Ready for Vacation

We have had very wintry weather lately with snow, wind and very cold temperatures.  It's WAY too early to be having below zero temps!  One day last week I left work early because it was snowing so heavily and I wanted to get home before dark.  That 35-mile drive can get mighty long sometimes!  I have driven more than enough miles on ice and snow and through blizzards.  I'm really losing interest in doing it anymore.

R went to Missoula last weekend for the Cat-Griz football game and fought bad roads all the way there and back.  He also froze his toes at the football game.  We were happy to watch the game indoors on TV and super happy that our Cats won.  One of the players that isn't a Montana native called it the greatest rivalry in the nation. 

We babysat Trip while R was gone, and he was a very good doggy.  He seems to be healing well from his broken pelvis.  We were pretty worried about him for awhile, but he's bounced back well.  He and Pete actually played together so that's a good thing.  It's taken awhile for Pete to warm up to Trip.

Yesterday we had to be in Scobey (35 miles east) by 9:00 am and in Glasgow (100 miles south and west from Scobey) by 1:00 pm.  Our morning meeting on our CSP projects lasted until 11:00 so we had just enough time to get to Glasgow, get a quick bite to eat and get to our 1:00 meeting.  That lasted about 5 minutes.  I had a medical appointment at 2:00, we got groceries and headed back home.  It was snowing and blowing the whole way but the roads were clear.

M's parents have been stuck in Rapid City, SD with his sister for the past month while his dad has been doctoring.  He was hospitalized last week and released yesterday.  He was supposed to have a stress test the other day.  M suggested that we just pull out the co-op bill from July or the quote we just got on a new combine and see how he handled that stress!  Always a comedian.  Hopefully, they will get on their way to Arizona soon.

Tomorrow we are leaving for Billings and then on Saturday we'll be going to the lovely island of Kauai where we will be for a week.  Hopefully, the roads to Billings aren't too awful.  After this year from hell, M deserves a good vacation, and I guess I have been nice enough to him that he decided to take me along.  So, our Thanksgiving dinner is nothing fancy and just us and R.  We have to pack and get our ducks in a row.

We have so much to be thankful for, a healthy, loving family, a roof over our head and food on the table.  God has truly blessed us, and we will be eternally grateful for all He has done in our lives.

Okay, I'm Cold Already!

There hasn't been too much excitement around here lately, and we actually had a fairly quiet weekend.  I did have five here for lunch on Friday--our banker, M, C, R and our neighbor, John.  It was pretty much a business lunch.  We were finalizing the paperwork with our banker for the loan for the land we bought recently.  John was here to finish up his state reports and settle up on the custom farming we do for him.  Kind of a relief to have all that stuff behind us.

Saturday M and I moved combines and a header over to Opheim to store in the hangar.  The hangar had been full of wheat, but the boys cleaned it out earlier in the week so we could get machinery put away.  We had a late lunch in Opheim on the way and our niece was waiting tables.  The boys both took the weekend off and did some hunting but weren't successful.

M and the boys finished putting machinery inside for the winter on Monday since the forecast was calling for a change in the weather.  They were predicting 6" of snow yesterday preceded by freezing rain.  Thank goodness we didn't get that.  We did get some snow and wind but not much accumulation.  It has been snowing lightly most of the day today, and the temperature is only in the teens.  I saw some below zero readings in the forecast for next week--NO!!!!

M has been busy hauling calves the past two days and has another load tomorrow.  Then it looks like the cattle hauling should be over for this season.  And then, we're off on vacation!!!!

Beautiful Fall Days

We've had a stretch of gorgeous fall weather.  Warm, sunny, no wind, just wonderful.  I've been thinking it feels more like spring than fall and that maybe those two days of wintry weather are all we're going to get.  People tell me I'm crazy, but a girl can dream......

M has been super busy hauling cows and calves and comes home every night smelling like cow manure (he thinks it turns me on--NOT!).  I've been having a hard time remembering where he is and where he's going.  I hope he knows!  When I complain about all his time away he reminds me that this craziness only lasts a few weeks and then we're going on vacation.  I'm pretty sure he's taking on all this extra work so that he doesn't have to go near his "honey-do" list.  Sad.  He went a fall without a cattle trailer and had all kinds of people calling him so he had to get another one.  Then he had to get a better one.  The deal was he was supposed to sell the first one once he got the second one, but that hasn't happened yet.  I'm ready for him to sell them both!  I guess I shouldn't complain about him working so hard--better than living with a dead beat!

I have been trying to take advantage of the nice weather.  I finally got my fall bulbs planted and did some other work in the flower beds and watered trees.  I have a few more things I need to get stored away for winter and then my fall to-do list will be taken care of.

R finished hauling hay in the dark last night.  I guess he wanted a day off today!  It's a relief to have that job done.  It was CRP hay that had to be off the CRP by Nov. 15 so they were working on a deadline.  Now whatever else gets done this fall is gravy.

I think I'll go out and soak up some more of the sun while I can.

Cows and More Cows

It has been a super busy four days of cowboying around here.  On Friday, we had an auditor from Verified Beef so we could get our NHTC (non-hormone treated cattle) certification.  We were kind of under the gun to get it done because of some confusion and miscommunication and the guy was very helpful.  That went off without a hitch, thank goodness.  Saturday we rounded up our cows and calves and got everything ready for the next morning at our place and at the neighbor's.  We were at the neighbor's until about 7:00 when M remembered that he needed to weld a piece on his stock trailer so we had to run to Richland to the shop and do that.

Sunday morning we were up and at it before sunrise getting the cows sorted from the calves and then the calves sorted by sex and sorting out the heifers we were planning to keep for replacements.  R and C were helping us and J was over helping the neighbor's.  We had to haul them into Scobey to the scale.  Most years I get to help sort and load and then I can go home, but now we have more paperwork to keep track of so I had to go to the scale.  We didn't get there until almost 11:00 and were there until almost 3:00.  The buyer and feeders invited us out for supper so we decided not to go have lunch.  We had a few calves to haul back home so we did that and had snacks and drinks at the neighbor's and then we all went back for supper.  I told M's sister that we were going to supper with the cattle buyer and she said "order chicken."  Shipping is always stressful no matter how good it goes so we all slept well that night!

Today we pregnancy tested the neighbor's cows and ours.  J and R went to help them right away this morning while M, C and I got things ready here.  We had to get the cows in again and round up the heifers.  We then went to the neighbor's and got in on the last 100 of their 300 head.  We had lunch there and then moved back here to do our 150 head.  The vet and his helper are quite the characters and make it interesting and fun.  The vet is from Canada and I always want to make fun of his Canadian accent, eh, but wouldn't want to offend him.  His best comment today was "look at the sun go down over the shit pile."  He usually palpates by hand to check the cows but this time he used an intravaginal ultrasound.  I told him he looked like Iron Man with the battery pack on his back and the goggles.  He let me look through the goggles and see a calf heartbeat.  Very cool!

We've had gorgeous fall weather to get our cow work done, and I've been loving being outdoors.  I bet M never thought he'd see the day when I would rather be out pregnancy testing the cows than go to work, but I was so happy that it was a Monday and I didn't have to go to my job.  The bad news is I'll be cooped up indoors at work for the next three days.  With the shipping and pregnancy testing done, we feel like we can catch our breath for a minute.....before we're off to something else!

Winter Weather

We have been having a taste of winter weather the past couple of days.  We've had high winds, snow and colder temperatures.  It was about 32 yesterday, only in the 20's today.  The wind howled yesterday, all night long and most of today.  M was a bit worried about his cows trying to head home and breaking into his parents' yard so he had R check on them yesterday and give them a bale while he was hauling a load of calves for a neighbor.  He went over first thing this morning to check on them again and give them another bale and check on their water which was frozen.  Then he went to check on our neighbor John's cows and got stuck in a snow bank trying to get them a bale.  There's really not much snow on the ground, it's all blown into drifts.  He was cold when he got home for lunch after digging himself out.

I was hoping I could just hibernate here in my nice warm house, but he recruited me to ride along in the truck while he went for his last load of bales so I could bring the tractor home.  We are now done hauling our own hay, just have the 1000+ for the neighbor.  M and R will start on that tomorrow after M gets back from hauling another load of calves for another neighbor.

Warmer weather and sunny skies are coming soon.  I guess this taste of winter weather is just a reminder that we had better get ready!

Hauling, Hauling, Hauling

The guys have all been busy in the trucks hauling grain, cattle and hay.  They've been so busy that C actually bought another truck.  He and J have been hauling wheat and J and R have also been helping with the hay hauling.  M has done most of the hay hauling and most of the cattle hauling.  We have 150+ bales of our own to get home plus 1000+ bales belonging to our neighbor.  It will be a busy week for cattle as well since this is the time of year when all the ranchers sell their calves and ship them to feeders.  The bad news is we are supposed to have a drastic change in the weather with snow and wind in the forecast this week.  We're not ready!!

I have been busy with my job and doing some yard work and getting things put away.  I dug out some of my iris bed and thinned and replanted.  I have some bulbs on order, but they're not here yet.  I really hope the snow doesn't last so I can get them in the ground.  It's funny that a couple of things in my flower bed are toasted from frost and some things are still blooming.

M's parents headed south this morning, first to South Dakota to see M's sister and then on to Arizona for the winter.  I always hate it when my mother-in-law predicts a change in the weather and then laughs because she's leaving.

It was kind of gray and damp today but relatively warm.  I mentioned to M that it would be nice if it were a nice spring day so we had the prospect of summer instead of the six months of winter that are looming in our future.

More Cows

It's been a busy weekend on the ranch--actually on the neighbor's (John and Holly) ranch.  On Friday we rounded up their cows, all 300+ of them with four 4-wheelers, a motorcyle and two pickups.  It's pretty rugged country with a bog through the middle, but the roundup went pretty smoothly.  I thought I was a goner once.  Holly and I were on one side of the pasture and easily got our bunch rounded up and headed in the right direction.  I could see the bike in the distance trailing a couple of animals so I went to see if they needed help.  It was John herding two bulls.  It was slow going, but he was doing okay.  As I headed back to the big bunch I noticed that a calf had turned back.  It was in some brush, and I wasn't sure John would see it so I tried to catch up to it and turn it back in the right direction.  Easier said that done.  It could run a lot faster in that rough stuff than I could go on the 4-wheeler.  I came over a rise and there was a trench at the bottom.  I was pretty sure I was going ass over teakettle and thought "this is gonna hurt."  Luckily, I didn't wreck but hit hard enough that the back of the box on the 4-wheeler flew open and the fencing box flipped completely over.  I had to stop and pick up some tools.  I considered myself lucky that the sledge hammer didn't clock me.  I tried to catch up with the calf and found myself in the bog and about tipped the 4-wheeler on the side before getting out of there.  I usually get "4-wheeler knees" after a ride, but this time I had "4-wheeler butt"!  And, now the fencing box is cleaned out and neatly organized.

Lucky for me, John was able to intercept the calf and it saw the bulls and followed them.  We then had to trail the herd a couple of miles south to the corral.  We had to laugh at the herd of black moving across the hill with a white cow and calf smack dab in the middle.  That would be Snowflake and her calf.  Holly got stuck in the back with a slow calf that wasn't feeling well.  I think she would have just thrown it on the 4-wheeler and given it a ride if she could have.

We had a sandwich at the Sugar Shack which is an old house on the property (Holly has cute names for things and animals) and got home in time to have a shower and get ready to go out for dinner. 

M decided it would be a good time to have our annual post-harvest family dinner and we invited John and Holly and their helper to come along.  We had good food and great company and a very enjoyable evening.  Some of us were tired and knew we had another busy day in front of us so went home early.  Some others stopped downtown for a few more drinks.

We were at it again by 8:00 am on Saturday.  It took about three hours to sort cows from calves and then heifer calves from steer calves and then heifer calves to sell from heifer calves to keep.  Then we had to run all the calves to sell through and give them their vaccinations and put buttons in their ears and just vaccinate the heifer calves that they were keeping.  That took about another three hours but really went pretty smoothly. My job was to keep the button gun and the vaccinating gun loaded.  We found our cow-calf pair and one of our yearlings which we knew were in with the neighbor's cows.  We also found a calf that belonged to another neighbor.

Holly had chili in the crock pot at the Sugar Shack so we unwound with lunch, loaded up our critters and were home in time to relax on the couch to watch the NASCAR race.  All that fresh air and activity left me ready for bed early.  I think I get a few days to myself now to catch up at home which is good since the maid forgot to show up again!