Hi guys and gals!
Of course there is never a dull moment at the ranch. Out here
life moves at a different pace. Since we are like one big family,
we joke A LOT and you don’t dish out what you can’t take.
Things aren’t always politically correct, but we prefer it that way.
We take pride in a job well done and are as tickled by the work
we do here as I’ve seen in most places. From throwing a perfect
loop, to a moment of softness with a horse, a perfect turn on a
cow or even just trotting around and over trees in the woods on
a loose rein…these are a few of our favorite things.
These are the kinds of things (among many others) that we enjoy
sharing with our guests so much. Randy took over much of the
horsemanship teaching this week with half of our guests, and
Austin and Stephanie worked on horsemanship in the meadows
and on trails with the other half of our guests. Dori had a few
graze goers, but for the most part she was on her own for much of the time!
On Tuesday she and her horse Billy went out alone and singlehandedly rode
the outside of the east Bear Springs and Fisher river pastures. There Dori
gathered cattle and put them into Nutter’s Pasture. After that, she
Irish
gathered 50 pairs in Tom Ray’s pasture and put them in the Stump Pasture. She then went to Elbow
Creek and found cows and calves inside the hot fence around creek. She managed to get them out and
then repaired the fence after they came through.
What a day!
Another day at graze, Dori went out with Chris,
Stephen and Bruce and doctored one cow and
two calves. Dori, always with an eye for a good
shot, inched her camera out while holding hind
feet on the cow and snapped a photo!
The week ended with a long day at graze for
Chris and Bruce. Chris, who was riding Chief and
Bruce who was riding Lucy (both draft crosses
with BIG motors) spent most of the day finding
and then moving two very unruly bulls over to
the shipping pasture. Chris said they must have
gone 30 miles with all of the back and forth they had to do!
Here at home we had a lot of sorting, weighing and
worming to do with the cattle. We had a few die-hards
that stuck with us throughout the week. One of them
was sweet little Celia, who came with her dad Greg for
the second time since last summer. Celia is only 11 but
she stuck with us the whole time, no matter how hard
the job or how long the day.
One day we were moving steers from the Belgarde
pasture over to the scales to be weighed. The steers
were moving especially slow and Celia knew they
needed to move with
a little more life. She
remembered that when Randy would drive the steers he would call out
“Yup, yup!” She glanced around to make sure nobody was paying
attention and said “yup, yup!” The steers started moving immediately
and Celia gasped and said “It really works!” I had a big laugh about
that.
She and Scott were the only two folks who came to sort with us on
Thursday afternoon and they were able to get a lot of work in! We had
a rodeer set up in the middle of the pasture and each of them took
turns going in alone to sort off a steer and drive it out of the herd.
Celia’s last steer was her best one. That steer took off running around
Frank and Dandy are making their way down
the trail
Sandrine and Clayton
Celia with Hollywood
the rodeer and she held her line and stuck with
him till she got him out of the herd and loped off
after him to drive him out!
On Friday afternoon, most of our folks wanted to
go on a trail ride but we still had to move 51
steers from the lodge and the West Pasture up
into the State Section. There was only Shayne,
Randy and Brenda and I to do it. No big deal,
except we were taking them up the side way,
through a little green gate, up a very steep slope.
Of course the steers were not interested in
climbing the mountain and kept trying to go any
direction in the thick timber rather than up.
We managed to get them through the gate but then had to move them
about another 1000 feet up an even steeper slope (like 30°) to get them
to the road. They were pretty adamant about staying on the side of the
hills. Shayne was on foot leading his horse, throwing rocks and sticks at
the steers to move them. Randy found a big stick and was jousting them
up horseback. Me and my horse found ourselves just above a beehive
and had the swarm of bees surround us, stinging us while we took off
sideways. Just at that moment Brenda’s saddle started slipping sideways
and she had to jump off and re-adjust in the midst of it all. What a ride!
We managed to get every last one of them up where they needed to be
and had a story to tell and a lot of laughs to go with it. Brenda said it
was the
best day of
riding of
her life!
Brenda will be leaving soon to teach high
school in Kalispell. She’s planning on
coming and helping us out on the
weekends so she won’t be far. All the
same, I’m going to miss her smile and her
friendly good morning every day when I
come in.
Have a fantastic weekend everyone!
Des
Brenda on Shadow. She was such a great help
to us with the steers!
Bruce and Greg both spent some time on the
water fly-fishing. The weather couldn’t have been
more perfect.
Marti, Jo, Liz, Sharon and Louise all came out to
celebrate Marti’s 50th birthday.
They all had a great time riding, relaxing and hot
tubbing!
Thierry and Helene
Nathan giving Scott a hand. Scott is going to stay
a second week with us and his colt