4/24/07
The past month has been a busy one. The weather hasn’t been working with me much. March ended like a lion with snow and the beginning of our windy season. It was cold but we got a break one day a week or so that made it bearable. It has snowed every weekend for the last 7 weeks. Not big storms just a few inches and usually with some wind.
Nate was gone most of the month. First he had to help his girlfriend move. Then he got sick for almost a week. Then he had to go to Mont. and get a truck he bought there. The few days he was around he just couldn’t stay in camp.
He came and asked if I’d hire his dad to help him do the cattle work and keep him company so I made a deal with them that one of them always has to be out in camp, they could work their own schedule and so long as the cattle were being tended it was all up to them. That lasted about two days. Then they had to go here and do this and Nate was always tired from driving to see his gal. I went out to camp three different nights and no one was there. During this time I lost five calves that I know of to wolves and coyotes.
I fired Nate last week.
So I have been trying to get things around here done and take care of the cattle and horses as well as work on some fence around Loco Mtn. pasture which is the next one I move into.
Some days I am horseback, some days on the four wheeler and some days both. I have gotten a lot done but not where I should be this time of year.
Brain came last weekend and he has been a big help. Monday we worked fence and got Loco pasture ready to go into. Tuesday we did some last to do things on our new kitchen trailer I made and late in the day we hauled it out to Fence tank camp for the next couple weeks branding.
Today we rode Negrito pasture looking for some cattle we had spotted while driving back and forth. We rode all day and found no sign of them till about 3pm when we found a bunch in Snow Canyon. They weren’t the bunch we were looking for but it was better to find some I didn’t know were missing. We had a good day for riding, about 60 and little wind. Yesterday we had gusts of over 50 mph.
Despite the cool weather we are having a great spring, plenty of moisture and plenty of sun. The grass is really greened up and the cattle have all gained a lot of weight in the last month. They had all wintered really well but usually in May and early June the cattle look a bit worn. They now look as they normally look in July. About a month ago I was getting worried about the lack of calves, I always do this time of year. All my low country friends had all their calves on the ground and I only had about 20. In the last week we have had over 30 new calves and lots of momma cows are laboring around looking like they swallowed a 55 gallon drum. This weekend I plan on getting a calf table, which is like a mini squeeze chute so I can brand by myself. I am not hiring anyone to replace Nate and am going to work it on my own. It will mean Maggie and I won’t see much of each other this summer but it’s the only way to get it done right. I’m sure you few readers still out there will be seeing more Logs as I spend my weeks alone in camp. Until mid May camp will be at Fence tank then I will move to Wolf Gate in Loco pasture and be there until mid July after that it is the good life out at Canyon Creek cabin.
Our guest business is pretty much over. We only have 11 folks booked for this year, a far cry from the 300+ we had back in 2000 and 2001. But ya know it is just great with me. All I want to do is take care of my livestock. Oh folks call every week even with no advertising and we could have a lot more people but I just don’t want them.
I live where I live because I don’t function well in society and as I get older and the world gets crazier I want less and less to do with it.
You old regulars will always be welcome, I will always be in need of good help and company around camp.
I think Brian is enjoying the new N Bar, just the two of us doing a variety of things, heck in three days he has worked a tough fence where we had to hike up the side of T Bar Canyon, been out to Canyon Creek checking horses out there (we have horses scattered in four pastures} some carpentry work, trailer driving, setting up camp, horse hunting on the four wheeler in Pitchfork pasture, putting out salt along with about 20 miles horseback cow hunting and moving. Tomorrow we are going to year brand and tag the seven heifers we brought home today. And who knows what the rest of the week will bring.
I had been missing my four personal riding horses in Bearwallow pasture for the last two weeks. Maggie had been hunting them several hours a day for a week. I set to lookin’ for them Tuesday morning and sent Brain to set some salt and keep and eye out for them. He had the gumption to search around a bit and found tracks on the main road, he came back towards the H.Q. and got me on the radio and we found them a bit later in a place I wasn’t even planning on looking. They had gotten into Negrito pasture and been all over, As we rode today we found their track every where, at one point they were almost to Snow Lake and then every where in between. It was amazing to see how far they had wandered.
So Like I say good help will always be welcome.
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