The Working Ranch Blogosphere

Living on a ranch doesn’t exactly lend itself to close-by neighbors. Jeremy’s grandparents tell some great stories about riding all day to get to their neighbor’s place when they were first married and ranching in New Mexico. It’s not quite that far here, but suffice to say we don’t see them everyday.
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I know I've filled your hearts with sad calving stories as of late, so I thought I'd switch gears and shine a little light. I suppose it's always human nature to focus on the negative. I guess that's why Jesus told the parable about the shepherd and the lost sheep. He asked who wouldn't leave the ninety-nine and go look for the one who's lost. You get attached to these animals. So, even if you save a dozen, when you lose that one, it still gets to you, and there's a part of you that feels you didn't do enough, even if, deep down, you know you did. So I'd like to tell you about little number four, and maybe that will help remind me that despite the heartaches, there's always hope, and a need to look at the glass half full.
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Last evening I was out checking for new babies in the cows when the boss called. He had trouble. A first calf heifer had prolapsed. I sped home and filled a tub full of clean water, and grabbed a clean bucket. When I got there Kirk had the uterus washed up and on clean paper. Then the heifer tried to get up, fell down in the mud, and we were back to square one.
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I must apologize for my lack of blogging, but needless to say life has been a tad busy here at the ranch. I've had lots of happenings to write on, just no time, or maybe energy, to write about them. As I was telling a friend the other day, when there is time to write, there isn't much to write on, and when there's plenty to write on, there's no time to write about it. I guess I could give you a summary.
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As a cowboy, you learn to become resourceful. Duct tape and baling wire go a long way as multi-purpose tools. (And my dad always used to make fun of me 'cause I liked MacGyver. Showed him!) Sometimes you just gotta make do to get the job done. So when I got word a couple weeks past that HBO was showing a documentary based on the life of Temple Grandin, I made a quick call to the neighbors with the satellite and asked 'em to tape it for me. (To all of you under 25, you used to be able to tape shows on this device they call the VCR.) Well, Stan and Mary still had a VCR and they agreed to help a cable-challenged young father of three, money-eating kids out.
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I know, I know, spring doesn’t officially start until March 20, but as far as I can tell, it’s here.
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Mike, a cowboy from up north, wrote me about a calving story of his. In our exchange, I shared with him that among the many rules of this job, one of the most important is simply get the job done. It might not always be pretty (especially with those of us who are still green), but you gotta learn to improvise, adapt, and overcome. For example, take these heifer calves of ours.
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Change can be good, but it’s not always easy. When I graduated from college in 2007, I couldn’t wait to move to the middle of nowhere and be a ranch wife.
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Calving out heifers has to be one of the hardest jobs in the world. (Mike Rowe, come on down anytime.) I'm not just talking about the physical aspect of it, but also the mental, and let's not forget spiritual. The hardest part for me is the spiritual and mental. One day you'll lose one and you'll be down. The next day you'll stay up all night and save one. You'd think you'd have won the lottery, until that is momma lays on him or leads him into the creek.
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As I've posted before, we feed our heifers hay just before dark in the evening. The idea is to get their bodies thinking about eating and not having babies, so as I don't have to be up every two hours all night long. You see, heifers need a little extra husbandry applied when they are ready to have their first calf. As Forrest would say, bred heifers are like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get. Take, for example, the night previous.
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