Hi, I’m Mike and this is Our Wyoming Life
Coming up on Our Wyoming Life, the morning
routine, you wake up and you are already at work then a tractor is down and needs repaired
before any feeding can take place and hungry animals are waiting and later the model t
makes its first appearance of the year and still runs like a dream…
Every morning starts out almost exactly the same here on the ranch.
Erin and I get up early, get a cup of coffee and start planning our day.
I would have taken video of that part, but Erin said no way until she had a shower and
got her hair done, so instead heres a shot of the coffee cup the girls got for me for
fathers day last year.
Once we get the details of our day hammered out, its time to head out to work.
Certain things need done every morning on the ranch.
Most of them have to do with animals as some of them are totally dependent on me, others
you just need to put an eye on and make sure all is ok.
First on the list of morning chores is checking the cows.
They are still calving, we have over 100 calves now on the ground but there are still the
stragglers and we still average one or two new calves per day, the morning check consists
of driving through the entire herd.
Making sure all the calves and cows look ok and none of them are sick or acting weird.
You’d be surprised how quickly you can pick out a cow or a calf from a long ways away
that’s not acting quite right.
This morning all looks ok, no new calves yet today, although we will be back out in a few
hours to check again.
Back to the shop now and more chores.
Next up we have the orphan calves, they are starting to eat some solid foods already but
they still get milk in the morning and night.
This morning they will get two bottles each.
We still have cupcake and Lincolns as of yet unnamed calf, although they have been moved
out of the barn and into an outside corral.
We mix the bottles and after a quick argument with a goose over a right of way issue we
get to the calves new home.
I found these bottle holders, they attach to the fence and work great.
Breakfast of champions.
Now off to chickens.
First, open the chicken door and let the chickens out into the world.
Our chickens free range where ever they want to go and they scatter quickly.
Inside the chicken house we gather eggs from each roost, sometimes moving chickens to do
so and some that wont move we just reach underneath.
Eggs are placed in a basket and go back to the shop and go in the fridge until we get
a chance to wash them.
While we are back in the shop and in the chicken mood, we better get the baby chicks some food
and water.
They aren’t so much babies anymore, they are now 3 weeks old and have gotten their
feathers and are almost ready to go into the chicken house themselves although it will
still be 5 months until they lay a single egg.
Still we get them food and refill their little waterers.
Chickens water stinks, a combination of the heat and the fact that chickens backwash something
terrible makes this one of the worst parts of my day.
Luckily that kinda wraps up my morning chores.
I still have to check water and make sure the bulls and steers are fed but that comes
later.
First a problem has arisen that needs some attention.
Theres a saying on the ranch, actually theres not, I just made this up but it fits.
If it has wheels or an engine, its gonna need fixed sooner or later, its gonna break.
An usually it breaks when you need it.
We were going to go feed the bulls and the steers but a bale of hay weighs up to 1500
lbs, not something you can throw over your shoulder.
You need a tractor and a tractor with a flat tire is no good to anyone so we fix.
This tractor weighs almost 10 thousand pounds and the tire alone comes in at about 400 lbs
so its not something we can just take off and roll into town to get fixed.
Tractor tires get fixed on the spot, they don’t even come off the tractor.
The liquid you see on the ground and the tire it actually beet juice.
Made from beets, and its pumped into the tire to add weight to counter balance the load
that you carry on the front of the tractor.
Each gallon of beet juice weighs about 10 lbs and with 100 gallons of it in each tire
it adds a ton of weight to the back of the tractor.
The only problem is when your tire springs a leak it makes a sticky smelly mess.
So the first thing we do is pump the rest of the beet juice that hasn’t leaked out
of the hole out of the tire and into a storage tank were we can put it back in the tire once
its fixed.
Using a 20 ton air jack we lift the tractor into the air and start using bars or tire
irons to loosen the tire on the rim.
Once we have a little gap made we can use this air powered bead breaker to pop the rest
of the tire off, then its just a matter of peeling the tire over the rim to get to the
tube.
The old tube comes out, which we will save because we might be able to patch it.
Then a new tube goes in.
The tire is muscled back into place, with the help of a little lube.
The beet juice is pumped back in a little air added and we are back in business.
A couple of hours of downtime a 30$ tube and life continues and the steers get fed.
And we move on to our next project.
History is a big thing here on the ranch.
This ranch was established in the early 1900s and has been an operating ranch since then.
The ways have changed, the methods of ranching and even the type of ranch, from a bull operation
to a feedlot to a cow calf operations, but some things always stay the same.
The rules of the ranch, saddle your own horse, be kind to the animals, have courage, always
finish what you start, take pride in your work, be tough but fair, know where to draw
the line, treat women like ladies, respect the brand, no spitting indoors and most of
all love what you do.
One more rule should be added on there, have fun.
This is a 1924 model t ford one ton pickup truck purchased for just over 800 dollars
in 1925 from our original local car dealer, Gillette motor company.
These are the orginal manuals that came with it and here is a picture of my father in law
riding in it in the local parade.
I found it a few years ago, tucked away in a barn, not running, just like it had been
parked many years before.
Once winter I decided to get it running, not for any reason, its not useful around the
ranch but it is a piece of history that deserved to at least have some of its dignity back
and be able to do what it was meant to do, even back then, get from point a to point
b.
Each and every year after a long winter of storage I bring it out of the barn and park
it where people can see it, where you can be reminded that ranches mean history and
hard work and at the time this was the epitome of technology and engineering.
Now is the time to get the old girl out and into the sun again.
Henry Ford said you could get a model t in any color you wanted as long as it was black.
And even thoug color choice wasn’t an option luckily, even though shes equipped with a
crank start, this model t was the top of the line model in 1924 and had electric start.
There is button on the floor board you push with your foot to start her up, but starting
her is the easy part.
Driving her is a whole different matter.
Before we can even get that far, we have to get the tires aired up and get her off the
jack stands.
The tires are original and expensive to replace so I store it jacked up to keep the weight
off the tires and limit the wear on them.
On the ground and ready to go we can take a look at the power house of the truck, a
20 horsepower inline 4 cylinder engine.
Nothing compared to today and the interior lacks cupholders or even a seatbelt and driving
it requires you to forget all you know about driving a modern car or truck.
3 pedals on the floor, the right pedal is the brake and the left pedal is what puts
the truck in gear.
If you push the pedal all the way to the floor you are in low gear, if you let it all the
way out then you are in high gear and can reach up to 45 miles per hour.
The lever on the side is your clutch and with
it you can put it in neutral.
The lever in the middle is a high – low gear selector so basically you have four gears
in this pickup.
On the column, no such thing as turn signals back then but you do have a spark arrester
on the left and a throttle on the right which both have to be used in tandem to control
your engine speed.
On the dash we have a key to turn it on and off and an amp meter to measure the power
of the battery.
It does have headlights which shine about 15 feet ahead of you which are controlled
by the lever below the key and a choke knob to restrict air flow to the carburetor and
help in starting the engine.
Leg room is minimal and I can only imagine that people in 1924 must have been smaller,
I’m 5’10 and for me to get in is a little bit of squeeze and leg room is even more limited.
No such thing as comfort, this was a working mans truck and if you didn’t like the accommodations
you could get out and walk.
Shes been waiting all winter for this, so lets get her out.
She starts like a dream and runs like an out of tune lawn mower, but luckily she only has
one job to look pretty.
So away we go.
A trick to drive is an understatement but it is fun and if you are ever around and want
to take her for a spin you are more than welcome.
I don’t know of too many people around these days that can say that they have driven a
model t but it’s a fun group of people to be in a class with.
Speaking of how far we’ve came, we are now heading into our 5th month of Our Wyoming
Life and I want to thank all of you for coming along for the ride.
I hope you continue along with us as the spring and summer.
We are going to be wrapping up calving soon and branding is just around the corner as
well as haying will be keeping us busy soon.
Erin will be getting really busy soon as well and I hope you check out her videos and learn
more about local food production and farmers markets, also shes got some great cooking
videos planned and a whole lot more.
Please subscribe , like and comment.
Ask us anything and we will always do our best to give you an honest answer.
We are also in the process of trying to upgrade some of our equipment in order to bring you
better videos.
As you know we don’t have a camera crew out here following us around so filming with
just phones can get a little tricky.
If you would like to support our channel we have set up a patreon account where you can
back us and get some cool perks and merchandise out of the deal.
I’ll put the link in the description and you can do what you please with it.
Trust me, weather you support us or not we are still going to continue to bring you the
best of us and the best of the ranch.
If you do choose to back us, I owe you more than you ever will know and both Erin and
I thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.
I hope you have a great week, and thank you for joining us in Our Wyoming Life.
Every morning starts out almost exactly the same here on the ranch.
Erin and I get up early, get a cup of coffee and start planning our day.
I would have taken video of that part, but Erin said no way until she had a shower and
got her hair done, so instead heres a shot of the coffee cup the girls got for me for
fathers day last year.
Once we get the details of our day hammered out, its time to head out to work.
Theres a saying on the ranch, actually theres not, I just made this up but it fits.
If it has wheels or an engine, its gonna need fixed sooner or later, its gonna break.
An usually it breaks when you need it.
We were going to go feed the bulls and the steers but a bale of hay weighs up to 1500
lbs, not something you can throw over your shoulder.
You need a tractor and a tractor with a flat tire is no good to anyone so we fix.
History is a big thing here on the ranch.
This ranch was established in the early 1900s and has been an operating ranch since then.
The ways have changed, the methods of ranching and even the type of ranch, from a bull operation
to a feedlot to a cow calf operations, but some things always stay the same.
The rules of the ranch, saddle your own horse, be kind to the animals, have courage, always
finish what you start, take pride in your work, be tough but fair, know where to draw
the line, treat women like ladies, respect the brand, no spitting indoors and most of
all love what you do.
One more rule should be added on there, have fun.
Heres our girl sitting next to her little brother, what an awesome symbol of how far
we’ve come.
Speaking of how far we’ve came, we are now heading into our 5th month of Our Wyoming
Life and I want to thank all of you for coming along for the ride.
I hope you continue along with us as the spring and summer.
We are going to be wrapping up calving soon and branding is just around the corner as
well as haying will be keeping us busy soon.
Erin will be getting really busy soon as well and I hope you check out her videos and learn
more about local food production and farmers markets, also shes got some great cooking
videos planned and a whole lot more.
Please subscribe , like and comment.
Ask us anything and we will always do our best to give you an honest answer.
We are also in the process of trying to upgrade some of our equipment in order to bring you
better videos.
As you know we don’t have a camera crew out here following us around so filming with
just phones can get a little tricky.
If you would like to support our channel we have set up a patreon account where you can
back us and get some cool perks and merchandise out of the deal.
I’ll put the link in the description and you can do what you please with it.
Trust me, weather you support us or not we are still going to continue to bring you the
best of us and the best of the ranch.
If you do choose to back us, I owe you more than you ever will know and both Erin and
I thank you from the bottoms of our hearts.
I hope you have a great week, and thank you for joining us in Our Wyoming Life.