Okay - Heres a day on the ranch. (Its going to be long. I miss my writing.) So, dont read it, if youre not interested in an ordinary day on the XB... Some days it seems like I do nothing, or get nothing done - some days are full. Today, I slept in - seven oclock. Thankfully, my hubby got up at six, checked the heifers and turned them out. Started my day as I usually do, picking up around the house, making the beds (or, today, stripping ours), starting the laundry, doing dishes after the boys got their breakfast eaten and lunches made. Three days a week, I have mail to go up, so paid some bills and wrapped a package - which always amazes me (how much postage has increased). I have some of the free flat rate boxes but most of the time its still cheaper to mail packages by weight. So, 9:00 AM the day really starts. Hauled the trash, its CALM, so I burned it and all the twine Ive been saving. Two heifer pairs in the corral to move East. I am a terrible chicken after getting stomped a time or two, so I dont go in with the pairs (usually) except on a four wheeler. I open the gate, then play ring around the Rosie for twenty minutes because neither one of the heifers can find the gate and the calves run to the wrong mama which confuses the heifers completely. I finally get them out, but as the one runs around the corner, the other goes back in. Lesson learned, I get her out, lock the gate behind her. There is nothing dumber on Gods green earth than a two-year-old heifer with a calf (except, maybe a one-year-old heifer without a calf). We go around - and around - and around. #26 wants to back up and stare at me, #2, wont stay with the calf. Neither of them can figure out which direction I want them to go and at this point its too late to start talking nicey-nice to them and try to coax them with a bucket of cake because Ive screamed and cursed at them as we raced in circles around the corral. (Most of our heifers lead better than they chase, with that bucket of cake but I have betrayed their trust by turning into a screaming maniac.) # 26 runs back to the corrals for the 15th time, #2 cant find her calf, who has now lain down in the corner by the garden in a giant pile of tumbleweeds. #2 jumps the fence into the River. I race around through the gate, still cursing, open the other gate, close the one into the meadow, get #2 back in the corrals, back out. She has no idea where her baby is, but #26, by this time has gone down to stand beside the calf with her own calf. I figure its time to cut my losses and go feed - let myself calm down, let the heifers calm down, let everybody get paired up again. For those of you who have Hydrabed hay feeders, I apologize in advance, but we spent ten thousand dollars (at Carls in Belle - love them) for a Hydrabed for my NEW truck (the 94 Ford). So, I supposedly have the ultimate feeding machine - a lovely, bright red Ford pickup with not a scratch on it, a cake feeder and a hydrabed. I love the truck and I like the cake feeder but I absolutely hate the hydrabed. In the first place, some of the bales are so tight it practically takes dynamite to break them apart - some are so loose that they basically explode the moment I cut the twine. I am not bright enough to figure out which way the former are rolled, because you need to unroll them the opposite direction for the Hydrabed to work as designed. I literally have not fed hay yet without getting my underwear FULL of bits of hay, either with cutting and rolling up the twine or with having to unroll the center of the tight bales by hand. (How many of you have rolled twine so tightly around your hand that you cut off the circulation - till you can, hopefully, manage to pull a glove off and not lose any fingers?) I have exploded bales that are literally left in one big pile and I have beaten and torn bales apart with my hands. Fortunately, the cake feeding always goes well - except that now, of course, we have dozens of calves and they want to wander around in front of the truck and, naturally, the cows stampede to get to the cake. I am too timid for this work. Im always scared Im going to run a calf over and I dont dare honk because that is the sure sign Im feeding cake which is the signal for the stampede. My poor dog, however, doing his job - which is, apparently, to keep the cows a satisfactory distance from the flatbed. He was aimed the wrong direction, watching me, when one of them snuck up behind him, so he leapt across the bed - and it was a little slick, he slid right off the other side into the cows. (Then were both in trouble because he cant come out from under the truck without getting stomped and I cant get him back on the truck without a barrel - so, dont tell the guys - I had to let him in the cab till we got out of the middle of the herd.) Finished with the cows, I take the core down to the yearling heifers. Its a good day if there arent any cows near their gate, otherwise, I have to go in one gate, close it behind me and open the other gate before THAT particular stampede begins. Back at the house - the heifers are standing almost exactly where they were earlier. I manage to get #26 out of the weeds, but she goes back to the corrals and stands there watching me with distrust. I wade into the weeds and pick up #2 baby. He is limp, I have to hoist his hind legs and then his front ones, then try to push him up the hill. He dives off the cut bank, I push him back up the hill, he lies down in another patch of tumbleweeds, I try his mama again. She cant see him. I go back and make him stand up again. Eureka! His idiot mama SAW him. She picked him up, we went East. No problem. Back to get #26 - thank goodness she wont go anywhere without her baby so she cant run anywhere very fast. We finally get it figured out and head east. (And none of them went through the cattleguard!) A glutton for punishment, I decide to take the newest baby over. She has more spunk than the two older ones - when I moved them from the barn earlier, she took off at a dead run, bellering her head off and ramming into the corral fence. (Thankfully, her mama had already gone into the other pen to get some hay because she definitely did not like this deranged human torturing her new calf.) East we go. Mama heads off at a trot and baby, wobbly kneed, gallops after. Noon. Back in the house. At some point, I had gone down to check the rest of the heifers - and did that again before coming in (and ran the mail up at some other juncture) with the four wheeler. It now has a slight problem with the front plastics, as sometime during all the hub-bub, one of the heifers kicked the front end (just missed taking out a headlight). In the very beginning of all of this, I hopped off the four wheeler to open a gate, stepped in a frozen cow track and twisted my ankle - which provided a good excuse for the afternoon. Ate a healthy lunch of hot dogs, barbecue chips and orange pop. Gathered up a pile of lariats and made a big basket. I printed the cards yesterday, will put them on line tomorrow. I have a photo I really like, will try to get that framed in the morning. Unless I need help with heifers, Terry will be helping at Neals funeral (Masonic rites) tomorrow afternoon. I need a place for him to drop off the basket, provided I finish it in time. Checked heifers at two, got them in at five, fed them. Boys got home, Terry helped tear the grill apart, put some of Glenns good beef on the grill, served with a baked potato and salad. I found the best topping for baked potatoes - I used to make this stuffing for won tons. Mix ground pork sausage with cheddar cheese, ranch dressing and top with sliced black olives. Dishes done, one hour till my last heifer check of the day, watching the best horror movie of all time, Jaws.. and then shower and bed. Oh hell, I forgot the sheets. Theyre washed and dried - but piled on the bed with the other laundry. Guess my day is not quite done yet.
Posted on: Thu, 27 Mar 2014 02:55:54 +0000
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