This was the view from our front porch last week. We have waited a long time for moisture. Finally we had a snow which was full of moisture to cover all the pastures.

We weren’t able to get out of the ranch that day. All of the longhorn cattle and all the cattle Joe looks after in the winter-time were 30-40 miles away. The next day all three of us took a truck, loaded a skid-steer loader on a trailer and began digging our way out. When the first truck got stuck, we would pull it out and then Joe would dig out the road with the skid-steer.

 
Each of us had a truck to haul bales with. The county roads were completely blocked, but we made it to our cattle by going through pastures and fields and letting fences down. In the above photo I had made it as far as I could. I waited til Joe took my two bales and slowly delivered them to the heifers and bulls.

To reach two pastures of cattle and the bull pasture with four bales took 1 1/2 hours.

The entire day was time consuming. On this road, Shane got stuck and then Laramie got stuck.

We all made it to another hay stack, just to find it was drifted in too deep to get any hay for the cows.

Pat was there with his Steiger tractor and blade to push all the snow out of the way. This is how the whole day progressed. Pat pushed the snow out of the way and the rest of us followed behind to feed hay, break ice and check cattle. We made it to every pasture of cattle that day and made it home after the sun was down to do evening chores at the ranch.

Since then it has been nice and muddy and Joe has been stuck numerous times in the snow or mud. What a joy! Hopefully this is a great sign that the drought is on its

Last Sunday was a work day like any of the other six days of the week. Some of the cows on cornstalks had begun to slip calves (abort). We had to find a pasture to move them to and get them off of that pasture since it appeared to be a high nitrate problem in their forage. Thirty-mile-per-hour wind or not, Sunday or not, they had to be moved. There were no calves lost later in the week, so it appears the problem was solved.

We did have one slower day at the ranch. Laramie took time to ride Lakota and trim her hooves.

Tuesday was a different story. We had a truck lined up to come and ship 98 head of calves. Snow or no snow, they had to be gathered and sorted for shipping the next day. I rode out on Bull’s Eye today and got the last few head gathered to the portable corrals.

The snowflakes were big. You can tell by Comet’s pose for the camera, that she is not impressed. The morning went very smoothly. We sorted the calves by sex and size and hauled them to corrals where they could be accessed by semi-trucks the next day to haul them to Colorado. When the truck came the next day, it was Pay Day!!! The calves had been born about ten months before. After caring for the cows and calves, weaning and running them through the winter, our paycheck finally arrived.

This is what yesterday looked like.  We spent the morning moving about 100 head of cattle about five miles to another field of cornstalks.  It was a fine day to do it.  By the time we got to the new pasture it was 60 degrees.  We had one small glitch when we started.  One of our neighbor’s bulls had come to call on the cows early last spring.  She had an early calf to prove it.  The cow and calf were not going to drive very well, so J.L. tied it down and put it in Pat’s truck for a ride.

You can see the mama cow on the oppposite side of the truck. She wasn’t thrilled with us snatching her calf up, but they met up a few hours later.

Four cows took off when we started out, but after Joe and Laramie got them back to the herd, everything drove just fine. We got done about 12:30 and stopped for lunch.

Joe and Laramie roped a heifer that had pink eye. We found her in the bunch right off, so it didn’t take long to run her down and give her some antibiotics. The rest of the afternoon Joe spent running water, feeding bales and checking fences. Laramie and I pulled posts around one field of cornstalks and went back to the ranch to unsaddle the horses and do all the evening chores. They days are staying light a little longer, so we get a little more accomplished each week.

 I was just elbowed via email by Wade. Wade came out on a July cattle drive a few years ago. Wade’s nudge has forced me to publically recognize that I have not posted anything since September. This might lead someone to believe that Moore Ranch had fallen off the map, or perhaps things have really slowed down at the ranch.

First of all, Moore Ranch is still on the map. In fact some GPS systems will now bring you to the ranch. Google maps will make us appear if you type in 2933 Creek E instead of our correct address of 2933 CR E (County Road E).

Second of all, things have not slowed down here at the ranch that much. There are hundreds of things I could have written about in the last few months. As I allow my mind to randomly wander, I will write to you some of the happenings at the ranch since September.

Once the October cattle drive is over, it means that all the cows are north of the ranch about 30 miles. Joe stays busy nearly every day building fence on cornstalks and rye pasture, feeding cattle, moving yearlings, cows and stocker cattle to new pasture. The last week he has been trudging through the snow and breaking ice on all the stock tanks. There are nearly 800 head of cattle to be looked after everyday. There are no corrals in these fields, so he and Laramie have roped a few head here and there that were sick and doctored them. Laramie and I roped a couple of steers that were bullers and hauled them off to a corral for solitary confinement.

Joe and I roped a blind calf. Before I could get the horses out of the trailer, Joe saw the opportunity to snag the calf as he walked out in front of the pickup. This would have been an excellent time saver had another heifer not ran through the loop at the same time. The well heifer ran off with Joe’s rope and the blind heifer remained uncaught. His time saving strategy wasn’t effective as we had to rope the blind heifer and give her antibiotics and then find the rope theiving heifer, rope her and retrieve Joe’s rope.

No one has been bucked off in the past 3 months except for me. We have practiced roping a bit when the weather was mild and the arena wasn’t frozen. Laramie has been practicing bull dogging. He is sitting 4th in the High School rodeo standings.

The coyotes are terribly thick and have been coming right up to the chicken house door to help themselves to breakfast, lunch and dinner. Laramie and his trusty gun and the trapper have slowed that situation down.

All the weanling colts are home as of yesterday. All of the horses except for the stud and brood mares are at the ranch now. I am scared to death to take a total head count. I am not sure I want to count that high.

Yesterday we worked 176 head of steers. They were given vaccinations, some were dehorned and all were branded. I am reminded of that fact everytime I walk back to the coat rack. Everyone’s hats and coats still smell like pungent branding smoke.

So far the longhorn cows have been on 3 different fields of cornstalks. Last time we moved them it was only about 15 degrees outside, however; there was no wind and the 3 mile or so move was pleasant.

Joe just pulled up in the barnyard with the pickup, trailer and horse. He will be unsaddling his horse in the dark and be up to the house for supper. Our days have been starting before daylight and ending after sundown. There is a good chance of rain tonight! We are hoping for an end to the drought this year. If nothing else, I will push for an end to the drought of blog posts. Thanks for the reminder Wade!

The reason Joe and I ranch can be seen below.

Enough said.

We moved the cows and calves back t0 the ranch the first week of September.  It was on Labor Day.  That was perfect, because we actually did some labor that day.  When I was young, I never understood what Labor Day was about.  I never knew that laborers really took the day off and rested from their labors.  I grew up on a farm and ranch.  We got up and worked unless we were sick or were lucky enough to go to my Aunt Sidona’s house for a week in the summer time.  When I was about 11 years old I was driving a tractor on Labor Day.  It broke down so I walked to a neighbor’s house to get help fixing it.  The neighbor, Mr. Arnold, was sitting in his house.  This was unusual.  As he was pulling on his boots he said, “Doesn’t your dad know it’s Labor Day?”.  I was puzzled.  After he got the tractor fixed and I was driving the tractor  monotonously around the field, I turned on the radio to figure out what this holiday glorifying labor was all about.  I was enlightened!

In this blog you always get to hear things from my point of view.  A guest on the labor day cattle drive took pictures and texted along the way.  He set this up in a very neat story.  I think you will enjoy a cattle drive from his point of view.  It is a bit comical, so if you have a couple broken ribs like I do, be careful.  You will laugh and cringe with pain at the same time.

Since I am a ranch wife and not a computer expert and have no patience to research how to make his Adobe file suddenly appear in this post, you will have to follow these directions:

1.  Click on this link  http://www.moorelonghornranch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/City-Slickers-2012.pdf

City Slickers 2012