Along with pulling up the electric fence wire, our preparations for calving included cleaning the calving shed. The red shed is easily seen from my house through the boxelder trees. It is a five minute walk from here. Soon we’ll be putting our heifers, 60 of ’em, in here every night. We’ll sort off the…
Category: Animals
Sorting OOPE Fave
The idea of OOPEs is that the photographs are taken as my camera sits in the pocket of my Carhartt coat. Yesterday’s photos especially proved this point… this shot more than the others. There’s the cuff of my coat on the upper left… and the edge of my pocket on the bottom. In between is…
Sorting OOPE
I did it! I actually took photos while sorting cattle! Yes, I waited until most of it was done and yes, most of the pics are definitely OOPEs but considering I didn’t drop my camera and Tart and I didn’t lose any cows and Tart and I didn’t fall down on the *)(&*&^% ice – I…
January Gather OOPE
We began gathering our cows off the BLM today with our neighbors that share the allotment. I am sore from hunching up against the snow even though it was very light and a fairly nice day. I took my hot shower and I’m ready for bed, but, of course, have to post these OOPE photos…
Bangs OOPE
The other day I managed to have an OOPE day. We were bangs vaccinating our young heifers… or brucellosis vaccinating. For those of you who don’t know, brucellosis is a contagious disease that causes abortion in cattle. Female cattle must be proven to have had the vaccination at the time of sale. To do this, a veterinarian…
Somedays…
Do you ever have those days where there is so much information going into your brain and rattling around that you know you won’t be able to sleep? Today is one of those days. Brandon and I went to a Range Management Workshop today, so we have lots of new terminology and ideas ricocheting around…
Guest Photographer
My youngest son received a digital camera for Christmas. He took some good photos… so I thought I’d share them with you and give my camera a break. Today he and his older brother had the job of kicking the cows off of the fence. We don’t literally “kick” them of course! I think maybe…
Feeding What?
I have always enjoyed identifying birds, tracks, animals, plants, trees… whatever seems to cross my path. I was VERY frustrated on my cruise last year… asking locals what the names of the trees were and they would simply say, “I don’t know.” I don’t like that. I try to know what things are! Now I…
Feeding Hay 201
For years we have fed on two different ranches… ours and the one we lease from a neighbor. It helps keep cows/newborn calves separate, just in case someone gets ill and wants to spread it… plus it is easier on the fields and creek to spread the cattle out. I’ve shared many pics of us…
Gathering Calves OOPE
Today it almost reached 40 degrees! A 70 degree improvement over the other morning. Gotta love Wyoming. Since the weather was nice, we decided we’d better kick more calves up to the feed ground before the weather dropped off or snowed more. Off to the fields went Brandon, Vernon, and I. My partner for the…
Winter Solstice – OOPE
FINALLY! The shortest day of the year has arrived! It is easy to understand why this day was/is celebrated… I feel like throwing a party myself! The amount of darkness really does make a difference in our lives here… and since Vernon swears he runs on solar power, the idea of longer and brighter days…
Goodbye, heifers
This morning we sold the last of our heifers. These are the ones we didn’t choose for our replacements. They are almost 2 years old… ready to have their first babies themselves. In my humble opinion, they are pretty good looking heifers! Many of them I had picked to keep, however, if they don’t make…