Warm, getting calves, 10 yesterday…. had one who wasn’t sure who hers was.. I think we got it figured out and them back together.. Cindy went with me to check them this morning.. couple new ones… wind is supposed to gust into the 30’s.. they had a planned burn down in the Black Hills and it got away from the,… makes me wonder if they did it on purpose,. knowing they needed to burn a bunch of timber and they won’t let them log it… it’s at Wind Cave Park… I know a guy who works down there, I might have to give him a call and tease him… Tate got his mill going again and was milling logs yesterday afternoon.. I had to replace the tree in my saddle…slot broke that holds a stirrup up… sure like the feel of this one,. I did the ground seat a bit different and the cantle is wider so fits me better than the older one.. I’d made it in 05 so it’s been 9 years ago, I know I am a different shape now than I was then, and especially in the portion that is again’t the cantle! 😀

Gabe and Sam rode yesterday afternoon and stayed with us while their parents went to town. Gabe rode the pony colt and did real good.. I think the pony is out of a full sized stallion as he’s lots bigger than his mother… Then Callen came over and topped off Pard for me.. he was plumb good. we made a big fast circle, mostly at a trot… This morning Gabe went with me to check cows.. we tagged a new one.. there was another we missed.. this afternoon I was hauling big rocks to the house site for landscaping, using the big extend forklift… Tate was off working on his house and wasn’t using it, so I made the most of it.. then Gabe came up and we ran the horses in and Chance and Sam and Gus and Gabe and I saddled up and rode south.. I rode Pard and we are pretty new to each other and he ain’t my old broke horses, so it was hard on me.. that dang Callen made it look so easy! 😀

We’d found a new calf and i went to write him down in the book, but the wind was blowing and it ruffled the pages and Pard didn’t like the sound of that, so i stepped off and wrote it down, changed my sturru length as they were a notch long for a young horse and when I stepped on, I didn’t make it. The stirrup leather came off.. the tree had broke where the stirrup hangs..  I’d had another one of these tree’s do this, that I arranged for the sale of, to a young man and ever since the tree maker has rectified it so it can’t happen again, but this tree was one of the older ones. I called him and he will have one sent to me as quick as he can make it. Just so happens the new saddle i was building on, has a tree that was very similar and already had the back rigging in, the fork and horn covered and it’s a cable rig so that was all set. I stripped the old one down, switched most of it over to the new tree and just finished oiling it and it is ready to ride in the morning… but don’t let that make you think I can replace yours that fast, if you break a tree! 😀

Got real warm and quite a breeze today, supposed to be more tomorrow and then die down on Monday… for some reason I am tried! No moisture for several days on the weather.. it’s a good time to be dry, but eventually it’s going to need to rain.. and I bet it does.. it always has before…

Cows are calving, Tate is fighting his mill, we were supposed to get a storm, but got a little rain and a tiny bit of snow that must have melted as it hit the ground last night. We kicked pairs out yesterday and penned the cows up, just in case. Tate and Chance checked cows in the night… windy, but that was about it.. wind is still blowing, but warmer, when the wind goes down it’s going to be pretty nice… I went and kicked the newer pairs out and then Tate grabbed a bale with the tractor and Chance saddled up and we kicked the cows back down south… I got leather mellowing for some saddle skirts… Kim came down and spent the night on Tuesday, he had an eye appointment in Sturgis the next day so used it as a good excuse to visit.. Jerry Nelson was coming to get some stuff at CRS so he stopped in. They are both playing guitar now so we all sat and picked for awhile. Kim and I stayed up way too late visiting.. need to go tag a couple calves that were born today. Kick them all out tomorrow…

I woke up before daylight this morning. Cindy and I watched Mel Gibson’s, The Passion, in it’s entirety, last night before going to bed. Everyone should. At least once a year. So vivid and lets you truly see what Jesus went thru’, even if it was worse than that depicted.

Amazing what Jesus went thru’ for all of us.

All of us…

Not just your friends and neighbors, but all.

Those who are on the fringe, those who you don’t care for..yes, even those who would do you harm and you would fight back…

All.

Pretty hard for me to wrap my mind around that.. but then, I am not perfect and as far as i can tell, I have never met anyone who is… so who am I to judge?

It’s a beautiful morning out there… no new babies, no wind so far.. a chance of moisture coming in… yes, it’s a beautiful day. Hope you have a joyous Easter and remember what this day is really all about.

We got 7 today… Chance and I rode up and kicked pairs out and had quite a tussle with a wild rip who wouldn’t go thru’ a gate… Me and Gabe and Lige went down and brought the cows back from down south, leaving 4 new pairs… we had Sunkist for a lead steer and he worked real good.. (Chance in the orange tractor with a bale) they followed him and we just rode along… Chance went back and roped the stupid cows calf as her mother had come in with the bunch and Tate drove down and deposited him out in the cows where the mother found him.. I was feeding them hay. We probably won’t go back down there now until summer. It was good while it lasted. Real nice calving pasture, roll with some deep draws and high hills, but no water except at a tank and not good protection from a storm and real pain to move pairs north across the road… guess somebody ought to plant some trees down there and get it set up for a calving pasture! Sure saved a lot of hay.. I canned a breech cow of mine and Chance has one who is her running mate, they were both out this morning but now are in the corral and will stay there for the duration or when ever we decide to haul them to a sale.. mine won’t sell very good, so may have to just deal with her and then butcher her for hamburger or something as she ain’t very fat… One of Chances new heifers calved this morning .. we have them sorted off.. too many bunches around her and not enough good places to keep the,m. He has been working on fixing up some of these smaller tree patches to keep them in as they calve.. once they calve they can go out with thew other pairs… but he wants to keep them close and keep an eye on them, if they all calve as easy as this one did, there shouldn’t be any problems… found out Molly is for sure a cow dog tonight, as we were sorting, we got Chances cow behind a gate and Molly was sure trying to bite her in the face for getting to close.. good dog, good dog! 😀 Got some weather coming in.. don’t know if it will amount to much but at least we got all the cattle handier to get to protection if we need it…

Been a week since last I wrote in here… I must be busy! Not sure at what. just checking cows, working on leather, feeding a little, moved some rocks… weather has been warm and windy/. We have some rain snow supposed to be coming in tomorrow evening and hanging around for a few days. It is April, so to be expected.. been getting a calf or two about every day. I think I’ll go move some pairs this morning and then cows this afternoon. Chance and I went up north and he came back with 18 new bred heifers… the guy he got them from brought the last of them in his trailer that evening… we had the first calf from one this morning.. Hope you all have a Blessed Easter. It’s not about bunnies, folks…

This morning, Gabe and Lige and gus helped me and we saddled up and gathered a;ll the cows into the lot east of there house, then Chance came with a bale on the tractor and lead them across the road and back down south.. weather is supposed to be good for the next week. Had two calves to tag today., so far. This afternoon I took all the big boys and went to Punkin’ Center where there was roller skating, I am getting to old for this stuff! It was fun and I think I quit when I should have, but maybe not, I’ll know tomorrow morning!

Ron and Roz. I hadn’t driven them in awhile.. it wasn’t handy using them while the cows were in the smaller lots when we thought we might get some stormy weather, but I opened the gates so they could go out east this morning. This afternoon, Sam was here so he and I went and started feeding. Tate was across the road in the hay corral milling logs and had Gabe there, so Gae jumped on with us until he had to leave. Then Sam abandoned me too.. so I finished up by myself and then made a big circle around the pasture to see if any cows were off by themselves calving. There weren’t any. Ron is having some kind of problem. He flips his nose like there are nose flies, but I know there aren’t. He was plumb goofy. When I unharnessed them I stuck my fingers in his nose and dug around, wondering if there might be something stuck up there, but didn’t find anything and when he walked out of the barn he was flipping his nose again. Darned if I know!

I worked on saddles today also. chillier but not much wind. Nice March day. Wish I was in Waverly!

Is where I went today. Met Brent at Punkin Center a bit before noon and we ate lunch then I brought him back here, he got a load of gravel on the truck and headed it home. I hauled some more big rocks back in the bucket of the skid steer for the house… this afternoon, Tate and Kass went to town for something as did Chance and Hope.. they left Gabe so after he got his homework done, he helped me feed and then we saddled up and kicked pairs out.. went well and the wind died down.. real nice evening out there… going to get below freezing tonight and there is a chance for some snow by morning and then some rain… wish I was in Waverly to watch the horse sale tomorrow.. someday…

They were calling for it, so we decided to bring the cows in that we had moved south.. had 5 new calves out there and thought it best, if they call for rain, it might turn to snow.. so yesterday we saddled up and headed south, of course two babies didn’t have their mothers with them so we had to go get them and get them to find their babies,  Chance rode by oner twice and never saw him in the tall grass, but mama finally did.. we kicked 3 pairs up the creek and left Chances wild cow’s calf out there, but of course she went back to get him.. I rode this morning and set all the gates so I could kick her across the rode, up west… but when I got there, she was no where to be found.. so I rode on home and told Chance about it and he told me of hang a cow they were sure was going to clave last night, but they couldn’t find her again. this is not a big pasture! Gus told them to “go get Grampa, he will find her!” So after I ran the horses in, Chance and Hope and Gramma and I drove around looking for her.. finally found her…… out with the other cows! She’d picked up herb baby and took him back where we moved the other cows. she had to jump out or crawl a fence, twice to do it, but she did! And then I found the other cow they thought was going to calve. She hadn’t. They claim it must have been a different cow… 😉

This afternoon, just as the rain started, of course, I rode out and had Tate start feeding hay and we got them all in behind a windbreak in case this deal changes.. the wind was blowing pretty good, but seemed to drop a little as I was just getting them al in… supposed to with in the late night early morning and really howl and still a chance of rain and then get colder tomorrow night, so I guess they will be locked in for awhile… at least until this passes…