The Story of the Electric Fence

Last weekend we started Saturday by fixing an electric fence that we put up around a section of the meadow for the cows & heifers that we are going to A.I.  It took Wesley and me about 2 hours to fix the fence and get it in working order, and then we turned it on and trailed the heifers & cows out to the meadow.  David had just gotten back to the ranch from turning some cows out into a different pasture on the ranch, so we all sat down together and had hamburgers for lunch.  After lunch we went to trail our cows out of one pasture and into another to get ready and turn the bulls in with them.  It took a little longer than we thought it was going to take, but it ended up being alright.  That afternoon we came home and roped the dummy steer for a while, then ran the steers thru the chute one time before calling it an evening.

We started to head home about 6:30 or so that evening, only to find that all the cows & heifers we turned out in the meadows had busted thru our electric fence and were everywhere!  So we grabbed the 4-wheeler, David grabbed a horse, and we took off to round them back up.  They tore thru that fence as if it wasn’t there.  And of course, it only takes 1 cow to knock it down & ground it out and then pretty soon all of them are across the electric fence!  After we rounded them up, Wesley and I locked them in another pasture, and went about fixing the electric fence…again.  We basically had to start all over.  We had to re-string, tie, and tighten the entire fence.  It took us about 2 ½ hours to finally finish the fence, and by the time we were done that evening, we were pretty tired and ready to sit down on the couch, have a drink, and eat supper.

Sunday morning Wesley looked out our back window only to find the damn cows out yet again (although this time, they got locked up after they broke out)!  So he went to fix the fence, and I got things ready to go to town to rope that afternoon.  We headed to Forsyth about 11:15 that Sunday morning and got home about 7:00 that evening.  Wesley had a good time roping, and did an awesome job once again.  However, none of his partners caught their end of the steer, so he got some no-times.  It comes with roping, but I was so proud of him and how well he did!  He’s been practicing at home, well we all have, and we have a great time roping together!

This coming weekend, on Saturday, we are bringing in all the cows and heifers we are going to A.I. so we can make sure they are going to be cycling when we A.I. them, then Saturday evening we are going to go to Colstrip to a festival they call “Colstrip Days”.  They have a good band there with a street dance so we are going to enjoy the band and dancing in the street as well!  Sunday we are heading to Miles City for the afternoon so Wesley and his Dad can rope in the Wrangler Team Roping Championship series they have here in Montana.  I wish them LOTS of luck in this roping and can’t wait to see how they do!!

We have our engagement portraits next Friday afternoon and we are so excited about them!  We are going to be taking them at the ranch surrounded by the beautiful mountains, and of course all of our animals.  I’ll definitely share some of them when we get them back!  

Happy Father's Day!

On the verge of another busy weekend of ours, catching up from the last one will be the first thing I update you on!  Last weekend we had to help our neighbors brand their herd.  They had about 185 head to brand, and we had to go thru our pastures to get to their back branding pasture.  Wesley and I got up at 4 AM so we could go saddle horses & get to the branding sight by 5:30.  We were there on time, and soon after 5:30 AM we all dispersed so we could gather the herd.  Wesley’s friends Ab (from high school) and his wife Sarah were at the branding, because we were helping Ab’s parents out.  Sarah doesn’t ride horses much, but wants to learn, so she stuck with me and we took the (semi) easy route while the guys went way back in the hills.  I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Sarah.  She’s a great person, both her & Ab are.  They live in Wyoming (about 5 hours from us) but we are already trying to plan a weekend to go stay with them and spend time with them.  Wesley and Ab grew up together not only thru school, but because they were next door neighbors.  And, when you’re on ranches as big as the ones up here, neighbors, especially kids your own age, are hard to come by!  Sarah rode a horse named Blue, and she did great!  We talked and laughed and talked of stories the guys told us of them growing up.  She’s a pure delight to be around and we can’t wait to get together with the two of them again soon! 

It took quite a long time to brand this herd because there was a lot of sorting of the cows going on, and a lot of disorganization.  We didn’t get done branding until 3:00 PM, and then had to turn around, change clothes, and head to Billings to get a new TV for our living room.  Side note – our TV went out (it was older anyway) so we planned on going to Billings after the branding, we just thought we’d be done a LOT earlier than we were.  We were able to find the winner at Best Buy, grab a bite to eat, and got home about 10:30 that evening.  We were EXHAUSTED by the time we got home, but we didn’t want to ruin our Sunday by having to spend all day in Billings, which is why we choose to go that Saturday afternoon.  Sunday we slept in before putting our new TV stand together and mounting our TV on to it.  I must say, it looks great!!  We’re pretty happy with it.  It was a windy & cooler day on Sunday, so we stayed indoors most of the day.  We actually got a little shower on Sunday evening, but it wasn’t much, and it didn’t last long.  However, any little bit is better than nothing at all!

Monday & Tuesday evenings we roped in the evenings.  I’m doing a little better, slowly but surely!  Wesley does awesome, but that’s nothing new!  I’m going to start my horse, Reno, on barrels this week.  He’s definitely got the speed, but he is SO big that we weren’t sure if he’d be able to get himself around the barrels good enough.  So Tuesday I spent working with him on turning and we found out that he can!  I’m so very excited about the new discovery!  He’ll be my heading horse roping, and my barrel horse when I want to play around at the house and run some barrels! 

This weekend, on Saturday, we are sorting off some of our yearling heifers to be A.I.’ed, then Sunday we have a roping in Forsyth to go to.  We have another busy weekend but that’s the norm around Diamond Ranch these days.  This weekend is also Father’s Day and I’d like to say Happy Father’s day to my two grandfather’s – Papa and Popo, and to my Dad, Tommie, and Wesley’s dad David.  My Dad as always been there for me; to protect me when I needed protection, a disciplinarian when I was getting out of hand, a friend when no one else was there, setting a great example of what a real man should be like, and loving me thru it all.  It is because of his love and examples growing up that I found the man of my dreams in Wesley.  Thanks, Daddy, for always showing me that family is the most important thing in one’s life, that love is something to be cherished, that good husbands treat their wives as if today was the day they married, and that a Father’s love never, ever dies.  You’re the best and I love you!!  Can’t wait to see you soon! 

And thank you David for showing us the way when it comes to ranching, cattle, and everything in between.  We are so lucky to have two very special father figures in our lives and are so blessed to be a part of their families!

Tiffany and Wesley

The Wedding Week

It seems like it’s been FOR-EV-ER since I’ve posted something on the blog!  We were so busy running around like chickens without heads this last week that I literally didn’t have any time to think!  We had a good Memorial Day weekend.  It was pretty yucky outside on Saturday & Sunday, so we stayed indoors most of those days.  Saturday we went down to Sheridan, Wyoming to go get some new ropes, and do a little shopping and eating out.  We had a great time together.  We got some new ropes from Kings in Sheridan, then went around their downtown in and out of shops, and finished the afternoon with some great food down there as well!  We also got a new game for our Wii (Wipeout…highly recommended by my best friend Katy & her husband Jason), and let me tell you that game is a lot of fun!  We had a great time Saturday evening playing that when we got back from Wyoming.  Sunday was more of the same, except we started to get things together so that we could brand our cattle on Memorial Day Monday.

Of course Monday turned out to be a cold, windy, somewhat wet sort of day…but branding had to get done!  I don’t think the high temperature for that Monday reached 50 degrees…it was cold!!  We started about 6:45 AM, and got done around 12:45.  I was in charge of vaccinating.  Wesley was in charge of cutting.  And David was branding.  Of course we had all the neighbors out helping us so that we could get the herd in and out of there in a reasonable amount of time, and without any disasters!  We all came back to the ranch for a nice lunch that Moo Moo had prepared for us, and then spent that afternoon back in the house because it was just too darn cold to do much else!

Tuesday his sisters flew in to start the wedding festivities, and then Wednesday the groom flew in.  Wedding stuff was in full swing by Thursday, from mowing and staking out the wedding site, to making crosses and candles, everyone was pitching in to pull this wedding off.  Friday the bride wanted for us to brand some cattle so we could show all the people from Iowa (the grooms family) how its done up here.  So we took about 60 head and branded them that afternoon.   It was quite disorganized, and took longer to do those than it did to brand the 350 or so head earlier in the week, but it made her happy and since this was her weekend she got whatever she wished!  Friday evening we all came back and had a nice dinner at the ranch, then sat around until about midnight talking and such.

Saturday started our really early with helping Moe start roasting the hog he was preparing for the wedding.  It was DELICIOUS by the way!  We all toasted that morning to Christi and Clint, then ran around like crazy trying to finish up last minute wedding stuff for Christi and Clint.  Clouds started rolling in later that afternoon, but no rain ever fell on their day…so that was great.  The ceremony started about 4:45 down in the meadows of the ranch, and then the band cranked up about 8:45 PM under the tent!  Wesley and I had a great time catching up with some of his family that lives in Northern Montana that we don’t get to see very often.  And of course we had fun dancing…we danced quite a bit that evening!  Most all of the neighbors that live up & down the road from us came as well, and it was nice to visit with them too.  Even though you might live right up the road from each other, its often you don’t get to sit down & visit since everyone is generally busy this time of year!  So we really enjoyed the evening and the wedding was a success!

Sunday we had dinner with his family, as that was the last day that his sisters would be in town.  Both of them flew out Monday back home.  I was off on Monday also, and it was nice to be able to recuperate from the weekend wedding festivities!  Wesley and I moved some cows together that morning after getting up, then we worked around the house and around the ranch that afternoon.  And now its back to work!

Oh I must add…Sunday we went to a local roping here in Forsyth for our Rodeo club we are a part of (Wesley roped, I handled the books & entries for the club) and I was so proud of Wesley!!!  He pulled a check (placed) in every single roping, and even got a check for 1^st place fast go in the first roping!  I couldn’t have been more excited to see him out there doing so well!  He’s an amazing roper, and he’s a great teacher for me as well!