I see cows - everywhere!

Its been one of those weeks when everyday just runs into the next. I was covered either in dust of cow poop! Monday we gathered up all the heifer pairs the wind was HOWLING and it was COLD!!  Tuesday we selected our replacement heifers. Wednesday we vaccinated all the feeder heifers and it was 18*!  Today we preged all their mamas!

Heifers and mama's on Tuesday.

Bringing in the feeder heifers and mamas on Wednesday.

Up the alley they go. We sort on foot here. Mamas go one way, calves the other way.

Preging mamas today. I am at the chute keeping track of everything. Loading ear tags, cutting tail and painting. Yep, painting. We put a white mark on the "granny" cows and a green ear tag. A yellow mark on the good cows. And bob the tails on the opens. That way if there's an explosion, we know who's who. Easy identification. :) And I get poop on me! ewwwwww
Here's some of the crap on my work table.

Mama cows. Waiting in the pens.

My buddy Leo on stand by in case there is an escapee! Yea he's sticking his tongue out! HA!

Thanks for stopping by. Happy Halloween!!

Here's an awwwwww moment

The puppies will be 3 weeks old on Sunday. They are getting fat, fat and fat! They are starting to play with each other. Kinda make a howl bark noise. When I go see them, I just whistle and say hey babies. They  will start to whine and come outta their dog house looking for me and will follow my voice. Mama dog (Poop) is not a very loving mama. She feeds them and then is gone. She is so young still, not yet 2 years old. I think she is a little over whelmed with 7 babies and she only has 8 faucets. If needed I was going to bottle feed a few. But they are doing fine. Going to get them started on canned puppy food in a few days. I am gonna keep 2 females. Bandit said she would help me with the cowgirl training! :) And manners. One of the brown ones has blue eyes. I wonder if they will stay that way. She doesn't appear to be blind.

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Improvising

Now that the steers are gone, its time to get the heifer pairs in and pick our replacements and give everyone their shots. We pick our replacements when they are still with their mamas. If mama is a run around freak, we definitely will not keep that heifer. If mama is calm and gentle and baby is the same, we will keep her. Then we look at conformation. Does mama have a good udder, feet etc. Does baby have size and a fancy look , we will keep her. So, attitude and looks.
We sort in the lots. Its been dry dry dry and dust. We usually turn on the sprinklers, but the pump on the bridge went out. So what is a person to do? Whaaa Laaaa! Get the transfer pump to pump outta the creek to fill the truck, while the truck is pumping water through the sprinklers. As easy as that! :)

Cow Creek. It runs the length of the ranch. Has good fishing at times. Rainbow trout.

The transfer pump and water pipes that water the corrals and lots. Directly from the creek.

To the tanker truck it goes.

From the tanker to this! YEAH!

Bandit at the creek waiting for me to tell her to go swimming. She loves the water.

A gorgeous sunset to a few busy days. And a few more coming up!

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Kansas Bound

Got all but 30 steers shipped today. They have a long journey from Washington to Ford Kansas. That's 1,550 miles. Hope they have a safe journey. I didn't get any good pictures. I was either on my horse or in the alley sorting and loading the trucks.
We started gathering at 6:30am. I needed a headlight on my horse! It was still dark! We didn't leave any one on the meadows. Got cows and calves in the corrals. Sorted calves off. Turned the cows out. Then we sorted big calves from small calves. They averaged 625 pounds. Not bad. A month ago they averaged 585. And all they have been eating is grass and mama's milk. Then we weighed the calves in lots of 20 so the truckers know how many they can get on the trucks. We loaded 3 semi's and sent them down the road. Tomorrow the steer mama's will get preg checked. Then we start on the heifer pairs.

Calves in the corrals.

One of the trucks.

My number 1 cowboy Leo.

My number 1 cowgirl Bandit.

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Horses in the mist.

Gathered horses so we could move the steer pairs down 2 pastures. We are shipping them on Wednesday. The horses can be little stinkers at times.

I don't know if you remember the little calf, Talkatoo? We spliced her on a cow that lost a calf. Here she is with her mama.

And here she is as a little squirt.

The old barn cat stalking a pheasant rooster. Keep dreamin' buddy.

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Fall in the scablands.

 

 

 

We have had our first hard freeze. 25* over night. BRRRR! After the freeze, the leaves are falling off the trees - FAST! We have been below freezing for a week now. But glorious sunshine during the day.

My "old" computer crashed. I got it fixed, but don't trust it now. ha! I use it a lot for cattle stuff. Needless to say, I had nothing backed up. They backed up all my stuff on disks. The new computer I got doesn't have a disk drive. UGH! But after being on the phone for over an hour with tech support, I got everything downloaded on my new computer. YEA! :)

 

Here are some trees around the yard.

 

The backyard before the freeze. There's a cat in there somewhere!

The view from "the hill". Where we watch for lightning.

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Around the ranch today

Some sights around the ranch today.

A blue heron. These are the coolest birds to watch hunt mice. There are 2 big rookeries along the creek. If you haven't seen heron land in a tree, they're not very graceful too say the least.

Not sure what kind of duck this is. There are all types of ducks on the creek and lakes here. And geese.

Love the hawks. They also nest in the trees. Baby hawks are quite a sight! Only a mother could love.

Mr. Pheasant. We had a good hatch of pheasant's this year.   

Wild turkeys. These here are the guys. The hens still have the babies tagging along. Had another great hatch of turkeys. There were 8 of them.

Mama's and babies. They were in the pasture with the deer. I couldn't get a picture with both of them.  No hat racks yet!

Mama's and babies.

The moon tonight.

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