Hi I’m Mike, every single day on the ranch is different, no two are the same.
Today we get a chance to bring you along for an entire day on the ranch, thanks to one
subscriber and one email.
It’s all coming up today on Our Wyoming Life.
Its Saturday November 9th and today we get a chance to work together.
We have some help coming along as well at some point today and we have a nice day to
get some stuff done.
Temperatures today are gonna be up in the 50’s, and there is no shortage of work on
the ranch.
Since we started doing the Youtube thing however, most of my days start up here, with a cup
of coffee and my email open.
We receive a few hundred emails per week and although we like to answer them all in depth,
sometimes we can’t but we do read every single one.
This week we got an email from Lucy, or it might have been Lucy’s mom.
It doesn’t matter who typed it but it goes like this.
My name is Lucy, I am 11 years old.
I have never lived on a ranch or farm, I live in the city.
Doesn’t it get boring living there.
You do the same thing every day, that’s what I call borrrring…
Lots of r’s and lots of g’s I do like all the animals, especially the
little pigs.
Love Lucy I live in
Miami Florida Well Lucy, you might think that everyday might
be the same, and some things are, but the best thing about living on a ranch is that
you never know what to expect, sometimes you have to think on your feet, sometimes you
just have to throw it all to the wind and just have fun.
So I figured, why not answer Lucys question, not just by replying to her email, but by
taking a shot at showing you all what a normal day might look like around here.
Today we will be up and down the prairie, we will be working with some animals, and
moving some equipment, but the reality of the ranch is that we don’t know whats in
store for us each day.
You can start your day by subscribing, hit the subscribe button and turn on the bell
notifications so you don’t miss a thing as we explore the ranch life and escape the
ordinary.
Every single day I like to start out by doing what I call the rounds.
It’s a quick trip around the ranch, it can take an hour, sometimes more, but the point
of it is to get a feeling for the day, get the animals fed and watered, check on them,
make sure everyone is healthy and most importantly, look for any problems that might arise, that
we can nip in the bud now and save a ton of trouble later.
Its supposed to be a very nice day, so one stop this morning is to get low covers off
the plants that are still growing in the high tunnels.
These white fabric covers protect winter crops, that will eventually make it into the farm
store.
The tunnels aren’t insulated or heated, during the day with the sun shining they can
heat up over 100 degrees inside but at night, we need to give the plants a bit of extra
insulation and that’s what these white covers do.
Today, its gonna be warm in the tunnel and if we left the covers on, we would kill all
the plants, so off they come and the lettuce, carrots, beets, radishes and yes, even the
kale can get some fresh air.
Everyday chickens, ducks and geese get let out of the chicken coop, and while we are
here we can take a look at our weaned calves.
These guys and girls are in the process of growing.
They have a few bales of hay that they can munch on, along with a feeder full of treats,
corn and oats that they can snack on too.
They even share with the chickens.
We need to check on the feeder, how much food is left in it, and after only a couple of
days, it looks like they have eaten about half.
After the calves, its off to the pigs, where they can get their breakfast.
We will be back later on to visit with them some more, but for now, we just say hi and
do a bit of housekeeping.
Next stop on the morning rounds a quick check on the cows out on pasture.
Checking for anyone that is sick, off by themselves, out of fences, or just acting strange.
We also get our morning visit from Bambi, one of our pet cows, raised by bottle and
still acting like a big baby.
We also get a chance to check on next years steers, these guys will be fed out and butchered
and they live in the same pasture right now as the horses, Heiro and Brea who get a little
attention also.
I suppose now is as good of time as any to tell you about my new boots.
My birthday is coming up and every year couple of years, either for by birthday or Christmas
I will get a new pair of boots.
My old ones I donate to someone who needs a pair of boots, either directly or through
our local council of community services.
Most everyone knows I only wear arait boots, I’ve worn them since we came to the ranch
and this year I am sporting a pair of Ariat heritage boots, my usual make and model.
A new twist this year is these are the waterproof version of the heritage boot.
So far, I am happy with them, and I let Arait know.
And as a thank you, Arait would like to reward you for being a fan of our Wyoming life.
In the description below you will find a 10% off code for your first order from Ariat.com,
I know that I am going to use it.
So check that out.
With now wet but clean boot and dry socks, we can head off to our next mission of the
day.
And that is to pick up my 8 year old daughter Mackenzie to help out with some chores on
the ranch.
Weekends are a great time to have the kids help out and sometimes I even sacrifice getting
a job done quickly just to have them help do it.
First stop is to grab a piece of plywood to put our scale on for a solid base.
Then we can build our scale in place, and bring in
the pigs.
We want our pigs to weigh between 250 to 300 lbs when they leave the ranch, these guys
still have a bit farther to go.
With them growing at about 1.7 lbs per day, we figure we have at least another month before
they have a date with destiny.
Another job Mackenzie has daily is getting the eggs from the chicken house.
Each dozen eggs she gets and washes she makes 25 cents, and for quite a while she has been
saving up for a big present to herself.
And now she is a couple of dollars closer to her goal.
Before we head out onto the ranch again for our next adventure, we need fuel.
Bulk fuel tanks on the ranch save us a little money but mostly time as everything needs
fuel, especially when traveling miles and miles per day.
Our next project takes us back down that YouTube road again, this one really doesn’t have
anything to do with ranch, but more to do with a promise I made and forgot about.
Our friend Tammy got to visit the ranch this summer, while she was here helping out, she
found what she called her happy place.
Its located about 4 miles in on the ranch and I promised her that I would take a very
special camera that we have and get her some footage of her special place, so that she
could go and sit there when ever she wants.
That camera is the Go Pro fusion.
It’s a camera that is capable taking 360 degree video.
You can look all round, up and down all over and it really feels like you are right there.
Here’s something I have noticed.
Lets say you are driving through traffic, and its slowed down, up ahead is an accident,
but as you get closer you realize they have it all cleared off the road.
Traffic could be moving at its normal speed but its people rubbernecking that are slowing
traffic.
In fact when you get closer you find yourself looking too.
Its human nature to look at the negative in life.
Lets try this, you are driving in traffic, headed home and off to the left is the most
beautiful sunset that you have ever seen in your entire life.
Do people rubberneck for that?
Does the beauty in the sky slow down traffic?
No, but maybe it should.
Tammy’s happy place, might be your happy place too.
A place to slow down and rubber neck a bit.
Tammy’s video, I will be putting up on our sister channel, beyond the ranch, you can
go and check it out yourself in a couple of days.
While its recording though, we can get another project done back at the ranch.
Around here, neighbors borrow and lend, and our closest equipment lender is our friend
Gary.
For the past few weeks I have had his engine hoist.
We used it to change out the engine in the gator and now its time to take it back to
him.
Its not light, its awkard and a pain to move, but eventually, we get it loaded, where we
can drive it down the road about a half a mile or so and drop it off.
Back down to our 360 camera to stop recording and pick it up.
It recorded about 45 minutes of the country side scenery, and tammy’s happy place, maybe
a happy place for all of us.
With that done, we only have one more project and the best one for the day.
The kids and I load up, head to town, because after all it is the weekend and all work and
no play, well that just sucks.
And as the sunsets, the work day is done, another day on the ranch is in the books and
we get ready for another chapter, tomorrow.
Well technically it is tomorrow, its past midnight now and I’m still up, editing this
very video that hopefully you will be watching in just a few hours.
Obviously that wasn’t everything that happened on the ranch yesterday.
There were a few things that got missed, bathroom breaks, phone calls, and meals.
We had a really nice chicken dinner at Erin’s moms house tonight.
Came home and it was bath time, then the kids were off to bed.
Since then I have been right back up here, editing away, like I do most nights.
Tammy’s happy place video, should be up soon on the beyond the ranch channel, so go
and check that out, and take ariat up on their offer.
Get that 10% off, lets show them how much Our Wyoming Life fans appreciate their support.
I’m gonna wrap this thing up, hoping to be in bed in just an hour or two and then,
the ranch is just a wake up away, and waiting.
Thanks for hanging out with us today, I’ll see you again soon, be sure to subscribe and
as always thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.