Wednesday, November 16, 2016

Meanwhile Back at the Ranch.....

Well, really the farm.....which got me to thinking....what’s the difference between a ranch and a farm? When I think of a ranch, I think of a huge spread of land with a predominant livestock operation, while when I think of a farm I think predominantly of croplands and perhaps a dairy operation. Curious, I looked up the terms using Google and confirmed my initial thoughts: a farm is an area of land primarily used to growing crops with a small focus on rearing animals while a ranch is just the opposite. What made me think of this title was one of the activities we took part in this week. Moving some livestock!

We have occasionally seen cattle drives where cattle were being moved from one location to another but we had never taken part in one. The day started with no plans to move cattle at all. There is never a lack of things to do on the farm, in fact there is usually more things to do than there is time in the day. We had plans to work on some equipment and get out and do some field work. Then Chris received a call from one of their neighbors asking if they would be willing to help him move his cattle from one pasture to another. Without hesitating he said we would be there and the three of us jumped on some 4 wheelers to help. This simple fact truly amazes me and makes me love this area and culture even more, a neighbor calls for help and you drop everything you are doing to help them out. That’s just the way they roll around here.

The cattle drive itself was very interesting, there were 4 of us on 4 wheelers and two people in vehicles. The role of the two vehicles was to have one in front of the drive and one in the rear to alert traffic while the 4 wheelers were there to guide the cattle, round up any of the cattle that wanted to break away and generally keep them moving.
The first challenge was to even get the cattle moving. The cattle were bunched up along the edge of the fence where we wanted them to start and the fence was taken down so we could get started. Even though the fence was down they did not want to cross that imaginary boundary to leave the pasture. It is very difficult if not impossible to get cattle to do something they do not want to do, the key is to get them to think it is their idea to do it. So we sat there for about 20 minutes until one of them finally decided to walk out of the pasture and the rest quickly followed.
Refusing to cross the imaginary fence
The first leg of the drive took the cattle down a blacktop county road for about 2 miles. There was minimal traffic with probably only a dozen cars slowly passing through the herd. We tried to keep them in the ditch as much as possible but there were stretches where the terrain forced us to use the road through certain sections. By the time we had gone ½ mile the faster cattle were way ahead, the slower ones were way behind and we lost one of our vehicles who had to stop for a cow who stepped in a large hole and just laid down in the ditch and would not move. Another thing I quickly learned is that nervous cattle get really “loose” and they start crapping pretty much constantly so you have to watch yourself!
Finally headed down the ditch.......
....and onto the road!
That's a dump truck sneaking by ahead on the left
After the first two miles we turned onto a gravel road so the traffic was really minimal but now the slower cattle were really slow and we were probably stretched out for almost a mile. In all it took us over 2 hours to move them the 5-6 miles to their new pasture. The cow that went down eventually got up and made it back an hour or so after the rest and it was another adventure I can cross of the bucket list!
As much fun as that was the primary focus this week was to get out hunting as much as possible between farm chores. We got out duck hunting several times and although the weather was way too warm we did manage to get our share of ducks throughout the week.
We got quite the variety of birds; Geese, redheads, buffleheads, scaup, pintails and gadwalls
I got out bow hunting a total of 7 times and saw deer almost every time. Anytime I get out is special as I never know what I am going to see. Like the time I had 1,000 snow geese land within 100 yards of me (check out video below), or the time a coyote came within 20 yards and ate a couple of apples in front of me and never knew I was there. Who knew coyotes ate apples?!?!? 6 of those times I saw does/fawns, small bucks or nothing at all but the day before rifle season opened I was fortunate enough to harvest a nice 10 point buck we had seen on camera several times.


Video of Snow Geese

Coyote poses with an apple in its mouth

I caught up with this guy 10 days after this picture was taken and now have a freezer full of venison!
Dakota and Daisy are really starting to bond. For those of you who know Daisy, you know she has to be sitting on or touching someone pretty much constantly in fact she used to lay or sit on top of Bailey all the time. Although she has not taken to laying on Dakota, she does love to sit on her.

Dakota did have one naughty moment when we left her out of her kennel when we went to watch football over at Chris and Holly's. She did not like the fact that we left her alone and she let us know it........


$50.00 later we had a new remote
Barb has been busy with crafts, projects and other activities. Apple pies, apple strudels, chocolate chip cookies, crocheting, making a new tie blanket, bingo nights in Minot and has even taken to woodworking! Copying a template from Dino and Lisa, she used a jig saw, drill and belt sander to make a clothes dryer that connects to the ladder on the back of our rig. (Bob and Deanne, if you are looking for the small strip of plywood you had in your loft, you now know where it is!)

Barb can tie a mean knot!
We had dinners over at both the Finken's and Sobieck's,  Holly fixed chicken fajitas and Deanne invited us over to dinner one night for our second ever meal consisting of Fleischkeukle. We first had this meal several years ago in October of 2014 when Deanne first introduced us to this German dish. Since this introduction we have seen it on several menus as we have travel the country and enjoyed it both times we had it. She also got a new car! She has wanted a VW for a while and she finally pulled the trigger the day before we left. Well deserved..... We got out to dinner with Bob and Deanne the weekend before we left to.....wait for it....a brewery! We traveled to Minot where we had dinner and a few beers at Souris River Brewing. Thanks guys!!!!!
Deanne and her new Bug!


Last but not least there is the never ending farm work. So many different things to do.....Taking advantage of the unusually warm weather, Bob and Chris started preparing the fields for next spring. Harrowing, Pro-Tilling, pulling more fence and cutting and burning dried up sloughs. The Finken family has been farming many of these fields since 1916 and there is a constant ebb and flow with the lands. In this part of the country there are countless potholes and sloughs throughout the area. On wet years they can lose hundreds of acres of croplands, on drier years following regulations they are able to reclaim some of the sloughs back to farmland. One method of reclaiming the sloughs is to break up the ground around the edge of the slough and start it on fire. Using a propane torch, my job was to go along the edge of the sloughs and start them on fire. Once lit, I watched the edges to make sure everything was contained in the burn area.


Before burn........

After burn....ready for tilling

This is what happens when you get too close to the water...
With the warmer than expected weather, we were able to extend out stay and extra 10 days but with snow and extended cold weather forecasted for tomorrow it is time to head south. So after 7 weeks,we packed everything up said our goodbyes and headed down the road. The Finken/Sobieck crew probably thought the cold weather would never get here and push us south and were probably doing the "Happy Dance" as we were headed down the driveway. We had a great time and the time flew bye. We are going to miss everyone, thanks for everything and see  you next year!!!!!

24 comments:

  1. What an adventure. I always knew farming was hard work and it looks like you guys excelled at it. I am sure your friends are very thankful to you and Barb for pitching in. Glad you are making it out before the snow flies! Drive Safe.

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    1. We thought we had the best laid plans but as I write this we are in the middle of a snow storm in South Dakota!

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  2. Safe travels. Like the cows, I know how loose you get when you get nervous. Keep those depends near by.

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    1. Nice job Barb on the clothes rack.

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    2. No reply? That's okay. I know what you would say. You would say"Your are right Dino. That is why I can never go to a Vikings, Packers football game because I would be such a mess. Barb says thanks for the inspiration of the clothes rack. You rock!"

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    3. Ain't that the truth! The way those two teams have been playing lately it would probably end up in a tie as neither of them seem to want to win!

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  3. What a great time on the farm! We've seen a couple cattle drives and they use real cowboys and cowgirls with dogs. So much fun to watch them work. I'm sure it was quite the adventure for you moving those big guys along:) Seven weeks on the farm...you'll need a few kick back days! I'm sure help will be missed:)

    Love Daisy sitting on Dakota. Good that Dakota is a good sport and allowing it. Guess Dakota won't be staying alone out of the crate!!

    Love the drying rack, Barb! Beautiful pie:)

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    1. We had been so busy at the farm we are having a hard time relaxing and doing nothing! I sure it will take a week or so and we will be back into relaxing mode.

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  4. You guys have so much fun! That's the kind of work I wish we could find. We may be headed to the Northeast this summer. That will be a change for us. Safe travels!

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    1. Can't wait to read about your adventures in the NE, we will be heading there the summer after that. Tell Steve he needs to blog that summer!

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  5. Sounds like a pretty sweet gig you've had and time to hunt too. Safe travels and we'll see ya in Q!

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    1. See you in a couple months, we will scope out a spot for you!

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  6. Sounds like farming agrees with you guys! What an amazing experience! Thanks for sharing!
    Glad your new family member is fitting right in!
    LOVE the drying rack! Can you share the template? We are going to be visiting Bills friend who has some woodworking tools - I'd love one of them!
    Safe travels south!

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    1. We will email you a picture of ours so you can get an idea of how it fits on the ladder, very easy to make.

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  7. How cool was the cattle roundup. I've really enjoyed reading about your time on the farm.

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    1. It was pretty cool and made me think of how I missed our cattle and was glad we no longer had cattle all within two hours!

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  8. Glad to see Dakota likes DirecTV. Probably looking for the Badger game?

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  9. Wow the cattle drive looks like a lot of fun but a lot of work Too.
    Nice buck :), I miss bow hunting have not been in about three years :(
    Great looking birds you got, the video reminds me of many years ago on the Horicon Marsh back in Wisconsin:)
    Thanks for sharing, safe travels to you both, Rick

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    1. I have read about and driven by Horicon but never hunted there. Sounds like a great place for waterfowling!

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  10. So much fun you have while you are there! You with a blow torch? I'm glad Daisy is enjoying her new "toy". Her face says it all, "Mine". Slow it down will ya Barb? You're making some of us look bad (and by some of us I mean me :-) Nice buck. I'll be making some venison stew this week with some of my brothers haul.

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    1. I have to admit it was fun playing pyro for a few days. It is incredible how fast those swamps went up in flames.

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  11. Jim and Barb, I so enjoy following your adventures, travels and all. Thanks so much for sharing. I didnt quite catch if you are "workcamping" on the farm or its a friends/relative farm you were helping out on? That would be such a great experience to do and my hubby had just mentioned a few weeks ago how he would love to try out driving a big farm machine. We are preparing to hit the road in march as it sounds like you are preparing to go part time. I also was wondering why you had decided to make this move? Just curious because wondering if it gets tiring of the traveling or what. Thanks so much.

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    1. Thanks Kim! The owners of the farm are longtime friends of ours and we just enjoy helping out when we are in the area. From what we see there are a lot of farmers out there who are in need of help. The challenge is connecting with them and working out the details.

      We have not decided to go part time yet, I think we still have 5-10 years of travels in us but one of our goals when hitting the road was to find the perfect place to settle down when we did decide to slow down a but. For now, let the adventures continue!

      Good luck with hitting the road and feel free to reach out with any questions.

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