"Grease Lightning"

Hey Everybody! Halfway through my blog that I was writing last night, my internet crashed and didn't save one bit of it :( so here goes, I will try to remember what I was typing yesterday!

Day 5 on the IX Ranch is coming to a close and the good news it that I survived so far! I am really enjoying myself here and am learning many new things. 

My day starts at 5:00 am when my talking, crowing alarm goes off. It takes me a few seconds to shake the sleep off and crawl out of my warm nest to turn it off. That's not all though. A few seconds later my second alarm goes off. That would be my cell phone singing the tune "God Gave Me You". I like this alarm because I get to hit the sleep button at least twice before I have to actually get ready for the day. We have to be ready and outside by 5:30 and then breakfast is at 6:00. In this half hour, my responsibility is to check the oil and fluids in 3 pickups, the tractor, the bobcat UTV, and the four-wheeler. Then I spend the rest of the half hour cleaning something or putting things away. Then it is time for breakfast that our lovely, wonderful cook Anna prepares for us. After we scarf down breakfast and thank Anna, we all head back outside to feed and put out mineral.

Feeding Cows!

Every morning I get to feed 4 different groups of cows. And boy am I glad that I started feeding at home before I came here! I want to thank Dad for being very patient with me while I was learning to back up because all that work paid off and he would be so very proud of my backing up abilities now! It takes me around 2-1/2 hours to feed 15-17 bales. I feed 179 cows in the “UPC” which stands for Up the Creek, 230 replacement heifers in the “Marlow”, 270 sale heifers in the “2^nd lot” and 271 sale heifers in the “3^rd lot”. Every other day I burn the twine off the spinning thingy inside the hay buster. The good news is that so far (knock on wood) I haven’t broken the tractor or the haybuster! Dad would be very happy to hear that because the last day I was home, while I was feeding the drive line flew off while the PTO was running full speed ahead and took out a hydraulic line which caused the back forks of the haybuster to fall and all this happened during a blizzard while I was feeding on the side of a hill. It was a messy situation (sorry Dad!).

My pretty hay windrows that I created with the haybuster

Lunch is at 12:00 and we get don’t have to go back outside until 1:00. We have been doing several little projects to get ready for calving. The due date here at the Whitcraft isn’t until the 21^st of March. There will be about 900 older cows calved out along with 400 three year olds. I am not sure, but I don’t think that I will be here when these cows start calving (who knows?) On the first day that I was here, we set up part of the calving corral and barn. We went and got all these panels and set them up to make an alleyway in front of the individual pens in the corral. Then there is this wooden gate. It gets stuck when you try and open it or swing it so it was our job to fix it. We decided that if we nailed a board from the post that the gate is hanging on to the barn, it would fix the problem. And it did! Except that I had to nail 5 inch spikes into the post and the barn and this is how it went: board, nail, board, nail, board, board, nail, board. I honestly probably hit the board more than the nail somehow I got those buggers in there. This was all while standing with one foot on the bed of the flatbed and the other on the top rung of the wooden panel. Let’s just say it got pretty interesting and I couldn’t stop laughing because I kept hitting the board.

Setting up the calving corral. This is the alleyway we created with panels and the gate at the end is the one that we fixed. We nailed a board from the barn to that post sticking up. 

Things got a little greasy yesterday when I got to help another worker with the wheel bearings. Another thing my Dad would be proud of me for: my hands were covered in grease!

Yucky....wheel bearing grease!

Today I spent the afternoon in the shop helping fix the post pounder and getting the hot box ready for the little baby calves that get chilled. I’ll put some more pictures of this clever invention up later. My boss came up with the idea of making this huge warming box that is toted around on a trailer with a fan, generator, and propane heater so that multiple calves can be warmed at the same time. I think it can fit around 6-10 calves! Quite the invention!

Who knew that fencing was a spectator sport? We had an audience while fixing fence one afternoon.

I want to end by saying that I was feeling a little homesick yesterday and as I was feeding, I looked toward home and saw those Sweetgrass Hills! I don't know what made me look over there towards home but it brightened my day and reminded me that I'm not as far away as I feel. 

Happy Trails!

This group of calves was the first ones I fed. They must not have been too hungry though because they followed me all the way up the hill to watch me feed the other cows. And then followed me all the way back down to where I originally fed them. 

Meet the calves of the 3rd lot, they are hungrily awaiting my arrival!