Weaning & Processing

As another weekend approaches I feel like we are still recovering from last weekend!  Saturday morning started out early for Wesley & I as we had to go to Sheridan, Wyoming to pick up calves for his Mom & Dad.  Wesley took a pickup & trailer, I took a pickup & trailer, and our cattle rep took one as well.  Sheridan is about 2 hours from the ranch and we had to be down there at 8:30 AM, so we were up by 5:30 to get everything ready to go.  We returned with our loads about noon on Saturday, and after telling our cattle rep good-bye & catching a quick bite to eat for lunch, we set out to process the calves.  When you “process” incoming calves you’re doing a bunch of things.  We brand all of them, give them 3 vaccines to keep them healthy throughout the winter, and make sure they aren’t looking a bit sickly from the weaning process since these guys just got weaned from their Momma’s the day before we pick them up.  That in itself can be traumatic on a calf that isn’t feeling the best already.  We had 50 head to work that day, and it took Wesley and I about an hour & a half to work them all.  After we worked them & pitched them up some hay to munch on, we headed home to take showers & attend Jack’s 2^nd birthday party.  First things first, we had to get his birthday present still!  We got him some Dr. Seuss books (the cardboard/thick books) and a nice new ranch play set complete with livestock, an 18 wheeler with a cattle pot, a pickup & trailer, windmill, 2 barns, and panels.  He LOVED it and we were so glad he did!  After he opened our present he didn’t want any other ones, but we showed him that there were fun surprises in all the other presents too.  He also wanted his Tippy & Wes all night long.  He loved showing Wesley everything he got in each present & piling all his goodies in Wesley’s lap.  It was too cute! 

After the birthday cake & present opening festivities took place the adults settled in for a fun game of Cranium.  We.  Had.  A.  BLAST!  The ladies totally dominated & kicked the men’s behinds!  We are such a competitive bunch too…its quite funny what antics we come up with in order for the other to be distracted or trying to secretly cheat.  Good times!

Sunday Wesley & I headed to Billings to do a little Christmas shopping (early) and I needed a new pair of flats to wear to work.  We got everything on our list accomplished & headed out of town just as the rain was coming.  We got home that evening & made sure the calves had hay & water, the chickens were fed & collected the eggs, the horses were turned out, the dogs were fed & put up for the evening, and then finally got back to our house that night.  We had a long day Sunday because we got up early to head to Billings & didn’t get home until late, but we were so thankful we had Monday off to relax & rest.  And that’s exactly what we did!  I was off for Columbus day & Wesley was off because it was raining outside, so we hung out together & made a nice big pot of chili to go with the cold temperatures outside.  It was so nice to hang out with my husband on a “work day”!  We are so looking forward to our mini-vacation coming up for our anniversary weekend in November!  We’re staying 3 nights in a suite (complete with Jacuzzi tub & double fireplace!) in Deadwood, South Dakota!  We need the vacation badly again & can’t wait to just relax!!

Alas, another work week is upon us and we have another busy weekend ahead of us this weekend.  We are starting the weaning process of all our babies around the ranch this weekend (today, in fact) so we will be busy weaning our own calves this weekend.  Then we have to help the neighbor gather & ship his calves on Saturday morning.  Sunday I hope to get a lot of cleaning done around my house.  We are having company come in a few weeks and I have no time between now & then to get my house in order so that is definitely on the agenda for this Sunday!

Finally, I feel like I can “officially” talk about this on my blog – but for those readers who weren’t aware of this until now – my sister & brother-in-law are expecting their first child in April.  I can’t believe I’ll be an Auntie to 2 beautiful children within a year of each other!  We are so excited to meet Kaegan in December (Katy & Jason’s little princess) and can’t wait to find out the gender of our newest niece/nephew in December!!

And one last note, please keep all the ranchers in South Dakota in your prayers.  The snow storm that hit that state a couple weeks ago has had devastating effects on their herd numbers & we are only now starting to get preliminary estimates on the amount of cattle lost in that storm due to snow drifts being 20-30 feet high or more.  Some estimates are as high as 100,000 head lost.  One rancher lost half of his herd, and someone else had 30 head of horses before the storm & only 6 survived.  There are many ways to help these communities both in prayer & monetarily.  To read more about the losses please visit www.northernag.net and scroll thru their articles on the left of their page.  To donate to their relief fund please go to www.giveblackhills.org and type in “Rancher Relief Fund”.