Maeve and the great City Market crew loading groceries
Monthly Archives: April 2021
200,000,008 vaccines on April 21st
Meghan receiving vaccine instructions
President Biden announced today that two hundred million Americans have been vaccinated for Covid-19. The Ladder Ranch crew, including Meghan, made that 200,000,008. Most of our Peruvian employees received their second Moderna vaccine. They were glad to get it, as Covid rages in Peru, affecting their families who don’t have access to vaccine. Meghan received her first shot, so we can go into lambing with one less worry. The Carbon County Health Department sponsored the clinic at the Baggs Senior Center.
Thumbs up! The Ladder Ranch crew, post vaccine
Southering
Ewes ready to leave the Red Desert
We are heading south from the wintering grounds on the Red Desert. The first leg takes us to the Badwater Pasture. The shearing crew has assured us that they will be here in a couple of days, which means we can shear the pregnant ewes at Badwater. This is better for the ewes because they can trail the last 40 miles to the lambing grounds at Cottonwood without ten pounds of wool on their backs. It also means they are shorn well before they start lambing. Some years the shearers are late due to weather, equipment or misadventure, and we see lambs on the ground as we are trying to shear. With luck, all will go well. Stay tuned!
Seamus opening the gate
heading under I80
truck above, sheep below
passing through Creston Junction
between I80 and the railroad overpass
the orange flag alerts oncoming traffic
Joel bringing the ewes over the Union Pacific line (the trickiest part)
through the gate and into Rodewalds’ pasture
Pepe and John at Rodewalds’ gate
Greater Sage Grouse dance
Early morning Sage Grouse dance east of Muddy Mountain
Third grade teacher Cindy Cobb is famous for her field trips. The most famous field trip is to see the mating dance of the Greater Sage Grouse, which is amazing. The kids have to show up to the school at 5 a.m. or so to board the bus for the dancing grounds on our lambing grounds. Last year when my grandsons McCoy and Tiarnan were in third grade, they missed the cool field trips because the coronavirus had closed the school, This year, the fourth graders joined the third graders on the trek to see the lek where the male grouse dance and hoot in their attempt to attract the hens. Wyoming Game and Fish Department Biologist Phil Damm accompanied the students on the bus and explained what they were seeing. These kids know the ways of the birds and the bees!
McCoy looking our the bus window
Zebra baby calves
Stripes paint baby calves,
spring light sliding through wood slates
promising sunshine.
Spring Fever
spring snow on round bales
bovine shadows
It’s springtime and the livin’ is crazy. After hunkering down for the winter months, we are moving livestock from winter pasture to spring pasture. We are lambing, calving and trying to get all of our livestock charges to where they need to be for the change of seasons. We trucked the yearling ewes, and a few older ewes, from their wintering grounds at Powder Wash to the Badwater pasture. We are seeing the Akaushi cross calves on the ground, after last year’s decision to try these Wagu-type bulls on our Angus heifers. The calves sure are pretty and we’re excited to see what they look like as they grow up.
Akaushi babies at Powder Flat
Pepe, at dawn, ready to load the yearlings
ready for the trucks
guard dog, on the job
guard dog on the truck
Meghan, supervising
yearlings unloaded at Badwater
Alejandro, with his bellwether, Panchito
Ladder Ranch
