And they call the wind
Derecho–intense, wide-spread
fast-moving windstorms
Author Archives: Ladder Ranch
Bull Run or the Samurai Express
Akaushi bulls t
We decided to try a new breed of cattle to crossbreed with our Angus and black baldie heifers. These Japanese-origin Akaushi bulls were located in Muleshoe, Texas (northwest). Pat, Sharon, Tiarnan and Rhen made a run to Texas to pick up them up. We stopped in Denver and Mosquero, New Mexico on the trip down. Our friends Jack and Tuda Crews have a wonderful bed and breakfast, The Rectory, in Mosquero. We were able to visit with them before heading on to Muleshoe. After loading the bulls, we made a 14-hour run home. The boys were troopers all the way! We unloaded in the dark.
Rhen and Tiarnan in Denver
boys’ boots at The Rectory
windmill near Mosquero
Tiarnan, Rhen and Muleshoe mule statue
Rhen, Tiarnan and cattle
on the road
Rhen in Muleshoe
Branding at the Terrill Corrals
Retired chute at the Terrill Corrals
My Dad, George Salisbury, and his cousin Bob Terrill, used to run cattle together in the Powder Wash country. The corrals, north of Powder Wash Camp, are still known as the Terrill Corrals. While the corrals don’t see as much activity as they used to, our family and the Terrills still brand calves in the corrals, with Bob’s son Tim and granddaughter Tate.
Tate. bringing in a calf
Tate and Tiarnan, roping
wrastlin’ crew
Siobhan and Rhen–beware the girl with the knife
Tiarnan, ground crew
Tim (who worked a lot) at the lunch wagon
Tiarnan. Dot and calves
Tate, at the Terrill Corrals
Maeve and Tate
Border collies on the job
bringing ewes up for shearing
Daughter and mother,
my right-hand canine duo—
Cora and Sadie.
Shearing, interrupted
Anthony bringing up the wooley ewes
Shearing the sheep is a challenge every year. We are dependent, foremost, upon the arrival of the shearing crew. These skilled and essential crews are more difficult to find every year. For the crew bosses, it is harder each year to put together skilled shearers and to put together sheep to shear. We are dependent upon the weather, which is capricious. This year, now, our excellent shearing crew has started a few days late, due to weather. On Friday, we were able to get in a good days’ shearing. Yesterday it rained all day. Rain is usually good—much better than drought—but wet sheep can’t be shorn. Today, we started again, and managed to get through 50 head. A brief but fierce storm came through, and stopped us. So tomorrow, we try again. We have a lot of ewes who need shorn before lambing starts May 10th or so.
Ciro shearing
the first shorn ewe
wooley ewes, shorn ewes
shorn ewes
Oscar and the crew
free at last!
water
storm clouds
Pal–the horse Houdini
Pal leading his pals on the great escape
You sly old pony–
you can open any gate. . .
will work 4 green grass.
On the Road Again
ewes heading south through Cow Creek
And I can’t wait to get on the road again
On the road again –
Like a band of gypsies we go down the highway
We’re the best of friends
Insisting that the world keep turning our way
from Wille Nelson’s tune
looking forward to shearing, lambing and green grass!
And I can’t wait to get on the road again
On the road again
God’s opinion
\A baby is God’s opinion that life should go on. Never will a time come when the most marvelous recent invention is as marvelous as a newborn baby. The finest of our precision watches, the most supercolossal of our supercargo planes don’t compare with a newborn baby in the number and ingenuity of coils and springs, in the flow and change of chemical solutions, in timing devices and interrelated parts that are irreplaceable.
Ladder Ranch
