bringing the sheep to the gate
It’s that time of year again. After the ewes have spent the winter on the Red Desert, it’s time for them to trail south. Lambing is coming right up, starting about May 8th. Before that day arrives, the heavily pregnant ewes trail first to Badwater, then on to the lambing grounds north of Dixon where they will be shorn. In the meantime, the sheep have to cross under Interstate 80 and across the overpass above the Union Pacific railroad tracks. Oscar asked why we couldn’t just trail directly across the tracks. Crossing the overpass involves stopping traffic, flagging the sheep front and back, and risking someone wanting to drive through during crucial minutes on top of the bridge. It would be simpler to just cross the tracks, if it weren’t for the–wait for it–trains. The trains come fast and frequently. Years ago, we did have to trail directly across the tracks. It involved working with Union Pacific for several days ahead of time. They gave us a half hour window to be up and over the tracks while they radioed the trains from dispatch in Omaha to stop and let us cross. We appreciated it a lot. With the overpass, it is still easier and safer to cross on the highway. So here we are, again trekking south for several days.
through the rear view mirror
flagging
truck driver waiting patiently
over the bridge
heading off the highway through Rodewald’s gate
Tags: dogs, herder, Red Desert, sheep, trailing, Union Pacific
Cows in the JO
I once told a cook that we were only really busy in the summer. As the year wore on, he commented “I didn’t know summer lasted until November!”
So here we are in November, and it seems like the fall work just keeps coming. Here’s some pics of cows, calves, ewes, lambs, dogs, horses and folks who help us out.
in the corral
Eamon and dogs at the ready
Casey and Bubba
Eamon, Bubba and Casey having a meeting
ewes and lambs in the Dixon corral
lambs onto the truck, Nevada bound
sea of sheep
Meghan and the loaded truck
beaver dam across Battle Creek
Tags: Battle Creek, Bubba, Casey, cattle, dogs, Eamon, horses, Meghan, sheep
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
Tags: dogs, Eamon, Ladder Ranch, McCoy, Megan, roping, roping dummy
horses, ready to go
Today, we gathered, trailed and sorted cattle in the Powder Wash. It was a great home-schooling experience for Siobhan, Tiarnan, Rhen and Seamus (helping but camera-shy!). We were joined for a time by three young mustang stallions, evidently kicked out of their herd and looking for friends.
Siobhan, home-schooling
Tiarnan and Dot, one of his home-school teachers
Meghan and Siobhan
heifers, Megan and Rhen
Eamon sorting the heifers
sorting crew, Powder Wash
Cows and heifers trailing up the Powder Wash
Tags: cattle, cows, dogs, Eamon, heifers, horses, Megan, Meghan, Rhen, Siobhan, Tiarnan
ready to leave LaClede
Our decision to move most of the ewes north was not an easy one. We have never not kept them (relatively) close to home on desert sagebrush steppe grazing permits. Last February, our sheep were trapped by bad weather and roads. When this winter started early and hard, we bought extra feed and hauled it to them daily, hoping for a thaw. We did not have back-to-back blizzards like last February, but it has just kept snowing and getting colder. Eamon found sugar beets which had frozen in the ground in the Big Horn Basin. After lots of phone calls and planning, we started loading ewes, and rams, on trucks and moving them to beet fields and crop aftermath in the north part of the state. Most of them had never seen a truck.
morning wagons
Meghan bringing them up
loading
Guillermo
northward bound
Pat and Pepe at Cyclone Rim
unloading the trucks in the dark
the next day
where’s the beets?
the first day of the rest of the winter
Tags: dogs, LaClede, sheep, trucks, Wyoming
ram heading for work
The rams hang around for ten and a half months, waiting for the day when they are called to go to work, fathering lambs for the next season. We put the bucks in over a period of days and weeks. We figure that the first bucks to go in with the ewes are getting tired, so we send reinforcements. They sometimes resent being worked through the chutes, but are happy to jump out of the trailers to join the ladies. When we were loading them, I said, “Hop in boys–all the corn you can eat.” Meghan said, “All the ladies you can breed!” I added, “…and all the wind you can tolerate.” Such is the life of a buck in the winter.
through the chute
Siobhan and Sadie facing a reluctant ram
Avencio
guard dog on the job
guard dog watching his ewes
Avencio, Pat and Oscar
Guillermo and Pat
Leo
Oscar with the dogs jumping for joy
on his way!
Oscar too!
Tags: Avencio, bucks, dogs, ewes, guard dogs, Guillermo, Leo, Oscar, Pat, rams, Red Desert, sheep, Siobhan
ewes heading for the Rodewald gate
The ewes have made their annual trek north to the Red Desert, where we have wintering ground on the Cyclone Rim and Chain Lakes grazing allotments. These allotments are part of the vast Great Basin, home to Greater Sage Grouse, desert elk, riparian plants and amphibians, feral horses, many many antelope and, part of the year, cattle and sheep. The Great Basin is named because it is a closed basin. To the north, the Continental Divide splits and runs in separate ranges until it meets again about 15 miles south of Wamsutter near the Haystack Mountains. The country south of there–Church Butte, Adobe Town, Powder Rim–is likewise amazing landscape, but it is not part of the Great Basin, the Red Desert. It is always a relief when we safely cross the overpass over the Union Pacific line and the underpass beneath I80 and head out across the open country for winter pasture. We are a week later than usual on the trail north. We had to wait for snow, since there’s not much water on the trail. Like Goldilocks, we want it to be not too hot and not too cold!
the sheep topping the UP overpass
between the tracks and I80
Almost to the underpass
under the interstate
passing the Department of Transportation shed
Pat and Oscar consulting
new drilling on Chain Lakes
on the Red Desert, at last
Tags: dogs, horses, I80, Oscar, Pat, Red Desert, sheep, trail, Union Pacific
Cows and calves in the Smylie Meadow
Alfalfa windrows
All is green and warm. It’s hard to believe that we are not far away, in time, in temperature, from fall. Soon we will see frosty mornings, golden leaves, and critters headed for lower climes. For now, we hang onto these long sunny days. Each sunrise the sun sneaks south, while we breathe warm breezes, a little longer.
Cora and Sadie, looking ahead
Tags: Border collies, calves, cows, dogs, hay, Smylie Place, summer
looking east from Powder Rim
We have started trailing from our wintering grounds to spring country where we have shearing and lambing in our future, and theirs.
The ewe lambs have spent the winter in the Powder Wash country. Yemerson has started them along the Powder Rim trail. In a few days, they will arrive at the Badwater Pasture, where they will hang out until early July.
In the meantime, the ewes who wintered on the Chain Lakes allotment on the Red Desert have started south. Their destination is the Cottonwood lambing grounds. In a few weeks, we’ll have wool in the bags, and lambs on the ground, God willing.
ewe lambs watering on the Powder Rim trail
nooning at the reservoir
leaving the Red Desert
between I80 and the railroad overpass
Pepe giving an early lamb a lift
catching a ride
over the Union Pacific bridge
almost to the Rodewald gate
Timmy–ready for green grass
Tags: dogs, I80, lamb, Pepe, Powder Flat, Red Desert, sheep, Union Pacific, Yemerson
Winter sheep on the trail
The bitter cold and deep snowfall during the past week has seen critters, wild and domestic, on the move. We decided to trail our yearling ewes and old ewes from the Chivington Place to Powder Flat , where they are closer to the haystack. Likewise, the deer, elk and antelope are all on the move. Here’s some of the migrations we saw today.
Yemy heading up the county road
Yearling ewes and old ewes en route to Powder Flat
The guard dogs have their back
Yemy is keeping his adopted wild horse warm!
McCoy, Sadie and Cora moving the sheep
almost there
Feral (unadopted) wild horses on the feed line with our cows
Wild horses with the cows
Elk near Sandman Mountain
Buck deer west of Baggs
Does IN Baggs
Some of several thousand antelope on the move
Tags: antelope, cows, deer, dogs, elk, livestock guardian dogs, McCoy, Powder Wash, sheep, trail, wild horses, Yemerson
Ladder Ranch
