Allergies...Need I say more?

Between sorting steers, shipping them up north, and having bad allergies, we’ve had a pretty crazy last few days.  Saturday we brought in all the steers to be sorted, implanted, and tagged so they could go to the ranch up north & continue to grow.  That took all day Saturday…literally.  Wesley & I got up at 6 AM Saturday and we didn’t get back in the house that evening until 8:15.  Sunday we went and sited in some guns, then headed down to our neighbor’s house to rope that afternoon.  We had a good time with the Ashley’s and roped for about 2 hours down there with them.  Sunday afternoon I started getting a really bad headache, and by Monday morning it had moved into a congestion, sore throat, upset stomach sort of thing.  I stayed home from work Monday to try to recover from what I thought was a cold.  Tuesday I got up and had a nice red rash all over, so Wesley & I decided it was time to head to the doctor.   Apparently I’m having a little bit of a difficult time adjusting to the altitude difference up here, and that’s causing my headaches.  And since I’m not from here, I have allergies to plant, tree, and bush that’s blooming right now.  That’s what was causing me to break out and have what seemed to be a bad head cold.  So, I’m on medication to help with the allergies.  And the doctor said its just going to take time for me to build up an immunity to the pollen and such that they have up here.  Until then, Claritin is my new bff.  Thanks to my sister for telling me I should go to the doctor, and for Wesley making me get in the truck and go!  I don’t like going to the doctor unless its absolutely necessary.  But, apparently this time, it was!   My little babies in the barn are still doing good.  They are growing, slowly but surely, which is awesome.  My little Hereford baby is quite the character.  He knows my voice because I talk to them every day and when he hears me come in the barn he goes to mooing and balling until I can get to him to feed him.  He’s a sweetheart though.  The other baby is a black angus calf and he’s a bit more shy, and LOVES taking his time when he eats.  He will eat and play and eat some more when its feeding time.  Of course that upsets the Hereford because he’s already done eating and the little black calf is only half way there!  But, they get along just fine.  We opened up their pen some so they can exercise and stretch their legs, and boy do they like it!  Wesley said yesterday morning they were full of it…jumping around and playing with each other!  I wish I could have seen them when they were playing.   This weekend seems to be another busy one, at least on Saturday anyway.  We are heading to Billings to go to Sams, and do a little shopping.  I need to find a dress to wear to his sister’s upcoming wedding in June, and I need some new shoes as well.  Wesley also needs some new shoes.  So we are heading there Saturday.  Sunday we are hoping to work in the yard around our house.  We need to haul some old rotten lumber to the dump, and do a little mowing.  The weather is supposed to change pretty drastically this weekend, so we’ll see what happens.  The high today is 77, yesterday’s high was 88.  But by Saturday the high’s are in the 40’s, and there’s even a slight chance of some snowflakes!  Just as I thought we were warming up for good and I was actually getting some “Texas-like” weather…we drop back down again!  But it won’t be for long.  And, we need the moisture badly.  So, I hope it does rain, or snow.  Whatever it takes to get some moisture in the ground.   We hope everyone has a fantastic weekend!   P.S.  We’ve been watching some baseball lately and I’m so excited that I get to watch at least one Texas team all the way up here…the Rangers.  Hope they have a season like they did last year!  GO TEXAS RANGERS!!!   

A few lazy days

We had a very laid back weekend this past weekend.  Last Thursday we had to take Reno, our horse, and Jiggs, our dog, to the vet for shots & such.  I met Wesley at the vet because they were going to have to cut Reno open to let an abscess drain from his face (gross, I know…but he’s doing better) and I didn’t want them to sedate him without me being there to comfort him & make sure he was going to be ok.  When I got to the vet Wesley said he’d pulled his back muscles pretty good trying to get our cow out of the creek.  Later that day it got so bad that the only thing he could do was lay on the couch, so he took himself to the chiropractor to be adjusted.  Friday he wasn’t much better, so I made him a goodie bag, his lunch, and set him up to rest on the couch all day.  Saturday was more of the same.  He got up feeling alright, but moved wrong and his back really pulled.  So, we rested all day Saturday.  I did manage, however, to go plant part of my garden Saturday morning!  I was super excited about that.  So far we have lettuce, radishes, and potatoes planted.  The rest will be planted in May after the danger of frost has passed.  Saturday afternoon Moo Moo came over to inform me she had 4 babies in the barn if I wanted to come over & feed them bottles, and of course I jumped at the opportunity.  I had 4 balling babies at my feet by the time I got done feeding them!   They are so adorable.
 
Sunday Wesley’s back was feeling better, but I made him lay on the heating pad for a good part of the day so that he didn’t overdo it.  The rest is definitely what he needed.  We entertained ourselves by playing lots of games, watching Lonesome Dove and 8 Seconds, and taking a nap.  By today he said he was doing much better.  His Dad gave him a back brace to wear around and he said that helps him a lot.  So I was glad to hear that.  We are going back to the doctor tomorrow for him to check out his back again and make sure progress is being made in the right direction.  I told him to always be so careful when pulling those cows out of the creek & such and I think now he will listen to me!  Haha. 
 
The weather here lately has been on the cool side.  It probably will make it to about 60 degrees today.  We are supposed to get rain every day for the rest of the week, and I really hope we do.  We need it badly!  We got a little bit of rain on Saturday evening, and a little more Sunday afternoon.  But we definitely need a lot more than that!  I miss seeing the beautiful Texas Bluebonnets about this time of year.  My Mom sent me a picture of them and they are just gorgeous this year.  I’m glad Texas is getting the rain they so desperately needed, though.  I just hope the tornado’s and bad weather stay away!
 
Calving is coming right along.  Its hard to believe that all of the Momma’s will have calves by the end of this month.  I’ve lost track of how many babies we have running around now…over 300 by now I know.  Everywhere you look there’s a baby running around.  They act like wild little things sometimes!  But I love watching them discover new stuff around them.  Its very fun to see. 
 
Have a great week and pictures will be coming soon…promise!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  We hope everyone had a blessed Easter weekend with their family.  I was off on Good Friday, and Wesley’s parents went to South Dakota to pick up a bull, so it was just me & Wesley tending to the ranch on Friday.  It was pretty crappy outside, so we had to make sure all the babies were doing alright.  Friday evening it started to snow some, but it didn’t last long, and it didn’t stick.  It was kind of weird seeing snow in April!  But, in Montana, anything is possible with regard to the weather!

Saturday we were pretty consumed with the wedding for most of the day.  We got up that morning & tagged what new babies we had, then headed to Miles City for the wedding!  We had rehearsal at Noon on Saturday, then the wedding started at 6:00 PM.  The couple looked beautiful!  They ended up having a beautiful day for a wedding.  It was pretty darn windy outside, but it was beautiful!  The photographer took some pictures of Wesley & me, so if I can get my hands on a copy of them I’ll share them with you.  We stayed at the wedding until about 11 PM Saturday, then headed back to our hotel.  Sunday we spent a good part of the day with Wesley’s parents.  We had a huge lunch, then played some games with them on Sunday.  That afternoon we had to go to look for a lost baby, but quickly found her and got her back to her mother.  Then we turned in for the evening.
 
I’m working on getting a garden planted, but as of now nothing is in the ground.  I’ve got quite the assortment of vegetables to plant, and Wesley’s mom & I are going to do it together.  But, neither of us have planted anything yet!  So, I (we) need to get on that.  Its supposed to rain later this week & into the weekend and I’m praying it does!  We welcome the rain and need it desperately.  So,  I hope (for once) the meteorologists are right!  We don’t have much planned for this weekend but continue to tag new babies born and make sure they are all doing well.  We have about 3 weeks left of our calving season, then it will be on to branding.  As of now we have about 150 babies running around the ranch.  They are so adorable to watch!  I love when they get excited about something and it only takes one baby going nuts and running around to get the whole herd of them excited.  Pretty soon there are 30-40 babies running wild around everywhere with tails in the air!  They are adorable :-)  I’m hoping to get pictures of the wild little things up soon!
 
Have a great week!

Our crazy weekend

This past weekend flew by…literally.  Friday evening we went to Miles City to go to Wal-Mart and dinner with Clint & Sarah.  We ate at Rib & Chop and it was delicious.  After that we ran or normal “Miles City” errands & then headed home.  We played Cribbage when we got home then turned in for the evening.  Saturday morning we got up early to go ride thru the calves to tag the new babies.  We had to haul one in that morning because his mother was neglecting him, and our weekend spiraled from there!  After we hauled him in we had to go gather 3 more cows who weren’t doing their motherly duties and bring them in to milk them so we could feed the babies.  It was quite a job bringing them in from the pasture because they did not want to cooperate.  Once in the corral one of them would try to charge you if you even looked at her wrong.  We milked a few bottles out of them, then turned them loose.  As for their babies, we found surrogate mothers for them.  By the time we finished with all that it was later in the afternoon.  So, we went out again to check the cows & make sure everyone was calving by themselves and nothing was going wrong.  Saturday evening we popped a pizza in the oven, put on a movie, and relaxed the rest of the evening. 
 
Sunday we got up really early again to check things out in the pasture, and we noticed one of the cows looking like she was trying to calve but nothing was coming out.  We gave her an hour, then went to check on her again.  At this point she was not being very cooperative at all, and probably in a lot of pain as well.  So Wesley tied her down so she couldn’t hurt herself or one of us, and we proceeded to try to use the come along to pull the baby.  Wesley tried to get the ropes attached to the babies foot, but could only get one of them secured.  So after he tried & tried I took a turn.  There was not much room in her  birth canal at all.  I’d no sooner get the rope attached to the calves foot and she’d contract & try to push and it would slip right off before I could pull it tight.  By this time Moo Moo & David noticed we hadn’t returned so they came out on the 4-wheeler to give us a hand.  Once we got the come along secured we tried giving the baby a few good tugs.  Having no luck, we knew she was going to have to go to town so the Vet could perform a C-section on her to save her, and with any luck, the baby as well.  Both Mom & baby lived, but mom wants nothing to do with the little guy (when performing a C-section on her there is a good chance the mother won’t take the baby since she didn’t get to smell him & clean him off right away).  So, I am taking great joy in bottle feeding the little fellow!  I’ll have to post pictures of my little peanut soon!  He’s definitely a big boy, which is why she was having such difficulty!!  After all the chaos on Sunday as well, we went home and made a quick supper so neither of us would be in the kitchen all night.  Sunday evening we watched the CMA awards and went to bed (early, again!).
 
This week we have a full week ahead of us!  Thursday we have to go to Miles City to try on Wesley’s tux for Clint & Sarah’s wedding, then go back to MC Friday to have a pre-wedding dinner with Clint & Sarah, then go dancing at a little place on Main Street in MC.  Then Saturday is the big day for Clint & Sarah!  We are so excited for them and can’t wait to share their big day with them!  And little Jack too!