Gather, Sort, Ship, Repeat

Monday morning September 30, 2013

The Mead Ranch Gathering and trailing through Hawk Springs

 

The crew: Scott, Al, Pastor Scott, and Lane all horseback, Kenny flagging in the pickup, and the border collies

 

lots happened...4 pics...sorry, too hard to carry a camera on horseback and the iPhone got full :(

 

 

 

Bull nursing a cow nursing another cow...just makes me laugh.

 

 

Jo cooling off and getting a much needed drink.

 

 

Monday September 30, 2013 2:30 pm-7:30 pm

The Nichols Ranch Gathering

The crew - Scott horseback, Al and the girls on the buggy with the camera :) and the border collies

 

 

 

 

Monday night shower, dinner, BED :)

 

Tuesday morning I guess I forgot to take pictures...

Tuesday morning October 1, 2013 The Crew - Bobby Cottier and Al sorted the cows from the calves at Nichols Ranch while Scott and Laney broomed the poop out of the semi, then Scott trucked calves to the feedlot...girls helped.

Tuesday afternoon...The Crew - Scott horseback, Al and the girls on the buggy...back to the Mead Ranch...gathered those same cows again from the new pasture to the corrals, sorted the cows from the calves, shipped the calves to the feedlot. Wrapped up this project at dark...home about 8pm, I took 1 picture :) 8:30 pm Al headed to the feedlot to do payroll

 

 

 

Shower, dinner, BED!

 

This dentist stuff happened last week, but I forgot about it :) The girls both had their first visit to the dentist. They did great! Laney was so excited, she went first, and even got x-rays taken. We saw her big girl teeth and everything looked great! Tana was up to doing it all by the time Laney was done and was so good as well. I honestly thought I'd have to help coax them or something, they were better than the adults I've seen at the dentist! The hygienist was so nice, gave them fake money every time they were polite, said thank you or just did good, then they got to "go shopping" with the money. Laney got a beautiful plastic bracelet, and Tana got a helicopter...which is adorable to hear her say!

 

Wednesday October 2, 2013 7 am until 6:30 pm

The Ellis Ranch gathering, trailing, sorting, and shipping of the Calving pasture and School house pasture cows and calves.

The crew: Scott, Al, Volk horseback...border collies

 

again...hard to take pics with the camera horseback and my iPhone only had room for a few pics.

 

 

We sorted the calves off these cows and shipped them to the feedlot, got home and picked up the girls from Art and Loretta's at 6pm...phew, shower, dinner, bed.

 

Thursday October 3, 2013, 7 am headed back up to the Ellis Ranch to the North pastures. The crew - Scott, Al, Volk, horseback, and girls joined but it was freezing so they played in the pickup...and the border collies. We gathered, sorted, shipped first group of calves to Ellis' house, unloaded and headed back north to the pasture. Repeat 2 more times...gathered, sorted, shipped, gathered, sorted, shipped. 3rd draft loaded a stock trailer and Al and the girls headed to the feedlot to unload, then headed back up to Ellis house for the final load on that trailer. We loaded another stock trailer and the semi and made it back to the feedlot at 5:30 pm to unload those calves. Volk headed back up to Ellis to grab the buggy we had to leave, Scott headed to the sale barn to pickup our heifers we didn't sell, Al and the girls headed to the barn to gather steers in, remove horn wraps, feed horses and puppies, then HOME at 7:45 pm. Shower, dinner, BED!!

 

Friday October 4, 2013...BLIZZARD...processed all the calves...shots, ear tags, wormed.

The crew - Scott, Al, Volk, Pastor Scott...the girls played in the snow for a bit then terrorized my suburban LOL, lights flashing, windows up and down...but they had fun. Completed this project at 6 pm. HOME, SHOWER, DINNER, BED!!

 

Seriously an exhausting week...each day wasn't bad, but man we are all pooped...and we had to wake up this morning Saturday October 5, 2013 to ice, snow, WIND, COLD. Glad we accomplished this all before the blizzard hit, the calves now just need to quit bawling, and go to eating. Critical care here for about 10 days. I can't believe how many miles we went horseback, in the buggy, in pickups with trailers, and four-legged friend miles to get all this done...but we did it!! Weaning is underway...and we are over that hump. Onto next week...Happy Trails~