Happy New Year

There's always so much talk about New Year's Resolutions.  Mine are usually the same year after year; lose weight, get in better shape, be kinder and gentler, yada, yada, yada...  This year I've been thinking how fun it would be to make resolutions for OTHER people....

Like our neighbors:

• Resolve to fix your fences and keep your cows in
• Resolve to take care of your weeds so they don't blow onto our land.

Or our kids:

• Call your mother!  She misses you and would like to talk about more than chores.
• Listen to your mother.  She's been where you are and has learned a few things.
• Make sure your kids know you are the boss and they aren't.  Play with them more.  Hug them more.  Let them be little.  Be kind to their mamas and try to see life from their point of view once in awhile.
• Don't take life so seriously.  Lighten up!
• Make more time for fun because the work will always be there.
• Take better care of yourself.  Drink less and lose a few pounds.

Their significant others:

• Resolve to not try to change your men.  It's a waste of time and energy.
• Resolve to appreciate all they do, realize they work very hard to take care of you. 
• Resolve to remember they're not perfect and are still little boys at heart.
• Resolve to respect them and support them.

My husband:

• Resolve to not work so hard and to have more fun. 
• Resolve to respect the opinions of your kids.  They are going to be running things soon.
• Resolve to treat their mama well and see life from her point of view once in awhile.
• Resolve to be more positive.  No matter what bad things happen we always get through         them by the grace of God.  Be thankful.
• Resolve to take better care of yourself.  You're not getting any younger.
• Resolve to not yell at the cows......okay, that one is totally unrealistic!
• Resolve to spoil the dog a little less and show him you are the pack leader.

People of the world in general:

• Resolve to value EVERY life.  Treat others with respect and kindness.
• Resolve to leave the earth as you found it, if not better.  Clean up after yourselves.  Don't be wasteful.  Don't think anyone owes you anything.
• Resolve to pray more.  Only God can get us out of here.
• Resolve to BE HAPPY, BE GRATEFUL, and BE KIND!

I wonder what resolutions others would make for me.  I may have just opened a huge can of worms!
Wishing everyone the best in 2016.

Farewell Cruel 2015

Here it is the end of the year....finally.  2015 was a bit of a trying year for many reasons  and although we came through it relatively unscathed, we're glad it's over.

The bad luck started during calving with the freak Easter weekend storm.  Not that we're not anticipating or preparing for bad weather during calving; we just hope that we don't have to endure any too severe.

Then in April we had the scary shop fire.  see blog post here

May brought seeding, but no rain to go with it and the grass didn't take off because of the lack of moisture and cold temps.

In June we lost our unborn grandchild which put a damper on everything else.  And, still not much rain.

In July we got rain......along with a bunch of hail that totaled out a lot of our crops.  We had several thousand acres that we didn't even harvest.  We have land spread 35 miles east to west and nearly every acre was hit.  My brother, ever the smart one, said we need to start expanding north and south.  J leased some land on the Canadian border and it was hit also so I guess heading south is our only option. see blog post here

August brought the short and depressing harvest.  It's always my least favorite month anyway.

In September we finished the harvest (or cleaning up the mess).  M was contemplating seeding winter wheat but just wanted the crop year to be over so couldn't bring himself to make it happen. see blog post here

In fact, he needs to start making plans for next year and can't quite get into the right frame of mind for it yet.

By this time the cow/calf market had tanked.  Thank goodness we had contracted MOST of our calves in June for a price well above what it was at shipping time in October.  Shipping is always stressful no matter how smoothly it goes.....hmm, has it ever gone smoothly?!  see blog post here

By November I remember M saying "we still have two months of this year to get through?"  see blog post here
That was about the time he came home after the umpteenth day of fencing and said that he discovered his post pounder had an automatic shutoff.  Really?  "Yep, when I can't lift it over a post anymore I know it's time to quit".  Hmm....

And then, Kyle Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship.  Talk about NASCAR depression!!

Finally, we made it to December and through December with a great adventure to cap off the year. see blog post here

We really do have a lot to be thankful for and appreciate what we have and who we have in our lives.  It is just a lot easier to be positive on some days than others.  That's why I plan to do a journal and/or jar to each week add a note with a good thing that happened.  I saw the idea on Facebook and thought it was a great one since it's too easy to focus on the bad things that happen....and in our business there seem to be a lot of those!

It's been a good week for me since I've been spending time with my favorite littles.

Happy New Year from our family--the people I love most.


 

A Great Adventure

We have had such a nice fall that M and R have gotten so much work done.  Lots of fencing and building of windbreak.  I swear the place is starting to look like a fort!  I was actually almost hoping for some bad weather so we could do something else (I said, almost).  Finally, the the time arrived for the trip we had been planning so off we went to Vegas, baby!  I was definitely ready for a vacation.

We were supposed to see Merle Haggard on our first night there, but he ended up in the hospital so we went to the rodeo instead.  We had to find seats at the last minute and they were really great seats--lower level to the side of the bucking chutes.  The rodeo was excellent!  The next night we went again.  Our seats were upper level but still good.  We went dancing at the rodeo after party one night and to Gilley's the other night. 

The next night we went to see Brooks and Dunn and Reba McEntire who were awesome.  I've always been a big fan of Brooks and Dunn so was happy I got to see them. 

We met friends afterward at the rodeo after party and stayed out a bit too late so the next day was kind of low-key.  We went down to Fremont street and wandered around and then rode the zoom line.  That was really fun.  I've always wanted to zip line.

From there we went to Arizona to celebrate my mom's 90th birthday.  All three of my sisters were there and one of my brothers.  We were supposed to go on a hot air balloon ride on Saturday but the weather didn't cooperate so we went bowling instead and then went out dancing.  On Sunday we had cake for her at church and then an open house at my sister's house.  It was fun to meet her friends and put faces to names. 

The crew of favorites

The perfect cake--so many books, so little time.

From there we went to a Christmas concert put on by my sister's choir.  She made sure I sat where I could watch the harpist.  I've always wanted a harp and have vowed that some day I'll have one of my own!  I love Christmas music, and it really helped put me in the mood for the holiday.

The rescheduled balloon ride was rescheduled again, and by then two of my sisters had gone home.  The only reason I was thankful for a late flight home.  It was a pretty cold ride, but it was memorable and so fun!  Entry and exit was a bit interesting, but we discovered that Mom is pretty agile for a 90-year-old. We are so blessed to have her in such good shape mentally and physically.

Me and my mommy, waiting for our ride.

Ready to go!

The view from 4000 feet

Cheers! We did it!

The weather was unseasonably warm when we left home, but winter arrived while we were gone.  There was a big storm the day before we got back to Billings so our pickup was covered with snow, and the roads home were a bit interesting, but we made it home safely.  Junior was so glad to see us--as we were to see him!  That's the worst part of traveling, leaving the dog behind.

We've been enjoying the Thievin Seven Days of Christmas this week with M's family.  It's a bit cold so today is a good day to hang around the house enjoying some hot cider and some down time and talk about our great adventure.

The Great Breakout

We have around 100 heifer calves in our pens right now.  They'll feed them for awhile and whittle that number down once they decide how many they want to keep for replacements.  We've had rain and snow but above-freezing temps so the pens have been pretty mucky.  We have a grassy area adjacent to the pens where we can let them out.  M and R have done a lot of work on that area so that it's all wood corral or windbreak except for three gates that are wire reinforced with stays.  M was feeling bad for the calves being in the muck so he decided to let them out the other day.  He was a bit concerned because they are still a bit spooky but gave it a try.  R's girlfriend came home from work Friday night and as she was closing the metal swinging gate something spooked them and they ran headlong into one of the wire fences.  They hit it so hard that the post broke and the gate fell down and they headed south.  R was there quickly and locked in the few that remained and tried to find where the others had gone.  They went up the hill and through a fence, but it was too dark to do anything but hope they didn't blow through too many fences before they settled down.

M wasn't home at the time, and I was the bearer of the good news when he did get home.  Man, was he mad!  Neither of us slept very well that night, worried about where they might have gone, and were up early and out of the house as soon as the sun was up to try to find them.  We thought they would head to the cows, but there were no gates down or holes in fences and no sign of them there.  We finally spotted 11 (of 60 to 70).  We started pushing them toward home with the pickup and got them just about there when they circled and spread out and headed the wrong direction.  At that point I went to get a 4-wheeler and M grabbed a bale to try to entice them without too much luck.  Then we went to get a few cows to move with them.  That wasn't so easy either since the cows didn't want to leave the herd.  Finally, we got a few cows to move and R rounded up the calves for the second time and the two groups met and moved easily home.  So far, so good....except we were still missing 50 to 60 head.

M was wondering where to look first and R said "just follow the holes in the fences", but there was really just one hole.  From there they headed south and east and found an open gate that led to a small pasture and then to a water corral.  I had gone south into the neighbor's pasture but just got up the hill, looked east and saw them so went to join R to push them home.  I always say that M wants to do things the hard way before trying the easy way to see if it will work.  He didn't think we'd be able to push them home without some cows along, but that would have been a few miles for the cows and more work for us.  R and I were able to push them home without much trouble.  We were trying to push them slowly so M would have time to get gates and panels ready before we got there.  That wasn't so easy, and he barely had enough time.  They are going to have to have some time to settle down so probably won't be granted release again until after Christmas.

We were hoping to haul cull cows to market last week, but the roads were too wet and we couldn't get trucks and trailers in and out so they finally were hauled out today.  We had some rain overnight with some ice, but it wasn't too slick.  We didn't want to have to feed them all for another week.

I'm still hoping for bad weather (well, almost) so I can pin M down to do some paperwork.  I made him a to-do list today so we'll see how that goes.  We have a vacation planned in December so a lot of that stuff has to get done before that.  Wish us luck!

Shipping Day!

Wow, it's been a busy weekend, and we are exhausted.  The week(s) leading up to shipping day are a little stressful....especially when it coincides with hunting season.  We had all our cows moved close to home and really didn't want a hunter to leave a gate open somewhere.  M was doing gate checks a couple of times a day for the past week.

The work started on Tuesday when the guys moved our younger cows and calves home.  It was a windy, cold, wet day, but I was willing to go help if they thought they needed me.  I never did get the call (thank goodness) and M was SO cold when he got home.  Then Thursday afternoon we moved the big bunch home.  Actually, they kind of moved themselves when they heard M start the tractor to put some bales out.  We only had to chase in a few stragglers.

After we were done there we headed cross-country to the neighbor's to grab their stock trailer and take a tractor over to move some dirt and put some bales out there.  He has a nice corral setup and a portable scale so we're able to ship right out of there.  It's so nice to be able to do that.

The cattle market has gone south since we contracted so we were a little concerned that the buyer would back out (we've heard stories of that happening) or trucks wouldn't show up or something.  We were relieved when he called our neighbor on Thursday night to confirm, but he did say that he'd only have two trucks on Friday and the other two wouldn't be there until Saturday.  As long as we were "weighed and paid" we could work with that.

We had to get everything in Friday morning, sort off the cows and then sort the calves by sex.  Complicate that by having some of our neighbors calves, some share calves, and cull cows to cut off.  Complicate it more by having a gate come open and a bunch of steer calves get mixed up with the heifer calves that we wanted to keep for replacements.  Then we had to haul by trailer-loads cross-country to the neighbor's.  Thankfully, I got out of most of the sorting because I had to go with the first load to keep a count of the neighbor's calves, the share calve and our calves.

By the time we got all of ours sorted and over to the scale, the trucks were loaded (3 actually showed up instead of 2) and the checks were written it was 4:00.  I think we are starting to have too many calves to do it the way we are now.

Then I ran home, took a quick shower and headed to town to babysit Sawyer.  I was a little afraid that I'd be ready for bed before her.  We had tons of fun and I got home about 2:00 am.

M let me sleep in a bit on Saturday while he went to Richland to meet the last trucker and show him where to go.  I called him when I got up and he said to come over in 45 minutes because we were preg testing the neighbor's cows.  How about an hour and a half?  I had stuff to do, was moving slow, and it was cold and windy so I didn't want to go out.  They didn't really need my help anyway, but I did show up.  We were done with that job by 1:00.  Then we had lunch and we helped the neighbors pack up to head back to Harlem, relieved that the weekend was over.

Today M made me go help him do cow chores since R was gone hauling calves for C's step-kids.  I didn't want to go, but it was a nicer day than I thought.  And, I got back at him by making him help me do some things outside when we got back.

We can't let up now, though. Tomorrow they have to move our replacement heifers and bulls closer to home (and I have to get the calf check to the bank!).  Wednesday they have cull cows to haul to the sale in Glasgow and Thursday they have calves to haul for another neighbor.  Then, maybe we can rest a little.

A Day That Will Live in Infamy....for me

My father died today,
A piece of me is gone.
He no longer walks the earth
But so much of him lives on.

He left so many things behind.
I wear his scowl, his eyes, his hair.
And when I gaze upon my son,
I see my father there.

He made me laugh, he made me cry,
He made me mad, but strong.
He showed me how to live a life
And taught me right from wrong.

I know he loved me fiercely,
The way he held my hand told me it's true.
And when we saw a little girl,
With tears he whispered, "she looks like you."

His last words to me were
"It's okay, don't cry".
Mine to him should have been
"My love for you won't die".



I miss my daddy........

More Cow Stuff

We've been busy, busy, busy with cow stuff.  We normally preg test our cows the day after we ship calves, but we also help with the neighbor's at that time so it gets to be a bit much.  Since harvest was finished early we decided to preg test at the same time we vaccinated calves.  The vet was happy to do it earlier as that helped him out, too.

First we had to get them all moved closer to home.  The first group we moved was over at Opheim.  I pulled our old loading chute over and wondered if it was going to make the trip.  M has been dragging his feet on buying a new one since we only use it once a year.  My brother and dad built the corral that we work out of over there many moons ago, and it is showing it's age.  Of course, the herd was at the far end of the pasture, but we got them in without too much trouble.  The guys debated about whether they would separate the calves from the cows which we normally do but decided not to bother.  The first group was a bit reluctant to get up the chute and onto the truck so I was trying to prod them along and all of a sudden one cow jumped right through our old loading chute.  Progress  ground to a halt while we tried to find wood to repair the gaping hole in the chute and get the cow back in the pen.  It was finally repaired, and we continued to load the truck.  Since the cows and calves weren't separated, M had to gate them in the trailer so we ended up not being able to get them all on the truck.  That meant we had to cram two bulls in the front of the small stock trailer and then get some calves in and hope to have room in the back to get a 4-wheeler in.  We did it, but it was a tight fit.  Then we had to unload all the fencing stuff from the back of the pickup so we could load the other 4-wheeler in it.

We hauled everything to our neighbor's corrals and then M and I trailed them up to our fields while R went to dump off the bulls.  From there we rode the 4-wheelers to the pasture where the big herd was to get them moved into a closer pasture.  M had opened the gate a few days earlier and moved the mineral tubs to see if they would move themselves, but we had to do a sweep to be sure there was nothing left in the far pasture.  I haven't been around that pasture much so was a bit concerned about getting lost when M went one way and told me to go another.  I wasn't sure where I could cross the coulee so was happy when I met up with R.  The only animals we saw were some mule deer bucks.  I think R is planning to go back there when hunting season opens.  There were some nice ones in there.  I was a little nervous riding those hills with the sun in my eyes, just hoping I wouldn't fall in a hole or off a cliff.

The next day I had an appointment in Glasgow so missed out on trailing the next group from Richland north to our fields.  When we moved them across the highway to the south we had one that wouldn't cross.  Thankfully, she had gotten over her fear of the highway when she had to cross on the way back and the move went smoothly....even without me.

We were scheduled to preg test on Sunday and the vet wanted to start at 8 am.  That meant we had to do some rounding up on Saturday.....in the wind and rain.  Poor M was really the only one that got really wet.  I was in a pickup and R was in the Ranger which has a cab.  First we moved the small bunch to the corrals at the neighbor's where we were going to work and then moved the big herd to the fields where the small bunch had been.  The big herd had been hugging the fence line wanting to move west anyway so we just had to let the fence down and get out of the way as they streamed in.  We did have to round up a few and push them in the right direction, but it wasn't too difficult.  I felt bad for M and volunteered to ride the 4-wheeler back so he could warm up in the pickup.  I was surprised how wet I got on the short ride.

Thankfully, Sunday's weather was better.  Kind of damp but not really raining.  The vet is always late and this time was no exception.  In his defense, he spun out on a big hill trying to pull the hydraulic chute up and J had to go rescue him.  He had another place to go to when he was done with us so he whipped through 300 cows pretty fast....especially when he could see rain heading our way from the south.  Our new bulls apparently did their job well and someone is going to be very busy in March since the majority of the cows will calve in the first cycle.  Hope we don't have a major snow storm then!

The vet left and then we had 300 calves to vaccinate.  That is always challenging since they don't go through the chute quite so easily.  R and Tigh worked hard pushing them through.  By the time we were done it had started to rain again and we still had to move the pairs west to the fields.  This time it was Tigh who got wet since M was in the pickup checking gates, R was in the Ranger and J was in his Can-Am which at least has a roof.

We settled in to eat some chili and warm up, but looked out the windows and saw cows coming back.  M went to investigate, but it was getting close to dark so there wasn't much he could do.  As we were heading home we noticed that the cows had broken down a gate.  Apparently they weren't all paired up and were looking for their calves.  Another time I was happy that I was going to be at work the next day and didn't have to deal with getting that all straightened out.  It took M and R a few hours to get them all to where they were supposed to be.

The weather has been so nice that M and R have been doing a lot of corral and fence work.  Some of it is repair work and some is remodeling.  It seems that every year M comes up with a plan to make working cows a little bit easier.  Then today the pump for the cow water went out....something that had to be dealt with immediately.  It's always something.

I am almost wishing for the weather to get bad so that we can maybe get away and do something else for a few days.  I said almost......