White Horse

This story needs to be told. No better way than with a country song. 

           https://youtu.be/g01FugyyMwk         

Feeding Cows

One perk about the open winter is not having to feed. However, the time comes when the cows need some good nutrients, especially as they get close to the end of pregnancy. So, I chose today as they day to give them a bale of hay. 

With about 33 round bales of grass in possession, I don't want to run out before I truly need them in March. My hope is just to roll one out a week for the next month or so. 

White Horse is ranch ready. The bed is made for hauling round bales; I just have extensions on the arms for skinning cows. Taking them off and putting on the bale spears, she's ready to feed. 

As I came out to the field, Andi caught a whiff of grass. Coming to me, she hollered for her buddies. 

Who all came running. 

I whine about netwrap, but it does a good job of holding the bale together. Just cut it and and drag it around. No real pretty way to do it. 

This grass was baled pretty dried out, but the cows still love it. 

Round bales are beautiful. So versatile with minimal equipment. The bales are wrapped up in one direction. You can unroll it one way, so it slowly goes long, or another way, so it bulks up fast. 

Keep rolling until you get to the core. Eventually you just have to leave it at that. 

Giddy up. 

Happy cows make for a happy cowboy. Generally, you figure 40 cows a day to one round bale. 11 cows on one bale, should go for four days. I was hoping for a week. Maybe so with all the other picking they can do. We'll keep an eye on them. I dig feeding season. It's fun and a great way to keep an eye on the cows as they get closer to calving. Let's ranch. 

Spotlight

There's just something fun about lighting up the countryside at night. As kids, we all had spotlights in our pickups. I've survived this long without one, but with calving season coming on, I figured it was time to cowboy up. 

I've seen this guy sitting on the shelf at Carquest for the past year. Wanting it then, I held off because I didn't have a need. Then I thought one up, night calving. The base just magnets to the roof of the truck.

Then a 12v cord plugs into the aux in the pickup. This makes it easy to take off when not needed. 

The light runs by a remote control from the cab. You can turn it on and off, up and down, and rotate it 360 degrees. 

So, John and I took it out for a looksee. 

Money.

This guy is bright. John said it looked like a helicopter spotlight. It is intense. The iPhone makes the night look kind of light. But these cows were hidden until we found them with the spot light. Pretty powerful beam. They just sat there and grazed. No concern by the unidentified light lighting up their world. This will be handing come spring. But it will also be fun in the meantime. Ranch on. 

Clear Creek Round Up

Last week, Pete Debe called and asked if I'd want to help with a round up on the Clear Creek, northeast of Buffalo. As providence would have it, all worked out for me to jump in. 

No rush. I had time to celebrate Mass and pray the Office before gathering the horses and heading out.

The Watt Ranch is where we were riding. This place has remained in the family since its homesteading in the late 1800s. 

The riders trailered to the backside of the pasture to gather and push. 

Pete and his pup have helped on this place for years. Prior to that, he had the hunting rights leased and guided on this prairie. 

Landmarks of the old times still remain. 

Bernie has helped for years to. Deets and him came to work, as well as enjoy the ride in the process. 

Good country for sheds. 

Beautiful shots of the Bighorns too. 

Pete is an old mountain man. So hillsiding slopes is no problem for him. Mollie and I were less excited, but followed the lead. 

This country was once the bed of an ocean. Wild to think about, but the levelness of the horizon makes it more believable.

This is big country, so Jeff and other 4-wheeler riders were helping on the long gather. 

We got all the cows pushed up to the gate. 

And then kicked them into the neighbors. 

Where we trailed them over the hill and through the woods.

A few good dogs really helped the herd move along.

It was about a seven mile drive in total. 

Once at the final gate, they counted them as they entered the calving pasture. 

Mission accomplished. 

Us on horseback rode back to the ranch, crossing US 16. 

To find awaiting us a hot bowl of beef stew. Good stuff. 

Oats for my horses. Good work, sweetheart. Yes, I did brush her down. 

Fun time. I love a good round up. Even better when it's with good folks. New country I saw today. Not your typical January in Wyoming, but we'll take what the Good Lord gives us. Special thanks to the Watt family for letting me tag along, and to Pete for thinking to call me. Thanks also to Mollie for toting me around. Life just looks better from the back of a horse. Ranch on. 

Gift of Faith

Use it or lose it.

           https://youtu.be/C6rqIKqKPuU         

St. Thomas

Pray for us! (13th century Dominican not 3rd!)

           https://youtu.be/r0qsIr6DUqs         

Abandon

What are you doing?

             https://youtu.be/pB3qNN8djN0           

Door Fix

If there's one room in the church a priest accesses the most, it's the sacristy. Getting ready for Mass, retrieving Hosts to bring the sick Holy Communion, and turning off the lights at the end of the day, the sacristy is grand central station. Consequently, unlocking and locking this sacred room should be a smooth action. 

Two things, fumbling through my keys each time I am in and out is a pain, especially if you have other things in your hand. And, other people need access to this room and we don't need a bunch of keys floating around.

Answer: digitally coded dead bolt. I've had this guy sitting around for the last year. Because I wasn't brave enough to tackle the job, I held off. Well today, I found the courage. 

Here was the problem: being old doors, the original dead bolt hole was too small in diameter and was too close for comfort to the door knob. With the encouragement of my buddy Terry Ridgeway, we came up with a plan and tackled the chore. 

With no option for an internal pilot hole like most hole saw jobs, we cut the 2 1/8" hole first through a board that would serve as an external pilot.

Then centered it up and clamped the jig to the door. 

And drilled away. Worked pretty well.

Bolting it on after that was a breeze. 

Most new doors have the dead bolt considerably further up the door. Thankfully, this new set up sat right on top of the old knob. Works for me. Hope it does for everyone else. Smooth entry is key for staying peaceful and getting the job done in a timely manner. Ranch on. 

Two by Two

Our sent them out in pairs.

           https://youtu.be/8PkID27rwa0         

Light of Life

Let's leave our nets.

             https://youtu.be/DtuEej4J3U8           

Oxy/Acetylene

Every shop has an Oxygen/Acetylene cutting torch set up. Often, places will have two. One for the shop and one that's more portable. We just have one around here. Which is good on overhead, but not as easy to use in the field. Regardless of the set up, the bottles go empty and have to be changed.

We keep the smaller bottles around. Outside of building corrals, we can make these guys last 6 months or so. Nothing fancy about our cart. The pneumatic tires on the hand truck make it pretty easy to get around with. 

All bottles come with a safety cap. Even when they are empty and you are hauling them to town, it is good to keep them on. The oxygen bottle runs about 1800psi full, so it's not something to play around with. 

After you changed the bottles and before you remount the regulators, it's a good idea to crack the valves to make sure any debris are removed from the seat. On a side note, acetylene, which is the red bottle, is a naturally odorless gas. Being highly flammable, they add the garlic like odorant to help you know if you have a leak. You'll know it if you smell it. I personally can hardly stand the smell. 

The regulator for the acetylene bottle is left-handed threads, so that you can't mix them up. Only running about 100psi full, hooking it up to the oxygen would blow it apart, among other things. 

Unlike the fittings on the cutting torch itself, these regulators need to be wrenched down pretty tight.

Once hooked up, you can readjust your pressure. Oxygen runs about 40psi on the output. To increase you screw the regulator tee in. 

Acetylene runs about 15psi. 

Once they are strapped down good to our cart, we can take them to the field if we like. There is nothing worse then trying to throw and cutting torch set up into the back of a pickup. To help with this demise, we welded a little receiver tube onto the dolly. Then when we want to go mobile, we insert this stinger and bolt it in place.

Then we can bolt it to the receiver hitch on the truck. The angled edge allows a guy to tip it up and get it started in the tube. Then he can just lift the back half of the weight and slide it in, instead of deadlifting the whole thing. 

Works well.

I wouldn't recommend driving to town like this or bouncing down a washboard gravel road. But rolling around the barnyard, welding up pipe joints, is perfect. You can't beat the oxy/acetylene set up for versatility. You can weld, cut, heat up, or light a cigar with them. Like every good thing, they come with a cost. Replacing the bottles is pretty common procedure around the ranch. Doing it right is important. I say I'm safety first, but anytime you're rolling around with cutting torch bottles dangling from the back of your truck, you've crossed the line. Crossing the line safely can be done if you keep your wits about you. Just ranchin'.