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Starting of a spring storm, Monday, March 23, 2009

S

Soapweed

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 11, 2005
Messages
16,264
Location
northern Nebraska Sandhills
GladIlookedbeforejustgettininanddri.jpg

Glad I looked before just getting in and driving off.
Swansfloatingandflying.jpg

Swans floating and flying
Lookslikeastormisheadedthisway.jpg

Looks like a storm is headed this way.
Thathousemightleak.jpg

That house might leak.
Notaprettynightandthestormisjuststa.jpg

Not a pretty night and the storm is just starting
Timewilltell.jpg

Time will tell.
Thereisawindmillintheresomewhere.jpg

There is a windmill in there somewhere.
Thereitis.jpg

There it is.
 
Faster horses said:
Oh, golly Soap. That looks really bad. It is bad here too.
Mr. FH just came in from putting a calf in the hotbox. We haven't used
that thing for years. We didn't get snow until about 4 pm but
it's making up for it now.
Click to expand...

Faster Horses, sorry to hear about the relative with the cerebral hemmorage. We'll keep him in our prayers.

The storm is pretty bad. The snow isn't too deep yet, but the wind is probably 40 or 50 miles per hour. We will just have to pick up the pieces tomorrow. I just told our daughter that we would have given our whole calf crop just to have her back. She is here!!! We put her future in the Good Lord's hands, and we will just let Him handle this storm, too.

We tried our hardest to put cattle in the best shelter available. Now whatever will be will be.
 
That's all any of us can do, try our hardest. Let's face it, whether you have calves on the ground, or not, this storm is a livestock killer. I've locked my yearlings up so they can't drift off just in case. It's starting to snow here again, so we'll see what happens.

It looks like you've situated your cattle well for the night. You've taken excellent care of them. Let's all hope for the best.
 
Hey, I can certainly relate to what you have going on, except ours started a little earlier today. We're going to have some massive drifts tomorrow judging by what I'm going through to get to the corral right now. We could have done without the rain to start things out this morning, but can't do anything about it either. It was thundering while snowing this afternoon and then we got some ice pellets that hurt like he77 on the face. I don't know if it was mini hail or mega sleet but it was about quarter inch pellets being sandblasted with a 50 mph wind.

Hope the storm isn't too tough on any of you.
 
Praying for all of you in the blizzard belt tonight. Looks like a terrible situation. We have high winds and are just supposed to get rain.
Remember....."He careth for you". My gramma had that verse hanging on her wall beside her chair. That is a wonderful memory and comfort from my childhood.
 
Good luck to all involved in this thing. I sure hope you don't sustain any losses and everyone stays safe. I'm trying to get my head around what it must be like, but I just can't imagine. I've never seen anything like it up here.
 
It's a pretty helpless feeling when you get a bad snow storm during calving season.It doesn't matter how much you try to do for them,you still feel guilty leaving the cows while you go to the house.Hope everything works out for you guys calving in this storm,and the girls just forget about calving until this storm passes by!!
 
All we got here was wind and cold, could have used some of the moisture even in the form of snow since we're haven't started calving yet. Saturday and Sunday was warm with thundershowers. The lightning was bad enough Saturday night I was about to load water on the fire truck so it would be ready when it started to sprinkle enough so nothing would burn.
We depend on natural shelter for our older cows so sometimes the best thing is leave them alone even though it's hard to do since sometimes if you mess with them they will move somewhere that is worse than where they are at. Just have to trust God to look after them, He can do a better job than I can.
 
Today was a long day- with the 20 degree temps and 30+mph winds I warmed up 3 babies for a couple hours in the front seat of the feed pickup (told Grandma I need to buy a crewcab next time :wink: )-all probably would have been OK on their own except the one I luckily saw born and then fall in the creek 10 minutes later- half thru the ice while I was feeding- and fished it out-- but all are doing well/better now after a little heat...

I hauled some mares north to pasture today to get them out of my hair-ran into a mini snowstorm and when I came home Grandma informed me that one of the cows had apprently had twins ( which immediately upset me because I hate messing with twins) but it appears she's accepted both- and it looks like she can/will probably raise them...Corraled them for the night- will see how things work out...

Temp is 18 now- on its way down to about 10- but the wind has quit- which it makes it feel much warmer...Luckily missed the worst part of the storm....
 
Another nasty cold day...Temp got up to about 25- but snow flurries now and 20-25mph NW wind all day...Predicting one more day of this- then a warmup back to near the 40's....

The old cow with the twins is taking them both...Both had full tummys this morning- and later I saw her letting both suck at the same time..Keep her corraled for a week or so and let them bond a little more...

Today I found another apparent twin the momma had walked away from (can't find any cows that calved, that don't have calves)- and the one I think had it (1/2 sister of the other cow with twins) doesn't want to accept it now- besides as a 3 year old I'm not sure she could raise it- so I'll keep it around to see if I need it for a graft- or in the probable alternative now the grandkids are all excited about having a bottle baby...
This nasty weather sure screws with the minds of both man and beast...
 
I'll second that Oldtimer. It seems like after a storm a guy spends 2 or 3 days fixing all the mismatches and screwups. I don't know how the "oldtimers" used to do it without matching tags. Once a cow loses her sense of which calf is actually hers it's hard to change her mind, but of course it can be done, with a lot of work.
I hope calving on grass eliminates a lot of the confusion because I don't intend to tag my calves this year. I've got my fingers crossed.
 

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