I went out after I wrote the last post and fed Buck and Crackerjack and caught Pal, the little two coming two year old colt who is a grandson of Mr San Peppy and worked with him. Almost too gentle. Borders on lazy, but I imagine with some green grass in his belly, a lot of that will change!

Then I caught Mijo and he was a lot calmer than the other day. Saddled him and worked him in the round corral and worked on getting him used to a rope and dragging things behind, around and under him. He took it all in stride. Only time he made a bobble was when I snugged up the front cinch after working him a little and he blew and went. I knew there was some of that in there that needed to come out!

I messed with him quite awhile and got him to step up beside me while I was above him, on both sides and hung over him and made sure he was still good about all that.

I stepped on and away we went, real nice. I stepped off and went out of the corral and we headed up the creek with 3 dogs ahead or following. Got up there quite a ways and he would still grab himself once in awhile, but nothing too terrible for a young horse who hasn’t been ridden for 6 months or so. I took off at a lope at one point and a jack rabbit jumped out, about 50 yards in front of us and Mijo grabbed himself and made a jump. It must have felt good cause he kept it up!

I got him going in a tight circle and managed to not fall off, but when he stopped we were both dizzy! I had lost both stirrups and had just dug my heels in and was sure glad when he quit!

After that it just got better and better. He sure is a lot of horse wrapped up in a little hide!

I need to keep doing this stuff every day as much as possible, with all the young horses we have to get rode around here this spring. Wish someone would come and buy a few!

Heidi (hope I spelled that right) over at the Milk Man’s Wife blog

http://themilkmanswife.blogspot.com/

has inspired me with her latest post about farms and milk cows. Go read it.

I decided that I need to do something similar and post more about what I do and why I do it here on our ranch. Please understand that I am not promoting what I do as the ONLY way to run a ranch. That is what is so great about ranching. We are able to do as we choose and run things the way we want. Many follow a similar pattern, but don’t always do everything the same.

We mostly run stocker cattle, otherwise known as yearlings yearling’s. They come in around the first of May and graze our land until anywhere from the end of July to mid November. How long they stay here depends on quite a few different factors. For instance, one couple I run cattle for, send heifers to be bred and made into range cows. There isn’t really a market for them until November or December, so they have no reason to take them home or to a sell these cattle until that time, as long as I have good feed for them. Others send steers or spayed heifers, that will be sold in late summer to early fall. These cattle are destined for a feedlot where they will be fed more intensively and then butchered for the final product, beef. The peak price for them is usually around  mid August to mid September, but what they weigh also makes a difference also. And the market can change and you don’t really know it it will go higher or lower. The idea is to put the most pounds on for the least cost and hope to hit the market at it’s peak. It’s a tough balancing act.

I will post more on this later. Please ask any questions you might have in the comments section.

I took a big roll of smooth barbless wire and my plammers and walked up into the lane this morning and patched on all the broken wires behind the tree patch, where all the snow had drifted this winter. It was still stiff enough out that it wasn’t muddy yet. Most of the drift is gone except where the bottom wire is still down under it in a few spots so I just concentrated on scabbing it together for now. I will go back with the stretchers later and also a few posts that it needs. It will hold my cows now, if you don’t crowd them too hard. Then I got some horses caught and got Mijo in. He had lots of gas and moves. I finally got him to stop and let me catch him then saddled and worked him in the round corral. He seemed fine, but I decided to wait until I had someone here before I got on him. I need to put a shorter cinch on my saddle for him.  Dang little cuttin’ bred booger!

Supposed to catch a ride in to town and go with Cindy. She’s got an appointment and wanted me to ride along.  So  guess that will fill in the rest of my day. Sure is nice out there today!

Tho’ the water has about quit running thru’ the yard. I am going out in a bit and see if it is stiff enough to go give the cows a bale.

UPDATE: Just came in and it worked out fine. Still was stiff enough and there isn’t much water running except in the creek. Got the lick tubs moved across the creek to a better spot. My creek crossing evidently had water running over the top for a spell as it is roughed up. I will have to go add a little dirt on top of the culvert when it dries up some more.

New saddle pictures at bottom of the Saddle page on here.

Chance brought Gus up the other day and he was getting into lots of stuff, so Grampa fixed him!

But then I got worried he’d fall and couldn’t catch himself. So I fixed that too.

Ahh, that’s better! 🙂

Then I was told to post cat pictures. She moved them into a drawer where I keep patterns. Dumb cat!

Can you see them?

Up in the 50’s. And it is supposed to continue this week. I’ll take it!

Went over to a benefit yesterday for a young man who has roots in this area. Lots of doctor bills. They had a silent auction of many things and several of us performed. Afterwards, Matt Trask of Hubba’s House fame, came over and we played and jammed for a spell until he had to head home. Go check out his blog on my blog roll on the side of this. Great writing. Heck of a guy! He songs and plays a lot of the good old stuff and also some of the good new stuff. If I could play like him I would be happy! He’s also got some great songs he’s written.

Come to think of it, maybe I hate him!

Nawwwwww!

Thanks Hubba!

While reading the local and national news, I read about many national brand companies laying off workers. And I also read about the homeless and downtrodden and all the problems they have. What, besides the economy, do these have in common? Lack of knowing people.

In our small rural community, before you would lay off a worker, you would try and find any other means to rectify your problems. Because you personally know the people who work for and with you. Most of the time they are friends or relatives or both.

I see the local Coke company is laying off a lot of workers. And it doesn’t sound like management went about it too nicely either.

I am sure the mangers were at least familiar with the people who worked there and I am sure it wasn’t fun for them to tell peopple they no longer had a job. But if the word came down to the local business from the head corporate offices many miles away, I am sure those people in management there weren’t nearly as concerned with the people that were losing their jobs as they were in the bottom line.

Don’t get me wrong, a business has to make hard choices to stay in business, at times. But had they really looked for other ways to cut the cost of operations? Had the CEO’s said, “Well I don’t want to cause hardship for anyone working for me, so I will take a voluntary pay cut and see if that doesn’t help the bottom line. I will make the sacrifice first before I ask those working for me to. I can afford it better than they can.”

I doubt it.

In the matter of the homeless, in this small community, we don’t have any. Why? Because we all know each other at least by reputation. We won’t allow it. If someone falls on hard times, we all pitch in and help. It’s not nearly as easy to dismiss someone as just being too lazy to hold a job, or being a drunk, when you know them personally. You have some time invested in them. They are your neighbors. So you help them. We are a neighboring bunch of people as we all know we need each other. There are no faceless people around us.

I guess my point in all of this is, there seems to be more problems like these in large cities. People don’t know all their neighbors. They tell me there are people in cities who live next door to each other all their lives and never really get to know each other. What a pity. What a shame. Look at all they lose.

Much like our politics. We have allowed our national lawmakers to usurp power from the localities that are better left for the locals to decide, rather then the nation. When my local representitive does something I don’t like, I know his name, where he lives and his phone number. He will have to answer to me and all the rest of us. Do you personally know your rep in Washington? Could you call him up and visit about up coming legislation? Would he recognize you in a crowd if you walked up and said, “Hello”?

Until you can, don’t expect anything but lip service from any of your representatives. Maybe it’s time we took back some of the power we have let slip through our hands. And started helping our neighbors, instead of wondering about all those faceless people who are having a hard time.