San Fran. What a beautiful city.

San Francisco is quite a beautiful city. We just wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge and "The Painted Ladies". As we were at the bridge we saw tour buses rolling around. So we hopped on and took a 2 hour tour around all the hot spots. Very cool. They say rent for a 1 bedroom apartment is $1600.00 a month and up!!!!

 

 

 

Alcatraz!

The painted ladies.

Golden Gate Bridge.

South on the 101...

                                                                  South on the 101.
We stayed in Crescent City, CA. Beautiful beaches. Drove thru the Redwoods. HUGE HUGE trees! Then on to San Francisco! Wasn't in the plans, but, Hey! We're on vacation. A road trip isn't a road trip if you decide to go 4 hours outta the way! Love it!!!

Crescent City beach

One of the "tourist"! hehehe. Went to the aquarium. Saw a seal show. So damn cute!! Her name is Marina. And she's 34 years old!

The magnificent Redwoods!

Spring Break...

We are done calving, done feeding, DONE! So - we decided to hit the road for a week or so road trip. Before we start branding. These pictures are from John Day Oregon. The Painted Hills. BREATH TAKING! Off to Northern California we go now.

 

 

 

Ranch Cat....

One of our 3 cats. He is kinda perched precariously in the tree! Yea, they are big cats. They eat well! :)

Old Things.....

 There are allot of old things on the ranch. Here are just a few. They even look and feel old in sepia.



The old one room school house.



The old swing set behind the parents house.

An old Ford pick up.

Another old Ford pick up.

Old wagon with the wooden spokes.

And last but not least. "The old guy" as he's affectionately known around here.



Predator Control....

We don't usually have problems with coyotes here during calving. But, for some reason this year they seemed awfully thick. We've had a few calves like maybe a month old dead. A few with tails or ears missing. Poor mama's having to fight them off! So, we got in touch with neighboring ranchers and we all went in on having the USDA come out and hunt coyotes from a plane. Very interesting. They have a ground crew that come out before sunup and call them. They then get in touch with the plane and they come to the locations and boom. They "gunner" hangs out of the plane with a shot gun. They plane idles way way down and they 'swoop' and boom. It didn't seem to bother the cows much. I am sure they knew they were there to help them out.

Who's yo Daddy?

We got 5 new Hereford bulls the other day. They are all just a year old. The number 4 and the number 2 bull were champion and reserve champion at the bull show in Reno this past winter!

#4. Isn't he a handsome fella? Notice his horns? We have them cut at an angle, so when they grow, they will grow down instead of out. That way they don't have "hook em" horns. Our bulls generally don't fight, but if they get to pushing and shoving, no one gets stabbed! When we turn bulls out with the cows. We have "groups". We then put the more compatible bulls in those groups of cows. We have the heifers, the 3 year old, grannies and any skinnies or smaller cows. This group we call the "cane and crutches" lol. Then we have the rest of the cows as a group.

#2.A better look at the horns.

The yellow ear tag is the sale tag. The white tag is the breeders "name" tag.

Just a baby..

Nice nice boy.

Shore Birds? Yep.......

You might be wondering, why would the high desert full of sage brush and grass have shore birds? Well, we have a creek that runs year round and many ponds and reservoirs. Most of the birds are here in summer nesting and raising their offspring.

American Avocet. They eat the stuff in the mud.

Blue Herron. There is a Herron Rookery along the creek in the trees. There's like 8 nests.

Mama killdeer and her baby. They also nest in the barnyard!!

Curlew.

Dowicher. Short billed.

Long billed dowicher.

Trumpeter Swans. We also have thousands of Canadian geese and ducks.

Bald Eagle.

Bald Eagle. This is the male. I am hoping they will nest here!!

A ranch with a view........

Looking across the ranch to the Blue Mountains. The Blues are about 150 miles as the crow flies, south of us. The Blues are located in North East Oregon and South East Washington. The Blues are just over 4000 square miles. The highest peak is 9,100 feet, in the Elkhorn area. It's amazing the views from here and how far away you can see things. And I don't even have a fancy camera. Just a cannon with a 10 zoom!

A bird, a baby and an update.......

A male bald eagle on the meadow eating a dead coyote. There was a female hanging around also but I couldn't get a pic of her. There was also a golden eagle on the coyote, but I didn't have my camera!!!

Got Milk? This little calf has a moooo stache and white eyeliner! LOL!

An update on the bottle babies. They both have new mama's. Unfortunately, the mamas lost their calves :( . One of the mama's had a calf born with a cleft palate. Caused from eating "lupine" early in pregnancy. A cleft palate calf has no roof in his mouth, so needless to say he can not nurse. There is nothing you can do for them. So sad. But just part of life and death here.