April 1-10, 2005 : No Guests

Saturday, April 2, 2005

Nate and Trent came in from camp about noon heading to town for the weekend, I headed out with the feed truck and spent the day filling feeders. It was a glorious day. No wind hi almost 60. It let me know that every day that goes by will get better and better.

Most of the cattle were out feeding the high ridges, enjoying the sunshine and balmy breeze. Only about forty came in while I was there, it made me smile to see over half had calves with them.

I didn’t get all the feeders filled so will have to finish in the morning.

Hi 58 lo 21 sunny.

Sunday, April 3, 2005

It was the first spring morning we’ve had. About 40 as the sun came up, soft breeze, birds singing, ahhh yes!

I was late getting going, just enjoying being around the barn and corrals, visiting with horses.

So late start, late finish. I was out till almost dark filling feeders and fixing a little fence

The day just got better, up to 62. Bright sun warming the earth allowing it to scent the air with its rich smell. I saw Snow flowers today, supposed to mean just six weeks more till last frost. But I’m not sure I believe that!

Monday, April 4, 2005

The phone company crew came out today. We have been trying since I moved in here to get more phone lines run into the ranch. Now ten years later they finally got to it. That’s New Mexico for ya.

They worked all day with a huge Ditchwitch tearing the place up.

I had to stay around and mark water lines for them. Nate and Trent came back and loaded supplies and new horses then headed out to camp.

Mid afternoon Lyndsey came by and told me that one of the old cows we had here in the H.Q. lot had calved. She added that the calf was really small and a bit worrisome.

By evening the cows teats were swollen and spraying milk but the calf still hadn’t nursed we will have to milk her out tomorrow.

The phone crew didn’t get done today as they had hoped. They were hitting frozen ground at 16 inches and having a hard time getting to the required 24 inches.

Hi 40 pretty windy all day but lots of sun.

Tuesday, April 5, 2005

While I was feeding I saw the old cow and calf near the shipping pens. The calf was lying still on the ground and the ravens were pecking at it pulling out tufts of hair. The cow was trying to get them off the calf but the ravens know how to deal with that. One keeps the cow busy by hopping around right in front of her as the others do their work. With the calf dead I figured there was no real rush so I finished chores then headed over to get the body and take it to the carcass dump area we call “Coyote Café”. When I pulled up with the four-wheeler the ravens flew off and the cow got snorty, couldn’t blame her a bit. Then I saw an ear twitch on the calf! It wasn’t dead. I loaded it up in the four-wheeler and took it to the corrals; momma cow didn’t follow or make any attempt to. I was pretty sure the calf had never suckled so I got Lyndsey with plans to get the cow in the chute and milk her out. I wanted to get some of her milk in the calf hoping there was still some colostrums left in her but fearing that it was all gone because of the way she had been spraying milk. The colostrums is the first of the milk to flow for a young ‘uns first meal. It has all the good stuff in it like immune antibodies and rich vitamins. Even if most of it was gone real mom milk is better than any replacer we could give it.

Lyndsey got the four wheeler and a bale of hay on back and with the led of Agnes, our pet cow, out in front the momma cow followed into the corrals. We got her in the chute with no trouble and I started milking her out. It was pretty easy, just touch the teats and they flowed like a faucet. I had a full bottle in just a few minuets and we tried feeding the calf. It was too weak and had no interest in sucking but we let some milk trickle down hopefully making it all the way. The cow had been in the chute for about ten minutes when her knees buckled and her front end went down. This happens fairly often so I took the usual action and released the pressure on the side of the squeeze. This allows them the freedom to stand back up. Not this time, the cow went all the way down into a heap in the chute. Now we had a wreak on our hands. We tried getting her up, putting her calf in front of her, yelling, twisting her tail, nothing worked. She seemed to have just given up. To make a long story short we had to disassemble the chute around her. This was not an easy chore or a safe one. With her down she was applying tremendous pressure to some sections. We learned the scary way to rope everything together before taking bolts loose. The first side panel almost got me. I knew to expect it to spring loose and I was giving it what I thought would be enough room as I tapped the bolt out. I wasn’t ready for the speed and energy it had. It missed my face by fractions, got my heart pumping. It took over an hour to get it apart and all the time I worried it was taking too long. Now with just the fram of the chute around her she still wouldn’t get up. Finally Townes came down and I was glad she did. I coaxed Townes into barking and lunging at her; she got some gumption and tried to get up. Her back end worked but her front legs were rubber. I guess she must have had a stroke and it affected them. We stretched her legs out, massaged them but nothing got better. We trickle fed the calf some more and the rest of the day Lyndsey tried the massaging and stretching the old cow every hour till dark to no avail.

At evening chores we took the calf to Lindsey's house and put it in the bathtub so she could feed it every hour. I told her if she gets it to survive I’d give her a 50% interest in it. I gave the calf a less than 10% chance of surviving the night.

The phone company finally finished late in the day, we have new lines into the main house and Lyndsey even has a phone now!

I fired up the backhoe and started working on the driveway. Nate brought up a culvert pipe he had at his place to put where the corduroy road was. The culvert is a bit too short but we can make it work. I have to raise the level of the road about two feet for about 40 yards. I have a huge pile of fill dirt from where our dump was dug years ago. I had a very boring day scooping from the pile and carrying it to the road. Round trip it takes about ten minutes for each load. I worked all day and got about half the material in place.

Lyndsey spent the day cleaning saddles checking over equipment. It’s that time of year.

Hi 42 lo 18 sunny and a bit breezy.

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

Amazing, as it seemed the calf and cow both were still alive. The calf wasn’t really sucking but was swallowing. The cow was no different so we just piled hay in front of her and a bucket of water. She’s 13 years old, pretty old for a range cow. She’s been a good cow for us so we will just make her as comfortable as we can. Rarely does a cow get back up after being down a long time, the more time that goes by the less chance they have. Oh I could try putting her in a sling and raising her up with the back hoe and let her be like that. Maybe her legs would wake up and she’d come around. Or maybe the stress would kill her. Today as I tilted a bucket for her as she drank I knew she’d tell me when the time had come but this morning she had a contented look in her eye as she ate hay and was waited on like a queen.

The backhoe wouldn’t start this morning. It started on ether but wouldn’t stay running. I decided it was not getting fuel. Having just changed the fuel filter I didn’t think that was the problem but it was the first place to start. After lots of cussing I pulled that off but it was fine. Then I went to the fuel pump, pulled that off and took it to the shop for cleaning. An hour later it was back on to no help. Next I went to the injector pump, it was working fine which left me to conclude that it was a bad injector. This was nothing I wanted to get into as I have never messed with injectors and heard horror tales of getting them back together and the system bled of air. But I really had no choice. I loosened all four of them and by pumping the manual lift on the fuel pump found two that weren’t working. I pulled them out and soaked them in gas while I ate lunch.

An hour later I blew them out with compressed air and started putting them back in. Several more hours I had the fuel system filled and bled and at 6pm I cranked the key and it fired right up.

I worked it till dark and it ran better than ever.

Hi 45 sunny a bit windy, lo was 14

Saturday, April 9, 2005

Lyndsey reported the calf had drunk two half bottles during the night! I went to see it.

She wanted to go to Sante Fe and see her mom before season started and we were discussing what to do with the calf debating if it would be ok in the Doggie pen at the main barn. We were standing in her kitchen when suddenly there was a commotion from the bathroom. I looked down the hall and here came the calf walking into the living room. We decided he’d be fine in the Doggie pen.

She made up a bottle and the calf followed her out the door and down to the barn.

I decided it was time to bring in all the horses off the winter range so I saddled up Gambler and headed out as a stiff cold wind blew. I was freezing all the way out even with my woolies and heavy riding coat.

I spotted the horses in two big bunches about a mile apart from each other both about the same distance from where I was. I rode out to the bunch that was in the valley, going for the better footing and at the same time hoping the other bunch would spot us and join up.

The first bunch had 14 head in it; two of them heavy bred mares so we took it slow going home. Exactly two hours from when I left home I put them in the corrals. Unfortunately the other group just watched us and never made a move to follow us in.

When I got back out in the pasture they had moved even farther away. I got around them and headed them towards, 27 were in this bunch. They weren’t as easy as the first bunch. First they piled up at the tank, splitting around both sides of it and then tried cutting back to the trail to the top of the mesa. We got them turned back and lined out fine till we hit the salt and protein blocks. You’d think they’d never seen it before the way they started fighting over it. It took a few minutes to get that mess lined out. When we crossed the main road that damn mule Ben took off back the other way. A couple tried to follow him but I got them bunched up again letting Ben go his own way. Just as I assumed he came running and yelling back a few minuets later when he realized no one was following him off to be stupid.

The corrals were full of horses; I had kinda forgotten just how many we have. I counted and recounted and came up short two head. It took a couple minutes to figure out that I was missing two of the mares. I spent a couple hours sorting the horses, working horses up the guest pasture, young horses stayed in the corrals, heavy bred mares up to the main barn pasture. I got about half of them sorted, the whole time hoping the missing ones would find their way home but when they hadn’t shown up I swung back on Gambler and headed back out. The clouds had been building all day and the wind never died down. I sure wasn’t wanting to go back out. It took almost two hours to find them. They were way up in the corner of the pasture lying under the trees. These two are so heavy bred they could hardly walk; it was a slow push home.

Snow was just starting to fall and it was chore time so I called it a day. Tomorrow I will finish the sorting, hopefully not in a bunch of snow.

Hi 38 low 16 sunny AM clouds and snow PM windy all day.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Just a dusting of snow last night but it sure blew hard. The solar panels on the shower house blew down flat on the roof. Luckily they didn’t fall off and bust, those things ain’t cheap.

I chose Dakota to sort on today, he’s never sorted horses before but I figure as bossy as he is he’d like the job. Maggie came down and worked gates for me, which sure made things a lot easier.

Dakota worked better than I had hoped, not getting wound up, but on his toes at the same time. Quiet till he had to really get something done. The best move he made on Rusty a 2 year old who tried a fast break for the gate. We had just sent Zeno to the gate and he was about half through going his mellow way, we had turned back to get Rocky out when Maggie hollered. She couldn’t close the gate with Zeno half through and that little Rusty had plans on zipping by him. Dakota reacted before I did and dug hard springing forward and bumped Zeno through the gate as he slid into Rusty checking him into the fence. Maggie whoohaad and Dakota ate it up, spinning on his haunches really fast, planting his front feet wide and hard and pinning his ears glaring at the loose horses as if to say “Whose next?”

We got done sorting at noon , we were cold and it had been blowing snow showers through all day so we headed inside for lunch.

I spent the rest of the afternoon working on the road. I sure wished that machine had a cab on it! Load after load I hauled and leveled building the road up. Finally I got it level and packed and cut the drain ditch along side and at 7pm I was done!

The calf is drinking a bottle a feeding now three times a day, he’s gonna make it so we figured he’d be needing a name. So he’s called E.B. After a character on the series Deadwood. Mom is still the same, happy with her pile of hay and a bucket of water.

Hi 30 lo 17 cloudy snow showers.