semi at the chute
It’s time to move the heifers to fall pasture at the Home Ranch. We still have lots of green grass, although the leaves are showing some yellow.
guiding the truck in
Eamon and dogs at the ready
in the corral
headed for green grass
Tag Archives: heifers
Spring Scenes
Heifer with six calves at Powder Wash
Spring is finally springing. It’s been coldish with intermittent snows. Just when we think it’s going to warm up and grow some grass, another snow storm comes through. Luckily for us, we did not get the calf killing Holy Week blizzards that buried North Dakota and eastern Montana. We got an inch of rain at the Home Ranch the other night, which took off our covering of snow. Finally, it’s warming up into the 60’s, which is good because we are expecting the shearers in the next few days.
Heifers at Powder Wash reservoir
Heifer babysitting baldie calves
Hamp lambs at Powder Flat
last days on the Red Desert
ewes ready to trail to the shearing pens
Horse Power
Chief and Commander
Today would be my Dad’s 101st birthday, He’s surely smiling down as Eamon and the boys harnessedup this team to feed the heifers. We have a lot of snow, but it’s been warm, making the snow “boggy.” We got tired of stuck tractors, so Eamon found this beautiful team of Percherons, Chief and Commander. We still have harnesses from the days when we used to feed with Fran and Chub. Eamon, Bubba, Chandler, Tiarnan and Rhen harnessed them, hooked them up to the sled, and fed the heifers, just like in the old days. They didn’t get stuck! Happy birthday, Dad!
Chandler and Bubba harnessing, Rhen supervising.
Commander
getting ready to go to work
Chief
Eamon driving across the Battle Creek bridge
heifers following the sled
outriders Chandler, Rhen and Bubba
Rhen
More Heifers to the High Country
Cowboy crew (Chandler, McCoy, Tiarnan and Rhen) waiting to unload
More heifers came in and we were there to unload. Since it was a Saturday, McCoy, Tiarnan and Rhen were mounted and ready to help.
off the truck and heading for groceries
Tiarnan, Meghan and Chandler counting the heifers off the truck
one heifer headed the wrong way, of course
Rhen and Jake on the job
Heifers to the high country
Chandler on Cora, waiting for the trucks to unload
We plan to run heifers this coming summer (I have faith that summer is coming). We have hay on hand so decided to bring the heifers in now. They are from South Dakota, and are used to cold and snow. I was happy to see their fuzzy coats.
backing the truck up to the chute
Mc Coy ready with his rope
Welcome home!
heading for the hay pile
Summer’s Almost Gone
horses crossing the road
It’s not quite time for winter to be coming on, but we’re starting to see yellow leaves and cool mornings. Here’s some photos from the last of our summer days.
bringing up the heifers
buck lambs
Eamon opening the gate
McCoy ready to ride
lambs and ewes near Little Red Park
Siobhan’s elk. She had a “depredation” tag for elk eating our alfalfa. That’s alfalfa all around!
Cattle and sheep and dogs, oh my!
Ladder Ranch crew–Rhen, Eamon, Edgar, Leo, Pat
Rhen on the chute after guiding his Dad who was backing up the truck.
Sometimes we have multi-species days. Pat, Eamon, Rhen and Sharon headed to Powder Flat to load heifers on trucks so we could move them to spring country north of Dixon. We are full-on lambing at the Powder Flat headquarters, so there was plenty going on there already.
heifers heading for the truck
Eamon on Aspen, ready to trail up the road
meanwhile back at Powder Flat. . .
guardian dog puppy in training
burning old straw by the lambing shed
Leo and Rhen feeding a bum lamb
Ladder branding iron
Winter
Tres amigas
guard dog puppies in waiting
peewee lambs with guard dog
elk wintering near Battle Mountain
Pat and Eamon in the Routt Forest
Hampshire ewes at Powder Flat
Unloading the heifers AKA home school
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
Ladder Ranch
