January 3^rd   -   Wednesday

For the last 2 years we have not had much cold weather during the winter and it has affected the insect population dramatically. Today, as I was going to town, I noticed that the pond had been frozen over for nearly a half of a month. I cringed as I saw the yearling calves standing out on the ice. Today it is safe for them to stand on the ice, but when it warms up it will become a death trap. Many times younger cattle will get out on the ice, especially when there is enough snow on top of the ice to prevent it from being too slippery. The older cattle have sense enough to stay off of it. Joe said they were out there grazing the tops off of the cattails. Sure enough, the heads to the cattails are gone! One winter we had a pond with ice a foot or so thick. When the warm weather came, the ice began crack and get weak. We lost several calves when they fell through the ice. We were able to pull two of them out, but they died from exposure later.

January 4^th   -   Thursday

There is still some snow on the ground from a snow about a week ago. Today was near 50, sunshiny degrees! It was lovely weather. Kristi Lepper brought her two kids over. They played with Laramie while we attempted to make waffles in an old cast iron waffle maker Joe had just found for me. I had my doubts, but wow, the results were great! That old cast iron waffle maker is the fastest I have ever used. It is used over an open fire and has a swivel on it to turn it from side to side. Never again will I make waffles the electric way!

Afterwards we went for a walk in the sunshine and the mud. We walked up to the beaver dam, but couldn't get very close because of the mud. We ended up walking down the creek instead. We saw a few woodpeckers and surprisingly a lot of cool grasses that are green where there is enough old growth to give them protection. What a great day.

January 8^th   -   Monday

We set a new record today. We moved a set of cows four miles to a new corn stalk pasture. Originally Joe had planned to do it in the afternoon, but when he saw the weather was turning bad, we started in the morning. We hoped to have the cows moved in three hours or so. A couple of neighbors came with horses and Joe and Laramie took their horses. The wind had already come up briskly, and the cows were ready to travel. They never slowed down the whole trip. Once out of the old field, they took off at a trot. We all assumed they would slow down a bit, or put their heads down to graze a bit, but they did not. A short distance from the field, Joe had to tie Laramie's horse up. The brisk pace was too much for a little cowboy. Cimarron got tied to a fence post, and off Joe went to catch up to the herd. We arrived at the new pasture in just one hour.

The guys were happy since the day was a bit chilly, and the cows were happy to be at a new pasture. We were happy to see that the cows were in such good shape and felt good enough to trot on down the road the way they did. Cimarron, Laramie's horse, was equally as happy to see us return to pick him up. We treated the neighbors to a meal at the cafe and went on home.

January 30^th   -   Tuesday

Laramie spied some deer right behind the house this afternoon. They were eating bark off of trees since we have had a lot of snow cover. They were hard to spot since they were camouflaged well. If you have a good eye, you can see one of them on the left hand third of the picture.

February 2^nd   -   Friday

Joe got a good look at one of the beavers today. It was feeding on a tree that they had cut down in the creek. He drove by twice and the beaver continued to feed. When Joe came to get me see the beaver, we missed seeing him. The water in the creek had just been disturbed, and we could tell he had just gone under water.

February 12^th   -   Monday

More ice and snow! The moisture has been good this winter. The last snow had just about melted and today we got more. It sleeted and snowed most of the day and then began snowing in the late evening. I am always much more leery of an ice storm. It is much harder on the livestock and usually the electricity will go out for an indefinite period. Our electricity at the house went out at 8:30 in the evening. We headed for bed and put extra wool blankets on the bed. Later in the night it came back on. Our friends in town were not so lucky. They were out of electricity most of the day, all night and into today. All of our cows on cornstalks are bunched up behind windbreaks out of the wind. We couldn't pump any water to the tanks since the pumps are run on electricity. Joe broke the ice and will wait and see what will happen tomorrow. The electric fence around the pasture is coated with ice and hanging near the ground. Soon we will probably get to walk around the fence, hitting it with a stick to break the ice off of it.

February 26^th   -   Monday

The cows have managed to stay inside the icicle fence. They are doing well grazing on the cornstalks above the snow. Cody, Laramie and I went along with Joe to break the ice for the cows and feed them a bale of hay. We did manage to get stuck. The bale trailer came off the back of the pickup and the three of us shoveled to get the pickup out of the snow packed axle deep on the pickup. We were amazed that the cows were not hungry. They didn't even go feed on the bale while we were digging the pickup out. They stood gazing at our dilemma, as if they thought we were crazy. We left the bale for them anyway and went on home. Joe had gone up to do a good deed and give them something to eat, and created a mess in the meantime!

March 14^th   -   Wednesday

Spring is certainly in the air. I have been a bit lax with the journal since I haven't been active with the outside workings of the ranch since my accident. Things are about to change. I have been exercising and working on getting in shape for spring work. It does feel good to get out!

Today we moved 50 head of cows 11 miles. Our friends, Lee and Tamie Hawes, have leased some of our crossbred cows from us. We moved them from cornstalks to Lee's ranch. I brought out the map so that Joe could draw me a map ahead of time. Usually we duck in and out of fields and around fields, and down roads to avoid planted fields and make the trip faster. I felt silly after he drew a straight line down a road 11 miles long.

We began early in the morning. J.L. and Karen Spurgeon met us there along with his father Windy Spurgeon and their two kids. We needed help sorting the 50 head off of the 150 that were in the field. There are no corrals at this cornstalk field, so we drove the herd to a corner and held them horseback while Joe brought out one or two at a time with his horse. Slowly, we got the 50 head separated from the herd that we would drive on to the Hawes ranch. The sorting process always works easily at first until the last few head that don't want to be driven out of the bunch. The herd gets a bit antsy and sometimes breaks out of the corner from between the horses. Today that only happened once, and we got them all bunched back up before they became mixed in with the cows already sorted off.

Two guys stayed back and held the herd in the corner while we took the other 50 head to the gate. Joe and J.L. roped an older cow that was showing her age. We thought she would be better off closer to home. They roped her by her horns and loaded her in the trailer for a ride to our ranch. In the meantime, Lee, Windy and I started the cows on down the road. Joe and Laramie caught up later. J.L. and his family went home to attack the chores for the day at their ranch.

The drive went well. I rode for five miles before my back bothered me. It was the first time since my horse accident in September that I had ridden. It felt great to be back in the saddle. We stopped and held the cows for lunch. Two of us held the cows while the rest ate, then we switched. I traded my horseback position to drive the pickup and trailer around to Lee's ranch. My friend Kristi had come along with her kids. She took the drag at the back of the herd with the kids on their horses. It was a nice day for the drive and all turned out well.

March 20^th   -   Tuesday

More cattle to move! We are in the process of getting the cows slowly back to the ranch for spring and summer pasture. They are now in two bunches. One bunch is about 16 miles north of the ranch and the other herd is about 21 miles away. Today we moved the bunch that was 21 miles away to the closer bunch. I spent the morning doing some income tax preparation for some of my clients and then went to help move the cows. Joe and Lee Hawes had gathered and sorted off 20 head before I got there. Cody hauled 10 head to the ranch while Joe, Lee and Laramie moved the cows by horseback. It was a nice afternoon and all went well. One neighbor had a round bale of hay by the edge of the road. I saw the wreck coming. A longhorn cow can't resist the urge to run up to a bale of hay and rub her head on a round bale. In the process, the strings or net wrap around the bale get torn off as she throws hay into the air with her horns. That is one bale of hay we will offer to replace for the neighbor. We got the cows moved with no other problem.

Afterwards, Lee and Joe roped a thin cow to bring back to the ranch in the trailer instead of having her trailed home in a couple of weeks. She was not as cooperative, so Cody took the trailer out to her in the field. We have had rain after rain and snow after snow so the fields are very muddy. I breathed a sigh of relief that he didn't get stuck. The guys loaded the cow and we all went home for supper.

March 22^nd   -   Thursday

We have a new addition in our laundry room. It is a small calf trying to warm himself up. A dear, old friend in South Texas had given Joe a heifer nearly a year ago. The heifer had been at Joe's dad's ranch in Oklahoma until a few weeks ago. Oklahoma has had rain after rain, just as we have had snow after snow. The mud that results from the weather is hard on the animals. They have to trudge around in it on the range. The heifer was a bit weak, so we kept her in the barn and gave her some special treatment. She had a calf today. It is snowing out and cold. We don't calve until late spring and early summer to avoid this kind of weather, but she was on a different schedule having come from another ranch. The baby got cold. When I put my finger in his mouth, it was cold, so I knew it was time to take him to the house. I used a hair dryer to dry him off and wrapped him in a rug. He stayed in the house all day and through the night. We fed him colostrum with a bottle. The mother produces the colostrum just after birth. It contains antibodies to protect the newborn from disease.

March 23^rd   -   Friday.

The calf went back outside with his mama. She loves him to death and won't stop licking him. He is standing and walking around now. He will be fine.

March 24^th & 25^th   -   Saturday & Sunday

It is spring rodeo season again. Cody had a High School rodeo at Kingman, KS. He rode a bull both days, but didn't make the 8-second buzzer either day. One of Cody's friends and the rest of the family went to the rodeo. We were lucky to get home early, as Cody was the first ride in the rodeo on Sunday. The next rodeo will be in 3 weeks.

Put Online:   4/01

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