The Cowboy Way

Last weekend I experienced my first branding for our neighbors up the creek.  For my first branding I believe things went pretty well!  Friday evening when I got home it was raining (thank GOD, although it didn’t last long) so Wesley fed my babies for me and we headed home to make supper and relax since we had to get up really early the next morning for the branding.

Saturday we got up at 5 am, I made breakfast, and we headed to the ranch to catch & saddle horses for the branding.  We got to the neighbors ranch about 7:00, and headed out to round up the cattle about 7:30.  It was a cool morning on Saturday, but ended up being a beautiful day in the end.  We gathered the first bunch of cattle, and then it was on to the good stuff!  Everyone is on horseback and split up to bring the cattle to the branding grounds.  Wesley and I went one way to gather some, and the others another way…you get the picture.  We sort off some (but not all) of the mother cows, then we start roping one by one the calves so they can be branded.  There are 2 people who rope the baby calves, a couple who are in charge of the branding irons & branding, one in charge of cutting the bull calves (to make them steers for anyone that needed a bit more clarification on that subject – ask my sister about this.  Wesley gave her a good description of what goes on when she asked him.  I think she got more than she asked for.  Haha!), two people are in charge of vaccinations, then you have about 4 people who are the calf wranglers (the people who will actually keep the calves still in order for them to be branded, vaccinated, & cut if necessary).  The process of branding a couple hundred head of calves is quite amazing and works like a well-oiled machine.  The way we do things up here, the Cowboy way, is the last of a dying breed it seems and the heritage behind the brandings dates back all the way to when the first Texans brought cattle from Texas up to Montana to settle the land up here.  Ok, enough history lessons.  Wesley was in charge of roping on the first pen we branded, then he was in charge of cutting the second pen.  I didn’t do much this time because it was my first branding, so I just helped gather cattle & watched so I’d know what to do next time.  This particular branding took a lot longer than “normal” brandings take, because we had to gather 2 sets of cattle in 2 different pastures, and ended up missing about 30 head that we had to go back & look for, and then brand once we found them.  After the branding is over, everyone heads back to the house (of the ranch that you just got done branding for) and has lunch together before heading back home.  Since we had to go back & find that 30 head, we didn’t get home until about 4:30 pm on Saturday.  Normally you get home about 1:00 but that’s the way it goes sometimes.  Wesley and I also had some cattle delivered that we needed to brand & cut before turning them out with our others, so we took care of them right quick, then loaded them in the trailer & took them up to the pasture to be turned out with the others.  After doing all of this it was about 6:30 when we finally got home that afternoon.  Needless to say, we did not go to the bucking horse sale on Saturday!  We were exhausted!

Sunday we got up and worked on our house some more.  We finished scraping the house, and got most of the caulking done on the outside.  After that we decided we’d go to Miles City to check out the Bucking Horse Sale, and we had to get a few things from Wal Mart anyway.  We got to town about 12:45 and it was packed!  So, we decided we’d just go to the trade show, and not into the Bucking Horse Sale, then run our errands & come home.  We found some good stuff at the trade show!  I got this beautiful sign that says our last name (or my soon to be last name) spelled out in picture letters for our home…we love it!  It is framed nicely & everything.  Then we went to Wal-Mart, and had a nice (early) supper at Rib & Chop.  We were able to get home about 6:30 so I could feed the babies, then we turned in for an early evening.  We were still recuperating from being on the go all day Saturday, so it was nice to come in & rest Sunday evening!

We continued to work on our house this week, and are going to paint it this weekend (or early next week).  We have our ranch branding this Saturday, but there is a good chance of rain this weekend, so if we get rained out we surely won’t mind!  We need the moisture badly!!  Then we have another neighbors branding next Thursday.   And next Saturday, his sister Christi gets married here on the ranch!  We have another busy week/weekend ahead of us!! 

We hope everyone has a great week & pray for rain for us!!

Home Improvements & More

The weather has been gorgeous (although a bit windy at times), so we have been soaking up the sun outside in the afternoons.  We planted about 90 trees around our property and it takes quite a while to get them all watered, so we have been doing that every couple days during the week.  Friday when I got off work I went and fed my little ones, then filmed Wesley practicing roping.  I’m still learning all about my new camera and play with the settings all the time.  Saturday we got up and went to Miles City to pick up a few more things that we needed for the house, went to lunch, and came home to work around the house that afternoon.  I also got a new comforter set when I was in town and we really like it!  We watered the trees Saturday evening, and replaced some boards around the house so that we can start painting soon. 

Sunday we got up and had a nice breakfast together, then got dressed and headed off to Miles City to go watch the horses races they have every year for Mother’s Day.  We had a blast with each other at the horse races!  We bet on every race, and won some and lost some, so we broke even.  It was a lot of fun and we can’t wait to go again this coming weekend.  Sunday evening we took Moo Moo out to dinner at the Longhorn in Rosebud for Mother’s day.  Her and David met us there after we were done at the races.  We had a nice Mother’s Day dinner with them, and gave Moo Moo her Mother’s day gift (a new purse).  We sent my Mom her Mother’s day gift earlier in the week so she could enjoy it on her special day.  We sent her a really pretty “bling” Montana Silversmith’s bracelet.  Both Mom’s loved their gifts so we were very happy about that!! 

Wesley has a few brandings this week to go to, then we will both go to one on Saturday morning for one of our neighbors.  Then after the branding we are heading to Miles City to go to the Bucking Horse Sale.  This is a World Famous bucking horse sale where stock contractors come in & buy these bucking horses to buck at rodeos.  They have horse races, wild horse races, the bucking horse sale, vendors, and a street dance after the sale.  I’m really looking forward to going to this with Wesley…he said it’s a lot of fun; and if it is anything like last weekend was we are going to have a great time!  Sunday we’ll go back to Miles City again for the horse races and the match bronc riding.  It’s a pretty big deal around these parts.  Its equivalent to the Washington County Fair for all of my Texas readers!  Ok ok...maybe the Houston Livestock Show & Rodeo...but we in Washington County think they are about on the same scale :)  We’ve got a pretty busy next few weekends so we are definitely going to be ready for the second weekend in June where we can actually have a break from the non-stop go & go weekends.  But, we have so much fun together that it really doesn’t matter what we are doing so long as we are together.

I’ve still been practicing my roping, and trying to get better & better at it!  Hopefully (maybe) I’ll be able to share some pictures of me in the act soon.  I still owe y’all pictures of my babies too!  More home improvements are being done throughout the week, and after we've replaced the boards & such we are going to paint!  Pretty soon our house will not even look like the same house we started with.  We'll definitely be glad to have the improvements done though...and we'll be proud of ourselves when we've finished them.

Have a fantastic week!!

A busy few weeks!

We have had a pretty busy last few weeks.  Two weekends ago it rained all weekend long…and boy did we need it!  We were very thankful to have the rain.  We needed to go to Billings to get a few things, and had some horses to put in a sale they had going on there, so Wesley & I loaded up the truck & trailer & headed to Billings for the day on the last Saturday in April.  We were literally in Billings all day long!  We took the horses to the auction barn, headed to the mall, went to Home Depot, Old Navy, ate lunch, and finally started to head home.  Sunday we spent most of the day indoors since it rained the whole day, but did go out to check on the last of the heifers that needed to calve.  I’m happy to say that we are now done calving, and branding season here we come!    The next weekend was devoted to doing home improvement projects around the house.  We had to go to Miles City Saturday to get some lumber, and what do you know…it rained again!  Oh well…we were thankful for the moisture.  So last Sunday we spent the entire day working outside on the house.  We had to replace a few trim boards, put flooring in our porch, measure the windows so we can frame them, and we still have to paint the house.  Oh and don’t forget we have to seal all the windows first before painting…YAY!  Oh well…we are looking forward to the house being fixed up and finished.  We have to scrape the paint first, then paint it with a new color.  This fall we are going to put new flooring in the house, then I believe we will be done fixing it up!  We’re excited…but know we have a lot of work ahead of us.  Wesley has a few “man caves” out on our place as well, and we are also working on fixing those up.  We are painting them the same color of the house, then going to put new doors on them.  Then his man caves will be complete!  The tool set that Clint & Sarah gave us for Christmas/house warming is really coming in handy with all these home improvements!!   Today is my baby sister’s 24th birthday.  I’m sad we aren’t there to celebrate with her, but know she will have a great birthday with our family & the Jacob’s.  Happy Birthday Sissy!!   This weekend we are going to go to a roping in Billings.  Wesley is roping, I’m just watching this one & going to be the “official” photographer.  I’m excited to use my camera at a roping, and more excited to see Wesley get out there & kick some butt!!  We’re practicing all week this week to prepare for Saturday’s roping.  Sunday, if we aren’t in the short go (and by “we” I mean Wesley…haha) we will be going to Miles City with his parents to watch the horse races & celebrate Mother’s Day.    My babies are still doing well.  We started them on milk replacement pellets and I’m surprised (and proud) to say that they have actually been trying to eat them…YAY!  So proud of them!  But they still love their milk bottles too.  I’m starting to notice that they are really starting to grow so that is a great sign as well!   We’d like to also recognize the two wonderful Mother’s that we have in our lives – my Mom Kim, and his Mom Jewel.  They are both amazing women and we are so blessed & lucky to have both of them in our lives.  They truly are the “World’s Greatest Mom’s”.  We love you both and we hope you both have the Mother’s Day you both deserve!!!   Love,   Tiffany & Wesley

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!