First Snow

Yesterday it was 70 degrees, sunny, and dusty. This morning it was raining then turned to snow. By the end of the day, we ended up with about and inch and a half of moisture. We are extremely thankful for the moisture since we haven't had much in months.

 A few days ago we picked our watermelons because the vines had frozen. You can see how dry the grass was.

The snow was coming down pretty good.
















We had a couple of inches of snow on the ground. It was pretty much melted off by evening.
















 DJ

Fiber Optics, Fires, and More

I'll start with the fiber optics. Earlier this summer, we went 40 days without a phone. We didn't get the phone working again until they got a new, fiber optic line plowed in. We also have gone from satellite internet to internet over the fiber. It is over 4 times faster than satellite. However, we did have a bunch of problems with it, but I think we have gotten things worked out.
Here they are plowing in the line.


It's pretty dry now. We were trying to watch a movie one night when we saw lightning. There wasn't supposed to be any thunderstorms, but one had popped up. We went upstairs to watch to make sure the lightning didn't start any fires. I was trying to take pictures when a bolt hit less than a half mile away and instantly started a fire. Dad and I ran out and jumped in our firefighting outfit, (A pickup with a water tank and a pump on it) and headed for the fire. There was a little bit of rain, not enough to put it out, but enough to slow it down. We got there and were able to put it out easily.

Where the fire burned.


Luckily there wasn't much wind. You can see our haystack and our house in this picture.


We finally got around to hauling our portable panels home from the mountain. We didn't want to make two trips so we were able to carry 30 at once.


Thursday of last week we sold our yearling steers in Dickinson. Their weight exceeded our expectations averaging 1,020 pounds per head. When we got home, we took off in the Bearhawk and headed to the Badlands Fly-in in Hot Springs SD. We had a really good time. This year we toured Wind Cave which was pretty neat. I created a web album with pictures I took.

DJ

Lightning

Last night a thunderstorm came through. Fortunately, we got about 3/10th of rain which was enough to put out any fires the lightning started.

I took these pictures with a fifteen second exposure with the camera on a tripod.

I saved the best for last. This one started a fire about a mile and a half away, but it went out when the rain hit. Notice how it lit up the hill.
















DJ

Brandings, 2012

I decided to take the best pictures from brandings this spring, and put them in one post.

First we have Dad on Dundee.


Danny and Dad.



Sage on Murphy.




Dad and Jessi.





Edward, DJ, and Dad.



Dad and Jack.


Me riding Poco.


An action shot of Sage and Danny. (Danny insists he didn't fall down.)



Jessi, Danny, and I.


Danny's first time roping.





DJ

Lower Yellowstone Irrigation Canal Washout

Yesterday the canal washed out south of Savage. Today when we were flying over to bale hay, we swung by and checked it out. They had already been working on it when we saw it.


It caused a lot of damage to the fields below.



This was a hay field.


So was this. It had all been cut and was in windrows.


Not a pretty sight.


The hay was pushed to this side of the field.


DJ

Ranch work

We've been pretty busy this month with cattle work. Getting them in for our brandings, branding, and moving them out after our brandings. The cattle work is almost done, so now we are going to be haying.

Here is a picture I took while we were fencing. Of course, I realized too late it was going to hit us and we got wet on the way back.


Here we are moving steers.


Interesting clouds.


Dad on Jack.


Trailing the cows to the river.



Dad, Jack, Jessi, Smoky, Danny, Dundee, Mom, Poco.


A few of the steers in their new pasture.


DJ