Spring is the season of life, but it is also the season of death..not all that are born make it…but the majority do.

While feeding with the tractor this evening, Jack, Chances dog, ran under the front wheel of the tractor. I hauled him to the kennel, hoping maybe he’d be alright… he wasn’t.. so in order that he not suffer I put him down.. and buried him…

Just a dog, some might say… not even my dog.. but he may as well have been. I hate suffering in others. I hate having to put animals down, but I know it is kinder than to let them suffer….

So now, I suffer…..

In a small way, it reminds me of how Jesus and his Mother and Father must have felt…..

so far… got some more snow, but the wind hasn’t blown real bad… doesn’t look like we had any thing in the night while Chance and Hope checked on them…Cindy went in yesterday afternoon so she wouldn’t be snowed out of her work… maybe she should have waited until this morning, tho’ I haven’t heard what it is doing in the Hills…

Here is a checkbook cover I been working on..my first try and leather “engraving” like they do on metal, guns and such…

for the next blow coming in… as well as we can… doesn’t look like it will get too tuff until tomorrow sometime…we have the pairs in the tree patch and the drop bunch in the hog pasture, so I guess we are set for the evening… no calves so far today so I suppose we will get some in the night…Gus rode Beaver this evening and helped me and his dad move the pairs and drop bunch how we wanted them set… the boy is a natural! 😉

this morning. chance brought a new baby and his first calf heifer mother into the shed about 3:30… when i went out at 5 he was sucking. I found another heifer starting to calve so brought her in and put her in the other shed so as to not bother the other cow/calf…so far, not much change… I am going out in a few minutes (quarter after 7) and if she hasn’t made enough progress, I shall assist and by golly, that calf will be born! 🙂

Chance woke us at 3:30 to tell me what he had done and mentioned that Woody was goofy… well yeah! But when I saddled him and rode out to get the other heifer it went pretty slick! He is automatic! (Chance called while I was typing this and i asked why he thought he was goofy and he said it was because he would fall down on the ice trying to get a cow… now what the hell is wrong with that?! I love a horse who hates cows and wants to dominate them….)

7:55 am UPDATE….went out and helped her have a calf, pretty fair sized but I think she would have been fine if she had been out in a pasture on her own and it wasn’t so cold…. not real impressed with the heifer bull we used on these…

8 pm UPDATE ….Just had a cow calf… that makes 4 for the day… all seem to be doing well… wind has died down and it’s a bit cool but not all bad. I will check before bed at 10 or 11 and Chance and hope will handle it until i get up in the morning.. I picked up the calf i pulled this morning and I’d bet he weighed at least 80 pounds…not what I’d call a first calf heifer calf…my cows are smaller than most and this w=one has enough longhorn in her to be black and white but she is built like a larger Angus… I imagine she is only 1/8 or a 1/16 longhorn …she still might have had it, but I ain’t using that bull again on my cattle. Chance can on his heifers if he wants….

We had wind yesterday, but not real cold… but seeing as it was supposed to snow and/or rain, we kept the cows in close. No rain or snow to speak of. I check before dark and at 11 pm… nothing. Chance and Hope were checking in the night and i got up at 5:30 and checked. Another new one, but fine…I’ll go out after bit and feed them close as it is still supposed to get wind, but it is changing to the northwest instead of the east and right now it is real calm…but we will keep them in the lot’s until this passes…Chance and Hope are supposed to go help a neighbor shear their sheep so i guess they are all in my hands….poor cows… 🙂

Went out to check cows a bit after 6 this morning and found a heifer who was calving and nothing showing. So I drove up and told Chance to get the corrals and shed ready for her and saddled up Mijo and rode out and drove her in slow. we got her caught and tied up, reached in and the front feet were there but seemed a little big. Been so long since I had to pull a calf out of a cow I had about lost my judgment as to what is big and what isn’t… we worked on pulling the calf for awhile and couldn’t even get the head into the birth canal so called a feller up who can do C section, he came down and we put a zipper in her! Calf didn’t make it…sure hope it was fluke as this is the first heifer to calve and we got 20 more…..the bull we used to AI these heifers had a 59 pound birth weight so I think it was just a fluke… we will find out soon enough. I hooked up the team and fed then Dean came down and rode with Chance and I to Punkin’ Center for the pancake feed. Visited a bit and got some odds and ends, came home, had a short snooze and then did a little leatherwork and then me and Sam and Gus feed hay for the send time today. Put the cattle in a little lot next to the house so we can watch these heifers closer in the night in case another one has problems..an old cow calved today so we got 2 live ones anyway… odds are in our favor! 🙂 After I turned the team loose Chance had run the horses in so we could catch a night horse up so I caught Crackerjack and worked with him a bit, got on and rode him around in the round pen. He never even humped… I believe he will make a kid horse eventually…wet and sloppy, I love it! We got some rain and a few more snow flakes this afternoon, hope it stays wet. More miserable for calving but if we don’t get moisture there is no sense in having any cattle around….

Went out and fed a bale to the cows…seems like they appreciated it…no calves yet today as I write this at 4 pm…I went out about an hour ago, fed them another bale and a half,. fed some to the horses in the corral and outside, swapped out horses for tonight…I fed one of the last bales i bought that they didn’t seem to like and they are eating at it now! Amazing how the temps makes that work! I’ll go back out just before dark. Kept Mijo up for my night horse, we’ll see how that works out! 🙂

7 PM UPDATE…. Just came in from checking cows, No calves. I gave them a stern talking to and told them to hold of and cross their legs… they are a pretty good bunch of cows so I am sure they will listen to me…. I will check about 10/11 and then Chance will check at 1 and I will check at 4 or 5…

11 PM….. Just came back. No calves and about 3 inches of fresh snow, wind seems to have gone down a bit and is out of the north/northwest…

4 AM WEDNESDAY…Looks like it’s over with… No new calves, cows lying down chewing their cuds and we have over a foot of snow for sure now…just a light breeze coming in now…as spring storms go, this one was pretty good…only one calf, we saved him and we got some good moisture and not real hard winds…

Supposed to be coming in…. maybe a foot of snow and winds to 35 mph…we have some light drizzle, the ground is wet and the grass is short but green. As long as it’s wet and amounts to some moisture I sure ain’t going to complain…Cindy rode along and we lured the cows into the lanes and lots behind the house. Fed them a couple bales so now we wait and check on them, nothing looks real close to calving but we should be getting some at any time…might be a long night as Chance will whine if we don’t keep an eye on them…. suppose his banker would too! 🙂

UPDATE!!!

It’s begun, got the first calf. Went out just before dark and a red old cow of Chances had a char x calf. Just looked and put the bulls in on the 9th of July….bred the heifers on the 14th of July, so they should be coming any time also…Chance and I went and got him in the sled with our horses and put him and his mama in the shed….. winds blowing, it’s snowing, yup, it calving season in April in SD! 🙂

11 PM….. Calf is up sucking, got lots of snow, cows are weathering it fine…..

5 AM TUESDAY THE 9th….Went out at 5 and no calves. Cattle are laying down behind some mounds I have built up over the years out of old hay and manure, downwind form shelterbelts..also a woodpile I have built up… snowy but chewing their cuds…feels like the wind might have dropped a touch, but not by much. Chance went out while I slept and left me a note that all was well…getting some drifts in the flat area’s and it’s harder to drive a pickup around…. I will go out after daylight and feed some hay and then also probably feed more in the afternoon/evening….

Hope gave me a ride in to town the other day and i brought the car home that Chance had been using while getting is pickup’s fixed. Then she gave me a ride in on Saturday so i could meet up with Cindy and we went to Rapid so we could set up and do the show at the Dahl in Rapid last night. We had a over flowing crowd, they had to set up more chairs and they were great. They seemed to think Paul and ken and I did a good job and we sure got a lot of nice comments. It was great. Nice to work in front a nice people like we had. We spent the night at the Alex Johnson motel and took off a little after 6 this morning and headed for Custer to watch Gabe, our oldest grandson have his First Communion, at the church. We stayed around afterwords and visited and played with the kids. I took a snooze, seeing as I barely slept the night before and Tate made biscuits and gravy for lunch. We drove in rain off and on in the Hills and the step is wet outside right now…We are supposed to have rain and snow and wind the next few days, hope we get a bunch of moisture out of it…