RSS

Category Archives: Friends

Branding at the McCullem Place

20 May

bringing in the cows and calves

 

The McCullem Place is part of our Powder Wash ranch west of Baggs. It serves as spring pasture for some of the cows and calves. The homestead era headquarters is mostly gone, so we set up portable corrals, brought in the cows and calves, and processed the calves. These are some of the Akaushi-cross calves so we also had to take a snip of ear to check their bloodlines. We built an old-fashioned fire to heat the branding irons. We had another great crew of family, friends and employees.

 

 

 

Eamon and McCoy

cows and calves in corral

crew getting ready

Karen, Edgar and Eamon

Juan with branding fire

McCoy and Aspen

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on May 20, 2021 in Cattle, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Horses

 

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Saturday Afternoon at the Ladder Ranch

21 Nov

Megan and Eamon discussing her future run at the NFR

 

We know how to have a good time on a Saturday afternoon. Eamon borrowed Ed Buchanan’s roping dummy on wheels. He pulled it with the four-wheeler, giving McCoy, Tiarnan, Rhen and several adults the chance to practice their roping. A good time was had by all!

The dogs thought this was a grand idea

McCoy roping the dummy–Megan supervising

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 21, 2020 in Animals, Dogs, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Horses

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Pregnant or Open?–That is the question

09 Nov

Tate and Tim, bringing more cows

After the cows come down from summering on the Forest, it’s time to learn if they are pregnant. It’s hard to get them to pee on a stick, so our neighbor, Dr. Ben Noland comes with his ultrasound and checks for pregnancy. One after another, he calls out “Pregnant,” “Open,” or “Late.” “Late” means pregnant but calving outside the window of time when we want to be calving. We also vaccinate, check and sometimes replace eartags, and look at the cow’s general health. Most of the cows go into the pregnant pen. Some of the lates will be sold to other producers who calve later. Pregnancy testing is a key management practice since we don’t want to feed cows all winter only to learn that they won’t be raising a calf next summer. Thanks to Dr. Ben and our entire hard-working crew!

I TOLD you that I’m pregnant!

Eamon and McCoy at the chute

Dr. Ben with his ultrasound

Kyla checking eartags

Tate and Tim at the ready

McCoy with pregnant cows

 
1 Comment

Posted by on November 9, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends

 

Tags: , , , , ,

Shipping the Littles

04 Nov

Cows and calves headed for the corrals

 

It’s shipping time for the calves. Some of our calves, born last spring, will leave the mountains and their mamas and head to buyers who will feed them for market. Some heifer calves are sold to a buyer who will raise them to be replacement cows. Some heifers calves will stay with us to become our future cow herd. In every scenario, we bring the cows and calves into the corrals at the Home Ranch, sort them, wean them from their mothers who are already pregnant with next years calves, and send the calves to their various homes, and the cows to winter country.

Tate, and multiple Border collies, bringing up the cows

Bubba watching the gate

Pat and Bubba watching the cows

through the rails

Eamon sorting, Ned the brand inspector watching from the fence

Meghan weighing the calves

onto the truck

Meghan trying to keep Clyde awake

 

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on November 4, 2020 in Animals, Cattle, Dogs, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Horses

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Migration

29 Oct

Shadows

As the elk and the deer
head down from summer’s grass
calves and fawns by their side
we gather cows, their calves and
hope for good weather.
We hook up the sheep camps,
move our community of critters—
ewes, lambs, dogs, horses.

The shepherds shift from early mornings,
lazy afternoons, fights with bears
and coyotes—
trying to find a camp spot among
tourists, campers, refugees from Covid.
At home, we stage the sheep, bringing them
bunch by bunch to pastures,
to the corrals

For sorting, for judging who stays,
who goes, some to the desert
some to farmers with soft fields and warm barns.
Lambs climb onto trucks—
first the heavies, born early,
next the lights,
and finally the peewees
headed for corn and lower country.

Now we follow the migration.

ewes trailing down from the Routt Forest

past the Bull Pasture

KIm supervising

Meghan at the sorting gate

lambs

under the sun

Anthony working the chute

ewes after sorting

Meghan loading the truck, with help

lambs loading on truck

Pepe and Oscar bringing them up

Pepe. Edgar and Bubba

 

 

 

 

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on October 29, 2020 in Animals, Dogs, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Peruvian sheepherders, Poetry, Sheep

 

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: , , , , , , , ,

Homeward Bound in the Time of Coronavirus

29 Mar

lining up for the trucks

As our blog watchers know, we have had a horrific winter which made it hard to keep our livestock well cared for. This is the origin of the phrase “animal husbandry.” After a long and trying series of  experiences, mostly weather related, we moved both the sheep and the cows to warmer climes. They are now coming home. We are in the season Still Winter/Almost Spring. The Coronavirus outbreak has affected our day-to-day lives less than many, but our big picture economic lives more than many. Still, we live in the day-to-day. We had sent most of our sheep, ewes and rams, to the Bighorn Basin for the winter. The early cold froze the sugar beets grown there, which meant that the beets couldn’t be harvested, but were frozen in the ground. As it happens, sheep can “graze” on sugar beets in the ground, and other crop aftermath. Spring is sort of coming and the deep snow is finally sort of melting. The farmers in the Bighorn Basin, where it is almost 3,000 feet lower in altitude, need to have their fields cleared of sheep so they can be ready to plant the 2020 crops. We began to be worried that the side-effects from Coronavirus would make it hard to bring the ewes several hundred miles south, and home. The truckers are busy hauling essential supplies, and sheep trailers especially are in short supply. What would happen if our sheep, men and dogs were stranded? We have some great trucker friends and were able to organize 17 trucks (same trucks, more than one trip). We had already brought some home earlier, but we had not figured on the unprecedented challenges of a Black Swan event.

ewes and rams

getting the truck ready

eager to go home

brand inspector on the job

Joel and Pepe

Tiarnan supervising (home school)

Pepe and our “landlord” Pasquel

Maeve serving her brownies (Grandma Laura’s recipe) after the last sheep is loaded–more home school

Seamus and Pat with the trucks

Pasquel, Pepe, Joel and Meghan

multiple unloading

Home at last!!!

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on March 29, 2020 in Animals, Family, Folks, Friends, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

Trucking the yearling sheep

07 Jul

Ready to unload

Our yearling sheep remain at Badwater after shearing, while the pregnant ewes trail on to the lambing grounds north of Dixon. The yearlings hang out there on the high desert until the bunches are made up and trailed to their summer grazing permits in the National Forests. Most years, we wait until after the Fourth of July and trail the yearling sheep south and east to their summer ground on the Medicine Bow Forest.

This year, due to extremely dry conditions in Badwater and on the trail, we decided to move the yearlings by truck. It took all day and into the night to get them all loaded, transported and unloaded. We were still unloading well after dark. and everyone made it safe and sound. Many thanks to our intrepid crew and neighbors who helped out!

Off the truck at Cottonwood.

Welcome to Cottonwood

unloading after dark

Seamus on the job

Cole and Autumn

Meanwhile (during the day), the boys played in the lambing shed.

 

 

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on July 7, 2018 in Animals, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , ,

“Preg Testing” the bucks

01 Dec

Dr. Cleon Kimberling at the microscope

Each fall, before the bucks join the ewes, we ask Optimal LIvestock Services to fertility check them. Renowned, and sort of retired Dr. Cleon Kimberling and his partner Geri Parsons bring their traveling lab to ranches around the West. Dr. Kimberling started this service when he was the extension sheep vet for Colorado State University. Back in the day, Dr. Kimberling would arrive with a crew of veterinary students. Dr. K would bicycle over the mountains from Fort Collins while the students drove the van. CSU no longer offers this service, but luckily for us, and others, Dr. Kimberling and Geri Parsons are keeping up the good work. He is still an avid bicyclist, and a working vet. Rhen was fascinated by the whole process, and told his parents that we had “preg tested” the rams.

 

bringing in the bucks

Modesto holding the foot securely

Oscar and Geri

Geri testing, Rhen learning

free at last!

Rhen checking the results with Geri and Dr. Kimberling

 

 
1 Comment

Posted by on December 1, 2017 in Animals, Events, Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Peruvian sheepherders, Sheep

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Breakfast crew

16 Aug

Bicyclers Tony and Clarisse took this photo of the Ladder Ranch crew at breakfast at the cookhouse

 
Leave a comment

Posted by on August 16, 2017 in Family, Folks, Folks who help us out, Friends, Peruvian sheepherders

 

Tags:

← Older posts