McGinley

It's finally official. The Rex Ranch owns the McGinley Ranch. We've been trying to buy it for over a year and it has finally happened. It's a good thing too because we already have the cattle to stock it. While my mom was here this summer she did some research on the McGinley Ranch and the original owner. We found pictures of the family, home and ranch yard. We haven't figured out when the big house was built, but we figure it had to be in the 30s. It's amazing how the grass and trees have grown. I can't imagine what the wind storms would have been like back then...they would have been more like sand storms.

So I am moving into an 80-year-old house and one can tell it is 80-years-old. It has green 70s carpet, nasty kitchen, scary basement, old, leaky roof, mice, and rattle snakes (snakes not in the house). Sometime I wonder what I am getting myself into. Right now I live in a 3-year-old house. We are the second family to live in it. Everything is new, it's clean, it has four bathrooms, a master suite, nice location, no mice, no rattle snakes.... Really, why are we moving?

Here are the reasons:

1. We don't have a choice. Well, we did; it was either move to the McGinley or down to Blue Creek (another brand new house, but no yard, no out buildings and another 30 minutes from anywhere).

2. We are getting a new kitchen in the McGinley house. Under the green carpet are hardwood floors. It has pretty windows (old, but pretty), pretty wood trim and moldings, six bedrooms - this house had to have been quite the house back in its day, especially for its location. It has a nice, established yard with trees, and I think once we move down there and have all our cats, dogs, hopefully chickens and guniea hens we won't have a problem with snakes in the yard.

3. There are great out-buildings there. A new shop, a calving barn, a 100-year-old horse barn, nice corrals, a bunk house and intern house.

4. We will be 30 minutes closer to our doctors and Walmart.

So we are moving down to the McGinley. I don't allow myself to think about the things I am giving up by moving. I am excited to work on that house; I wish we could restore it to what it was originally (do you think "This Old House" would come out?), but it's probably not worth the money. I'm posting pictures of "Now and Then"; I'm just not sure when the "Then" was. I'll post more pictures of the house later when we start the remodel.

Doesn't it remind you of a scene from the Wizard of Oz? I guess anything black and white reminds me of the Wizard of Oz.

Work

We helped Jason move calves the other day. I drove the Unimogg and Kache and Jason rode behind to keep the calves moving. The mogg was/is a European military vehicle that we now use to feed our cattle instead of a tractor. It has its benefits (like enough room for our whole family), but we're looking forward to having a tractor when we get down to the McGinley.

The mogg. It isn't easy to get into when a person is nine months pregnant.

We had to take the calves through a couple of pastures, so it took a couple of hours, and no, it isn't easy to nurse a baby while driving the mogg through the Sandhills. But we survived and Dallie did really good, better than Kache and Ryder (they had gone out earlier in the morning with Jason to move the cows so they were already tired).

My two helpers. Yes, Ryder is hanging out the window asleep.


Jason's helpers. Kache is riding "Prince". It's amazing how patient that horse is with Kache. When Jason took me on my first (and only) pack trip I rode Prince. The only reason I didn't cry (out of fear) was because we were with three other couples. Jason regretted putting me on Prince because he wasn't a "beginner's horse". Yet, look at my four-year-old. I'm just not a horsewoman, I would like to be, but I'm not. My mom grew up on a ranch and she isn't a horsewoman either. Her reason is justifiable, however. When she was young a horse took her through an open sewer. That's enough to give one a bad taste in their mouth.

My view from the driver's seat. That round, silver thing in the bottom, right corner is the siren. This is how we call the cattle.

This is looking like a good move. The calves are actually following. Once we got out of this pasture on to fresh feed however, it all went down hill.

This is what we call a traffic jam. We're always glad when we don't meet up with any oncoming vehicles.

Jason and Kache bringing up the rear.

Ryder got to ride after we were all finished and headed back home.

I'm lucky Jason is patient with me when I go out to help. I don't understand his hand signals so I don't know what he wants me to do or where to go, so I get frustrated and I figure he has to be as well, but when we're all done, he's very grateful for my help and never seems upset.

Dallie

Dallie is two months old. She isn't sleeping through the night like Kache was at this age, but she is getting closer. She's smiling a lot, even at Jason now. She no longer screams like she used to, in fact, she hardly cries at all. She's a good sport when we go out to work with Jason. She has lots of reasons to cry: not being fed when she wants, the rough ride, the wind and sun on her, but she bears it well. These pictures were taken a couple weeks ago, so she has changed a little (she no longer looks like a newborn).

Grandma hair

I love watching Paula Deen on the cooking channel. I think she's funny and I like most of her recipes (must be all the butter she uses). Ryder thinks she is Grandma Yielson (Grandma Nielson). It must be her grandma hair (or the fact that she uses so much butter). Wyatt (my nephew) once asked his mom if he could have some "grandma hair pie" (referring to the meringue on the top of a lemon meringue pie).

Kache

Are all little boys like this? Whenever I take pictures of Kache he has to have a cheesy look on his face.

Kache has really been a good helper for Jason this summer. They've built miles of electric fence and Jason said that Kache is really helpful. I actually haven't ever built electric fence here so I don't know what exactly he is doing, but I imagine small things like driving the four-wheeler, carrying fence posts, or carrying the pins that hold the wire to the post. Whatever it is Jason has Kache go along with him everytime he fences.

Kache has been a good helper for me too. He sings and talks to Dallie, gives her her pacifier, and lets me know when she is hungry. I don't like Ryder to go outside unless Kache is with him. He also loves to help me with household chores. It's amazing how mature a 4-year old can be when he chooses.

Weaning calves

Here are some pictures of weaning our calves last Friday. This is one of those weeks (along with the last calf born during calving season, the day after our branding, our preg check in October, and when the calves are finally shipped off in November) when Jason can breathe a sigh of relief. I can also breathe a sigh of relief because I don't have to worry about cooking for the guys for another month. The weaning meal isn't as scary as a branding meal. When we wean we only have eight guys at the most, when at a branding you can have as many as 50 people.

Jason taking down numbers and weights, Harry running the hydraulic squeeze.

Kache (in the background) and Monte (the neighbor) and Ryder helping move the calves down the alleyway.

Feeding the guys in the rain.

We keep the cows in a neighboring pasture for a couple of days so the calves can still find their mothers across the fence - it is less stressful for them this way. Now we cake the calves every day until they get loaded on the truck in November.

Correction

I had Jason read my blog about the lost heifers (just to make sure I got the facts right) and I have to make a correction. The lost 12 heifers are still lost. The ones we took down to the cull herd were ones that didn't meet the shipping weight. So we are still short 12 heifers. It isn't unheard of to lose cows out here. Last year someone on the Eldred Unit lost 50 - and five of those are still lost.

Caking

A few weeks before we wean our calves, we start caking them. This is so the cows show their calves to come to the call of the siren. After the calves are weaned, we continue caking them so they gain weight.

Sometimes Jason hand feeds the cows. This is how they become his pets.

These three are a few of Jason's pets. They follow him around and try to eat the cake out of his pockets. 54/641 is Oprah. She has started to bite if you don't feed her.

Lost

We went with Jason the other day to haul some open heifers to a cull herd. This spring Jason was taking care of 950 stocker heifers, and when they got shipped off to a feed lot this summer, we were short 12. These heifers had probably covered 30 miles in 6 months, and given how many there were and the terrain, it is possible to lose a few. So anyway, they were found (along with some of the neighbor's cows) and will be shipped out this week with the culls.

The boys and I love going with Jason, especially when we just get to go for a ride. We are getting to the point where we don't fit comfortably in the pickup any more. But going with Jason is worth being uncomfortable. We only have one more year of freedom (one more year before Kache goes to school) to be able to go with Jason so we take every chance we get.

Notice how the cattle already in the pasture come running when they see the red pickup. This is because they get caked from a red pickup. (Cake is a supplement we feed cattle to fatten them up or during the winter months when their feed isn't so good. They love it.)

Classifieds

FREE: 10 cats and a dog.

Our female cat has had two batches of kittens this year. This last batch she had in a 5-gallon bucket that has horseshoes in it. I tried to put them in the dog house (the dogs don't use it) but she just keeps moving them back to the bucket. I'm glad we are moving to a place with lots of out-buildings so all these cats can will have a place to live and hunt. Next spring when the vet students come we will have them spay all our females.

We also want to get rid of a dog. He's good with cats (see picture below) and kids, but he's not a good cow dog and he teaches our other dog bad habits. And he chases his tail...a lot.

Front door

So there was a little confusion about the snake on our front door. I am posting a picture of our front door so you know how far off the ground the snake got. It was wrapped around the door handle and I'm just glad Ryder didn't open the door a let the thing in.