RSS

Category Archives: Family

Autumn in the Routt National Forest

27 Sep

Dog Days of September

 

October 1st is drawing near. In our world, that is the off-date for most of our National Forest permits. We are now staging both the cows and the sheep to trail down to the Home Ranch in a few days. Here’s Pepe and Modesto, our excellent long-time herders, with their ewes and lambs, ready to come off the Forest. We have had a record year for predator losses, in spite of their efforts and the efforts of our valiant Livestock Guardian Dogs. Since we know how many ewes and their lambs went up in July, and Pepe and Modesto (and the other herders) keep track of other deaths, we will soon have an idea of how terrible these losses have been.

Pat and Pepe in Big Red Park

Pat and Modesto near Independence Creek

Modesto’s ewes and lambs

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on September 27, 2020 in Dogs, Family, Folks, Horses, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , ,

County Fair in the Time of Coronavirus

07 Aug

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Siobhan, Tiarnan and Maeve with their wool sewing projects

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 7, 2020 in Events, Family, Folks

 

Tags: , , , ,

Later that same day: bucks crossing the river

04 Jul

Pat and Siobhan

 

After we rescued the misguided GPS traveler on the morning of July 4th, we moved on to rotating the bucks to a new pasture across the Little Snake River. Even though the grass is greener on the other side of the Little Snake, the bucks were not enthusiastic about crossing. It did not involve any swimming (although shorn sheep can swim). This was not, so to speak, our first rodeo, and we knew that eventually they would see it our way. It took a lot of whistling, throwing of sticks, calling back the dog, roping and pulling a couple of bucks across to serve as a “draw”, but we eventually prevailed. Our crew included Pat, Meghan, Bridget (on loan from Arizona), Siobhan, Bubba and me, plus Belle the Border Collie.

Bubba pulling the buck across the river

Siobahn and Pat

Siobhan, Meghan, Bridget and Bubba trying to convince the bucks

Bubba across the river

more persuasion

Meghan supervising the crossing

crossing

Success!

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 4, 2020 in Animals, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

You can’t make this stuff up

04 Jul

Jaime, Crescencio and Juan studying the situation

At the cookhouse breakfast, Meghan said, “You can’t make up my life.”

I had enjoyed a solid night’s sleep, so I asked her what was up. She said that she had been out int he middle of the night trying to locate a Harvest Host RV guest (another story), when she noticed lights in the middle of the hay meadow. She went to investigate, and discovered a young man who had somehow followed his GPS into the very irrigated field and gotten very very stuck. She retrieved him, pointed his really muddy self to a shower and a bed. Mind you, it was 3 a.m. It turns out that he was looking to spend the Fourth of July with his uncle, who lives in the mountains to the south and west. We mustered our crew, pulled him out, and delivered him to his grateful uncle and cousin. Just another morning on the Ladder Ranch!

Meghan assessing the stuck car in the light of day.

our tractor extracting the stuck car

 
2 Comments

Posted by on July 4, 2020 in Events, Family, Folks

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Docking 2020

15 Jun

Bringing up the ewes and lambs

Lambing is closely followed by docking the new lambs. This means literally docking the tails, to protect against flystrike, earmarking and paint branding to indicate ownership, castrating to make management easier and to create better meat quality, vaccinating to protect health, and a look at each and every lamb for problems to address. It makes for long days, but also adds camaraderie and teamwork to our hard-working crew! A good lunch is sure to appear. No one has trouble sleeping at the end of the day

docking crew at Cherry Grove

end of the line, Dinkum Docker, Maeve branding

 

Pepe and Renee tailing and branding

Pepe, Renee, Siobhan

dances in dust

Eamon tossing lamb

Juan catching lamb

Siobhan and Bubba, docking

ewes and lambs, mothering up

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on June 15, 2020 in Animals, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Bull Run or the Samurai Express

31 May

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

 

 
5 Comments

Posted by on May 31, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Family, Folks

 

Tags: , , ,

Branding at the Terrill Corrals

14 May

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

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 14, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Horses

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Wyoming Gothic

11 May

 

Meghan, Pat, Sadie

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 11, 2020 in Dogs, Family, Folks

 

Tags: , ,

An existential question regarding Siobhan

13 Apr

Is Siobhan dressed for Coronavirus?

. . .or trailing yearling ewes up the highway on a cold April day?

 
2 Comments

Posted by on April 13, 2020 in Animals, Family, Folks, Horses, Sheep

 

Tags: , ,

Unloading the heifers AKA home school

10 Apr

Hereford heifer comes off the truck.

 

We brought the heifers, recently gathered at Powder Wash, to the Home Ranch. The unloading crew was Eamon, Rhen, Sharon and Siobhan. Our equipment included a mop in lieu of a “poking stick.” This exercise fulfilled home schooling requirements for animal science, mathematics and physical education.

Eamon and Rhen

Rhen unloading

Rhen and Siobhan

heifers crossing the bridge

green grass is on its way:  Pat, Eamon and Rhen

 

 

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on April 10, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Family, Folks

 

Tags: , , , , ,

← Older posts