Sunday 9/4/05

A new crew pulled in today. Mark and Katchen from Texas here for about the 6 th time. Frances from S.C. here for here 7 th year. Jay from Ma. S here for his 4 th or 5 th week just this year. Our first timers are Tim from Ca. Linda from England and___________.

Our job for the next couple weeks is to brand anything that hasn’t been done yet and start vaccinating all the calves. But before we do that we have to get all the cattle moved from Loco Mtn. pasture into Canyon Creek pasture.

Monday 9/5/05

It’s Labor Day I think. We were out laboring.

We rode out from the H.Q. after loading up enough supplies for the week on the range out in camp. We cut across 7HL pasture and went into the N.W. corner of Loco Mtn. pasture on the west side of T Bar Canyon. We rode out the little bit of country on the west side of the canyon and came up with a dozen head or so. One group headed down and across the canyon with those while another went off the south end and came back up north on the east side of the canyon. They found about 18 head over there. A few riders in that crew thought the trail out of the canyon wasn’t much of a trail. The others thought the trail into the canyon wasn’t much either. Well after it was all traveled they were all better rider and had confidence in their horses. Both crew met at the west gate and bunch the cattle up heading east into Loco Flats. Thunderheads suddenly popped up over the mountain and it looked mean to me. I swung down off my horse and pulled my slicker on. Some folks, Nate included didn’t think it looked that bad. About five minuets later they were soaked to the skin. A few put slickers on over wet clothes, others figured it was too late and rode it out. In the midst of the heaviest of the rain we headed over to shelter in some cedars. Lyndsey hollered to me over the storm pointing at the ground. I rode over and saw laying in the trail, which was now running like a small stream a fresh calf leg. The leg of a big calf.

The storms cleared in 10 minutes. We gathered the cattle back up which hadn’t gone far and started along our way again. We picked up more cattle as we went. I kept an eye out for buzzards but the day had become so windy and grey they weren’t any around. About a mile from the gate an old momma cow comes out of a draw bawling and big bagged. No calf had nursed her for at least 24 hours. She was wondering around so I followed at a distance. I shadowed her for about 15 minuets but saw she was going nowhere and wasn’t going to show me anything. She was in cow zone depression. About that time I heard wolves howl a long way off behind me. I headed there while every one else stayed with the herd. I rode a couple draws and ridges only seeing one coyote. The grass is so tall out there you would have to walk right over anything you were looking for. It was still spitting rain, and windy, I could pick up no scent of death but I knew that there was a dead calf somewhere out there. It was so frustrating.

I finally had to give up and headed back to the herd catching up as they went thru the gate into Canyon Creek pasture. We had a pretty big bunch, about a hundred head. We pushed these another couple miles to a salt lick and then headed on to camp. Camp was another five miles and it sure seemed a lot longer. Everyone was pretty tired when we pulled in about 7:45pm. Then we still had to set up tents and get the horses settled and fed and finally it was our turn to relax and eat by campfire light.

It stayed cool and spitting rain till evening hi was 58 low was about 38.

Wednesday 9/7/05

A thick wet dew this morning, a sharp crispness to the air. It feels like a frost is coming any day.

I sent word back to Maggie via Leasha to call the Trapper and have him make a report on the calf leg.

All the riders headed out to hunt cattle on the south side of Loco Mtn. Nate took a crew along the fence checking and patching a bit before they started gathering. Lyndsey went to Big Loco tank and got a good-sized bunch from there and moved them into Loco pasture. Between the two crews they got about 75 head moved to new grass.

I headed out on the four-wheeler after they left and rode around where we had found the leg. I made a couple loops and was just about to give up after a couple hours when I spotted some buzzards about a mile to my west. I was headed there when I heard the trapper call me on a radio that Maggie had lent him. We headed to the area once we met up and within about 20 minuets we found the carcass of a 550-pound calf. The trapper had picked up collar signals from the Luna pack all the way out and we listened again and found they were just at the bottom of a draw behind us. He looked it over and we skinned it out and he said he’d put it down as a confirmed kill. Now I have heard that before but the report has to go thru and be approved by people at several levels each of which can disagree and put it down as a “Possible/Probable” meaning the wolves get no black marks against them and I get no compensation. A bit more sun today tho still a couple thunderheads spitting rain. Hi was about 60 lo about 37.

Thursday 9/8/05

We rode to the north end of S.S. Basin where we spread out and started gathering every thing back towards Juniper tank at the south end. Our plan is to get the pairs at that end of the pasture so we can have a short day gathering tomorrow and get some branding done.

It took most of the day but when it was done we had about 150 drifting around the tank. A really nice day hi was about 70 after a low of 37.

Friday 9/9/05

We rode out to the Basin and found a pretty good bunch to work pretty fast. We had them back in the new corral by about noon. We let them settle and then cut the moms out leaving about twenty calves. The pen is just a bit too big. Those calves get running around and it’s damn hard to rope them and lot of stress on them. I fretted the whole time we worked. It took the rest of the day to get everything done. Some of these early calves we have to vaccinate are over 500 pounds and they have to be brought down by hand. No easy squeeze chute out here. It was a rough and tumble afternoon but we got it all done with no real injuries other than Nate getting a big horn in his thigh leaving a deep bruise.

Saturday 9/10/05

After the crew pulled out Nate and I headed back out to camp where Blue had stayed taking care of the horses we left out there.

We had to build a larger Holding corral for the momma cows and a smaller branding pen.

By the time we got everything gathered up and laid out it was after 2pm when we actually started. We dug postholes for the corner braces before the sunset.

Hi was 71 low was 38.