Hi, I’m Mike and this week we woke up to find winter upon us, snow on the ground and
freezing temperatures.
As mother nature descends upon us with her inconsistent and two-faced personality, it’s
time to get the ranch ready for winter.
That means getting vehicles and tractors put away, stock tank heaters installed and for
me the ceremonial burning of my summer hat.
In the end Mother Nature is in charge, on our Wyoming life
Its 28 degrees this morning, one week ago today it was 77 degrees out here and it’s
not only me that notices that huge change.
The cows have all came back to the ranch on their own from the open pastures they have
been grazing since we sold calves.
They know that with cold temperatures comes feeding season.
Feeding the cows hay helps produce internal body heat for them and I’m sure they can
use it.
We have also had a couple inches of snow fall out here, some of it melted off when the daytime
temps got up into the 40’s but at night we are dipping down into the teens and soon
even those 40-degree temps during the day will be few and far between.
Winter happens fast around here but it’s nothing we can’t deal with by putting in
a little hard work, and hard work produces my internal body heat.
Let get warmed up by first warming up the cows and getting them a couple of bales of
hay.
Its kind of ironic to me that the very first job that I did here on the ranch when we came
here 9 years ago was feeding the cows.
Its also ironic that 9 months ago the first video that we put out as our Wyoming life
was feeding the cows.
It amazing how things seem to start in the same place in your life over and over again.
We usually start feeding the cows in November, and once snow hits the ground they know its
time.
When they see the tractor coming they usually run right out to it and today is no exception.
Most of these cows have lived here on the ranch for an average of about 5 years so they
know the routine.
As we head into the hay yard, you can see that our winter supply of hay has been restocked.
In a normal good year, we would make all of our own hay here on the ranch, usually in
July but because of a lack of rain, our hay didn’t grow as much as it would have normally
and we had to buy hay from outside sources to get us through the winter.
A single cow will eat anywhere from 25 to 35 pounds of hay a day and because of that
we had to buy over 400 tons of hay this year, trucked in and unloaded and stacked in our
hay yard.
Today we will be feeding two bales of hay, each weighing about 1400 pounds and rolling
it out for the cows.
After picking up one bale with the front spear on the tractor, we can back up to another
bale and grab it with the spooler and pick it up as well.
Then it’s out to the cows.
Who are waiting anxiously for breakfast, we cut off the net wrap which holds the bale
together and then unroll the bale.
Then we repeat the process for the other bale.
This isn’t a full ration for the cows but there is still some grass out here for them
to eat and after they finish this, they will go out and chase grass, in the meantime, we
head back to the shop to get started on our next project.
Which is putting away all of the equipment for winter.
We have one area to store most of it and that is here in the sales barn.
It’s called the sales barn because it used to actually be a sales barn, filled with bleachers
and a sales ring, along with auctioneer booth.
Now it’s mainly just storage, although it does double as the area the hunters use during
hunting season.
With hunting season ending on Halloween we can now clean it up and get it ready for winter
storage.
In this small 35 x 50-foot area we will be stashing the Baler, the John Deere 6410, the
John Deere 4055, two four wheelers, the small gator and the bobcat.
Plus, anything else we can squeeze in.
First things first we need to clean it up.
That starts with putting away garbage cans, chairs and tables.
Along with picking up and throwing trash in the incinerator for burning, grabbing the
bobcat and the forks to move pallets of material and getting them put away and moving pallets
of feed for the steers.
And once the barn is cleaned out then it’s time to start cluttering it up again but this
time with big toys.
The first to come in is the 4055 tractor, we take off the plow and carefully back it
into its winter parking spot.
Next up is the baler, which will be backed in right in front of the 4055.
We use the 6410 tractor to hook up to the baler and put it in its spot.
Here in about 5 seconds is going to be a good example of what can go wrong when you are
thinking too far ahead of yourself.
Notice this jack stand holding up the front of the baler?
On a normal day, or maybe just one where I am thinking I would have taken that off before
pulling the baler with the tractor.
Unfortunately, my mind is on step 4 instead of step 2 and I manage to drag the baler and
the jack through the dirt and rock until my brain clicks about 200 feet later after leaving
a nice big gash.
On the bright side, I might have learned a new way to dig a drainage ditch.
The jack is bent and pretty hashed, but amazingly it still works.
I’m going to need a new jack stand for the baler that’s a given but I may be able to
make this one work until I can get a new one.
Backing the baler into the barn is a little tricky in itself and making sure you lower
your loader before taking out the entire barn with it is a good catch.
With the baler in place, we can chock up the wheels so they don’t roll due to our bent
jack stand and pull the tractor away.
Then it’s time to fix my trench with the landscape rake.
Erin is so going to notice that.
I’m guessing I’ll have some explaining to do.
But back to the task at hand, four wheelers come in next.
After them, the lawnmower, then the lawn tractor.
Things are already starting to get a bit cramped in here but there’s still more to bring
in.
The little gator is next.
Then the bobcat is maneuvered into place.
The only thing left is to park the 6410 tractor and we are done.
Its cramped and its cluttered, and if I need a 4-wheeler I have to move the tractor and
if I need the bobcat, I have to move a tractor.
But it’s all indoors and protected from the harsh Wyoming winter and that’s all
that matters.
All right guys, so we have everything jammed into the sales barn that we can get in there,
we still have to put away the model T and the firetruck but that takes some massive
shuffling around of stuff so we aren’t going to mess around with that today.
But I do have one more project that I’d like to get done.
If you’ve ever seen me cake the cows, you’ve seen me cake the cows by hand.
Grabbing a sack of cake , opening it up walking out and laying it out of the cows, it’s
a little dangerous but sometimes it’s the only way we can do things.
The gator actually has a cake feeder that we can put on it, but we havnt had it on there
up until now because Erin uses the gator all the time for her gardens and its kind of the
work horse of the ranch and its all over the place.
And having a giant cake feeder in the back pretty much limits what we can use it for.
Now that its winter time I can put the cake feeder back in and not get trampled by cows.
The cake feeder holds 600 lbs. of cake and uses an electric motor and worm drive to push
the cake out the chute on the side and to the cows.
I’ve already cleaned out the back of the gator and removed our gas can and mount as
it would be in the way and using the bobcat we can lift the cake feeder and its pallet
directly into the back of the gator.
Once it’s in place and the electrical connections are made it’s as easy as pushing one button
on the remote to fire it up and get it spinning.
Before filling it and testing it we will strap it in the back of the gator and then feed
the remote and its wire into the cab through the back window.
Filling the cake feeder is pretty easy, bringing in 50-pound sacks of cake it fills from the
top.
Today we are going to put in 200 lbs. for the cows and after a couple more trips its
ready to test.
After a successful test, we close the top door and head out to the cows.
Herse is one thing I don’t like about the cake feeder, it completely blocks your view
behind you, and it’s not uncommon for me to back right into things with the cake feeder
on.
Fair warning, just watch out.
The cows aren’t dumb, I’ll give them that.
They see us coming and they know and they swarm.
Inside the safety of the gator though, no worries we just push through until we get
a chance to make a break for it and lay out the cake.
Making a bunch of cows, very very happy.
That’s the end of another day on the ranch, its almost supper time and we got quite a
bit done today.
We got all the vehicles put away in the sales barn, got the cake feeder on the gator.
Still have to get the model t put away, the firetruck put away and a few odds and ends
but not a bad start as winter seems to be moving in and theres nothing we can do about
it.
Speaking of which, a tradition that I’ve had here on the ranch for a while, Erin thinks
its silly but at the end of fall, I switch hats back to my black winter hat.
This hat has been pretty good to me, its made it through the spring , summer and fall and
the tradition that I have is when I get rid of it, I burn it.
Not exactly sure why, other than its just fun to burn things.
A few years ago a hunter brought us moonshine, I have no idea how they got it or if they
made it but it is flammable so we will use that this year.
It’s the end of another season here on the ranch, and beginning of another.
Thanks for watching, make sure you subscribe if ya haven’t and click that little bell
button and make sure you don’t miss any notifications when we put out a new video.
Stick around we’ve got some cool stuff coming up.
Erin is getting started on her winter gardening adventure, we are going to be preg checking
here before too long and culling cows, which basically means getting rid of the cows that
we don’t need and we are going to show you how we do it and why.
As always have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.