Tap
Well-known member
Since the end of 2006 is approaching, I thought I would give a short synopsis (hopefully) of how our year went. I posted the subject "tongue in cheek", because a lot of people think ranch life has to be boring, and we have to be hicks to do such work. lol. If this doesn't interest you, don't read on. :wink:
We started out 2006 with a very warm January. It was one for the record books. We also inked a deal to sell off part of the ranch (which didn't join our main holdings), and add on a neighboring ranch that did. The net result was we increased our carrying capacity by 30% or more. But also our loan balance at the same time. :!: Oh well, you have to take chances occasionally. The land we sold also went to neighbors, and that land was the ranch I grew up on. I have not had time to be sentimental about it though as we have been too busy.
February was spent looking for cattle to stock our new land. We finally got what we wanted by mid March. We started calving heifers in March, and that job went on till the thirteeth of June. So much for guaranteed calving dates. :wink:
The cows start calving in the earlier part of April around here, and this year we had a "killer" snow storm on the 18th and 19th of April. Lots of snow and 70mph wind gusts. It did stay around the freezing mark during the blizzard, so it could have been worse. We did survive the blizzard with some calves left to brand, and that job took up late May and early June. Getting our belongings off the North ranch by late May also took a lot of time. The new owners were great about the deal, thankfully. After that storm, all talk about the drought was over till around mid June. Then things dried up again, and we had big fire danger till now, really.
We had about enough time to get our cattle situated after branding and go around the fences before it was time to get the haying machinery fired up. By the mid part of haying, we were taking our fire fighter along to the hayfield as it had gotten so dry. We sold most of our calf crop on a video sale in July, and we are thankful of that, as we received the best price for our steers that we have ever gotten. Also during all of this we were installing pipeline on the new property, and setting water tanks because the dams which had water in them after the big storm, had already dried up. We also have a rotational grazing system that we keep the cattle on through the summer months. So that takes several days per week of our time. Did I mention the fire season? :wink: It seemed like several days/week were spent on the hill looking for lightning fires, or heading out to a fire, and hopefully being sent back home before it got too big. We put a couple hundred miles on the truck one day and night heading to, and putting out fires. One day in July there were 9 small fires within a few miles.
The fall consisted of gathering hay bales from a skimpy hay crop, fixing fence, helping neighbors, preconditoning calves, shipping calves, working on corrals, working cows, etc. Without the help of good neighbors, all of what we accomplished could never have been done. In this age of technology, manpower is still needed to do the bigger jobs.
Oh, I cannot forget to mention the time that our family spent together going here or there, such as parades, smaller trips (one larger one to California), exploring the ranch, ball games, etc.
So as the year winds down, I can see that we accomplished a lot of things. I never feel bored with life, and I wouldn't change much if I could. We must like this way of life, or we are crazy. Maybe both. lol.
I hope I didn't bore you, and I would like to hear about others lives. Maybe we should have a segment on here like the Farm and Ranch Living Magazine, where people share a month of their lives with the readers.
Merry Christmas to everyone. :!:
We started out 2006 with a very warm January. It was one for the record books. We also inked a deal to sell off part of the ranch (which didn't join our main holdings), and add on a neighboring ranch that did. The net result was we increased our carrying capacity by 30% or more. But also our loan balance at the same time. :!: Oh well, you have to take chances occasionally. The land we sold also went to neighbors, and that land was the ranch I grew up on. I have not had time to be sentimental about it though as we have been too busy.
February was spent looking for cattle to stock our new land. We finally got what we wanted by mid March. We started calving heifers in March, and that job went on till the thirteeth of June. So much for guaranteed calving dates. :wink:
The cows start calving in the earlier part of April around here, and this year we had a "killer" snow storm on the 18th and 19th of April. Lots of snow and 70mph wind gusts. It did stay around the freezing mark during the blizzard, so it could have been worse. We did survive the blizzard with some calves left to brand, and that job took up late May and early June. Getting our belongings off the North ranch by late May also took a lot of time. The new owners were great about the deal, thankfully. After that storm, all talk about the drought was over till around mid June. Then things dried up again, and we had big fire danger till now, really.
We had about enough time to get our cattle situated after branding and go around the fences before it was time to get the haying machinery fired up. By the mid part of haying, we were taking our fire fighter along to the hayfield as it had gotten so dry. We sold most of our calf crop on a video sale in July, and we are thankful of that, as we received the best price for our steers that we have ever gotten. Also during all of this we were installing pipeline on the new property, and setting water tanks because the dams which had water in them after the big storm, had already dried up. We also have a rotational grazing system that we keep the cattle on through the summer months. So that takes several days per week of our time. Did I mention the fire season? :wink: It seemed like several days/week were spent on the hill looking for lightning fires, or heading out to a fire, and hopefully being sent back home before it got too big. We put a couple hundred miles on the truck one day and night heading to, and putting out fires. One day in July there were 9 small fires within a few miles.
The fall consisted of gathering hay bales from a skimpy hay crop, fixing fence, helping neighbors, preconditoning calves, shipping calves, working on corrals, working cows, etc. Without the help of good neighbors, all of what we accomplished could never have been done. In this age of technology, manpower is still needed to do the bigger jobs.
Oh, I cannot forget to mention the time that our family spent together going here or there, such as parades, smaller trips (one larger one to California), exploring the ranch, ball games, etc.
So as the year winds down, I can see that we accomplished a lot of things. I never feel bored with life, and I wouldn't change much if I could. We must like this way of life, or we are crazy. Maybe both. lol.
I hope I didn't bore you, and I would like to hear about others lives. Maybe we should have a segment on here like the Farm and Ranch Living Magazine, where people share a month of their lives with the readers.
Merry Christmas to everyone. :!:
It is a Wonderful Life isn't it? Have fun tonightt 
