As news comes out of the Black Hills about ranchers losing up to half of their herd in the Atlas Blizzard, we voted to bring our cows out of the snow and off the top of the mountain. They were happy, spread out and grazing some tiny regrowth from the moisture… but there’s another storm…
Tag: gathering cattle
All Day
Yesterday, the boys and I, and various neighbors, gathered our steers and their cows and calves out of the Badlands Pasture. You’ll remember a few weeks ago, we rode and gathered most of ours and the neighbors’ from the same pasture and brought them home. One neighbor, however, left his cattle out there. With everyone’s…
Backup
This was me on Wednesday. Holding the steers as others cut the rest from the herd. Brandon had to help me, of course, steers are just wild teenage boys, ready to go astray at the drop of a hat… It’s always good to have backup. **** June 22, 2011 Wordless Wednesday – “Drama” June 22,…
Greatest Inventions
About 3 am, I felt yukky. About 4 am, Vernon awoke to get ready to ride and gather our steers (who sell tomorrow on Northern Livestock Video Auction). About 4:45, he and Brandon left and I remained on the couch. Miserable and, now, guilty as well. I fell back asleep at 6 and awoke at…
A Slice of Our Life
I thought this little slice of our life made for good commentary. When working cattle… sometimes you just need to stay out of the way… But keep a watchful eye! **** Any more questions? Answers will appear tomorrow! **** June 12, 2010 Varmint Gitters June 12, 2009 The Continuing Travels of Cousin Robb…
Western Conference
We gathered another pasture. It’s called the Joe Henry. He was the guy Vernon’s grandfather bought this place from back in 1909. I’ve always liked the name… even named a puppy that once… although his new owners didn’t keep it. It was tough riding. There’s lots of bentonite and volcanic ash in that pasture, both…
A Long Two Days
Heavens. Yesterday we rode and gathered the little Mills pasture. We started at daylight… which actually isn’t TOO early these days… As usual, we rode to the “back” of the pasture and “drove” the cattle in to the neighbor’s corrals. The pond this year almost covers his entryway gate! We weaned those calves. Today we…
Getting Wet
After gathering, sorting, branding, re-sorting, and trailing to new pastures… it was time to move our *first* bunch we’d branded into a new pasture. We set out under mostly cloudy skies… but both Accu-Weather and NOAA had both declared the day was going to be sunny. Yeah. My slicker still hadn’t migrated to my saddle…
HappyDance
Yesterday we gathered up the last 50 yearling bred heifers for sale in Riverton Tuesday. It gave Dally the chance to practice something fairly repetitive since we had done this just last week. I’ve dumped her out of the pickup and am sending her in a straight line the way she is facing. That meant…
ReRide
After the long day of riding last week… the weather turned on us… even colder and nastier than before. So… we flew to town to get building supplies for our various projects one day… Vernon took his “new” snowmobile up the mountain to check for leftover cows the next… He didn’t find anything… Then we…
One Last Glimpse
We gathered our pairs yesterday… Mommas and 6 month old calves… well, on the calves’ ages give or take a month or two… The cows are pregnant and to grow that brand new baby nice and healthy… it is best to kick that older kid off of the milk machine! I can work myself up…
Gatherin’ to Wean OOPE
We gathered our mountain pasture today… Tomorrow we wean our calves from their mommas… The boys delayed their return to Laramie for a couple of hours so they could help… Besides the *definite* chill in the air and the *wind*… It was a great day up there! I had on my winter Carhartt… gloves… chinks……