Getting a Little Cool again!

[Been There]

I always liked to have the thermometer where the morning sun could hit it.
Didn't make it any warmer but it is kind of a psychological thing, fools your mind into thinking it should be warmer.

[efb]

I enjoy hearing about your weather. I lived in SD for 7 winters and traveled the Dakotas, Montana and Wyo so I know what your weather feels like. I live in NE Texas now. It was 32, grey and damp when I went out to feed this morning. Now I know you think this is childs play, but I want you to know that the dampness here makes it a different ballgame. That dampness just goes right through you. It got down to 16 here last week which is pretty cold for here and I had to chop ice for the cows. Don't usually have to do that too often. Anyway, the coldest I have been in was -35 in Grand Forks, ND. I don't know how you raise livestock in that kind of weather. I heard Stevensons Angus say they calve in January. Do they do all their calving indoors ??

[Hanta Yo]

[Oldtimer]

efb- Any that calve up here in January and February "lot calve"...That is they have their cattle in a big lot and if the weather is cold or bad they about live with the cows taking in and warming calves...Some even have a barn system set up like the old lambing jug system-- several pens in the barn which they put all new calvers in and rotate them thru pens during the night (or day)--kick them out when the calves are dry and have sucked-- Once they get dry and have a full belly those calves can handle pretty cold weather....Can be hell when 30 calves are all born on a 20 below night in a blizzard......

But I'm too lazy to do all that- Calving in March & April can be bad enough sometimes..

[Soapweed]

[Denny]

Last spring we had the vet out it was the middle of Febuary.I asked him if he was getting busy he said not really.He said you guys that calve early can handle most anything its the april may calveing folks that make him work no facilities just a rope and a flashlight.Now I know alot of people who calve later are plenty able but many are not..

Anyone want to come for a visit Feb 7th I have 40 heifers we syncronized and AIed due then.There bagging up now.

[efb]

Talking about blizzards and loosing cattle, I'm currently reading a book about the XIT ranch in W. TX (& Montana). It said they had a bad blizzard in 1887 I think it was that killed up to 60% of the cattle. The cowboys that were out on the range with the cattle went to skinning them after the 3 day storm broke. Said they could only skin those that were still alive but down. They cut their throat and skinned them while they were still warm. Those that were dead and frozen could'nt be skinned. That must have been pretty tough. The weather must have been colder then. I have spent a lot of time in W. TX for the last 20 years and I don't think they have had any weather close to that.

[Oldtimer]

Well FH's warm weather finally hit here...Was 15 below yesterday morning and warmed up to 20 above by the afternoon...Today its already up to 30-supposed to get in the mid 40's tommorrow-I see along the Missouri in the chinook zone everyplace is already in the 40's and 50's with 25 to 50 mph winds-- That will cut some snow and save on the hay...

[greg]

We're at 51F this morn.....maybe a wiener roast in order for Xmas eve,no sliegh ride though

[theHiredMansWife]

It said they had a bad blizzard in 1887 I think it was that killed up to 60% of the cattle.

The entire northern high plains had a horrid winter that year. It wiped out a lot of the cattle barons and essentially ended the days of open range.

PS: We're supposed to have mid50s for this weekend.

[Faster horses]

Behold a Pale Horse

by Mike Logan

Montana 1886.
A pale horse first appears
White shadow on a drought-struck range.
The coldest fall in years.

That horse he was first sighted
Up north on Crooked Creek
The day the year's worst storm blew in
And howled for more'n a week.

He seemed some awful phantom
Some harbringer of doom.
That pale horse lopin' cold and guant
Through winter's gatherin' gloom.

Most outfits wintered cows that year
That usu'lly they'd 'a sold,
'Cause cattle prices dropped so far
That cowmen chanced the cold.

He ghosted down the Musselshell
Behind a warm chinook
Froze sheaths of ice on all the grass
With just one pale-eyed look.

That horse loped towards the Judith
And filled the range with dread.
'Cause where he went, great blizzards struck
And whole cow herds lay dead.

He worked his evil cross the plains
And up the Little Dry
Wreaked havoc as he passed that way.
More herds lay down to die.

It got to where, to cut his track
Filled cowmen's heart with fear
As coulees clogged with starvin' cows
That grim and direful year.

Cowhands lost toes and fingers
As they fought to save their herds.
The sight of cattle dyin' slow
Was pain too fierce for words.

That horse's passin' iced the streams
And thirst-crazed steers broke through
And drowned as others pushed 'em in.
Weren't nothing man could do.

When spring it finally came that year
Old timers still take vows
That men could walk for miles and miles
On carcasses of cows.

The Hell that followed with that horse
Was in the eyes of men
Who'd rolled the dice with nature
And seen their life's dreams end.

The called it The Hard Winter.
It blew the winds of change.
When death he rode a pale horse
And killed the open range.

[Been There]

I think it was J. Frank Dobie that wrote of the heartbreak, during the terrible winter of 1886 - 87, of longhorn steers bunched on the leeward side of a cabin, looking in the window and lowing, as if begging for feed, and knowing nothing could be done to help them.