Monday, December 31, 2007

This and that.






Lately it seems as though every time I look up I can see a job or project that I could be doing, and that is ok because it makes the slow winter days pass a little faster. I have spent quite a lot of time trying to get everything ironed out with the team, and other little projects. The horses behave themselves pretty well until I get too much weight on the wagon, then one of them would rather not pull his weight. If I go at a good clip, then he is fine, but when I try to hold them up to a slow walk, he thinks it is time to stop. It will get better with time, and the stone boat I borrowed seems to help them a lot. I ran over to a friends ranch the other day and he helped me with a few things, and the pictures of the wagons, etc. are from his ranch. The panoramic picture is from the drive into his outfit. The other photos are from a frosty morning we had here the other day. Sorry that they got out of order.

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Four Photos From Christmas Day





Christmas Day weather was very nice here. On my rounds, I snapped a few shots of the day.


The center two photos were taken of our neighbor as he was waiting for cows to come into cake. The weather has been good for the most part for cattle to do well this fall.

Learning Process or Trial By Fire


The last week I have been adding to my resume' by learing to do a little trucking. I have no aspirations to be an over the road trucker, but I figured since it needed to be done I just as well learn to do it. I have been making trips to North Dakota after some very nice alfafla hay that was baled up into the medium sized square bales. It is great hay to haul as it doesn't stick out past the sides of the truck, and you can still see what is going on behind you.

Monday, December 24, 2007

Christmas Eve Day Rambles






My sister was here today, so we took a short drive around the country in the pickup, then later took a spin with the horses. We had a nice Christmas Eve, and I hope everyone else did too.


All the photos were taken off our ranch, just west of here a few miles, except the first one. I put the hayrack on the running gear today, so I can feed some of the medium sized square bales we bought last week.

Thursday, December 20, 2007

Todays addition.


We have been trucking some cattle to the sale the last couple days, and I stopped along the road and took this picture yesterday of an old set of corrals, and Castle Rock butte.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

A few from the past.

I thought I would add a few pictures from the past year or two. The first and third are of our kids, and the middle one is from Bear Country in the Black Hills. We went thru there last Mothers Day, and that big old bear just stood up and started scratching his back as we drove by. We all got a big kick out of it.


Monday, December 17, 2007

Take a ride with me.





Thought I would show some of you what it looks like to sit in the "drivers seat" while you are driving horses. It got so nice late yesterday that we took them out again. I think I will use them to feed calves one of these days.


The others photos are cows on fresh grass, and my daughters favorite cat doing what cats do best.

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Here are a couple of "people pictures" for you.



I thought I better add a couple photos of some of us who live here on the ranch. I am dragging one in at a branding here last year, and the other one is a photo I took of the kids riding with me last spring.

A nice winter's day.





Today is quite the winter's day here. It is not the warmest day we have ever had here, but real nice nonetheless. We have virtually no snow, and it is around 40 degrees at noon. It is a bit breezy, but hey, it can be a lot worse. We are not unfamiliar with open winters here, but on other hand we can get some tough winters once in a while, with lots of snow and wind.

I went out this morning to open a gate and let one bunch of cows into another rougher pasture. It has good shelter, and also lots of grass this year. The pasture should run the cows a long time, unless we get too much snow, and it covers up the grass. When we start feeding cake to those cows, I usually end up sitting and waiting for them a while as they sure can get scattered out. We happen to have a couple highpoints on our ranch that give a great vantage point of the surrounding country. One of them is in this pasture. When I am waiting for the cows to gather up, I am always amazed at what a beautiful view I have from up there. To the south, I can see Terry Peak, located in the Black Hills, and it is close to 70 miles in the distance. Looking to the west, the Short Pine Hills and Lone Mountain loom up nearby, and I can see parts of the Long Pine Hills, and the Sheep Mountains in Montana. Also the Jumpoff (you can see it in my first picture), is full of badlands and mud buttes, and lay just to the NW of here. To the North, I can see the Cave Hills and the prairie below, and to the East the Slim Buttes run a long ways from N. to S. All of these hills have pines, hardwoods, and other various scenery. And to cap things off, most of the prairie below has scattered mud buttes, that poke up like many loose haystacks on the range.

Once in a while you have to count your blessings, and it is always easy to appreciate life when you are in a scenic location and have plenty of time to soak things up.

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Playing around this afternoon.


A friend of mine came over today and we messed around a little with my horses. He is a very good teamster, and uses a team to feed with every winter. In fact the low cost ranching guru's would think he must be on the right track because he does not own a tractor. And we are not necessarily ranching "down south". He does have a skid steer that he loads large square bales up with. I have some photos on one of my earlier postings, that were taken on the ranch that he is on. It is good rough country. He is the one driving the team in the photos.

This is my paint team with the wagon and caker mounted. The horses did real well today, and it was an enjoyable afternoon.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Working calves.

It is the time of the year when we bangs vaccinate the heifer calves. So today we had the vet come up and get the job done. We ran them through the chute, and things went pretty well. Some of the heifers weren't crazy about going into the squeeze chute. I was surprised about that as they have never been caught in one before. The other times we worked them, they got their shots and went right through, without being caught. The calves are getting about a pound and a half of cake, and 7 or so pounds of alfalfa hay. Then they need to graze for the balance of their ration. They seem to be doing pretty fair, and they are out where they get lots of exercise in a decent sized pasture. It sure has eliminated the sickness so far. That is always a plus.

I don't think they need to put of lots of weight over the winter, but they need to grow frame so they can catch up next summer. I think it has worked as they have weighed just as much by the next fall as they did when we used to winter them in the lot.

Welfare cases, and and old mower.


When I was out checking water, the cows were thinking it was time for them to get a handout. But no such luck. They will have to wait a while for a bite of cake if the snow holds off. They are wintering very well so far on grass, salt, and fresh water. This bunch will be moved to fresh pasture soon, but they are doing great where they are at.

The old mower in the lower picture is a remnant from earlier owners of this ranch. It has always made me think I should do something with it, but so far all I have done is look. It probably will stay that way. I need to get the dates off the pictures, as they are wrong.

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Archive Tuesday

Thinking back to warmer days.

Monday, December 10, 2007

Nature's Portrait

Just recently we got the kids gathered up for their yearly Christmas card photo. We drove a short way up the road to some neat mud butte formations, that were all "dressed up" in mother natures finest. We spent a short time afterwards hiking around, and enjoying the beauty of things.




Christmas Tree Huntin'

The kids and I went looking for a tree last Sat. We went over to a neighbors on the Forest and found a nice one. We always used to cut pines, but the last three years we have found nice Juniper trees to cut down. It was a calm day, with just a tiny bit of snow in the air, but a nice day nonetheless. Of course, I took the camera along, and took a few photos of the country.




I think I have their attention.


Wednesday, December 5, 2007

This fall weather is something!

This area has seen some wild swings in the temps. lately. We had some snow last weekend, then it got down to just below zero on Sunday morning. By Tuesday morning at daybreak, it was well over 40 above, and had a daytime high of 58 degrees. That ate up the snow in a hurry. By early evening it was back down below 20 degrees, and we had light snow again last night. It has to be hard on livestock , but it does give us locals something to talk about! And the light snow cover makes for some nice photos.