Bikes and Construction

My buddy Otis

Wally...probably the cutest lop eared calf ever!

bucket calves

Grasshopper control!

Joe and Ace!

So...today I headed back to Martin.

First things first, I got up and packed my things and headed to church. It was nice to be back for a service and see a lot of my friends and neighbors and not get kicked out of a Lutheran Church! lol... So, after church my sister and I went over to our aunt Charlene's and ate dinner with her. We worked on some farm papers that needed to be done, and sat around and chatted for a while. I picked up the last copy that will ever be printed of my hometown paper (or at least for now). They decided to cut the paper completely along with another close-by town, Garretson. I think that it is absolutely ridiculous...serisously a 900 person town can't even have a paper? wow. So, anyway, I got on the road at about 2:45. The interstate was pretty much full of bikers the whole way and offered lots of entertainment...although I really had to pay attention because there was lots and lots of construction- almost off and on the whole entire way. I made a stop at Cabela's in Mitchell to pick up some ammo that they didn't even have and then continued on until Murdo where I stopped to get gas. Otherwise, it was pretty easy going. I got in here at seven and have just unpacked my stuff.

Sounds like I missed out on a fun day around here. I called Merle earlier when I left and they were out fishing...jealous! Seriously, they do these things when I'm gone! lol- I'm glad they went though. Tonight I think Marla cooked for the family in town, so I'm hangin' out here holding down the fort.

I think I might add some pictures that I just took around the corral and at home this weekend. If you look back through my old posts (I think they start at the 'Dan the Man' post) you will find some pictures that I added here and there. Anyway, think I'm gunna keep on doing laundry!

Home Again

This is a 'before; picture of the house. We are having it painted and they power washed all the paint they could get off of it. It should be done in about 2 weeks.

Ok...I'm so not into JD, but this was a combine crew that parked for the night north of the Ranch near Hisle road... just not something you see everyday.

ok...so I'm really really behind- like three days of behind. But, oh well, I don't think you've missed a whole lot.

So, the reason I'm so behind is because I headed home on Thursday afternoon. I forgot to mention that in my blog (I think) and I also forgot to mention it to almost everyone else, with the exception of my sister. For some reason, no one seems to be able to read my mind- dang it- common people! lol

Anyway, Thursday was pretty average, minus the whole five hour drive thing. I did chores- o no wait, I didn't actually. I had left my cell phone one place or another and only had my pathetic alarm clock to rely on. There was a fire call around 4:30 in the morning that I heard come across the pager- it was a roll over accident quite a ways away, west of Martin a few miles, I heard it pretty loud and clear because I hadn't slept well for who knows why; so I called up to Merle's and he was already awake (gross- way too early) and said we wouldn't need to go. So, naturally, I went back to bed. Apparently I fell asleep after that and didn't wake up until the doorbell rang..after chores. I am seriously lucky I work here because no boss would ever believe that I wasn't out all night partying! I don't know what my deal it, I guess I need a more powerful alarm clock! So, I got dressed and headed down to the shed where Bowdie was already caught for me. I quick saddled up and we headed out to move some more bulls. We rode through the pasture that we had left eight of them last week (or a while back) We only recovered 6... and one had a bum shoulder so we left him there. Later on we found another one still in that pasture that we thought had run out ahead of us, but instead had hidden in the buck brush. So, that put us down to only missing one, which I think Merle found yesterday. So, anyway, we had these five bulls that moved pretty easy...but really really slowly. The goal was to get them down to the bull pasture at Dicks. About halfway Ross turned back and went to get the pickup and Merle and I kept on moving them. (It was just the three of us that day). It was actually really cold that morning and none of us really brought much for layers because we expected it to warm up...well it didn't. In fact, Merle got off of Dan (yeah that's right, Dan HAD to behave- lol) and walked for quite a while to stay warm. I was too much of a wimp and just rode and stayed cold- after all I'm always cold, so I guess a person should just get used to it! haha We eventually got them there, and loaded up and headed back home. They dropped me off at the house to cook dinner...hamburgers in fact. Ok, I warned Merle that I should not fry hamburgers but he thought otherwise- so I fryed them, and o my gosh, shock and disbelief, they weren't all done in time and they weren't very good! Hey, I warned him! Haha, but we ate them just fine and cleaned up. After dinner, Ross went out to farm and Merle went out and started raking hay so he could bale later. I felt bad making him do that, but no matter when you leave there is always something else to be done.

I went home and cleaned things up and got ready to head home. I got out of there around two. The trip was pretty good, minus all the annoying construction. I stopped in Kimball to see friends for an hour and a half or so and then headed on homeward. My plans were actually to go out to Garretson and stay with my friend Alysha that night because I was helping her fit cattle for a show early in the morning. I got to Garretson a little earlier than normal so I went right on through and just headed out to Luverne where the fair was that she and her family were at. I stayed out there and helped them tie cattle out and just hung out with people I haven't seen in a long time. Then, we all headed back to there house and stayed up way too late talking. We finally went to bed around two...and I got up to head back to the fairgrounds around 5...yeah short night. But, I may as well train in for the upcoming school year! lol

The show went really well, she had two breeding heifers and a market heifer. I had a lot of fun helping her fit (get them ready for show). We used to show and I really loved it, but it's time consuming and expensive...so I really miss it. Hence, why I come back and help her every year. She ended up with two blues, a reserve champ, a purple, and a reserve plaque for rate of gain on her market animal. I think she was pretty happy. I left the fairgrounds about two and headed home to take a nap. When I got there, the painters that we hired were working on a the house a little, doing some trim work and starting to prime. I think we're both pretty excited to see it when it's done- it'll look so different! So, I talked to them and Olluv and Virginia for a while and then hit the sack for two hours or so. That night, we went to Sonic and saw Harry Potter 6. We had planned to do this for quite a while. It was pretty good- and a lot of fun to go see a movie with my sister. Afterward we pretty much came home and flopped in bed- what a night life!

I am sleeping on an air mattress here at home because I took my bed to Martin. Not a problem when you go to bed and it's fully inflated...but rather uncomfortable when you wake up on the floor. Yeah...so not cool, but life goes on, at least it stayed inflated long enough to go to sleep on! So, we slept in a little later today and then got up and headed to Brookings. Virginia needed to pick up some things from her apartment so I went with to help. We did that and ate, and then headed back home and went to a good friend of ours (and Dad's) who had a sale. His name is Bud Scanke, and he told Virginia that he was inspired by our sale last summer (which I never ever want to think about again! ahhh) and decided he needed to get rid of some things that he never uses. It was fun to go and see things, and within the first five minutes of being there I had already put my bid in. Virginia went and got a number and I started bidding on an old chiar set. That went too high, but next was a pretty nice looking kitchen table. We got it for the huge price of $7.50. So, after we bought it Bud comes up to us and starts talking. We ended up finding out that the table actually came from our house ... yeah small town usa. Seriously, here I just thought I was buying a nice table for the house and school and whatever, turns out it was way ahead of me! lol, we thought that we pretty funny. So, some friends hauled the table home for us and then we headed out to Brandon for an appointment I had. Afterward, we met Mom and John and the grandparents at Granite City for supper. It was nice to see everyone and the food was pretty tasty- although I had hamburger, which I'm still trying to figure out. You would think I would eat something other than red meat when I go out somewhere, but no, I order a hamburger...who knows!? That puts me here at home, with Virginia and Olluv.

As far as the ranch goes...from talking to Merle it sounds like he baled most of Thursday. Then, later that day or Friday (can't remember) they found a couple of the bulls we had missed and got them out to the bull pasture. Ross and Jeff got the windrower going and I think Jeff must have raked and moved bales. Ross most likely finished the farming and went back to cutting hay I would bet. Merle said that today they had to get pretty much all of Merchant's cattle out of his and then sort some heifers of his back in that Glen and Merle and I missed the other day. He said he kept on haying and strung salt and mineral through Boeman's Dam today too. I think he went up to Phillip to the bull riding last night and said it was pretty good, so things can't be too bad! lol Although he admitted to me tonight that he forgot to lock the chickens in one night and I might be down one to 10...tisk tisk! haha, now we'll be down to one egg a day insted of two:p Other than that, it sounds like I haven't missed too much. I'm sure I'll get filled in on what all went on when I get back tomorrow night.

Tid bits I probably failed to mention from the last week:
One day I found a mouse in a laying nest...Merle called for Otis (The cat) and of course he came running (like a dog would). He picked him up and set him right in front of the mouse and the little mouse ran right between all four legs and got away...seriously, I think that cat eats too much cat food! lol, it was pretty funny, Merle was kinda discusted!

O, and you can't forget the day that I wrote in my blog that the harvesters were kinda creepy and then Harv read it and spent the next morning worrying/looking for me- which is totally not a bad thing. They couldn't get me on the house phone (already outisde) and my cell never works down there. Delbert tried me on the radio and that we a lost cause too because I was wandering around outside still. It wasn't until I was halfway to Rapid and had gotten a voicemail, did I finally call and let him know I was still alive and kikin! Sorry Harv! Don't worry, the Smith and Wesson Security seems to be the best I've found yet!

But, this is getting ridiculously long so I'm gunna go finish my root beer and hit the deflating air mattress!

Pictures

If anyone is interested I have posted some pictures according to when they were taken. The easiest way to look at them is to just browse through all of my old posts, they are pretty easy to pick out and it won't take you long to find them. :)

Looong trip to Rapid

I'm quite glad that today is now over with!

This morning, I did chores like normal and didn't have much problem at all. Merle had called around six and said that I should bring his pickup into Rapid between ten and eleven and then I could ride home with him and Sharla. Easy enough for me. So, I did chores and still had about an hour to kill before I needed to head out so I filled oats. This took me a little longer than I expected, but I still figured I could make it in by 10:30. I changed and cleaned the pickup out and went up to fuel it before I took off. While I was up there, Jeff yelled for me to come over to the rake tractor that he was putting the alternator on and look at the door. ...the door that we put on yesterday, the one that was fine, with no chips or cracks was now completely shattered from one end to the other. There was not a lot of sign that anything hit it, we finally decided that the frame must have gotten just a little sprung or had just enough pressure that when we put the door back on and it sat for a while, it eventually busted from too much pressure on the glass. So, basically that made me frustrated right from the start. I was already late, so I hopped in the pickup and took off.

When I got to the hi-way (only like 15 miles from home), Merle called and said that they were done in town and would be ready whenever- o how wonderful, I was only an hour and a half away yet! Apparently Sharla had left a message on my phone but I couldn't understand it and didn't get it until way after I needed to- dang reception. But, they didn't sound too worried and said to keep coming, so I did, until Interior. I didn't have much of a choice when I came up on this stop sign, I knew the clutch was weak in the pickup but I had to stop. I went to take off and...yep no clutch, nothing, not even an ounce of pressure. So there I am sitting on the hiway at a busy intersection stuck. I got some cars to go by me and eventually got the dumb thing into first long enough to cross the road and park at the gas station. I couldn't get it to stay in gear once I got it in one. I waited at that gas station for probably fifteen or twenty minutes until I got ahold of Marva who got alhold of Sharla who gave the phone to Merle- kinda had the run around! He said that if I could get it to stay in gear I should try to keep coming until Country Corner (filling station about ten miles out of Rapid)...right about then I got it shoved into first and took off. I had a little trouble fishing my way around but eventually free shited back up into overdrive to get there. When I pulled in they were already there and Merle showed me where to park so that a tow truck could get to the pickup and take it the rest of the way. There are too many stoplights in Rapid to go much further. I have never been happier to get out of that pickup! Talk about stressful...but I got there and then hopped in with them and headed straight back home. I had feared that clutch would go out, I just hoped that it wouldn't right there on the hi-way, oh well I guess!

When we got back I kept on working on some odds and ends, moving branches, cleaning out pickups, other random stuff. After an hour or two, Merle came down and we took off the broken tractor door and strapped it back onto the pickup. I took the flat bed and he took the fencing pickup and we headed back up to Phillip. On the way there, the pickup I was driving decided that it was pulling a trailer and beeped most of the way up there- now it has indicator lights on and all sorts of crap. Me and pickups... We dropped that fencing pickup off at the welders shop to have the fender put back on and the frame looked at and then went to Case IH to drop off the door. While we were there, one of the service guys suggested that he price out a door instead of just the window pane because it's likely the same thing could happen again. A left front glass door for a 5250 International costs...$3,440. Seriously. That is absolutely ridiculous- we opted to pick up another 400 and some dollar window pane.

We left Phillip and headed towards Interior to pick up some pellets for the calves at the Ranch Store. Afterward we just went home through the park and decided to stop and eat at Cedar Pass Lodge. It was pretty darn good, and a lot easier than scrounging around in the fridge! We finally headed home then.

When we got back it was time for chores. Got them done, put the pellets we bought away, and worked on some things around the house. Later I managed to lose a game of cribbage- but just barely, it was totally close! lol, anyway, it's past my bedtime. I hope tomorrow is full of fewer minor disasters! ;) Not sure if we will hay or pull bulls.

Phillip and Stubble Bunnies

Ever had one of those days when it felt like all you did was kill time? Yep...that was today.

As soon as I finished chores I got my instructions from Merle for the next couple days. He headed to Rapid this afternoon to get some things done and will be back tomorrow after an appointment- sometimes driving back and fourth isn't worth it! So anyway, I dinked around checking a well and the few spayed heifers I put out in the small pasture nw or the house last week. When I finished with that I went up to the shed to help Jeff take the door and alternator off the 5250. Today, one of my jobs was to take the glass door and alternator up to Phillip to two different places and get them fixed. Another thing I needed to do was get the tire on the pickup I was planning on taking fixed. It has had a screw in it for a couple of days that has been acting as a temporary plug...well I wasn't going to drive to Phillip on it and it was starting to leak so we loaded up the door and alternator and I headed to Martin to get the tire fixed. I sat in line to get the dumb thing fixed for the next 45 min, but finally got it done. If I had known they were gunna be so busy and so many people were gunna cut in front of me I would have just changed to the dang tire and left it there! O well, instead I stood around a caught some crap from the locals ... and shot it right back! haha, yep good times in Martin.

Eventually I got out of there with a patched tire and headed to Phillip. Merle and Glen had gone up to Phillip a lot earlier this morning to haul up some fall calves Glen sold today. It wasn't going to work for him to take this stuff to Phillip and back so we both ended up there today. I actually met Merle on the hiway when he was on his way home and I was on my way there. He got back here and Sharla and him went to Rapid. I hung out at the sale barn in Phillip and sat with Glen and his wife for a while until everything was ready for me to pick up again.

The cranky guy at case IH messed me up on the belts I needed and shorted me one in the end, but he did get the alternator fixed. O- short rant-> So the windrower has a double breather/ air filter like a lot of tractors do. There is a small inside filter that has a small wing nut fastener and then a big outside filter that has a lid and bigger wing nut. Well, both nuts were stripped so I was going to pick up a couple new ones. You can buy the little one for a few bucks but the big one...you have to buy the entire $100 lid just to get the wing nut. Rip off! Seriously, I'm going to go buy a washer and nut for like a dollar and solve that problem- I hate that kind of marketing crap. ...ok now I'm done.

The welder had the door latch fixed too, so I picked that up and very, very carefully ratchet strapped it down (I was deathly afraid of breaking that door)! I managed to get home with everything in one piece. Jeff came and we put the door back on and plan on putting the alternator back on tomorrow. He had been moving bales most of the day and Ross windrowed...until he couldn't get it started and they both worked on the dumb thing until they got it to go. There is some problem or trick to getting the thing in nuetral- if you forget to do it when you shut it down it's like a rubics cube to get started again! But, they got it right about the time I showed back up at home. After we put the door on Jeff headed home and I cleaned things up around the shed. I found plenty to keep me busy for the rest of the afternoon. I cleaned out the stock trailer and unhooked it, did chores, groomed Ace and Joe- the two most unloved and underfed horses on the place (right!), and worked on my lawn. While I was mowing a strange pickup pulled in the driveway- and I'm quite a ways off the main road so this isn't exactly a common occurance. I went down to figure out who it was and caught on pretty quick. It was harvesters (there are crews all over right now) looking for a place to fish. They wanted to fish in Rissie Dam- at least I think that's what they were discribing- but I couldn't give them permission and it is the neighbors anyway so I lucked out. They fished around asking me questions for a while and I finally told them I had to get back to work- haha I have their card, better keep that one on file! If you got better looking for every tooth you lost before age 30 these guys would Tom Cruise! LOL!

They left, I finished in the lawn for the night, and came in for some lovely cereal for supper. The rest of the night was just time spent around the house. I went out after a while to lock the chickens up and none other than Ace and Joe were standing there. They have this habit (mostly Joe) that when I come out in the morning it is somehow effective to winnie at me until I feed them. Tonight, they decided to do this- an hour after they had been fed! Little farts, you would think they were starved.

Anway, I am gunna go ahead and put some picture up on this darn blog finally if I can figure it out!

Pullin' Bulls

Today was really productive.

While I was doing chores Ross went out to find the horses. By the time I was done, he still wasn't back and everyone was showing up and hooking up trailers. So, eventually Merle went out and found the horses and Ross showed up right about then...typical morning- everyone running in circles. But, we got the horses down anyway and grained them.

The plan for the day was to pull 6 bulls from Hisle Dam, 3 from Chief Bears, and another two from Techs if we got a chance. Well, we saddled up and I tried out Bowdie today. He is a really nice, experienced horse who knows his stuff. He hadn't been ridden in quite some time so it was a pretty fresh ride, but went just fine- he's a lot of fun. So anyway, Glen, Ross, Merle, Jeff, and I loaded our horses into one trailer, had two other trailers and pickups, and the panel trailer all headed to set up in the Hisle Dam pasture. We got there and set up our corrals with the tub chute that was put there yesterday and then rode out for bulls. The whole thing went pretty slick, we were able to find all six and load them into two trailers. Jeff and Glen took the trailers out to Dick's to drop them off and Ross and Merle and I stayed and rode out for the other three bulls at Chief Bears. We managed to find all of them too and bring them back to the tub and loaded them up. Ross took them down to Dicks and Merle and I stayed with the horses and started tearing down panels. When Glen and Jeff showed back up we finished tearing everything down and pinning up the tub and headed home for dinner.

After we ate we headed back out with the tub and panels to Techs. Glen and Merle and I rode while the others set up the corral. There were supposed to be two bulls but we knew we might only find one. In fact the one that we did find was on the wrong side of the fence, but they got him back and we managed to push him through the tub and into the trailer pretty easy. Jeff needed to be home early today so he headed out and Ross took the tub back and went home. That left Glen and Merle and I to try one last bull. We headed over to Bear Creek where we were short a bull the other day. I dropped them off at the gate and then hauled the bull we had just sorted off to Dicks. After dropping him off I parked at the gate and rode back to meet up with Merle and Glen who had found a bull and a stray heifer of the neighbors. He was pretty huffy, but we got them both through the gate finally and sorted the heifer back. We finally loaded up for the day and started to head back...or so we thought. We passed this herd of heifers on the other side of the fence from the trail we were on that looked all too familiar. So, we stopped and found a let down in the fence (which had electric wire that made the whole let down concept a little difficult) and drove the horses over the wire and chased the little farts back in. Then, Merle found the hole in the fence and got it fixed and we headed back out. This time we made it home without any detours. By then it was chore time, then supper, and now bedtime. After riding all day I think we were all tired out.

Tomorrow Merle won't be around most of the day so it sounds like Jeff and I will be working on odds and ends around here. Hope the weather is as cool as it was today!

Eagles Nest Butte

A pretty nice Sunday.

I didn't get up for chores until right up to the rail at 7 this morning...guess I was tired. So, after getting those done I went back into the house and took a half hour nap before I got up and got ready for church. There were only like 16 people in the building this morning- a cozy little crowd. The service was a little different because the pastor has so many chuches to go to that he is only here two Sundays of the month, the others are done by a leigh person. It was still pretty nice though. So, afterward I headed back home and started cleaning and doing laundry. Just basic around the house stuff. Meanwhile, Merle was out setting up the tub chute for tomorrow and stringing salt and mineral. When he came back he brought the lawn mower over...fun, now I don't even have an excuse! lol, I really need to mow the yard.

We went in for dinner and spent most of the afternoon haying. We had just a few odds and ends to catch up; we got most of it done except just two hay pens when my tractor decided to start in on it's crap again. It quits in the most terrible spots...I was at the end of a lane trying to turn around in a tiny, tight space and it decided not to break loose and get into gear. After some choice words and a lot of fidgeting I got in going long enough to finish what we were doing and park it. Tomorrow we are sending the alternator to Phillip- hopefully that solves the problem, we'll see- I'm not so sure.

After giving up on that we went down and did chores a little early so that we could load up two four wheelers and go to the top of the butte! Probably the coolest thing ever. Merle said I would get up there sometime before summer was over and now I have. I was surprized that there is a trail of sorts up there but it's really washed out, so you kinda have to make your own. But once you get on top it is beautiful! It was kinda hazy from the weather today but you could still see for miles and miles (might give me an excuse to go up there again). The quite and the prairie smell are pretty amazing as well. There is some really neat stuff up there like an old sundance ring and sweat lodges. We saw four spots where people had been fairly recently. (Apparently it is one place that people sometimes go on vision quests). During these quests they spend about three days (if I remember right) up there. We saw some fresh footprints in the dirt so we couldn't have been far behind someone- maybe even earlier today or yesterday. I got some cool pictures...all the more reson to get my pictures up on this site. It was definitly worth it and pretty darn amazing! But, after checking out all the good viewpoints we came back down the steep sidehill and headed for home. I ate dinner and that puts me here- ready for bed.

Tomorrow we will be pulling bulls from Hisle Dam and Chief Bears...should be fun, eh we'll see!