Hi I’m Mike, pseudo spring has hit the ranch, we are expecting some temperatures up into
the 50’s and 60’s over the next couple of days and that gives us a chance to do some
spring cleaning for the project list on our Wyoming life.
Behind me is the project list and ever filling board of things that need done around the
ranch, every Tuesday we tackle a few items off the list and bring you along.
If this is your first time here, subscribe and join us as we explore the ranch life and
escape the ordinary.
There’s a lot going on around the ranch this time of year and not enough hours in
the day to get it all done.
Tomorrow we will be taking our first load of steers off the ranch to the processing
facility and bringing back the pork that we took over a couple of weeks ago.
In addition, calving is starting to ramp up, we now have had 3 heifers that have calved
and one surprise calf born out with the cows that we will talk about a little later.
Spring cleaning around here is a group effort and we got our start yesterday evening after
the kids got home from school.
A new chore that the kids have this year is picking up all the netwrap that comes off
of bales that we feed to the cows.
Grace who is 4 years old and Mackenzie who is 7, both get to it as I get to cleaning
up the shop with them.
They load it all into the tractor bucket and we take it over to the incinerator for burning.
Both Erin and I love it when the weather starts to turn a bit warmer and getting the kids
involved in what we do on a day to day basis is not only free labor for us, but a great
experience for them as well.
Running a ranch is very much a family affair, everyone gets involved and as the kids get
older we see them doing more and more.
Not all the netwrap is going to fit in the incinerator but we can get to burning what
we can and afterwards they do some sweeping.
This morning I can get right back to it, the weather is still getting warmer for us, today
we are expecting a high in the 50’s and cleaning the shop is the first project after
getting everyone fed and watered.
The shop sometimes becomes cluttered with way to much trash, feed bags mostly that get
thrown to the side when filling the cake feeder or feeding the steers.
With the help of the tractor bucket again we can start hauling more paper trash out
to the incinerator and get it fired up again.
Also in the shop we have a bunch of last year’s pumpkins to do something with before they
start to rot and off to the chickens they can go, loading them up into the bucket as
well.
Heres a development that was surprising, netwrap is a petroleum based product and apparently
the netwrap that we didn’t get into the incinerator last night when the girls were
loading it, was a bit too close to the incinerator and got too hot and burst into flames outside
of the incinerator.
Luckily the incinerator is kept far away from anything flammable and we don’t burn when
there is a high wind or when we aren’t home so we caught it pretty quick.
There’s no harm in letting it burn while someone is here to watch it until the netwrap
is gone and and I can douse the ashes with a hose.
Never a dull moment, off to dump off the pumkins to the chickens and since we are over here
we will check the heifers.
We now have 3 calves on the ground from the heifers and none of the expectant moms look
like they are in labor yet today.
Calving starts slow and ramps up quickly and most of these girls are due any day now.
Checking them every few hours is the safest way to make sure all the calves are healthy
and moms are not having any trouble with labor or taking care of their calves.
Out with the cows is another surprise however, this morning a new little calf was born to
one of our cows, a couple of weeks ahead of schedule.
The calf is healthy but if you were around when we branded last year, we found we had
the neighbors bull in with the cows when we brought them all in to sort for branding.
This little one is more than likely from that brief encounter.
With the appearance of this little guy there is the chance that we will have more and checking
the cows as well as the heifers is now added to our rounds.
Back at the shop, we can continue with our cleaning project.
With calving heating up we are going to need to have a clean shop to bring any calves we
have trouble with into.
We will have our calf warmer in here as well as most of our medical supplies so cleaning
it up now just makes sense.
If we had a hired hand right now this would be a job for them, but unfortunately things
are a little tight around here with having to buy hay last year and a hired hand might
have to wait for a while.
We bring in an extra freezer for all the meat that is going to arrive tomorrow and get it
set up.
As I roll up this extension cord, I’m reminded of a story that I wanted to share with you.
A few weeks ago, we got an email from an older rancher asking why we do this, why do we make
videos and put them on youtube.
I think he said something along the lines of, it seems to me like you are teaching a
bunch of city slickers how to be ranchers, and they don’t need to know that.
I answered him back, explaining about giving people a chance to live the ranch life and
learn where food comes from and the work that goes into it, plus we were city slickers not
that long ago ourselves.
But now as I roll up this extension cord, I’m reminded of something that happened
to me when I was a little kid that might explain it even further, the question why we do this.
My dad was a cowboy, he worked as a ranch hand on many different ranches after I was
born up to about my 6th birthday.
He suffered a stroke and was no longer able to do the work, but one of my first memories
was helping my dad at the ranch he worked at, I don’t know where my dad was but the
ranch owner, a guy named Fred, saw me rolling up an extension cord, and I was making a mess
of it.
He told me I must not have any cowboy in me because I wasn’t rolling the cord like you
would a rope, flipping it and turning it, keeping it straight.
I was having a heck of a time with the thing.
I looked up to my dad like nothing else, I was his little cowboy but I remember at that
moment, when he told me I didn’t know how to do it like a cowboy that I figured I wouldn’t
be a cowboy.
I might have wanted to be at that point, of course I might have wanted to be an astronaut
too.
Oddly enough I ended up here much later in life, my mom says I ended up having my dads
dream job, but I wonder if Fred hadn’t told me that I wasn’t a cowboy when I was 5 years
old, maybe I would I have followed in my dad’s footsteps long before I ended up here.
Part of what we want to convey on our channel is the belief that you can do anything you
want and be whoever you want to be.
If you don’t know how to roll up an extension cord like a rope, you can learn.
A few years ago, I never would have pictured myself here and honestly, Erin and I are learning
everyday.
Just like today, that netwrap if very flammable and has a low ignition point.
We hope that you continue with us on the ranch, as calving gets going, we are going to bring
you as much as we can from the calving process and I’m sure there are some very exciting
days coming up.
I’ve got a bunch more to get done today, so I’m going to cut you loose.
Thanks for hanging out for a few minutes with me and listening to me ramble.
Be sure to subscribe, and explore the ranch life with us, find us on facebook as well
for updates and more that you cant find anywhere else.
We will be back on Thursday as Erin will be back in the garden planting in the high tunnel
and we also have a live stream Thursday night for you at 7pm.
A chance to hang out with us in real time, ask questions and learn even more.
Until then, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.