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!
cows and calves in the Upper Smylie
Happy cow, happy calf
Living the life at Wasatch
Ewes and lambs see sunshine at last!
Meanwhile back at the lambing shed
Uncle Chris, Tiarnan and puppy
calves in waiting
Branding season commences. We have most of our baby calves on the ground. We have to pick the right days for branding–after the calves are big enough to not be too stressed, but not so big that they will cause the branding crew too much stress. These calves have reached that “Goldilocks Moment”. In the last few days, we have branded one set of calves on the Home Ranch, and one set of calves in the desert at the Powder Flat Headquarters. We even had a photographer from the Library of Congress, Carol Highsmith, to document the great American branding. As usual, we had child labor on hand.
Nikki roping calves
Mike Buchanan, McCoy and Rhen ready to go to work
Cow and calf–at the ready
Rhen and Mara, on the job
Meanwhile, back at the Powder Flat Ranch…
Nikki holding the calf
Nikki, Megan, Mike Pierce and Jill wrestling a calf
Eamon with the irons
Mike B. and Mike P. branding a calf with help from Kate
Carol taking pictures of Mike B.
Carol with the cows
Dirte and her new colt
The weather is still trying to make up its mind. Is it Still Winter? Almost Spring? Spring? But Eamon’s mare Dirte made up her mind that it was time to deliver her colt. We still haven’t gotten close enough to determine whether it is a filly or a horse colt. The trees are trying to decide if it is safe to send out buds. In the meantime, the calves, lambs and colts are making their appearance. It must be spring!
Waiting for the green
cows with their new calves in the Big Meadow
Bringing in the cows and calves
It’s that time of year when the long days of summer have come to an end. Since early summer, the cows and calves, and the ewes and lambs, have grazed the Forest. Their only responsibilities have been to gain weight and avoid predators. The cows have had the added task of consorting with bulls and getting pregnant.
Those days are gone, and it is now time for the calves and lambs to leave their mothers and move on to the next stage of life. The nights are noisy as the cows and ewes call for their departed offspring. The older moms probably give a sigh of relief as their mothering duties have been fulfilled for another turn of the seasons.
Cows and calves in the Lower Meadow
Chad bringing up the cattle
Eamon sorting the calves
“Heifer!” “Steer!”
Ewes in the corral
Meghan and Oscar putting the lambs in the corral
Eduardo and Adolfo bringing up the lambs
Oscar at the cutting gate
This is how we roll
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