McCoy, Tiarnan and Rhen have the cows under control
Monthly Archives: October 2014
Indian Summer
Antelope under Sheep Mountain
Rock structure in Battle Creek–helping out both fish and irrigation
The Upper Meadow with cows and bales–both ready for winter
Cows with their calves
Ewes and lambs going into the Bull Pasture
Lots of sheep and one cow grazing in Don’s Meadow
Sheep Mountain is an extinct volcano
First snow lingers
Lambs off to the feedlot
Lambs, ready to load
It’s time to load the lambs onto semis so they can go off to the feedlot in Pine Bluffs, Wyoming. They will spend a few months there eating locally grown corn, and gaining around fifty pounds. It is sort of like going on a cruise, only without the tugboats and humidity. Richard Drake will look out for them and determine when they are ready to become lamb chops. It makes for noisy nights around our headquarters, since we separate the lambs from the ewes the night before they load onto the trucks. It is less stress for both lambs and truckers if they are “empty”–off feed and water–when they load. When they arrive at the feedlot, Richard is ready with plenty of feed, water and good conditions so the lambs will thrive. The ewes call for a day or so. My Dad always said that it is so the other ewes will know they are good mothers. The ewes then settle down, and get ready for the winter months.
McCoy surveys the lambs in the corrals
lambs heading for the semi
Pat pushing lambs with a flag
Lambs and horses
Eamon, Jeff and Rhen bringing them up
Siobhan, Rhen and Seamus providing child labor
Grandpa Jeff Stocklin and Rhen supervise the operation
Yanush on the job
Sorted, inspected, loaded, and ready to roll.
Views from the Battle Creek Overlook
Looking southeast toward the Zirkles
Along Wyoming Highway 70 between Encampment and Savery, the Battle Creek Overlook provides a spectacular place to view the mountains. Just west of the Sandstone Ranger Station in the Medicine Bow National Forest is a paved road heading south. In a half mile or so, the Overlook is right off the road. The highway passed by here until the great slide in 2010.
Bears Ears from the Overlook
Those are our sheep along Battle Creek
Orange aspen grove above Haggerty Creek
View to the south
Battle Mountain through the oak brush
Geri and the bucks
Each fall, we check the buck sheep for fertility and general health. Luckily, we have Geri Parsons of Optimal Livestock Services to provide her expertise. We intimately examine each and every mature ram that we have on hand to determine his worthiness to hang out with the ladies in December. Look at how green the alfalfa field is below Battle Mountain.
Tim and Jedidiah checking a ram
McCoy bringing the rams up the chute
McCoy tugging on the pulley rope
Tim, Jedidiah and Halli check out the ram
Geri teaching Sadie how to check semen under the microscope
Up the chute
Who ya gonna call?
Aunt Halli’s babysitting techniques
Aunt Halli roping the children
Halli looking to keep the kids under control
Halli’s got the kids lassoed–but looks like Rhen is getting away!
Aunt Halli came to help watch the kids while Megan and Eamon traveled to Washington D.C. for an American Farmland Trust Board meeting.
Good thing she can rope!
Gathering cows off the Med Bow
and we have to leave the Forest because???
October 1st is our off date for the cows on the Medicine Bow National Forest grazing allotment. We have had a blessedly wet summer, so we are leaving plenty of feed behind. The days have been warm, so the cows see no reason to leave to Forest. Still, we have to gather them and trail them into Sheep Mountain, our contiguous private land pasture. Good grass awaits them there. The next project is to work the cows and calves.
Eamon waiting for Fancy to grab breakfast before we head out
Randy, the Shanghaied range rider
the last of the salt licks
Peanut was also salt hungry
Fancy grabbing lunch
Val, the Borgie (Corgie/Border collie cross) brings up the cows
Ladder Ranch
