Snowstorm

I thought I would give you an update about what has been going on. Saturday and Sunday were in the fifties. However, Sunday night the moisture moved in. It started out as rain, before quickly switching over to snow.

When it is nice out, Danny and I walk out and try to gentle down the heifers. These pictures were taken before the snow.

Monday was kind of a blizzard. Visibility was far worse than this at times.

We were unable to get out and feed the cattle on Monday due to the whiteout conditions. When we went out to feed Tuesday, we found some rather deep snow. As you can see, we basically buried the pickup. After quite a bit of shoveling we got it out. We had to go back, get the wheel loader, and plow a path to the cows so we could get them fed.

Looking east of the house, there is quite a bit of snow.

We aren't going to complain about the snow. It will melt off pretty soon and soak into the ground, giving the grass a good start.

DJ

February

The weather has been pretty good recently. We will get a few cold days, but it never seems to last too long. We don't have much snow, but there is some ice. I guess there isn't a lot to post. Last week Mom took some pictures of us feeding the cattle so I guess I'll put them up.

On bales with a lot of leaves, like this third-cutting alfalfa, sometimes we have to pitch some of it off, or it will fall apart in a pile when we try to unroll it.

 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

Update

We started calving about a week ago and quite a few cows have already calved. It started raining Thursday night and by Sunday, we had gotten 1.2 inches of rain which we are extremely thankful for.

This is a picture I took of our cows after we moved them about a week ago.


And a picture of our steers that was taken at almost the same time. They seem to be enjoying the river.


We fly almost every day to check on our cattle. I took this picture from it today. You can see some calves in it.


DJ

Beautiful March

It feels more like May though. Today was 73 degrees. I guess by the end of the week it is supposed to cool down into the 50's, but then we have a chance of rain, which would be nice.


About a week ago we moved the steers to another pasture. They seem to be pretty happy.





The geese have returned.

We tried burning a small island on Cottonwood Creek to get rid of the weeds, but it didn't burn very well.

DJ

Cattle Pictures.

It cooled down a bit and we got some snow. It is warming up again now though.

Here are a few pictures of some of our cows.



Our heifer calves (coming yearlings)...


The steers had to chase Sam. (Click to enlarge)



DJ

Another Update

Well, it is the 13th of February and it got to 40 degrees today. The forecast shows upper 30s for the next 7 days. There is no snow to speak of. We are really thankful for this weather.

Here are some pictures that were taken a little over a week ago.




These were taken yesterday when I fed the calves with Dad. (We feed with a pickup with a bale-unroller on it) The calves in the pictures are some of our heifer calves.



DJ

What We've Been Doing

We finished haying a few weeks ago. We ended up with over 2,400 bales for the year. Dad finished hauling bales from across the river, but we still have to haul 1,400 or so bales over on this side of the river. We got all the bales bunched and ready to load on the trailer though.

These pictures were taken three weeks ago.(I forgot to post them)




It has cooled down a bit. Highs in the 70's lows in the 40's. It has been kind of dry recently. The other day we looked out the window and saw this. Evidently the cat was kind of cold.


A couple weeks ago Dad got his wheel loader. It is a John Deere 544H with approximately 1850 hours on it. Dad found it online, drove to Minnesota to look at it, and bought it. One of the main reasons he got it was to plow snow in case we have another bad winter. It is handy for other things like loading rock too.


DJ

Happenings on the Ranch

Back on Friday we got our weekly shower. We got just under an inch.

Pictures of the clouds.


It was raining pretty good.


After the storm it cleared up.


A couple pictures of the steers.


We finished our haying at the mountain today. We've gotten over 2,000 bales so far this year and should get another 500 or so bales across the river from our second cutting.

DJ