Signs of spring

One of the men saw the first water snake of the year today. The frogs are also singing their springtime songs. The winds are blowing and melting snow. The temp got almost to 60 degrees today. Now the weatherman says blizzard conditions return tonight and tomorrow... maybe a foot of snow some places.

George has been trying to turn on some irrigation ditches, but the headgates are deep in snow. You can see the creek is flooding behind the headgate.

Busy Days...

Fischer riding with Grandpa G.
Grandpa's helpers.

This thing is called a Nordfork. The wrestler pops it over the calf's neck when the ropers bring it in. One man can do the work of two wrestlers!
You will hear a generator in the background. We use electric branding irons because they stay heated in our "brisk" winds that never stop...even for branding day! Also the men are branding so many calves so fast, that it is hard to keep the propane type irons heated. When you are trying to get 600 done in a morning, you don't want to have to wait on anything!...or anybody!! ;) The two men in the foreground are wrestling a calf and Kacey Jo in the red sweatshirt, is insecticide ear tagging and notching, and filling syringes.

Comparing snowbanks....

Today, we finally saw Allison's sled appear again. They built a snow cave with Grpa the end of February, then we got tons of snow since then and we couldn't ever find the snow cave and the sled. Today we saw this flash of orange in the white drift in the front. You can see the dirty snow bank in the back that they dug into in February.

First Branding day for this year...

George and Gary watching as the cows and calves come into the corral. We were able to find one corral that wasn't filled with snow and mud.

These chaps were a baby present to Fischer. They have his name, birth weight, and birth date.

Hazen is thinking about using that new rope!

Fischer is playing in Grandma's "bubbles" while she makes some cookies. We took off the shirt so it wouldn't get wet, but kept the chaps on!

A couple more pictures from last week

Feeding cows with Grpa G.
Reading books with Grpa. Camping in a tent and hunting bears....

After feeding, Rory would have a cup of hot chocolate and pull up a chair to the window and watch the calving pasture and all the goings on outside.

Great fun playing the frog game.

Waiting for breakfast with Grandpa.

Spring break up...

At the beginning of the week, the creek was all snowed over. One week ago in the morning, the interstates were closed and we had 8" of snow. We have had sun and wind, and now huge chunks of snow are breaking off like mini glaciers.

Happenings on Thursday

A little bit of a "hot chocolate moustache" after feeding and taking a break with Grpa G.

Jace watching Grpa and Rory head out to feed cows today.

Rory and Grpa feeding cows yesterday.

Monday

Chris and his horse dropped by on our deck so the kids could get a close look.


Cleaning the snow out of the branding corral. It is a BIG job...and more than a day's work.

The boys and Grandpa built a tent and were hunting something pretend. It turned out to be a hair-raising experience! Note the wide eyes and the hair.
The snow is still over the fences in a lot of places. We still can't get into this shed except by climbing huge drifts.

Thursday

Mom called and asked what the weather was doing? I had to answer "Snowing as usual!"
The man in the pictures works here at the ranch with George and happened to be moving cows and calves on foot.

Tuesday

It was -1 degree when we got up this morning, then -5 at daylight when they went out. It is bright and sunny now. Chris and Kate and the boys spent the night here last night rather than fight the drifts to their house. Grma and Grpa are sure enjoying that!