Bullheaded

A few weeks ago we had to herd the bulls so that we could finally put them out on the cows. The bulls are usually, surprisingly, well tempered and easy going. Nine times out of ten it's a breeze to round up the bulls and pen them. This day just happened to be that one time that they were a pain! It went a little something like this.

I drove into the pasture with the cake truck honking my horn, waiting for the bulls to hear me. As they climbed up the hill I arrogantly thought to myself,"I could gather all these bulls with the cake truck alone."  Then it all began.

After about five minutes of enticing them with my cake truck they were fed up. They had had enough. One bull in particular had a real problem with my luring of the horn and no reward for his long travel up the hill, and he was going to show me who was boss (or rather the cake truck who was boss). These bulls don't play, they are serious creatures and although for the most part they are lazy, they have short fuses.

 I started to sweat a little as I continuously beeped my horn albeit the bulls insisted on putting up a fight, while threatening to split. I kept my eye in the rear view mirror for the boys to bring up the rest of the bulls. I was getting anxious, putting the truck in drive and inching forward, then putting it back in park, all the while glancing behind me. Ahhh, if only I could just talk to these bulls and explain the pay off from this penning will be glorious, 25 head of cattle per bull waiting to be bred! But it's just not that easy.

They were becoming so impatient that they started turning on one another. 

Finally, in the distance I see the guys bringing up the rest of the bulls.

Meanwhile the bulls around the truck were still fighting one another.

The bulls were giving them problems too. It was going to be a miracle if we could get all these bulls penned with only two riders and one cake truck.

I would see the guys top the hill then run back down the hill, run right, 

then run left.

 I was getting pretty discouraged when all of a sudden.....

 I see the most handsome cowboy topping the hill with bulls! 

Hallelujah!

It took longer than expected, but we penned the bulls, and now they roam happily in a pasture full of cows. 

Springing Forward

The last couple of weeks it's been so beautiful here, aside from the wind, it's getting so warm and the skies couldn't get clearer. I've been finding any excuse to get outside and soak up some vitamin D, I've even been able to lay out on the deck in my bathing suit, one of the greatest joys in life. Recently I decided I really needed a garden below the house, it would keep me busy throughout the summer, and we could potentially save a lot of money on produce. It didn't take too much convincing before my husband, and father-in-law were on the tractor piling dirt for a garden. We spread the dirt behind the pump house that sits right below our house and put a wire fence around the perimeter. It's only a little garden, but it's just enough for us, and I love it!
It's plenty warm enough to plant, but the wind has been so strong, gusting up to 65 mph some days, we worried our vegetables would blow right away. For now I've been tending to my starters on my porch.

 Many folks around here will set up wind breakers around their houses and gardens using trees, bushes, and cedar posts. After inquiring about the cedar posts I learned that they cost $7 a post, and just for our little garden we would need at least 100. Needless to say we scratched that idea pretty quickly. Luckily, however, the fence lines on the east side of the ranch were held up by old cedar posts that the settlers axed down by hand. These posts were cut in the early 1900's, and not long ago had to be replaced with metal T posts, leaving the retired cedar posts laying in the pasture. We gathered the old posts and hauled them to our garden and began tying them to the fence. Although they are different in size and shape, they do the job, and look really nice. I love knowing that they were cut by hand and spent a century or more holding up fence on our ranch. Although free of cost, they are rich with history, and I believe whoever spent the time cutting and driving them into the rocky terrain would be pleased to know they are still of use.

Since it seemed to be no problem talking my darling husband into a garden why not ask for some chickens? They seem easy enough to take care of, inexpensive, and rewarding! Also we could use the chickens' manure to fertilize our garden!! And they are just so darn cute, please, please, pleeeeeeease?!!

You might have guessed this took much more persuasion than the garden proposal, and you might have also guessed (based on the fact that I have the greatest husband in this world, and he loves me so much) that soon after the garden was finished I had a chicken coop only a few feet away! Ahh, I love him!!

A couple weeks later my chickens arrived, and have since been laying eggs regularly.

From Left to Right: Me, eggs, Pico(our chick), & handsome

I love spring. After being held captive inside by the snow, constricted in layers of clothing, & fighting  that extra heated blanket at night, it's nice to feel the freedom of springtime. To beat it all lookie what I found...

STRAWBERRIES!

As if these weren't enough to make my entire month I gave my local nursery a visit to find this beautiful rose vine and had to grab it to put by the new garden fence!

And on the way out I spotted these beautiful flowers and took them with me too...

They call these Bubblegum Supertunias (It's a petunia hybrid)

I have a feeling that won't be my last trip to the nursery. I've got lots in mind for my little haven below the house. Did I mention how much I love spring?

I don't know what I love more, being outside, the reward of seeing something you've planted bloom, or the process of it all, spending time with my best friend in the world. Most definitely the latter. 

I just love spring time.

Windy Buggy Ride

The last day everyone was here the wind finally died down enough to go for a little spin on the buggy. When I say the wind died down I mean the gusts went from being 60 mph to about 35mph. We had originally planned to show our guests the high fence where the deer, elk, and antelope roam, then head toward the buffalo soaking up all the beautiful scenery the mountains offer in between. The only problem is that section of the ranch is quite flat and it would have been pretty miserable fighting the wind blowing right in our faces all day, instead we ducked into the forest letting the trees filter the 35 mph gusts, and headed around the mountain.

Once we reached the top I snapped a few shots of our friends.

This is Newt. You'll see him in the PBR one day soon. Just you wait.

This is Leaton. A life saver last week, he loves to cook breakfast (thank you God)! 

Love of my life :)

Us with mom, so happy she could come out for branding!! (Our lovely hair should show you just how windy it was that day)

On the way down the mountain we stopped by the old mine. It has to be one of the most eerie places I've ever gone in my life, but after showing the guys I'll only be able to think about the great time we had next time I pass it!

(He can really throw you off with the whole bull riding thing, huh?) 

Copy and paste this url below into your search bar and check out number 802- just in case you don't believe me!!

http://www.pbrnow.com/stats/topalltimemoney.cfm

I wish I could have gotten a picture of him landing...right on top of me, and us rolling around in the dirt trying to figure out what had just happened. 

I don't know what was scarier being deep inside that old mine or being stuck in such a confined place with 3 boys who ate mexican the night before. 

Definitely the second. 

Branding Week

Last week we dedicated an entire seven days to branding our calves. Branding week requires so much help that my husband flew out two of his best friends to give us a hand. My mothers spring break fell on the same week, so she came out to help too. We spent the weekend celebrating my sweet husbands birthday, cooking,

 eating lots of sweets, cooking, playing golf (inside the house, why not?),

 cooking, watching the history channel (which I realized has turned into the mens version of WE tv), laying around,

cooking, and catching up on all the things we had missed in one another's lives, and then there was more cooking. 

(It was a Godsend my mom was able to help me last week!) Thank you mom!!

Come Monday morning, 4:00am, I heard my husband open the guys' room saying, "This ain't no holiday vacation, we got cattle to drive" and I knew it was time to work. After dragging ourselves out of bed, and packing up all the lunch food and drinks we headed out to the east side of the ranch to meet up with the cowboys.

It was really a beautiful morning. They had called for high winds, but they got it wrong...again. I think the meteorologists out here take all of spring off labeling everyday windy, it's really the safest bet so I can't blame them.

"Top of the mornin' to ya."

Having a game plan is important before a cattle drive. Anything can happen. The cows might try and run in different directions, some may leave their calves, some may run right into the fence blazing a path into the next pasture for the rest of the cattle to follow. Cows may be tasty, but that's about all they have going for them. 

It's a 9 mile drive to our pens in seven-eleven pasture so we haul the horses to a certain point so they don't tire.

When we brand we have to gather as many of the cows with their calves that are able to fit in our pens. The pastures out here are bigger than average due to the animal head unit per acre being greater so we also use a cake truck to bait the cattle in. They can't get enough of the supplement, and you can almost guarantee the cows will always come running. 

"Cake pleaseeee"

"C'mon lady drop the cake!!" 

After we get a good size group following the cake truck the riders push them all the way to the pens where they begin to separate the cows from the calves.

After they're separated, we push all the calves into a smaller pen that runs into the calf table. 

This is Tony, our ranch hand. He knows how to do anything, and helps us with everything!! Here he is pushing the calves down the lane towards the calf table where they are ear tagged, vaccinated, castrated(if need be), and branded.

I almost vaccinated my husband more times than I would like to admit.

After a few hundred head it was time for lunch, so I set out a beautiful spread for the guys...

right on the back of the cake truck. 

What would normally take us a full week of work only took two long days, leaving us plenty of time for fun with the guys and my mom. We were able to go for a buggy ride our last day together, which I'll post about another day! For now I have laundry to wash, dishes to do, and floors to clean...a very small price to pay for a great week with friends and family! 

Girl Who Cried Fire

It happened last August, just a couple of weeks after we came home from our wedding. It was such a beautiful morning, and although they had predicted a windy day, it was surprisingly still.

August on the ranch is pretty relaxing. The grass is usually plentiful enough that we can take a break from  feeding the cows,  leaving us with a bit of time for leisure. This particular morning, after the usual chores were completed, my husband and brother-in-law decided they would go to town and play a game of golf. I bid them adieu and was happy, for the first time in a long while they were getting some play time.

About 3 hours later I decided it would be a nice treat to make some cookies, and while I was pre-heating my oven I looked out my window to see a plume of black smoke coming from the other side of the mountain. At first I panicked, which is always my initial instinct when I smell, see or sense smoke. I've been known to false alarm others of fire danger, calling if I even suspect a fire could get out of control, leaving me with the title "Girl Who Cried Fire". I had already called the fire department AND 911 three times in the previous months, only to find out the smoke I was seeing was a prescribed fire for the forest next to us. I was a little hesitant to call the station for fear of them arresting me of prank calling, so I opted to call my husband to let him know what I was seeing.

After realizing no one was burning intentionally, and I was only one of three people even on the ranch that day I really freaked out! After calling 911 and praying they would take me seriously, I jumped in my car and headed down to see what was on fire. As I neared the 5 way I met up with my husband and parked. We turned the corner and this is what we saw.

 That's my husband trying to give me a heart attack. (Do take note of the propane tank, and fuel tanks standing by)

Our barn was on fire, beyond rescue.

You must know, after moving 3 times we had collected quite a bit of housewares and furniture, which we stored in this barn, along with some items that had sentimental value. Yeah, bummer. As I got a closer look at the barn going up in flames I was shocked when I saw what looked like a truck on fire.

It wasn't just the barn on fire....a truck too!

At this point we could really only watch our barn, and 1/2 of the things we own burn, while waiting for the firemen to arrive. Unfortunately, since we live an hour away from any town, it took some time for any help to show up.

The police were the first to arrive on the scene, only able to join us in watching the barn burn, and take down some of our information. The smoke was beginning to clear out, and we started to see the damage that had been done.

The barn before...

and after...

When it was all said and done nothing was salvagable, including two trucks; however the fire didn't spread and catch any pasture on fire. Thank God the weather predictions of high wind weren't accurate or things could have been much uglier! That's when it hit me, MY OVEN WAS STILL ON!!!!