May 2010-Year in Pics

Last May brought these two beauties. Knowing I would have to dry my cow up eventually, we decided having a couple of Nubian goats to fill in the gap would be a good idea. The idea of putting them on weed patrol was an appealing thought as well. Best laid plans.

It also brought these two beauties! By May, we had 24 leppies calves to bottle feed, so we enlisted their help.

 ...and found THIS guy, coveting the calf nipple! Ahhh the wonders of Camp Gramma!

 Good thing we have the family size milk wagon!

 Meanwhile, it was reported that the Easter bunny had been seen in California at the Abster's house...

We had quality control testing out the future raspberry 'bed'...

After everyone went home, it was back to just me and Cider doing chores. It seemed pretty lonesome, so...

...we went out in the pasture where the sun was warm and shining, and spent some time with Miss EmmaLou.

April 2010-year in pics

March 2010 Cowcamp left me with 15 orphan calves, or leppies, to bottle feed. April brought more. Two of the boys went coyote hunting one very cold and foggy April day and ran across a cow who had gotten herself stuck in the mud. Predators had attacked and mutilated her while she lay there defenseless in the creekbed, so the boys humanely destroyed her...then noticed her stomach roll.
They realized immediately she had a calf inside, and with a quick cell phone call to the vet 7 hours away, they were told they had 3 minutes, so with the vet walking them through the steps and armed with a pocket knife, they delivered her by Cesarean section.
When they finally got her to me, she was so far gone, even the inside of her mouth was cold. We worked on her with towels, hair dryer, and blankets, but we got no response. Eventually, we gave up. That is when Cider took over. He licked her for hours and nurtured her until she finally got to her feet and we got a bottle of colostrum in her. He babied her through the night and the following morning, she was strong enough to go to the barn with the other babies.

Where we failed and gave up, Cider took over

Hours later...

later that night, a kitchen cruise!

Can you spot the imposter??

Little Rio is now 8 months old, she and two of the other 26 leppies are being raised as nurse cows for future orphans. Good job Cider!!

March 2010-Year in Pics

March every year brings Cowcamp. This is when all the cattle out on the desert need to be gathered and pushed the 30+ miles onto the lush ranch pastures to calve. It takes 1-2 weeks to do so, several buckaroos and is necessary to stay there, as the 30 mile road is so bad it takes roughly 1 1/2 hours to drive there in favorable conditions...which are rare during cow camp. It has all the comforts of home however, as you can see...who needs a bathroom door, anyway?

Cold morning in Cowcamp. 17 degrees, snowing and ready to ride

Miles to go. Singing makes it shorter, even if the horses don't agree.

Cowcamp

Cold, windy, raining, but the work still has to be done

Miles behind us, and more miles ahead

Randyman and I hauled a 5th wheel camp trailer, so the girls and I could use the shower, and a real bathroom with a DOOR, as well as a heater! We made sure to brag in front of all the cowboys, who had to sleep in the drafty bunkhouses with tiny heaters, sleep in their longjohns and get dressed to slog out to the outhouse at night. However...the first day, the generator ran out of gas, which ran the heater, and the water pump...it stayed 20 degrees and below, inside the trailer for the rest of the week...with no running water. It was like sleeping in a refrigerator. Lucky cowboys!

cowcamp kitchen

 A semi truck and trailer are hauled out to camp for cooking and eating in. There is an old stove that has working burners hooked to a propane tank. The burner covers are welded from old horseshoes. A large, nonfunctional stove and griddle are employed as counter space. A small round table for 4, seats who ever gets there first,  and accommodates card playing, while the rest stand with their plates or seat themselves on the floor. Water is heated in a large bucket for doing dishes each morning, at about 4 a.m. The cuisine, is not gourmet, but 11 to 12 hours of riding in sub freezing temperatures is pretty good seasoning for any meal, as long as its HOT!

Cowcamp cavvy. All these  horses have to be pretty good 'circle horses', meaning they have to cover quite a long distance each day.

February 2010-year in pics

Last February, we took a little trip to California to visit family. A mere 13-14 hour drive.

The windmills of Tehachapi

Heading to Tejon Ranch, to visit the kids

Indian graveyard on the Tejon

bull elk on Tejon

 

Interesting sign over the window in Bakersfield....things that make you go 'hmmmmm'...

Codybear and the Abster, ready for the Daddy diaper change in the Bass Pro parkin' lot (note the lack of haz-mat suit)

2010 in Pictures, January

bull fight

catching one out of the cavvy

heading out to move yearlings

"Chewy", first leppie of 2010

following cows back out to the desert

hamburger buns

canning chicken stock

Got Milk?

My apologies to those who have already heard this story. I am currently on "goat watch", waiting for both Prissy and Scarlett to freshen, and my brain cells are not firing during the day. I decided to bring these back, for those who have not heard it and to perhaps, assist you with any boredom you might be suffering from. :)

Years ago, living on our small family ranch in California, I was already moving in the direction of becoming more self sufficient, food-wise. I decided a milk cow was in order. I knew I would have a reasonable supply of fresh milk, cream, butter, and maybe cheese. The internet, at that time, had not been invented, in fact....we had no computers. So I was on my own to figure all these things out.
On my quest for our bovine beauty, I met a sweet old man with a dairy in Bakersfield, about 45 minutes down the mountain from our town. He told me he had a nice cow who freshened at 10 GALLONS a day, but was currently only giving 2 gallons daily...she had not gotten re-bred and would become a "butcher cow" unless I wanted her. We agreed on a price and I set out to pick her up. It was almost Thanksgiving, and we had heavy snow and ice on the road. I proceeded to hook up our massive 6 horse trailer and head for the big city of Bakersfield.

About 1/2 mile down our road, I came upon a CalTrans snowplowman, who informed me "You'll never make it down this road with that trailer"...I am NOT a great backer-upper (yes, that is a real word). It took me over 45 minutes to slip and slide down that narrow canyon road and avoid going off the embankment...normally it was a 7 minute drive. A quick and URGENT stop at the first available restroom and off I went to pick up the cow.
My first clue that this may not have been a real good idea, was when it took 8 men to load her, and one got smashed in the gate. They finally got her aboard, and my primary thought was...how am I gonna milk this monster, all by myself?  You see, what I hadn't considered, was, she was a DAIRY cow, and a large one, at that! ...in otherwords, she had NEVER been handled or hand milked. She would just follow the others in to eat her 'goodies', had automatically controlled doodaddy's  stuck on her plugs and away she'd go. (yes, those ARE a technical terms)
I had the entire trip home to devise a plan to get her into my barn, and get her milked.

Skip ahead about 6 to 8 hours...there are rope marks and burns around every oak tree, between the driveway and the barn, skid marks in the snow and mud that match my bootprints...there are several body indentations in the snow about my size, with cowtracks that seemly go right through them...but INSIDE the barn is a monstrous, muddy Holstein cow, with each hind leg tied to opposite corners of a stall, head locked between two boards, happily munching on hay, with a victorious young mother filling her bucket with milk, one squirt at a time. Ahhhh! The simple life!!

Mundane Monday

 

Randyman let me sleep in today. However, someone else had other ideas. I could NOT sleep because I could feel someone staring at me, again...this time through my bedroom window. I feel like a goldfish.

 I know you have seen pictures of them doing this before, but if "I" have to wake up to it everyday, so can you.

I got up and got dressed, while Cider stayed in bed. I checked waterers and found Dolly had sabotaged her trough again. She likes to soak her food. I plugged in the trough heater so I could pull the hay out later, and cleaned the 'tent'.

Dolly 'backwash'

the infamous 'cow tent'

partners in crime

After feeding the calves and sheep, I went back inside, kicked Cider out of my bed, did some laundry and watered the houseplants. There is very little light in our house as the windows are very small, except for a garden window in the bathroom, so the plants get rotated so they all can enjoy equal time in the sun.

This one is practically giddy.

The boss' wife stopped by, and we had some coffee and swapped stories about how our Christmas went. Randyman and the boss had made her get up early this morning to help feed. I have been helping, but driving a monster tractor, in the snow and ice (and usually in the dark) that I have NEVER driven before, across terrain that is covered with snow and ice, sagebrush and hidden ditches, is not a relaxing activity for me. I am usually shaking like a wet dog by the time its over. She only had to drive a truck, while the boss rode on a flatbed behind, pulling and feeding flakes off of the 800 lb haybales. She said he told her to 'go on down the road'...and then hollered at her to 'go on through the ditch'...but forgot until too late to tell her to go STRAIGHT through the ditch or it would knock off the haybales. I guess the bulls will just have to serve themselves today.
He and Randyman must have gone to the same "How to Train Your Employees" and "Communication Skills" class.

The sink plugged up. I couldn’t do dishes, or run the dishwasher. That means I can’t cook either. I poured salt and baking soda in it, followed by a huge potful of boiling water. After several hours, it was still plugged up, so I had to waste some of the precious lye I bought for making soap. It works fine now. Randyman was impressed when he came home. He asked me to turn around to see if I was a REAL plumber. I am not, of course.

I went out to grain my cows and Cletus managed to push past me and went to do a check on the three heifer calves I raised last spring. They are so used to his annoying them, they didn’t even bother to get up when he climbed over the top of them to cover their muzzles with kisses. The 200 bred heifers that just got moved into the big back pasture weren’t as happy about it. He turned a deaf ear as I hollered for him, cows were scattering everywhere on the ice and snow, as he trotted behind them, hoping to introduce himself, until they were all out of sight.

Cider and Bruno and I walked up to the barn to grain the goats and check on their progress. They are due to kid this month. No action yet, but they are getting pretty cranky. Hopefully Randyman will get our closed circuit camera up before the big event, so I don’t freeze my tail off doing late night checks in subzero weather.

Wimpy's new "Cockleburr-Do"

 I dealt with Wimpy's mane mess, but his tail is still a disaster. We shall save that for another day, when its warmer than 13 degrees.
When we got back to the house, there was still no Cletus, so I sent Bruno out to get him and bring him back. He took off like a shot in the general direction the big 'walking rug' had last been seen. About 10 minutes later, I saw them both on the front porch. They weren’t alone.

Sneak attack

What the heck is it???

Its ticklish

It was their second experience with a 'ball bearing mousetrap'. The first was rather short, as Cletus wanted to pluck him like a chicken, and I hit him with a well aimed cabbage at the same time the cat hissed. They have since been wary. Today they were much more polite with him and judging by his response, all is forgiven.

Being barefooted, I didn’t want to walk out on the ice to let them through the side gate, but Cletus is claustrophobic and won’t come through the house. I invited Bruno in and as he nosed around, I put a collar on Cletus and had a tug of war to get him inside. He won. All I had left was an empty collar. Bruno waltzed past me as if I had offended him as well, they walked off together while I begged, pleaded and made hollow threats. They passed the barn and never even looked back. They live life on their own terms.

I kept looking out the front door, waiting for their return.  When they didn't show up after a couple of hours, I finally went out back to feed the calves and sheep again. Both pups were laying in the back corral. Most likely they had been there the whole time and were just punishing me for trying to yank Cletus into the house. The waterpipe was frozen, so I unplugged the water troughs, traipsed back to the house and made dinner.

 The boss called on the satellite phone to ask if Randyman had made it back from feeding yet, as it was dark and he hadn't been seen since leaving to do the afternoon feeding. It's nice to have a boss who cares about you and keeps tabs on you. He has a lot of responsibility here, as its not just his own family he has to take care of, but all the ranch crew as well. We get pretty spread out too, some of us getting stuck 4 hours away on a shopping trip, or like Cowboss, rolling over his car coming back from vacation, being out on the desert patrol or running wells, driving heavy equipment, beating brush or moving cows. He's pretty good at keeping track of everyone, even though he is always on the run himself, driving cattle trucks or hauling hay, meeting with bankers, vets, helping us brand or process cattle, or doing bookwork. Even though we all work 7 days a week here, if someone gets hung up and has to work really late, he makes sure they get dinner.
He sent out a search party once for me and Cowboss, as we had left at 5 a.m. to move cows in 18 degree weather and weren't back yet by 7 that night. We were just pulling in with the horse trailer, as he was pulling out. That was before he hired a second cowboy for the winter. Now I flake out and stay home when its cold. 
I looked outside, and Randyman was just pulling up. Our dinner was almost ready.


BTW, pizza is so much better if you make your own crust, sauce and mozzarella. Just a tip.