Tag: ranch life
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Meals on Wheels
A lot of today’s ranchers have modernized the way they feed their cows by using a hydraulic bale bed. My husband refers to ours sometimes as a tractor because the system replaces feeding cows with a tractor and is considered valuable equipment on our outfit. Our bale bed feeder is a DewEze. What’s handy, and…
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A Rancher’s Desk
A rancher’s office is outside so naturally his desk is located in his pickup. You can learn a lot about a man by the desk area that he keeps. For instance, hair covering the seats and floor is an indication that his office assistant sheds a lot. A rancher’s desk has essential office supplies needed to…
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Our V.I.T. (Very Important Tool)
I recently wrote a column about twine cutters. They are a necessary implement in the wintertime for feeding cows hay that comes in round bales. Since these bales are held together tightly with nylon twine, a sharp-edged tool is needed to cut the strings. Most guys will just use a pocket knife. My husband likes…
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Ridin’ Shotgun
Most farm and ranch outfits have a dog around the place. Our dog Pepper, gets to go along to help feed cows in the winter and check water and cows in the summer. It’s all fine and dandy if there are no other passengers because then Pepper has the whole passenger’s seat to herself and…
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Cow Sorting Tip
It’s been a very hectic few weeks since I posted on my blog . I’ve had a lot of big writing and speaking projects in addition to our normal fall ranch work and once I finally got caught up and had time to get back to my blog, I couldn’t get my photos to upload….
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Moving Cows to Callon Spring 2012
Thursday we moved our cows to the other unit that we lease from the Forest Service. It turned out to be the perfect day to do it. It was overcast and the temperatures were in the low 70’s, unlike the steady sunny 90 degree days we’ve had most of the summer. We had a great…
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One of My Favorite Summer Perks
One of the advantages of living at an elevation of 5,300 feet in the Black Hills of South Dakota is that we have cooler nighttime temperatures and very little humidity. (That can be good and bad though–we joke we live in “the high desert.”) We can get away with living without air conditioning most of…
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My Morning View Over Coffee
I love it out here first thing in the morning. It’s kind of a sanctuary where I like to come and absorb nature while I have my coffee. The air is fresh and crisp and damp. I like the way it smells; earthy, sweet, and damp. Every morning, usually around 6 or 6:30 a.m., I head…
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Meet #1594
This is our newest bull that replaces one that went MIA last fall out on our Forest Service lease. After we moved cows back home up by Pringle last fall, we spent a lot of time checking the tanks, salt spots and popular herd hangouts hoping to find our missing bull but we nor did the…