Spring Spruce-up

I had plans to paint the lower half of my entry way over the weekend but realized that I bought the wrong paint.  I knew that the color name started with "A" but forgot to take the sample card.  I got to the store and looked at the sample cards and there were two dark blue ones that started with "A".  I bought "Assertive" when I should have gotten "Awareness."  It was much darker than my other blue wall.  I thought it would be fine but M said no.  I didn't want to waste a gallon of paint and have to buy another but I did.  So, today I finally got to painting.

New blue paint

I was able to bring my car home this week for the first time in months so the pickup got left in Richland for a couple of days.  R was going to check some fence so I told him I needed a ride to get it and to get some stuff to the post office.  I thought it would be a quick trip and I could get right back home and finish up my project.  Wrong!  As we were driving along the pickup developed a clunking sound.  We limped it to town and R and J looked at it and discovered a bearing out on the drive shaft.  That left R without a ride so I would have to wait for him which meant I got to go along to check fence.

I was complaining that I wasn't dressed for the weather but R said "it's 50 degrees, you'll be fine" and we set off in the Rhino.  We had gone up the east side and then turned west and were going into the wind when R commented that we should have gone around the pasture the other way so that the wind wouldn't be in our faces as much.  I said it felt like the wind was coming off a glacier, and he said "no, just coming from Opheim."  Opheim has been the snow capital of the world this winter with about 115 inches of snow (normal is about 30).  J was over there yesterday for his CSP inspection and there was a lot of the land that he leases that they couldn't get to even with a 4-wheeler.  Still snowmobile only.  Kind of scary for the farming season since we're usually seeding by now.

We only had two wire breaks to fix so it didn't take us long and I got home and back to my project.  I finished painting and then scrubbed the floor.  A friend commented that she was "spring cleaning" so that spring might take the hint and finally arrive.  Whatever it takes!

Hoping M can do his part and pick the top 20 caps!

60+ days in exile

Our neighbors have an old fencer (70+ years old) who has been living in a camper trailer on their place, not just in the summer but all winter!  There's an old house there that they told him he could live in but he thought the electricity would be too expensive.  He has a home in Chinook but reports are that it is falling down.  We really can't figure out why he wanted to stay around here unless he had nowhere else to go.  The last time he has been out of there was over 60 days ago and that was just for an afternoon to go get groceries before he got snowed in again after being there for about 30 days.  No on lives on that road anymore and the county plows gave up trying to keep it open.  M and R snowmobiled food to him a couple of times but he was pretty well stocked.  M asked him if he was making marks on the wall each day as if he was in prison. 

J finally got up there with our plow this week and then R went up with the loader tractor to dig out his tractor so he could dig out his car and pickup.  R said he could barely see the camper and they shoveled for an hour to get the tractor out.  The snow was probably good insulation.  During one storm he went out and shoveled every hour so that the snow didn't block his door and trap him inside.  It started to get difficult to get through the snow to the well for water so he started melting snow--there was plenty of that just outside his door.  M made him promise to call with his cell phone every couple of days so that we would know he was still okay.  We were hoping he didn't have to eat his dog or vice versa.  His furnace went out at some point so he was heating the place with the oven.  He ordered a new one but we were only able to get it to him a couple of weeks ago by snowmobile.  It cost him $1200.  I think that would have bought a lot of electricity.  I also think that he must be crazy to stay up there in that camper or that he is now after being stuck there alone for months.

Breakfast Bribery

M woke me up with morning with the promise of a pancake breakfast if I would help him get a load of pairs loaded and down to Richland while the ground was still frozen.  R got off the farm last night for a change so we were pretty sure he had a late night and didn't want to wake him up too early.  I agreed to help so we went to get the trailer and headed over to load the pairs.  The process actually went without a hitch.  M took a bale to the cows and calves and checked the heifers.  Then we went to the cows yet to calve.  There were two by the gate that M didn't pay much attention to as he walked up the hill to check the others.  I thought I saw something in the straw so got closer and saw that there was a calf.  One cow was shaking her head at me and pawing at the ground.  Not a good sign.  When M came back, I told him there was a calf there and that the cow was acting funny.  He always poo-poos me when I say that but agreed after he tried to get close enough to check her tag number and she chased him up a snowbank!  We went back later this afternoon with reinforcements (R and a Louisville Slugger) to tag the calf, but she kept her distance and didn't give them any trouble.

M made good on his promise of pancakes for breakfast, and my stomach was ready by the time we got home!  I guess it was win-win.

Sick Babies

We were so happy earlier that we didn't lose any calves in the storms, but lately we've lost a few--some to sickness and a couple that wouldn't eat.  Very frustrating to save the newborns from freezing only to have them die a few days or a week later.  It's been a common problem in our area with lots of ranchers reporting the same thing.  M thinks it is a combination of the calves being weak at birth and then the wet, cold conditions.  The poor things haven't had many sunny, dry days.  He has been doctoring a few and was a bit encouraged today when he didn't see any sick ones, some bare ground is appearing, and we actually missed the snow and rain that was happening around us.  The area near Richland where we took our replacement heifer calves has dried out considerably so M was hoping to get a trailer load of pairs down there.  The main road has dried up some and the ground was still partially frozen so he ventured up with the trailer but had to leave it sitting on the road to the farm because he couldn't get up the hill.  Hopefully, he can get it tomorrow morning when the ground is frozen.  Plans kind of go awry like that these days.

The main road turnoff to our house.

Only 6 miles of slop to the highway!

Seriously?

M was up early yesterday trying to get the replacement heifer calves moved down to Richland to make more room at home for the new calves.  He was hoping that things had frozen up overnight and the road wouldn't be so muddy.  It didn't freeze hard so he had R go ahead of him with the tractor in case he needed a pull.  As they were heading out a neighbor from the north called and said he was stuck just north of our house with a truck and loaded grain trailer.  Not sure what he was thinking trying to take a loaded truck down that road.  M told him they were coming with the tractor and could give him a pull.  In the meantime, M realizes he has a flat tire on the stock trailer so calls me to come get him at the main road.  I had just gotten up so didn't even get my morning tea!  He rode the tractor with R up to the neighbor and helped get them chained up and I picked him up and we headed to Richland to get another tire for the trailer.  R had to pull the neighbor for at least a quarter mile and now we have ruts in the mud a foot deep.  M was not happy!!

We get a tire and jacks and go back to the pickup and stock trailer.  As we pull up to the pickup we see a black and white barn cat on the flatbed of the pickup.  Uh-oh.  It had apparently hitched a ride from the farm.  It's usually pretty friendly but was out of it's element and wouldn't come to us.  We set about changing the tire which wasn't as easy as it sounds.  First to find a good place to place the jack.  Then the first lug nut gets stuck in the socket and we can't get it out.  Finally, we get the tire on and then try to catch the cat which had crawled into the undercarriage of the pickup and wouldn't come out.  I crawled under and managed to push it out of it's spot but it moved to somewhere even more inaccessible.  We could hear it but not see it.  So, it took a ride to Richland or some point in between.

I went home and finally got my breakfast and then headed to the farm to try to bottle feed a calf.  M thought I might have more patience with it.  I hadn't been over there in awhile and couldn't believe how bad the road is.  I told R that it sure seemed like a long two miles!  R and I tried to feed the calf without much success and then R lost interest and had other chores to do.  I worked at it awhile longer, but it couldn't figure out how to suck.  Just when I thought we were making progress it quit trying.  After M got there we tried to tube it but didn't have much success there either.  R had four calves to tag and move to higher, drier ground.  The corral is a soupy mess, and we're running out of places to put the new calves to try to keep them dry.

J and his cousin came out to get the dozer tractor so that it didn't get snowed in at the farm since it was scheduled to have some work done to it on Wednesday.  They came in a 2WD pickup and weren't sure how they made it.  The cousin, who is 13, was nervous about having to drive it back.  J assured him it was mostly downhill on the way back and he'd be fine.

M and I came home for lunch and just hung around the house.  By then it had started to rain and then snow.  M left about 5:30 to go check on the cows again. Soon after he left the storm really set in with snow and wind.  There is not good cell service over there so I sent R a text message telling him that his dad should just stay there and not try to come home.  R agreed because he had been out helping a friend and barely made it home.  So, I'm home alone again.  This time I don't even have Pete for company because he went with M.

I woke up during the night, sometime after 3 am, and realized the power was out.  I had a feeling it would happen and it finally did.  So then I laid there thinking about all the problems that could create.  No water for the cows was the major concern because I knew M would freak out about that, and I wasn't with him to calm him down and make him think rationally.  If the power was out for any length of time, the phone would go dead and cell service at the farm isn't good.  Then I thought about the heat in my house.  I contemplated staying in bed until power was restored.

I had had M bring the generator home two storms ago.  He thought I was being kind of silly but brought it home and showed me how to hook it up.  So, this morning I get up and decide I'd better get it rigged up.  First, I need gas so I find a jug in the garage, get bundled up for the storm, and walk out to the gas tank.  As I'm trying to hold the jug with my feet while I'm trying to fill it, it gets away from me and the wind takes it.  Great.  Back to the house to find something else.  I find two more plastic jugs and head back out and successfully get those filled.  Next, I need to find extension cords.  I know that one long one is stuck in the ice outside, but I think the shorter one outside is accessible.  Wrong.  It is stuck in the ice also.  I try chipping away at it, but finally give up and luckily find another one in the garage.  I was soaked by the time I was done with the sticky snow blowing all over me.  So, I gassed up the generator, started it up, ran the cord to the furnace and had success!  I went back upstairs to check the temperature in the house because I didn't want to waste the gas if I didn't really need to, and the power came back on.  Oh well, now I know that I know what to do and am ready in case we lose power again.

I should be in Arizona with my sisters and celebrating my great-nephew's 2nd birthday, but I can't get to an airport.  I just hope Mother Nature doesn't have too much more in store for us.  We really need some warm and DRY before we catch some tropical rot.......or M's head finally blows off.....or M and R get really tired of each other.