March-April

We’ve been busy with all sorts of things: feeding cattle, gathering and sorting for branding and shipping, shoeing the horses. On one of our round-ups, Jerry passed along this advice: “The idea is to get the cows to do what you want, but to let them think it’s their idea.” Seems I’ve heard that same idea used as a way to manipulate people too. One of these groups is being insulted, but which?

On a sad note, we had observed a first year heifer standing over what appeared to be a stillborn calf one morning. She was still there later in the day so we drove her in to get a drink. She went right back to her dead calf and stayed with him long after the ravens had gathered around them. I told Jerry that I usually didn’t feel sympathy for cows, but that this one deserved something. I think he agreed. I eventually wrote a poem about her. Sort of a tribute to her handling of her loss. Write me and I’ll send it to you.

The weather has pretty darn nice except for the days when the winds blow hard. I’ve learned it takes about two days to get the sand out of your eyes for every two hours spent out there in that kind of wind. Gets in your ears and nose pretty good too. On a good blustery day, it can take three men to shut a barbed wire gate! 

             February
We’ve been working on some fencing projects including the manufacture of our own stays made from willow trees. We cut the trees into the length we need, split the logs and peel the bark to make stays that will go between the fence posts. I figure we’re doing it the same way the pioneering ranchers did it. We’ve been doing some supplemental feeding, and some cattle work: branding calves, vaccinating cows, and separating yearlings. The weather has been very nice and we’ve been working in just shirtsleeves a few days.

We’re also seeing some green out here in the pastures with some filaree and bloodweed coming on in places. Saw some ducks on the tanks and a falcon one day, and it looks like a red-tailed hawk will be nesting up on the windmill again this year. Spring is a-coming for sure.

           January
The weather has been great for working and we’ve been busy with all sorts of projects. Some days are spent gathering cattle so we can vaccinate them, but we’ve also been cutting firewood and working on fencing projects. One of the fence projects involved pulling out and replacing an entire ½ mile section of fence where we will be keeping some yearlings for a while. Branding has begun and that will continue off and on now right through summer. We’re also doing a little supplemental feeding, and shifting cows around.

I’ve been riding Whitey Man a lot and remarked to Jerry that he seems to be enjoying the work a lot more lately. “Are you putting something extra in his rations?” I asked him. “No,” he replied, “I think it’s the cooler weather.”  We’ll be enjoying the milder weather for awhile and it will be nice to have an eager horse under me.

December. 
Most of the yearlings have been sold now, which required some more gathering and sorting. We do all that on horseback, which makes the work enjoyable--- all those open spaces and just the boss and I most days.  I recall a morning ride to gather a pasture, and when we topped a low hill we could see a small herd in a draw spread out in the morning light and looking like a painting below us. I remarked on how pretty they looked to Jerry and he just smiled.

The weather has been unusually warm and we finally got some rain, which is always a blessing down here. In an average year, the ranch gets about 15 inches of precipitation. In some of the pastures we’ve seen filaree and a little blue loco weed; seems early, maybe because of the weather. We’re also seeing some new calves so we’ve got some branding to do when time allows.

 

The ranch’s resident kit foxes are putting in regular appearances at their den site and we always look for them when we go by. And I’m pretty sure I saw a pair of phainopeplas near the buildings; these are neat birds with crests on their heads that are not very common around here. I’ll have to keep an eye out for them and see if I can confirm that.