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! 

Gambling, Merle, and Walking Hand in Hand

We had such a fun weekend last weekend and can’t wait for this weekend.  The weather has been gorgeous here so we are really enjoying being outside spending time with each other and seeing all the new babies born around the ranch.  Friday afternoon we noticed a cow having trouble “remembering” which baby was hers, so we brought her and the baby in so she can get used to her baby’s smell and know which one belonged to her.  We gave the baby a bottle of milk since she was just born, and I, of course, had to do the honors!  I love feeding the babies bottles!  She ate all of her bottle, and the next day was nursing from her Mom so that was a great sign!
 
Saturday morning we woke up about 7 AM and decided to take a trip to Deadwood, South Dakota.  If you haven’t heard of Deadwood you should Google it…it’s an amazingly fun little town in South Dakota about 3 hours from home.  We stayed at a very nice hotel/casino right on main street.  Deadwood is a tiny gambling town and their main street is filled with different casino’s you can pop in and out of and do some gambling!  We got there a little before noon on Saturday, checked in to our hotel, and headed down to main street walking hand in hand for some gambling fun!  Wesley loves playing the black jack tables, and I love slot machines (penny machine’s to be exact…my Meemaw would be proud) so we found a casino we both liked and had at it!  We had some luck that afternoon, then went back to our hotel to change clothes for the evening and head down to a crab & prime rib buffet at another casino on the “strip”.  Before doing so we found a flyer that had some upcoming concert dates for Deadwood, and purchased tickets to see Merle Haggard in the middle of July!!  We are EXTREMELY excited and cannot wait to go back and see him this summer!  That evening we went back for more gambling at various casinos, and broke even.  Before heading back to the hotel that night we picked up a made-to-order brick oven pizza and called it a night.  Sunday morning we got up & ate breakfast at a restaurant owned by Kevin Costner.  It was delicious!  And the restaurant has some awesome memorabilia from the movies he’s been in to look at as well.  After breakfast we headed back to our hotel to do a little more gambling before heading home.  We won a little more that morning, then packed up and headed out about 11 AM.  We had the absolute best time together.  We were both extremely sad that our weekend ended so soon and can’t wait until tomorrow at 5 so we have another weekend to spend together!

This week around the ranch it was more of the same.  We went around tagging newborn babies in the evenings when I’d get off work.  Monday evening we got a little rain shower which was really nice.  We need more of it!  This weekend we are going to go to Miles City on Friday to get a few things, then hang out around the ranch the rest of the weekend.  Saturday we will practice roping, I’m sure.  Sunday is supposed to be pretty crappy weather and if so we are going to hang out in the house and watch movies all day. 
 
Have a fabulous weekend!!

New Life

With the Spring season comes new life around the ranch.  Here are pictures of our first babies born this calving season!

A Weeks Worth of Updates

What a busy week we had last week!  It started Monday with the spaying of about 100 head of heifers.  After they were done, I got home, changed, and to the ranch just in time to trail them back out to a pasture east of the ranch.  Then when we got back from trailing them we practiced roping on “Buford” the steer some.  Tuesday it was more of the same, with trailing out some steers to another pasture.  We had a few more babies pop up out at the ranch, and of course I had to go out and kiss and love on them while they were still somewhat “immobile” and wouldn’t grab 3 gears on me and take off!  I got some good pictures of the precious calves, and will either share them in this blog, or the next one.  We are not in full swing with regard to calving just yet, but we will be here in the next few weeks. 
 
Friday when I got off work we ran to Miles City to get some more ear tags for our baby calves, and to get Jiggs some dog food.  Then of course we had to run to Wal-Mart and pick up some things we needed there as well.  We ended the evening with eating dinner in Rosebud at the Longhorn.  It was excellent, once again!  We really enjoy eating there…the small town atmosphere and home cooked food…you can’t beat it!
 
This weekend we were going non-stop on Saturday.  We got up and fed, then we had to go fix fence on the west end of the ranch where the steer calves had torn it down…and boy were they some destructive little things!  That took Wesley and me about 3 hours to fix, and then we put up a hot wire so they couldn’t cross the fence anymore and tear things up.  Once the fence was fixed we managed to get in most of the steers that had gotten out into the wrong pasture.  Then we came in to eat a little lunch, and I made a trial run of cheesecake to start practicing for his sister Christi’s wedding.  That afternoon we spent roping on the ranch’s new toy – “Smarty” the steer.  It’s a dummy steer that can be pulled behind a 4 wheeler…and boy was it fun!!  We spent a good 3-4 hours all taking turns running the 4-wheeler, and then practicing roping on our horses.  We all had a great time both roping and running the 4-wheeler.  I’ve got some pretty awesome teachers to help me learn to rope, and it makes the learning process so much easier for me.  And now with the addition of this steer, we’ll be able to practice a lot so I can continue to learn and improve!
 
Saturday evening we had Moo Moo and David over for dinner, and to have a cheesecake taste testing.  We grilled sirloin and rib steaks, and I made some oven cubed potatoes (the easiest things ever to make, and they are delicious!), and green bean casserole.  Then we brought out the dessert.  Everyone thought the cheesecake tasted great, so we have our winning recipe for the wedding!  It’s a really good no bake cheesecake, which will be great so neither Moo Moo nor I have to be in the house baking cheesecakes…we just mix them and let them set. 
 
Sunday we weren’t as busy, but it was a fun day none the less.  We fed that morning, then moved some irrigation tubes, and set out for a nice drive around the ranch.  Wesley took me to some places on the ranch that I hadn’t seen before, and the views from the different peaks around the ranch were amazing!  You could see forever it seemed like, and it was just gorgeous.  We drove around for about 2 hours and then came in for some lunch before heading back out that afternoon.  We ended up taking a nap after lunch, which was much needed for the both of us!  Once we got up we went out for a ride to bring in some cows to sell this week at the auction barn, and of course finished off the afternoon by roping “smarty” the steer.  We planned on roping for only about 30 minutes…but it ended up being over an hour!  Time flies when you are roping that thing…it really does!  Then we came home Sunday evening and grilled steaks for supper, then relaxed the rest of the evening.  We had a busy weekend, and we needed some relaxation! 

The weather here today is pretty darn dreary, and this morning it was snowing pretty good on my way in to work.  It has stopped now, but we are expected to get more moisture (either rain or rain/snow mix) this afternoon.  The temperature has dropped quite a bit from this weekend.  We were in the middle 70’s on Saturday and Sunday, and we are only at 38 today!  But, its March in Montana…you can’t expect anything less than what’s going on now with the weather!  The rest of the week looks to be gorgeous again, and we need the moisture in the ground, so we will take it!  We hope everyone has a great week and I’ll get those pictures of our babies up soon!!