Powder Flat headquarters
We have good and plenty of snow at our Powder Flat headquarters, where we winter both cattle and sheep. Soon we will be lambing here, so that our one set of twin lambs will have some company. We are glad to see some sunny and relatively warm days.
Heifers enjoying hay and sun
Hampshire ewes
Guard dogs playing
Like a finch on a post…
enjoying the weather
Ewes thinking about lambing
scene at Powder Flat
Frost sparkles on tractor tracks
Tiarnan
Powder Flat Headquarters
Finch enjoying the sun
Heifers on the grub line
The ewes waiting for hay
Guard dogs playing
Tiarnan checks out the only (so far) two lambs
Tiarnan on the run
Siobhan trailing the heifers who snuck into the Upper Smylie hayfield
Heifers at the Flying Triangle
waiting for green grass
the snow has turned to mud
March came in like–well not exactly a lion, but certainly at least a bobcat. We received some much-needed snow, This has been the driest February I can remember, while the East coast gets hammered by storm after storm. Those guys are stealing our water, is all I can say! Meanwhile, back at Powder Flat, we have started the early lambing in earnest. And our multitudes of puppies continue to grow. Tiranan is having a great time with both Border collies and guardian dog pups.
Tiarnan with multiple puppies
Three amigos
new twins
November is a month of transition. We ship the calves and start moving the cows and the ewes to their wintering grounds. The lambs are on feed, and the calves are either sold, or selected as replacements and on winter feed. The cows are pregnancy tested and their fate determined. It’s a lot to be thankful for when fall segues into winter and we settle in for the long months of quiet and cold.
moving cows near the Chivington Place
rider moving cows below Powder Mountain
Welcome(???) to the Powder Flat Headquarters–part of our wintering grounds
Ewes on the reservoir, ready to trail north
ewes near the communication towers, Badwater Pasture photo by Oscar
cows crossing the creek
photo by Oscar
the little bulls at Powder Flat
Heifers at the Flying Triangle
the deer are settling in for the winter, too
Pat and McCoy with the heifers
This is the time of year when we hold our breath. We hope all the cows and sheep and various critters for whom we are responsible have enough to eat, enough to drink and enough body fat to withstand the cold weather. We assume that the bulls and bucks have done their jobs. We hope that the Good Lord sticks with us with weather and sends enough snow, but not too much; enough cold, but not too much. We hope that the cows and the ewes are all pregnant, and will hold those pregnancies to term, and raise a baby. We hope that predators–mostly coyotes, but bears, mountain lions, ravens, crows and maybe wolves–will find something else to eat besides our critters. The sheep eat snow and we depend on having the right amount–not so much that it will cover the grass and brush, but not so little that we are chasing drifts in draws. The cows need “wet water” and we expend a lot of energy and resources to make sure it’s available.
It is also the time of year that we try to ensure that we have enough help lined up for spring, summer and fall. Our sheepherders come on h2a visas which allow them to stay for three years with at least three months at home in Peru. We try to plan so that about one third of our crew returns to Peru in the winter, when we need less help. The process is so dysfunctional that we need to request about twice as many “new guys” as we will probably need, because there isn’t much rhyme or reason to who gets approved. Even returning employees are not assured of getting approved, so it is a challenge to plan.
So far, the winter has been cooperative. This will allow us to engage in one of our favorite vacations: traveling to Elko, Nevada–at approximately the same latitude as our home (read Deep Winter) for the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering. We will be hosting a discussion on Food Policy. After all, to have cowboys, we need cows, and to have cows, we need consumers: the Three C’s. That said, it is nearly a week of solid poetry, music, art and discussion which is nothing but fun.
Sheep near Eagles’ Nest. The bucks are in their working clothes.
Antelope at Powder Flat
McCoy and Nene
McCoy, Eamon and Pat on the lookout at Lower Powder Springs
Pat, McCoy and Eamon at water well at Powder Flat. I used to spend hours here pumping water with our old generator, “Fred”.
Punk colts
Tim, McCoy, Eamon, Pat, Oscar
Eamon and his crew bring up the heifers
We have been getting all the livestock onto their winter quarters, or sent on to new homes. Here is Eamon and his crew bringing in some heifers which are to be sold. We had a lot of good wet snow. This means that maybe the springs will have water next season. Bog boots are the best invention ever!
heifers in need of bog boots
Sam on the job (Eamon’s Sam, not Meghan’s Sami)
Eamon: a two-fisted paddler
waiting for the truck
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Ladder Ranch