Lambing shed–getting ready for action!
Monthly Archives: April 2014
Greater Sage Grouse under Muddy Mountain
Pat took our Partners friends to watch Greater Sage Grouse dance on our BLM lambing grounds near Muddy Mountain. According to the Wyoming Game & Fish, it is the largest lek within 3,000 square miles. We told our visitors, “You’re from the Government, and we’re here to help you.”
More than 120 Sage Grouse were dancing on this BLM lek.
Grouse under morning sky
Love Birds
First branding
It’s that time of year. We have lots of calves on the ground, so it’s time to brand, castrate and earmark, so the calves will be ready for the rest of the season hanging out with their Moms and eating green grass.
brand goes on
JO
Brian and Tiarnan–‘rasling crew
Springtime reflections
Bulls and Sandhilll cranes by Battle Creek
Blue Heron in flight
Heron at sunset
Cows in the Lemmons Place, Sheep Mountain
A new calf sporting a new eartag
Young bull in the willows
Old fence in the Big Meadow
Willow reflected
Easter Saturday at the Savery Museum
On the hunt for Easter eggs in front of the Jim Baker cabin
The Savery Museum (formerly the Savery Schoolhouse) hosts many community events. The Museum is home to a number of historic buildings from around the Little Snake River Valley. The centerpiece of these historic structures is Mountain Man Jim Baker’s original cabin. Jim Baker was a trapper and a trader. After traveling much of the West in the beaver trapping and settlement era, he chose the Little Snake River Valley as his home. His cabin is now located at the Museum, not far from where it was originally built, but it spend a number of years on display in Cheyenne. It was returned to Savery in Wyoming’s Centennial year, 1990. Baker and many of his family members are buried on the hilltop just west of the Museum. Several of his family members still reside in the community.
The Museum provided the perfect setting for the annual Easter Egg Hunt. Lucky for the Bunny, Jim Baker and his rifle were nowhere to be seen. He would have been gratified to see happy children racing around.
Maeve’s Easter look
Lucky that Tiarnan hadn’t put any eggs in his bucket!
egg hunters on the run
Spring calves under three mountains
Keeping an eye on the babies
The baby calves continue to arrive, keeping us and their moms busy. We have had, blessedly, a wet spring. We’ve gotten lots of wet overnight snows which melt into the ground the next day. As one of our irrigators said, “God gets all the high spots.”
Luckily, this weather has not been to stormy or windy, so it hasn’t hurt our calving. We did get a really wet snow today. It closed Interstate 80, but aminly gave us more water in the ground and in the streams. Our friends on down the Colorado River should be happy. It was this time last year that we had a killer storm that killed both calves and lambs, so we are grateful for wet weather that’s not too severe.
We are enjoying the return of the birds. Some are migrating through and some are coming to spend the summer. When we check the cows, lots of birds are in attendance. The cry of the Sand Hill cranes accompanies the calls of the mama cows and the baby calves.
in the Lemmons meadow
Baldie calf with Sheep Mountain
Cows and calves under Battle Mountain
Squaw Mountain
Sandhill Season on the Little Snake
When the Sandhill Cranes show up, we know it is a sure sign of spring. Some oversummer, and some stop by, then migrate northward. It is clear they are committed to the change of the seasons.
Cranes near their nest
Sandhill Cranes in the Lemmons Meadow
Sandhill Cranes on the fly
Milk on the hoof
If owls are a Parliament, and crows are a Murder, our lambs so far this year are a Plethora. We are grateful for this, but it does mean that we’ve got quite a few “bottle babies.” We were spending a small fortune on lamb milk replacer. Eamon went to the auction and came home with one fresh cow and seven milk goats. McCoy decided he needed to guard them until we could get them unloaded.
McCoy guarding the milk goats
Ladder Ranch
