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Good Old Montana Weather

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Yesterday we broke records all over northeast Montana-temps in the 80-85 range...76 and beautiful today--But they are predicting a snowstorm with 2-3 inches of snow for tomorrow night and temps down in the 20's...No wonder my arthritis don't know whether to hurt or not... Good thing is they say the storm "could" bring in over an inch of moisture....

This one might even find rancher.....
 
OT,

According to DTN we see it coming your way. 1-2" moisture. Lucky you. Looks like it will go south, then north of us. Hopefully not. The good moisture we received last couple weeks is getting sucked out of the ground awfully fast because of the wind. I used to curse the weather years ago because I couldn't get my yards mowed. Boy, do I kick myself from doing that!!! Oh, well, I was a city girl and didn't understand a lot of things but I do now. :shock: :shock:
Have a great weekend.
 
The wind has been howling today and downright cold...right outta the north!!! bozeman forecast is for 80% chance of snow tonight and snow/rain tomorrow!! hmmmm....yeah, could use the moisture, but it was 75 degrees the day before yesterday and got myself some sun and now i gotta dig out the parkas :shock: oh well......many an "oldtimer" :wink: around here will tell you "if you do not like the weather, wait 5 minutes or drive 3 miles...it'll change"....boy, no kidding :roll:
 
It is really greening up here. In fact, I cannot ever remember it this green the first week of April, EVER!! But we are gonna need some moisture to stay that way! It was a super nice day here today and yesterday. Yesterday it got to 82 degrees a bit west of here. Kinda warm for the calves, though, but there was a little breeze and that helped.

If we were to get that 1-2" of rain, this country would look like an oasis~and everyone would look like they won the lottery!!!

Rain...such a little thing...but SO IMPORTANT. We even notice on the tv shows now, how much it seems to rain OTHER PLACES!

Well, hopefully it will be our turn and also rancher's. We are hangin in there, hoping...we have 70% chance tonight, 60% tomorrow, and 70% again tomorrow night. BRING IT ON!!

Good luck to all of you who need the moisture!
 
Hope and Pray that you guys in the long time drought will soon get some moisture!! Here in central KS we have had plenty of moisture this winter and especially the past 3 or 4 wks. with more in the forcast for all of next week. WE don't complain too loud as we have family in this drought area and well you all know. Just would be nice to be able to get some more calves branded and out but we will get it done.We usually have pasture fence gone around by now,but just getting a good start on it now. Rented another pasture for this season (one of those deals-well okay-it went with another deal -- the fence on the neithbors half is practically none existant on two sides. Do people up in ranch country do a better job of keeping up fences?
 
Not necessarily.

When we moved on this place, we found there were no gates in fence corners and not many gates, period.
So we had to correct that little problem, which wasn't so little.

It is that way on a lot of places in this area. Funny, how things are different in different areas. My husband likes lots of gates. (Then he makes them so tight most women can't open or close them.)

Which reminds me of the time we went somewhere and our daughter was less than 10 years old. She was riding her horse and when we got back, she was standing at a gate. Just standing there. We went to see what was wrong and she couldn't shut the gate. She knew she'd best not leave with the gate open, so she patiently waited till someone came to help. My husband then taught her how to use her horse and rope to shut the gate and she never had any problems after that.

AHHHHH, the good ole' days!!
 
Before I was a teen-ager, a local rancher/slash/inventer came up with some real good gate levers. My dad traded him a Hereford bull for 200 of these gate levers. They were such a novelty (any gate lever was in those days) that Dad gave some away as Christmas gifts. We soon had the rest put up all across the ranch, and we were out of levers before we were out of gates. Since that time, we became firm believers in having a gate lever on every gate and have bought or made a lot of them through the years.

Kenneth (who was my night calver the past two calving seasons) worked here from 1988-1992. He was a perfectionist fencer, and he installed a foot of chain on the top wire of about every gate on the place. Most of our gates are seven steps wide (about twenty-one feet) and they all have at least five horizontal barbed wires. Hand twisted stays (put on with "barbless wire") are about every three feet. With the steel gate levers, it is easy to open the gates while sitting on a horse. By grabbing the chain, which is part of the top wire, it is easy to carry around the gate and open it to let cattle through. Usually it is easiest to just get off the horse to shut it, and a snap on the end of the gate lever clips to the top wire to keep it tight.
 
awoke this morning to find a "sciff" of snow on the ground here on the flats, but the surrounding foothills and mountains got a good dose :) :) ....hopefully the pass is clear as i have travelling to do this day!!! hope all is well with everyone and you all have a super day :D
 
Faster horses said:
Not necessarily.

When we moved on this place, we found there were no gates in fence corners and not many gates, period.
So we had to correct that little problem, which wasn't so little.

It is that way on a lot of places in this area. Funny, how things are different in different areas. My husband likes lots of gates. (Then he makes them so tight most women can't open or close them.)

Which reminds me of the time we went somewhere and our daughter was less than 10 years old. She was riding her horse and when we got back, she was standing at a gate. Just standing there. We went to see what was wrong and she couldn't shut the gate. She knew she'd best not leave with the gate open, so she patiently waited till someone came to help. My husband then taught her how to use her horse and rope to shut the gate and she never had any problems after that.

AHHHHH, the good ole' days!!
Click to expand...

FH- I don't have a gate in a fence corner in any of my pastures. Don't want the cattle bottle necked up hanging the corners and tearing down fence. Come to think of it, I don't have that many gates either, as I only need them in the places I hold up the cows to work them or switch pastures. People from up western part of the state that buy ranches here, say things are sure down different up there. Sshh, it is trying to rain or the wind is blowing drops from someone else's rain. Wind is nasty, heifers calved heavy yesterday and only one today.
 
Guess my theory is you can't have "too much fun" or "too many gates". There is nothing more frustrating than having a calf on the wrong side of a fence, and not having a gate nearby to put them back through. Sure, a guy can use fence pliers, take out staples, and let the fence down, but that is time consuming and often the calf can't see the hole anyway.

When we bought this place in 1986, there were super good fences but not nearly enough gates. There were adjoining pastures that had good four wire fence and only "let downs" to get back and forth. That has now changed for the better, and there is at least a gate every half mile. As far as no gates discouraging hunters and trespassers, they will find a way to get through anyway. If there is a good gate with a shutable lever, they are way more apt to close it behind them and show a landowner respect.
 

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