Update

I thought I better give an update since my last post was in early March. We've had quite a bit of snow since then. It normally melts off before we get more though. The temperatures have been below normal recently. About a week ago, we had a snowstorm drop about a foot of snow. 

Here is a picture of Blue Mountain covered in snow.

We have just started calving as well. When we were flying one day, we saw that a new-born calf had slid into a draw with really steep sides and couldn't get out. So, Dad landed and after a bunch of slipping and sliding, we reunited the calf with it's mother. 

The snow was still pretty deep then. 

Today was pretty windy, so we rode to check the heifers instead of flying. As you can see in this picture, the snow is melting off pretty good. It is really wet though. Once it warms up, the grass will really take off.

DJ

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

Starting a New Year

Well, it's been quite awhile since I've made a blog post. We had a good Christmas and New Year. The weather has been pretty decent. It was above 40 today, but it sounds like it is going to start cooling down. We finished weaning the last of our calves today. (We like to try different ideas). All the cattle looked pretty good. Since the last post, we have ridden the three-year-old colts quite a bit. We have mainly been working with Pistol(the dun) and Bandit(the mostly black one). When spring comes, we will probably start working with the roans more. 

Today after we had weaned the calves we took some family pictures of us with our horses. 

From left to right: Dad-Jack, Jessi-Smokey, DJ-Bandit, Danny-Dundee, Mom-Poco, Sam. 

 I don't see any need to re-type all that. It is really hard to get five people, five horses, and one dog to cooperate.

Just the kids. 

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

Rainbow

We've been really busy going to brandings and getting ready for ours. I'll probably post some pictures from the brandings after things slow down a bit.

I took these pictures about a week ago after a small shower came through.



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

Stuck

Yesterday wasn't a very productive day. It started off with Dad hauling rock to creek/draw crossings. On his last load, his truck got stuck in reverse and he couldn't get it out. If he had tried backing out, he would have gotten stuck in the crossing. Mom and I went looking for him and found him walking. We went back and got the wheel loader and pulled him out, but we still couldn't get it out of reverse, so we deduced it needs a new transmission. He went over to smooth out the creek crossings with the loader and we went to get tools so he could take the drive-line off so we could pull him home. We got back and waited where he was supposed to meet us, but he didn't show up. Then I got a call from him on the cellphone. When I asked him where he was he said, "Stuck." The day was almost over though, so we picked him up and then pulled the truck home.

Dad had pulled in here with the loaded truck, and it didn't sink or anything. He had smoothed it out with the loader, but when he was backing up, it just sunk. The odd thing is, it is dry on top.





You can see where the ground just gave way.


Today, we just had to figure out how to pull the 30,000 pound loader out. The only thing we figured we could get it out with was our D7 CAT. We had to replace a fuel filter on our other truck, hook up to the trailer, get the CAT started, and hauled over. Once we got it there, we were able to pull it right out.


And that is how it is done.


Here is the hole the loader made.


In the last couple of days, we have gotten a quarter inch of rain. More rain would be nice, but at least it settled the dust.

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

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

Phenomenal Wheather

Well, for a week or so it got pretty cold but it is back up into the 40's and 50's. Yesterday it was 52 and today was 46. There is no big cool-down in sight. After last winter, we are so thankful for the beautiful winter.

This was last winter, around this time.

This was taken yesterday.