Summer is just peeking around the corner and the ranch is a busy beehive of activity right now. Rows of freshly cut grass fill the fields, bales are being picked up day by day and Dev's little turnips are poking their heads out. After winter dragged its feet leaving the scene, it feels like the [...]
Category: cows
Calving… (warning, graphic images)
Dad and I had just finished feeding the various herds yesterday (the cows are divided into at least 6 different fields of various sizes - and the horses are in another) when he got a text from Dev saying there was a heifer having trouble, and we'd most likely have to pull the calf. It's [...]
Inside the Chase
It's hard to describe the feeling of a cattle drive when it's about to start, but it's one of the best. You never know what's going to happen, how the cows will behave, and exactly what you'll need to do with your horse to keep the cows in line. Its anticipation and butterflies, a little [...]
Summer Beginnings
It's that time of year again. When the cows need to get pushed up the range where they happily munch their way back down to us... over and over again. The weather switches from sunny and hot -- to pouring rain in a blink. The fields are vibrantly green and the big new pivot makes [...]
The beginnings of Spring
Only a couple weeks ago we were knee deep in snow, and I was taking photos of the fog and the cold winterscape. Calves were snuggled up in the barn against the cold, and feeding the cows was the one major focus of the whole farm. It was a bit like an old country [...]
In the long, long winter
As I sit here at my computer, trying to find something new to share with you, the sun is splashing here and there outside my window in funny little shapes and splotches. It looks like it's dancing with the shadows, teasing the spindly branches of all the trees that huddle together against the wind, pouring [...]
In the Cold Snap
The sun is bright and stretching across the snow in glittering, sparkly gold this week. It's a deceiving light, a warm glow through the window, a cheery, welcoming, blue-skied kind of look that almost makes you think of spring. However... it's so cold outside the door, if you wrinkle your nose, the wrinkles stay put [...]
Sorting
These days the cold has a more of a slap than a snap to it. It's not quite the freezing, turn your cheeks to stone kind of cold - but one that reminds you very clearly that Winter is coming. The hair on the cows is all thick and burly, and the calves are getting [...]
When family comes to visit…
Normally, it takes one person to lead a pony, but as you can see from the above photo, it takes at least three when the cousins come to town. The more hands on the lead rope the better. Some of the best parts of farming are when family or friends come to visit. Everything that [...]