
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
Tags: calves, ewes, Hampshire lambs, heifers, Powder Wash, Red Desert

moonset at Powder Wash
The yearling ewes have wintered in the Powder Wash country. We decided to move them some 100 miles or so north, where the running age ewes have spent the winter. We need to have everyone (almost) together for next month’s shearing. We had to start early in the morning to get the trucks loaded and one their way.

loading the trucks at Powder Wash

ewe and lamb near the Bob Terrill corrals

yearling ewes waiting to load

rider keeping an eye on the yearlings

guard dog and yearlings, Powder Mountain

a girl and her dogs

horses and guard dogs, moving too

unloading at Cyclone Rim

yearling exiting the truck

making themselves at home at the Cyclone Rim base camp

the guard dogs are happy!
Tags: Cyclone Rim, guard dogs, Powder Mountain, Powder Wash, trucks, yearling ewes

Retired chute at the Terrill Corrals
My Dad, George Salisbury, and his cousin Bob Terrill, used to run cattle together in the Powder Wash country. The corrals, north of Powder Wash Camp, are still known as the Terrill Corrals. While the corrals don’t see as much activity as they used to, our family and the Terrills still brand calves in the corrals, with Bob’s son Tim and granddaughter Tate.

Tate. bringing in a calf

Tate and Tiarnan, roping

wrastlin’ crew

Siobhan and Rhen–beware the girl with the knife

Tiarnan, ground crew

Tim (who worked a lot) at the lunch wagon

Tiarnan. Dot and calves

Tate, at the Terrill Corrals

Maeve and Tate
Tags: branding, cattle, Maeve, Powder Wash, Rhen, Tate, Terrill Corrals, Tiarnan, Tim
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
Tags: branding, calves, Cookie, cows, Eamon, Karen, Lemmons Place, McCoy, Mike, Pat, Powder Wash, Rhen, Siobhan, Taylor, Tiarnan

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

Powder Mountain
Not all of the sheep trail north to the Red Desert for the winter. The yearlings and the old ewes trail west to the Powder Wash country. All of Wyoming was buried in snow and chilled by sub-zero temperatures. I read that of the world’s ten lowest recorded temperatures, last week, five of them were in Wyoming. Our winter country in Powder Wash lies in both Colorado and Wyoming, but it was equally cold and snowy on both sides of the state line. The elk are on the move, and we are feeding extra hay to the sheep. Winter is well and truly here!

Elk on the move

Eamon and
Eamon and Edgar unrolling a bale

Winter sustenance
Tags: elk, Powder Mountain, Powder Wash, sheep, winter

Tank fire
Today, Eamon and Pat drove past the Powder Wash oilfield camp just as a fire broke out. First, they heard an explosion, then flames leaped up. The fire was put out without injury to anyone.
Tags: fire, Powder Wash