It’s time to brand those calves which have been born this spring. We’ve been branding calves both in the mountains and the desert. We have our good crew of employees, friends and family on hand to help us with this endeavor.
Ready to gather: Cookie, Mike, Eamon and Karen
Siobhan and Dice
Taylor bringing in the cows
Mike and Tiarnan conferring
McCoy on the job
Pat and Cookie have a lot of irons in the fire!
Calves in waiting
Looking for the branding crew
Rhen and McCoy at work
David and Joe
Cows and baby calves
The cows on Powder Rim are doing a great job calving. Thanks to Casey for “going native” and tending them. Of course, I don’t know what a cow could want that they don’t have…especially fresh water!
Springtime by the reservoir
wild horses hanging around the developed water
Solar well pumping water
blessed water
Pat checking on the new babies
Pat in the sorting chute
It is time to chose our future bulls out of the contenders. The bull calves have grown out, and we looked at them with a critical eye. The best of them will grow up to be bulls and to sire our future calves. It was a big day for them, since they also had to leave their mamas and be weaned. As you can see, we finally have snow on the ground and temperatures have dropped–a lot!
Eamon with help from Chica, Belle and Gramps
Eamon, Casey and Meghan with the calves
Meghan, Eamon and Chica
Pat and Eamon with calves
Cows and calves in the Lower Meadow
It’s that time of year when we bring in the livestock–the cows and calves, the ewes and lambs–the time when we finish our summer’s work and prepare for the winter season. We sell most of the calves, and send many of the cows to less snowy pastures for the winter. Some of the cows will go to our friends’ ranch near Laramie (where the snow is horizontal rather than vertical), Some will go to Nebraska. This means we bring them all in to the Home Ranch, work them, and load some of them on trucks.
First, we need horses
Ready to bring them in
And we need a crew–Eamon
Meghan and Peruanito
Siobhan and Taylor
McCoy checking things out
Rhen on the job
Megan and Jeff
Our neighbor John may be a belts and suspenders kind-of-guy
calf on the lookout
ready to load
Rhen supervising the truck
Eamon watching the calves
“Where ARE you?!”
There’s a whole lotta
bawlin’ goin’ on ‘round here.
Must be weanin’ time.
Taylor and Casey bringing in the cows and calves
Fall, and the work is getting done. We’re sorting the cows and calves, and getting ready to ship the steers next week. Rhen couldn’t believe that they could do it without him, so he waited for the cattle to come in, then rode with Aunt Meghan.
Rhen kept an eagle eye, just in case his Dad was behind those cows!
Meghan on Peruanito
they’re in!
Rhen’s Dad–home at last
Leaving the Routt National Forest
It’s that time of year again. It seems like we were just trailing the cows and calves onto the Forest for summer grazing. Our “off-date” has rolled around already. We mustered 19 horses and riders, including the six grandkids, to gather the cattle and bring them down to a lower pasture on private land. The calves are looking nice and chubby, and the cows are looking forward to weaning.
Pat with kid crew
Siobhan on Coco with Cinnamon
Cinnamon taking a break
Maeve–the stylish cowgirl
Seamus and Dot
Tiarnan and Daisy
Rhen and McCoy on the job
McCoy, Rhen and Eamon
Peanut contemplating the speed limit
Jim, looking for cows
Eamon has dogs at the ready!
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