The rest of our week-end in pictures, Feb 16-17, 2008

[Soapweed]

Getting ready to vaccinate the last bunch of cows

It was a nice but sloppy Saturday afternoon.

The Kosmo Kid and his fraulein were home for the week-end. He fixed this windmill while Saddletramp, Peach Blossom, and I ran the cows through the chute to vaccinate with Scourgard 4KC.

With the number on the button in this ear,

It was easy to grind a number into a new tag of the proper color, to take the place of the tag that has been lost.

And out of chute number one, here she comes.

The Kosmo Kid took advantage of a gorgeous early morning to buzz out to our lake before his girlfriend awoke. While there, he placed a blanket on the frozen beach with a bottle of root beer and two glasses. Later the two of them rode horseback in that direction on the pretext of gathering some cattle. They just happened on to the blanket on the beach, where he proposed to her. She said "yes" and he put a diamond ring on her finger. This is the spot where they met and fell head over heels for each other, when she accompanied friends out to swim a year ago last June. I took this picture of the happy couple when they returned from their ride.

They are proudly showing off the ring.

Here it shimmers in the sunlight.

Celebration supper with our other son and his girlfriend

Getting box stalls set up for calving

The other side of the barn

We had to leave our saddles in the cow barn,

because all of the doors to the horse barn are either frozen shut or have a large frozen ice pond in front of them.

Esteemed bored members having a panel discussion

A round-up

 

[Faster horses]

I always enjoy your pictures, Soap and I especially enjoyed these.

Tell the happy young couple Congratulations from me!!
That is super news!!!

Where is his fiance from?

Your calving pens looks like a great set up. Mr. FH uses portable panels in his calving shed too. So easy to take them down and clean the barn when you are done calving.

He uses straw too. His friend tried using sawdust and he said it looked like the calves were rolled in cracker crumbs. That sawdust was ALL OVER THE CALVES. It didn't look like anything he would want in his pens. He thought shavings might work, but not many trees there so he uses straw always.

 

[Soapweed]

Tell the happy young couple Congratulations from me!!
That is super news!!!

Where is his fiance from?

She is from Idaho, near Lewiston.

Your calving pens looks like a great set up. Mr. FH uses portable panels in his calving shed too. So easy to take them down and clean the barn when you are done calving.

He uses straw too. His friend tried using sawdust and he said it looked like the calves were rolled in cracker crumbs. That sawdust was ALL OVER THE CALVES. It didn't look like anything he would want in his pens. He thought shavings might work, but not many trees there so he uses straw always.

We use bull rushes for bedding. They are cheap and easily accessible. :wink:

 

[Faster horses]

You cut them yourself, no doubt.

We don't have bull rushes...just bulls... :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

 

[Cal]

Bigtime congratulations to the happy young couple! I hope life treats them kindly. Soap, just wondering what your celebratory drink of choice is in the picture there. :wink:

 

[Shortgrass]

Those kids are really glowing about something! Thats nice--congrats to them & you and Peach too. Your pens are a sloppy mess, but there had ought to be grass when it warms up enough.

 

[Soapweed]

Bigtime congratulations to the happy young couple! I hope life treats them kindly. Soap, just wondering what your celebratory drink of choice is in the picture there. :wink:

The oldest boy brought out a cheap bottle of wine for celebrating purposes. I took one small sip for mankind, in honor of the event, and found the drink even more atrocious than any kind of diet pop (and that is bad). :? :wink: Cal, I will leave that wine drinking for some of your neighbors.

Peach Blossom cooked up a mighty fine prime rib which was very much enjoyed. We wish to thank the kind couple who gave it to us for Christmas. We appreciate it very much.

 

[Richard Doolittle]

Hey Soapweed---In your picture labeled "The other side of the barn", there's a panel with a nice bow in the top. Is that the one you sat on that made you decide it was time for the Atkins Diet??

 

[Nicky]

Great pictures and a big congratulations to Cosmo and Mrs Cosmo-to-be!

 

[Shelly]

Well, that's a mighty perdy ring! Congrats to them both.

And I know someone who'd kill to have a barn setup like yours! How many pens have you got in there?

 

[Stretch]

Congrats to the fine couple, may they have many years of happiness.. 8)

That calving shed looks great. When ever my Cody see's shed or pens or the like all I hear is "Dad we should get that." What he doesn't realize is how many years you fought a lesser set up to earn the means to have such a nice shed. Kids just see the end result of success from years of work not all the work to get to the success... :roll: So help me out and share with him how many years did you have to struggle with the "Old" set up to work up to this one? Between this one and your portable one you posted the other day you really have a great set-up for calving.

 

[SHAWN]

Hey soap, thanks for sharing such a special event with us. It looked nice and warm there for the event. we are spose to get to 20 below tonight. I start calving in a week or so... hope it warms up. congrats to the couple! Shawn

 

[SHAWN]

I think I better change my avatar image. :? :? Shawn

 

[Shorthornguy]

Congradulations to the young couple and Thank You for sharing the pics.

 

[James]

didn't take you long to get the panels up after I talked to, how is your replacement tractor working, hope the horse barn doors thaw out soon know what that is like as we have ice everywhere and covered with snow makes it dangerous for the cows and humans. Congratulations on a new member in the family, now you can look forward to showing us your grandkids helping you work while you take the pictures :lol: oh not sure if I thanked you for helping get the picture loaded Jim

 

[Soapweed]

Hey Soapweed---In your picture labeled "The other side of the barn", there's a panel with a nice bow in the top. Is that the one you sat on that made you decide it was time for the Atkins Diet??

I think you hit the nail on the head. :wink: I mentioned that the bowed panel was going to spoil the picture, but the Kosmo Kid said, "Oh, no one will notice." Thanks for proving my point.

Well, that's a mighty perdy ring! Congrats to them both.

And I know someone who'd kill to have a barn setup like yours! How many pens have you got in there?

The barn is 64 feet by 48 feet. We have a row of box stalls down each side and two rows down the middle. Not counting doorways and the pulling pen, there are 27 usable stalls. Most are 8 feet by 10 feet, but four are a bit smaller than that and they are trapezoid shaped.

Congrats to the fine couple, may they have many years of happiness.. 8)

That calving shed looks great. When ever my Cody see's shed or pens or the like all I hear is "Dad we should get that." What he doesn't realize is how many years you fought a lesser set up to earn the means to have such a nice shed. Kids just see the end result of success from years of work not all the work to get to the success... :roll: So help me out and share with him how many years did you have to struggle with the "Old" set up to work up to this one? Between this one and your portable one you posted the other day you really have a great set-up for calving.

When Peach Blossom and I got married in 1979, we operated pretty primitively for quite a few years. The first two winters, we fed our hay with four head of draft horses and pitchforks. We started using a tractor after that, but it was an open air (no cab :wink: ) IHC 706 with a Farmhand loader. I didn't even have the good sense to get a canvas "comfort cover," so there were some cold rides while feeding hay in those days. We still used hand-held pitchforks up until 1990. At that time I acquired a diesel IHC 766 with a cab. We also got a stackmover with a hydraulic hydra-fork to pitch the hay, which was still in four-ton loose stacks in those days.

We got the nice new calving shed in the early 1990's also. Even now, we still use our old calving shed, which is 30 feet by 80 feet. There are 17 box stalls in it, and our horse barn has 14 box stalls in it if the doors ever thaw out so we can use it again. :? Some years we hardly use the barns, and some years we put a lot of pairs through them.

Besides running our own place, Peach Blossom and I leased my dad's ranch in 1994. We started baling our hay at that time. That is the year I got the Agco Allis 8630 FWA tractor. It worked good for both baling hay, and feeding with a six-bale hauler/processor.

We seem to acquire better equipment through the years, but are running quite a few more cattle now than then, so still have to work kind of hard. :roll:

 

[leanin' H]

Congrats to your family and best wishes to the kids at the hitchin' rail! I loved the barn! Sure makes it hard to keep up one's selfesteem on this dang site! I go look at my stuff and compare to all ya'lls and then i go boobin' around till the wife tells me to straighten up. (That hasn't worked for 13 years!) Anyway, it surely is a nice outfit that you have. The kids are great too! Be proud in the good way!

 

[Soapweed]

Congrats to your family and best wishes to the kids at the hitchin' rail! I loved the barn! Sure makes it hard to keep up one's selfesteem on this dang site! I go look at my stuff and compare to all ya'lls and then i go boobin' around till the wife tells me to straighten up. (That hasn't worked for 13 years!) Anyway, it surely is a nice outfit that you have. The kids are great too! Be proud in the good way!

Thank you, sir. God has blessed us. We are happy that at this point in time, the Kosmo Kid and his new bride to be (the wedding will probably be in the summer of 2009) are interested in someday coming back to the ranch.

 

[Sundancer]

Just how exactly do you use your stalls? Do you pen up heavies and wait for the calf, or do you find pairs and pen them up? How long do you keep them penned? How do you clean the pens? In these parts, my pens need cleaning after each pair...with the use of a 10 tine fork.

Hearty congrats to the happy couple. I especially like the pic of the held hands with cow beneath. At first I thought it was a special backdrop, but then reallized it was just a closeup of the natural beauty.

 

[Soapweed]

Just how exactly do you use your stalls? Do you pen up heavies and wait for the calf, or do you find pairs and pen them up? How long do you keep them penned? How do you clean the pens? In these parts, my pens need cleaning after each pair...with the use of a 10 tine fork.

Hearty congrats to the happy couple. I especially like the pic of the held hands with cow beneath. At first I thought it was a special backdrop, but then reallized it was just a closeup of the natural beauty.

When it is cold, we try to put each cow into a pen before she calves. It is much easier for her to carry in the calf than it is for us to drag it in. If it is 20 degrees or above, with no wind, we consider it warm enough that the newborn doesn't need to be in the barn. As far as cleaning the stalls, they probably don't get cleaned as often as they should. The sand bottom of the barn and the rushes as bedding absorb pretty well.