hi I'm Mike today begins a long road on the ranch of feeding every single day
throughout the next six months of winter we're gonna give the cows their first
taste of summer hay and then we're gonna take a look back at this year so far the
wins and the losses on our wyoming life
hi there and welcome to our webinar this week and I would like to welcome you
aboard personally one question you may have is how I'm watching a family from
Wyoming working a ranch has any bearing on your life trust me it's okay I asked
that question to myself from time to time you might be a rancher or farmer
you might have no ties to it at all but you're still wondering how you ended up
here however you ended up here watching this video I'm glad you did before we
came to the ranch I never would have put myself in this situation honestly this
is my dad's dream job but for me I was happy working behind a microphone at the
radio station reporting the weather instead of living in it what we came
here to help out my wife's family and have since ended up buried in the
lifestyle I've learned more over my years here than I have sitting behind
any desk not to say I didn't learn over that time but I guess having the
responsibility of thousands of acres hundreds of animals and a family that
depends on those same things has really changed my perspective on life now we
get a chance to share that perspective with you and for that I am eternally
grateful if you take nothing else out of watching our channel let it be this that
no matter who you are or what you do no matter how old you are or how young
somebody depends on you maybe not for food like the cows do is
they wait patiently outside to get fed while I ramble on but for something
maybe it's just as simple as you being an older sibling and your younger
brothers and sisters looking up to you to know how to do the right thing or
maybe you have a whole family who depends on you
just to be there where maybe you're just depended on to be a good friend and
listen once in a while it doesn't matter through good times and bad we always
have those that depend on us I think that's what makes life worth living it's
not money it's not Fame it's affecting those around us hopefully for the better
now that being said I hope you like what you see as you continue on our journey
I hope you continue on and you haven't already tuned out but if you have yeah
that's okay too if you're still here please hit that thumbs up button and
subscribe continue with us as we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary
I'm going to go out on the limb here and say that winter has hit the ranch we'll
have a few nice days over the next six months or so and we'll relish in them
but for the most part we're looking forward to snow and temperatures that
will rarely break for tea yesterday we got down to minus two degrees overnight
and although the sun is shining now it's still below freezing snow and cold
temperatures can really do a number on the herd we have around 150 cows out
here that are depending on us every day throughout the winter to make sure
they're fed and have water each one of these camels is hopefully pregnant and
carrying with her the future of the ranch so they deserve our attention
choosing when to start feeding however can be a bit of a gamble we only have so
much hay to make it through the entire winter that hay has to be managed
carefully so that we don't run out but the cows also have to eat each cow will
eat between 20 to 30 pounds of hay per day they're gonna drink about 10 to 15
gallons of water each and they'll also receive supplements to make sure they
get the minerals and the vitamins they need to keep them healthy
over the next six months these cows will eat a total of about 350 tons of hay
each cow eating the equivalent of four times her body weight over the winter
and water well that's gonna be 400,000 gallons that they will drink enough to
fill eighty thousand five gallon buckets and weighing over 1,600 tons these
numbers they can be staggering but all that math comes down to one thing
work beginning today we start a responsibility feeding and checking the
cows in every single day for at least the next six months if it's Christmas
morning you go feed the cows your birthday feed the cows in fact I
remember the day McKenzie was born and Aaron's saying go feed the cows then
we'll go to the hospital believe it or not though this is our slow time of the
year after you feed it in check the cows and all the other animals you aren't
tied down by all the other things that usually need done fences are pretty much
ok for winter you won't be hanging or putting up any new buildings hopefully
so you get time to catch up on projects and maybe reflect a little bit on the
past year it's easy to concentrate on the bad this year we lost cows that we
spent weeks keeping alive after they were born in April we had a tractor that
went down during hang that had to be taken to the John Deere dealership to
even figure out what was wrong with it and then it cost the ranch almost ten
thousand dollars to fix it our oldest and my mother-in-law's pet cow 80 passed
away we had to get rid of our two best bulls because of injury and age we dealt
with a low hay yield due to lack of rain and end up buying
more than half of the hay we're going to need to make it through the winter we
had breakdowns and frozen water lines and of course Wyoming winds and storms
that try to destroy anything not nailed down we battled predators and helped a
cow fight for her life as she struggled not to drown
we also face challenges in our personal lives Aaron's mom has been battling
pneumonia for the last few weeks and she luckily is feeling a lot better
Aaron and I of course have been learning how to manage a ranch kids a marriage
and YouTube all at the same time but without the struggles the good things
could never happen either a peacock who lost his leg due to frostbite United
hundreds in the effort to make him a new leg and give him the chance to walk
again we built a new high tunnel to help Aaron continue bringing fresh produce to
our community and helping those less fortunate we raise thousands to support
local farmers markets throughout the area at the farm-to-table dinner and we
even gone away as a family to reaffirm how important that is
so as we wrap up feeding the cows for the first time and sentence ourselves to
a long winter it's easy to forget the good that comes out of what we have to
do every day I've come to the realization that if I can help one
person have a different outlook put a smile on somebody's face or even help
somebody remember a life they lived years ago then all the extra work is
worth it the late nights the frozen fingers the frustration that sometimes
sets in nothing worth having ever comes easy struggle brings progress whether
you succeed or fail two things can happen you can succeed then you move
forward or you can fail and then you can learn from it
mistakes are proof that you're trying and that's all I'll ever really ask of
you is that you try so I'm going to ask you well I'm gonna ask you to do
something else I'm gonna ask you a question and I hope that you can take
the time to comment and answer the question is what has been your biggest
one of your biggest struggles and how did it help you move forward even if it
didn't feel like it at the time answering that question and reading
other people's replies might be the help that somebody needs to get past their
own hard time in their life thanks for coming along today the cows are happy at
least it looks like it and looking back it has been a hard year but I'm happy
too there's always next year a new season calving branding haying gardening
and whatever happens in between it's all part of a brand new adventure as we
explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary we'll be back again on Tuesday
as we tackle the project list once again and of course it's live stream week so
on Thursday we invite you to come sit down with Aaron and me as we answer your
questions live and keep you up to date on what's going on around here so until
I see you again have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming
life