold (meaning that there a ton more important ranch things to do first!), Hubby has been getting the fence repairs done and help out with the shop projects.  Since we put the same spray installation in the shop, it stays pretty cool in there (like in the 60s) making the shop projects a little more tolerable for the guys. 
 
  However on one hot and very humid day, the guys decided to tackle putting 8 new tires on the truck.  They did their own mounting work (changing out the old tires on the rim and putting the new tires on the rim) to save some $$$.  In ranching, everything that you can do it yourself saves you hard earned money and that is a good thing. 

7 of the 8 tires.

  On top of changing out the eight driver tires, they also switched out four of the trailer tires that were needing to be replaced with the most 'decent' tires off of the truck.  Made for a lot of jacking up axels and lots of lug nuts that needed to broke loose.  I helped where I could....putting air in tires and helping to lift the heavy truck tires.  It was a lot of work but we got it done in one day, despite twisting off a 3/4 inch extension...good thing for neighbors....they had one for us to borrow! 

Changing out a trailer tire.

  When it was all done, Hubby told me that he never figured that he would be a tire guy! 

Have a Blessed Day!
~C~

Happy Father's Day

  We had a semi-interesting day for Father's Day.  The day started off with Boss Man and Hubby tearing a tractor apart (this is ongoing thing in all spare time) and I worked on getting food prepared for supper.   On Saturday, we trucked two small loads of pairs to our leased grass from our neighbor, an elderly gentleman, Howard.  Since Howard is a bachelor, we decided to invite him over for steaks on Sunday. 

  After lunch, Boss Man and I decided to check cattle and put out salt and mineral.  We ended up needing to move one bunch of cows (around 250 head of pairs) since they were out of grass and out of water.  However, the calves did not want to move the direction that we needed them to and the cows were more than willing to go the right direction.  We only had the Ranger to move these cows so that left me to do a fair amount of running and chasing on foot.  Let's just say that I am not in shape!  But, we did get the cows and calves moved thru the gate into the next pasture and got most of them paired up. 

  We got home just in time for me to take a quick shower before our guest arrived.  Here is what I put on the grill for supper:

Buffalo T-Bones and potatoes!

While grilling, I noticed some clouds building....

 

And then we had quarter-size hail...:(

  However, we did get a little rain shower with the hail...probably only about a tenth!  The steaks even turned out really good despite the grill flair ups while I was running around trying to get pickups into the shop while it was hailing.  Always something interesting happening around here!   I hope that everyone had a wonderful Father's Day and celebrated it with the ones that they love :)!

  Have a Blessed Day!
  ~C~