Calving season is almost here, so we brought the heifers from their School Section field where they’ve been happily eating hay up to the calving shed. While there is a week to go, there are always a few early ones. First, there was a bit of sorting to do… I stayed out of the way,…
Meeteetse
Jaxon and Quinlan had basketball games in Meeteetse on Valentine’s Day and Vernon thought we should go, nice weather… special day… and one last chance before “calving season” begins. Meeteetse is similar to Ten Sleep. A couple of blocks of downtown… small school… but they have the Meeteetse Chocolatier! And since it was Valentine’s Day,…
Valentines
My aunt in Oklahoma is a Valentine’s Day baby. Curiously enough, she had contacted me last week with a discovery. Among her mother’s papers (my grandmother), she had found this little gem. Yup. A Valentine made by me for my grandmother when I was in 3rd or 4th grade when I lived in Alaska. My…
Bear Stories 4
One of our local historical “legends” was a man named “Bear George” McClellan. He lived not far from my house which means in his written stories, I can recognize many of the places he talks about. I have copies of some of the articles he wrote for popular magazines of his day. Some stories seem…
Throwback Thursday: Wool Scarf, Step Two, v.2.0
This was first posted February 19, 2015. In the past, I’ve seen gorgeous “landscape” scarves on the internet. The scarves are wet felted from roving, then needle felted with details. Ever since I saw the first one… I’ve wanted to make one! Isn’t it perfectly delicious? Finally, I did. Part One of this journey begins HERE….
Wordless Wednesday: Baby Legs
For a jigsaw puzzle of momma and baby legs, go HERE.
New Tag Day
We took the new eartags down to the calving shed. The cows have theirs… The calves are weighed and birthweights are recorded. A DNA sample is taken, which is simply a hole pierced into the ear, and it’s automatically inserted in this little tube. Then they got their new tags too.
New vs. Old
After a calf is born, it gets an eartag to match its momma’s. Whatever you put on an eartag is up to the rancher. Individual numbers. Brands. Names. Dates. Phone numbers. We’ve always made do with the ranch’s eartags. Until now. While we’ve always bought the cheaper style, this time we decided to buy the…
Her Own
Vernon looks over the small bunch of early calvers. There was one he wanted a closer look at. Sometimes, as a cow begins to calve, her hormones are high, and she will try to “kidnap” a calf thinking it’s hers, even though she hasn’t calved yet. That was happening here. She didn’t want to leave…
Afar
The cameras are back in business with Daniel’s herd busy calving… Vernon drove down the four miles the other night as a cow was calving. By the time he arrived, she had calved, so I just kept an eye on Vernon and the cow anyway. For easiest transport, a baling twine is looped around a…
Bear Stories 3
One of our local historical “legends” was a man named “Bear George” McClellan. He lived not far from my house which means in his written stories, I can recognize many of the places he talks about. I was recently given copies of his obituary and remembrances of him. I also have copies of some of…
Throwback Thursday: Calf Warmer, v.2.0
This was first published February 10, 2015. Still hung around close to the house today… working on some wool projects and cleaning… After lunch, though, I said I’d feed my bees and head down to where the guys were installing the calf warmer. After some research, I decided NOT to give the bees any corn…