Ranch Life

 Well, it's time. Most years by the first of May we would be well into the planting season up at The Farm. This year, they have not even gotten started yet. Cold and snow were curse words for farmers looking to get into their fields this spring. 

Although it put them a couple weeks behind, I did not mind quite as much as it allowed me to spend more time with Forrest, Somer and Lily!

 This week started much like last week's did, over at Kevin's helping him with his rental (the bunkhouse). Only this time, instead of putting the decking on his roof, we were putting the steel up. The first picture is when we just got started, putting up the transition strip between the roof lines. Then the almost finished roof!

Dan and Merrell helped as well. They were cutting the steel to size, removing the protective coating and handing the sheets up to Kevin and I. We started about 9am and quit about 4pm getting the entire north side done. One more 1/2 day and he should have the south side complete making the bunkhouse even more watertight!

While I was doing that, the kids were busy riding dirt bikes on our property. The beauty of having a toy hauler is that you get to haul your toys with you! They have two dirt bikes, three pedal bikes, two electric scooters, three snowboards, a metal detector, two bows, multiple fishing rods are just the things I can think of off the top of my head. As many of you know, when you live full time in an RV you need to bring everything with you!

It is quite interesting having 4 dogs underfoot in the house. They are all good dogs, but it does create a certain amount of chaos. Here is my view anytime I try to have a meal.

Six eyes intently watching my every move. My hand goes right, their eyes move in unison following, my hand goes left, their eyes go left.... Where is Dakota during all this? All I have to do is turn my head to the right....

Barb, Lily and Forrest got out to the Custer Disc Golf course one afternoon for a couple of hours. We did not even know it existed. We will have to do that someday; they said the course was beautiful. 

The weather has not really cooperated with outdoor activities, but we managed to get out on a few more rides in the National Forest. Chloe went to the vet on Wednesday and got spayed, so she has been on a restricted activity plan. Neither Zoey or Chloe understand why she cannot run around and play. I was able to get this short video of them playing before the surgery though!

With only two major projects left on the house, I was anxious to get to one of them. Next up is soffit and facia. Not an overly difficult job, just slow and tedious. I put a few hours in over 3 days and was able to get the 1/3 of it done. 

Friday night we went out and celebrated Dan's birthday. The big 7-0! 11 of us went out; Dan, Bonnie, Kevin, Cheryl, Vicki and Merrell, Barb and I and Forrest, Somer and Lily. We all met up in Custer at the Pine Social Club Company, they did not serve soup, but they did serve beer! 

Beer and axe throwing, what could go wrong?!?! It was a blast!

All this fun and I did not get one picture of the birthday boy! After that we headed over to The Bugling Bull for supper. 

Saturday was a day I had been looking forward to for several years. Calf branding day at the ranch next door! In years past, we have always been gone to the farm by now, but with the late spring up in North Dakota, we finally made it to this big event! There were probably a dozen people for neighboring ranches, friends and family. They pitch in to help each other out for events like this. 

The calves do not like being separated from their moms and visa versa. It is so loud that you can hardly hear yourself think. 

First up were the momma and heifers. They needed to be vaccinated. Angus are very stubborn, it is nearly impossible to force them to go anywhere they do not want to go. 3 or 4 guys were pushing them into a smaller pen, up an alley way and into the squeeze shoot. My job was to operate the end gate on the squeeze shoot opening and closing it as one cow was released and letting another in. 

While they were in the squeeze shoot, one person would vaccinate them, another sprays ivermectin on their backs. Ear tags are replaced as needed.

Once all the cows and heifers were done, it was time for the calves. They were run through the same shoot then into a smaller shoot which squeezes them and lays them flat. Each calf gets two shots, branded and the bull calves get de-nutted. This process is not for the faint for heart, and I could see some judging how this whole process goes, but it is ranch life, has been for hundreds of years and will be for hundreds more, I could see myself as a rancher in another life. It was interesting to hear the ranchers talk about this and that. For example, this ranch uses 3 different branding irons to make their brand. There are so many brands out there right now (like license plates) that all the one and two iron brands are taken up and they are into three iron brands. Very interesting.

The brands are heating up!

For this process, I was the heeler. See that rope on the calf's rear foot? I was holding the other end of the rope. Once the calf is on the table I slip the loop on the foot, trying not to get kicked, pull it tight and hold it while it gets de-nutted and branded. John, the rancher, is quick with the knife and it takes him less than a minute to castrate the bulls. I then take the rope off, they tip the table back and the calf walks off. Barb manned (or Barbed) the branding station. Her job was to make sure they were nice and hot and hand each one to John as he needed them. For those of you wondering, he does save them for Rock Mountain Oysters later. For those of you who don't know, what Rocky Mountain Oysters are, Google it. 

One thing I realized, a little too late, was that both of my jobs were on the business end of the cattle. That must be where they put the rookies. When one particular calf coughed at the wrong time I was covered. Needless to say, a shower was in order at the end of the event. 

Now that I've terrorized you with the reality of ranch life, I will leave you with calming two pictures. This one is of the first flower I have seen for the year. It is about the size of a golf ball, and we saw several of them in the forest while shed hunting. Anyone know what it is?

And for this week's installment of "Find the Frenchie", we received this picture from our niece Alana. Apparently, their little Sophie was wondering what was going on outside when their parents were out in the yard.

Next week's post will be from the North Dakota, I leave tomorrow!