Category Archive

Went to the wagon ride Tuesday after stopping to get my pickup alignment checked… spent the night and came home last night, got up this morning and me and some minions went and gathered bull, brought them to the corrals and sorted 4 off to go south and 2 to go u north. Ari went with me up north.. cattle were all real close to the gate so dumped the bulls and rode south to the neighboring pasture and found a cow and calf we’d try finding  a couple days ago.. calf was a bit sore fitted, so I suppose he was laying off by himself last time we looked.. after playing ring around thew rosie at a water hole we finally got the ol’ hussy back in our pasture and followed her to our cows.. checked them and everything looked good, bulls were all at work… we went on in to Faith and fueled up the pickup and us and then drove over to check on a colt some kids been riding for me.. man, they have done a nice job.. Ari even rode him a bit as did I.. they still need to ride him a few more times then he can come home.. I think I am going to like him.. I mowed some grass n a stack yard as we have bales made that need hauled in.. think I am going to ride along with a neighbor to Billings to the horse sale this weekend… about it for now.

Went in to town yesterday afternoon, for Cindy’s sisters wedding.. she was a beautiful bride..we are getting old, Cindy had to work today so we left fairly early.. got home about 10:30.. we were going to move some cows today but one calf was missing.. not sure how we did it, but we have a cow in the bunch with out a calf.. haven’t found any dead ones so don’t know what the deal is.. she sure messed up our plans.. guess we will do it tomorrow after Mass… I worked on leather today, basement where my shop is stays pretty cool so it was a good place to work… looks like it is going to try and rain on us tonight.. fixed up a barebones saddle for me seeing as Gabe has stolen my other one… went out and rode it on Pard this afternoon and looked at the cows.hot wind blowing… I bet these guys who have hay down are liking it as it really ought to be curing the hay quick..

We’ve been having a great summer.. rained a lot.. people have been having a hard time getting hay put up between the rains, until the past week or so… grass and hay everywhere,,, sure looks better than last year!

The boys found some pasture away from here, so we sorted pairs last week and weekend and got some hauled up to it.. had some get in the neighbors right away.. pushed thru some poor fence in a mud hole fighting flies.. Game and I went up early Monday morning and gigot them back.. heard of one of our cows in another pasture.. we couldn’t find her.. came up short on the count but there are so many little water holes with so much grass around it that we decided she may have gotten back in and we just missed her.. pasture is pretty rough and the only good way to see it all is horseback… I dropped Gabe off for summer church school and then went home.. got a call about noon for the next door neighbor to this pasture and his neighbor had found her…so I loaded up a horse and went back… got her back and she was hot and tired… Tae checked the next morning and din’t see any tight based cows so hopefully she found her calf… we need to sort off more this weekend and haul them u there…if we would have known we were going to have summer grass, we would have ear tagged, cow and calf the same… oh well, ain’t no high step for a stepper!

Been getting some rains.. country is really looking good. We got the calves branded up on Saturday, with the help of a great crew. Been raining ever since, seems like and supposed to rain off and on this whole week.. let it, it makes the grass grow and after last year, maybe some people will remember that…

I tho to the Hills on Tuesday and stay over.. drive a team hauling people to a chuckwagon dinner and show each evening.. they fit me out with a real nice team of big black Percherons…. sure would be nice to get to winter them and feed with them all winter.. or maybe better yet, just use them once in awhile, because we will have so much feed available, we won’t have to feed! 😀

This morning me and the three little urchins in the photo on  top of this blog, saddled up and rode out amongst them… we got some cattle moved to better, fresher grass.. got back and unsaddled at noon… we also moved some bulls away from neighboring cattle across the road… this afternoon a whole bunch of little and big urchins went with me and we fixed some fence, so I can move some cattle tomorrow into that pasture, if i want or need to.. then this late afternoon, a bunch of them urchins and one dad went with me to the corral, one big urchin rode a young horse while the male urchins and I worked on the roping dummy, practicing.. they are getting the hang of throwing a pretty decent heel loop under the dummy… we did it al afoot… when they get good enough a it, then we will try it horseback… got pretty warm today but had a breeze earlier… kind of warm now and the breeze has died down.. sure ought to be making the grass grow…

Soon….. evident;y Brody does NOT like snakes… Brody is a horse I started quite a few years back, got turned out, sent to somebody to ride for a bit, came home, got turned out, Tate rode his a bit, then he got turned out… Lige rode him a bit but didn’t care for him… Tate rode him a week or so ago and said he didn’t like him… I needed to move some cows, pretty easy job, so I thought I’d just ride Brody and see why no one like him… I warmed him up in the round corral.. he wanted to be silly, I got him to understand I don’t care for silly horses… 😀…fiddled around and got on, rode him a bit and everything seemed fine, so went out to move the cows.. heck, we got along fine, his ol’ ears were really working, looking for a buddy or something, when he sen a cow he wanted to go to them and work them… got most of the cows moved and gates shut…one cow tried sneaking back, so we went after her.. we were just walking along, trying not to spook her, to get around her and all of a sudden, my left knee is about even with my saddle horn! Wow, he can really jump fast, gave one more half hearted hop and I got squared away… then I seen the bull snake.. come on Bro’, he’s just a bull snake! Not even a rattle snake… we discussed it and agreed that we would avoid any kind of snake in the future… sure was glad my guardian Angle was looking over me, I am too old and fat to hit the ground..

Got a strong inch of rain at the tail end and into the weekend… we love it! Green grass everywhere baby calves dropping out of cows around here… found a bummed twin calf this morning… brought him in and got good stuff in his belly.. sounds like several people are looking for baby calves, os they can have him for the right price. nice F1 blackbaldy bull… had  lost of the local branding already… got one tomorrow and another on Saturday.. we have another scheduled for the 2nd of June.. not sure when we will work ours, probably the mid part of June… with Chance being the Schwans man we about have to do it on a Saturday and most of the local kids are all in rodeo’s every weekend until July, seems like.. maybe it will just be mostly a bunch of older people… that’s fine, we will get them done.. heck, I can turn just my grandkids loose on them and that is a bunch of kids! Not much else to report.. sure nice weather…

The rain (a small amount) and the snow ( a larger amount, but not too bad) and the wind ( oh yes, that again!) came and went.. now we have mud.. beautiful day today and yesterday.. must have got up into the 40’s.. bring it. I need grass to grow as we are about out of hay…I have been cleaning much and manure out of the corrals and trying to get the water to drain fro the corrals… it’s fun.. it’s not like I get to play in the mud that often in this country.. I am sure some would be bothered by the smell, but it just smells like spring to me1

Seems some don’t know that Easter is more than just one day… we will be in the Easter season for some time, so I hope you all have a blessed Easter season.

We have been blessed with some moisture… it came mostly as snow… so it is making some peoples lives harder… but with out moisture we are in a drought and I am plumb feed up with drought….as are my cattle, who get scant rations instead of all they can eat… we all are looking forward to green grass in abundance… and it is coming, but we want it now! 😀

Cindy came out and helped me after lunch and we attached a gate to a portable panel I got awhile back… works slick, then I went and moved all the panels on the north side of the corral to hopefully make it easier to pen cattle in it… time will tell..

While feeding this morning I saw one cow who needed to come out of the main bunch and go into the hospital bunch (which gets all the feed they want, so to speak)  while resetting the corral panels, she got inquisitive and came into the corral, so all I had to do was switch a few gates and let her into the other bunch..  am sure she will like it better..

Now I am setting and waiting for a truck load of hay, hopefully the last one I will need to buy this spring..

We love it!.. Well, some don’t seem so crazy about it as it came as snow.. but what do you expect for SD in March, magical duck feathers falling from the sky? I’ve never understood people who live in western SD and complain of snow storms any time from end of October to first of May.. it is not unusual, it is to be expected… sure rain is nicer, but come on, really? Snow is much more apt to happen… I hope we get a bunch of warm rains to keep the moisture coming and yes, the snow is somewhat of a pain, especially for those calving at this time, but with out it we have drought and no feed.. mud is much nicer in this country than dust!

Other than that, not much to report… same old same old, feed cows, do odds and ends around here.. always seems like there is something to occupy your time if you just look a bit…