Getting the heifers moved turned out better than expected. We ended up borrowing the neighbors’ panels and set them up alongside the fence instead of using the corrals that belonged to the neighboring old bachelor where the heifers spent the summer.
The temperature on Friday was in the mid 20’s so the family put their long johns, glove liners and scotch caps on, and layered with sweatshirts, silk neckerchiefs good socks and chaps, but the winds were calm; which helped a lot. The skies were steel gray and looked like they were about to shake loose some snow but held off until we got all the heifers hauled up to the barn north of Pringle.
My husband, son and I saddled up, and two of the three guys that helped us used our two four-wheelers to help bring in the heifers. Because of the cold, I put our daughter in charge of the camera and she got some surprisingly good photos.
We used two of our horse trailers and one of the neighbors’ and hauled the heifers in five trailer loads. Since it was heifers we were dealing with and a half dozen had calves (yeah; oops babies) we took what loaded into the trailer easily; so we didn’t haul to capacity each load, but it all went really smooth. The Boss (my husband) was quite relieved that everything went so slick and was pleased over how well-behaved our heifers were gathering and loading.
By the time we got everything unloaded at the barn, it was noon and my husband and I bought the crew lunch at the Hitchrail. During lunch, the weather changed drastically. The snow finally cut loose and started blowing and sticking. My husband was hoping to get the bulls sorted off to bring home (down at our place) but seemed hesitant because of the weather and the kids. I encouraged him that we should just get it done since we still had the horses saddled and that he might regret putting if off if the snow decided to persist a few more days. My son and I were game and that helped my husband make his decision to get it done.
After lunch I put our daughter back on camera duty and my husband, son and I braced the thick blowing snow to go after the bulls up at the pasture by the barn. We lucked out and were able to get them all gathered and brought in at the same time instead of going after them one at a time. Once the work was done and the family was enjoying downtime in the house, my husband said he was glad we went ahead and got the bulls moved home.
Saturday we had -3 and about four more inches of snow on Sunday and an odd mix of freezing fog, snow and rain during the week.
Next on the to-do list is getting our cows worked the 30th of October. I’m starting to plan out my grocery list for that day’s dinner to feed all the guys that come and help. I hope we have nicer weather for that job.
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