Thoughts from the Middle of Nowhere

The water and mud we are having to deal with under all the snow. What a mess. Taken 3/29/2006.

It's that time of year again to start moving critters out to the hills and off of feed. The green grass is coming along really well and the pastures I am going into have quite a bit of old grass to go along with the new grass for them to chew on. With the storm coming I won't turn any cows out but the yearling replacement heifers are well able to take care of themselves so we trailed them out yesterday.

I can sure tell it is wet around here. You would be riding along all fine and dandy when all of a sudden you would hit a wet patch and your horse would sink into the mud a foot or so. For that to happen around here it has to be really saturated and not drying well. I again call for warm temperatures to use the moisture in the ground. The forecast doesn't look like it's going to happen though.

Oh well, take the good with the bad. With the storm coming the yearling replacement heifers are really going to feel abused at not getting their feed but by Saturday its supposed to be getting warm and nice again. Their tough, they can handle it. The question is can I?



The yearlings on their way to the waterhole in the Mountain pasture, where this picture was taken. They are always the first bunch we take out to the hills in the spring. Taken 4/4/2006.

Spring is nature's way of saying, "Let's party!" Robin Williams

Boy it got warm around here yesterday. What little snow there was on the hillside above the corral broke and overflowed my diversion ditch and was flowing down through the corral. What a mess it was making in the corral.



I felt like some farmer tending his irrigation walking around with my shovel diverting water so it didn't make too big of mess in the corral. Once I got it flowing through the corral I worked on the diversion ditch and finally after a couple of hours picking at the frozen ground got the water flowing through it like it should. Walking around with a shovel tending water. Bah, farmers do that.

I called a well driller back in December about drilling a new well in one place out in a summer pasture. He said he would get back to me at the end on January. I finally heard from him yesterday. I guess he got January and February mixed up. He wanted to come out and drill the well next week. I told him to call me when he is closer but that it is wet enough I don't think he could get his rig in. He was very surprised by this. He said as dry as everyone was he was sure he could get out here. I told him it wasn't real wet out here but it was slick enough his rig would never make it. Never assume just because "every place else" is dry to think we are. Most of the time we have a "little" more.

I don't know when I will be able to get the driller in. Eventually I will and more money will be out of my pocket drilling a new well. Better that than the cows dying of thirst though.

Water, air, and cleanness are the chief articles in my pharmacy. Napoleon Bonaparte

Why is it the moment I bring the heifers home to calve it decides to get wet around here. Over the weekend we had a little moisture and yesterday it decided to snow a little more again.



It made things miserable and wet around here. I guess the moisture is good so I shouldn't complain but it sure makes calving the heifers tough. The pen I keep the heavy heifers in to watch gets fairly muddy when it's like this which makes it miserable on the animals and me. Not much I can do about it but struggle through though. What a pain.

There are good and bad times, but our mood changes more often than our fortune. Thomas Carlyle

The sun reflecting off the ice in a mud hole. Mud at this time of year is unusual and takes forever to dry since it freezes up every night and then thaws, but doesn't dry, every day. I'm tired of the mud. Could be so dry there is no mud though so take the good with the bad.