Midwest Storms

We had a thunderstorm come through a couple weeks ago that did some damage. The inch of rain we got that night washed out our parking lot (the auto gate was full of dirt).
The real damage was from the hail. Jason's work pickup is a little dented,

but the hail must have been worse out at our cows. The two solar panels really got beat up. Some of the hail stones went all the way through the panels. So currently they are only pumping half as much water as they should. But at least we are past the hottest part of the year, so they should be alright until he can get them fixed.

Good News and Bad News

The good news: our gopher population has gone down.


The bad news: snakes are the reason the gopher population went down.


We've always had snakes, just not this big and not climbing on my front door. This bull snake was at least four feet long and must have been trying to get to a nest. I am more careful when I open that door now.

Luckily, we don't have rattle snakes on the Pawlet Unit for some reason. But they are everywhere else, including the McGinley. Joslyn (currently living on the McGinley) was taking a nap on her couch and woke up to a rattle snake in her living room (the siding was off their house because it had asbestos). I'm pretty nervous about moving down there now. I guess I won't be able to just send the boys outside without checking the yard out first. We have been told that the guinea hen eats snakes and there is someone in our branch who owns some, so hopefully we will get some and be able to keep the snakes out of our yard. I am also considering pigs if the snakes are too bad. I really don't like snakes.

Meet the Bagleys

Hello from Nebraska! I've finally joined the blogging bandwagon. We live on a ranch in the Sandhills of Nebraska. And although it isn't the farm of my past,

or the mountains of Jason's past,

we love this cattle country. It's been great to experience new country, different people, and cattle on a huge scale. The ranch we work on (Rex Ranch) is an 11,000+ head cow/calf operation. Jason has a herd of 670 3-year olds, but next spring we will calve 1050 first calf heifers. We live an hour from the closest grocery store, gas station, and church, and 16 auto gates (cattle guards) from a two lane road.

Kache is four and loves to go to work with Jason. He's a good big brother. He'll beat anyone up who tries to pick on Ryder. He likes to tell Dallie the fun things she will get to do when she gets bigger and she always has a smile for him. He likes to move cows with Jason on his own horse, and also ride the 4-wheeler by himself.

Ryder is two. He loves nursery and his nursery leaders love him. He also loves to go working and riding Roxy with Jason. He is always dirty. We love his blonde curly hair.

Dallie is a month old. She weighed 6 lbs 12 oz when she was born and now she is 9 lbs 3 oz. She is smiling and loves bath time.