Wyoming Catholic Cowboys

Wednesday, November 11, 2026

Calf Sale

Today was a big day for our family cattle operation. Three of our home grown steers we sold at the sale barn in Buffalo. Cool.

Our plan is to run most of our calves as yearlings. However, we had three nice uniform black steers that would be good to sale and pay the water bill for the summer. These guys have been fun to have around. Now it's time for them to serve another purpose.

65 was the first out of the three to be born on March 22nd.

64 followed on April 2nd.

And eventually 69 on April 19.

We've had all the calves weaned for about 1 1/2 months. On Tuesday, we ran them all in.

And cut out our three blacks.

Ran them down the alley.

Jumped them in the trailer.

Hauled them to over the mountain.

And unloaded them at Buffalo Livestock Marketing.

Where Tommy received them for the next day's sale.

This is still high calf selling season. Soon it will wind down as winter sets on. As for now, though, BLM is running wide-open.

I came to watch the sale today and see if I could catch our critters going through. Here's a nice bunch of steers that would probably match ours in weight.

Sure enough, here they came.

One was pretty heavy so they sold the two, 64 and 69, by themselves. They averaged 550 lbs and went for $4.18 a pound.

Then sold 65, who weighed in at 650 lbs and went for $3.57 a pound.

That was fun. Thanks Clint and crew for consigning our cows!

What a ride. From spring calving to fall shipping, these calves brought us a lot of joy. I'm confident that whoever bought them will get their money's worth. Most of us ranch for the fun of it. Hopefully, that at least pays the bills. When it makes us a little money, all the better. What's great, is knowing that this beef is eventually going to feed someone down the road. In the meantime, we'll keep ranching on.

Justification

By the grace of Jesus Christ.

https://youtu.be/vFXafTSSnFg

Tuesday, November 10, 2026

Sprinkler Blowout

Lawn sprinkler systems are convenient, but they are not maintenance free. Along with keeping the sprinklers operational, you have to blow the lines out every fall. Waiting until November is not ideal. But with a warm fall like we are having, no harm no foul.

Not having done this ourselves down here, we gathered the troops so everyone has an idea what needs to be done.

Lee brought his old-reliable service truck down.

Which has a gas powered air compressor with 20 gal. tank on it. For a little sprinkler system like ours, this small compressor will do just fine.

So we rigged up a fitting that will attach the air hose to the short garden hose that feeds the system from the outdoor water spigot.

Bumping up against 100 psi, we made sure we always had at least one zone open so we didn't dead head and stress the system. Looks like this lawn has five zones. To make it simple, we just manually opened the valves to make sure we got them all.

There is always a lot of water to begin with, which is a good sign.

We just keep the zone blowing until the water is just a midst.

You are never going to get all the water evacuated. Checking how much water is coming out with your hand is a good way to judge if you need to keep blowing or not. Looks good to me.

Winter ready.

Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to blow out the sprinklers at the mission church, allows them to do it theirselves next year! When it's nice weather like this, I don't mind blowing out sprinklers. When it's cold, it's less fun. Glad we got it done. Now we're on to the next one!

Monday, November 9, 2026

More Lights

A few more wiring messes around the barnyard needed to be cleaned up before winter hits. Having a nice day in November back home, today was the day to do so.

Two or three years ago we ran this wire to and from various points around the corrals. This far north electrical point in the back shed, was to serve as a junction point for the rest of the yard.

First up was to mount a breaker box.

Then connect the main feed from the barn and the two circuit breakers that feed our accessories.

Muy bien.

Then connect the feed line more positively inside the barn.

Better.

While we were at it, we wired in the saddle room. This line was already buried over here a few years back. We just trenched it a bit more to the building's new location, 4' from where it once was.

Then got to wiring.

Running low on supplies, we found a good junction box in the barn that had been disregarded.

Dad cleaned it up nice. The main line comes into this outlet and then a new line goes out to power the lights.

For that, we found an abandoned fixture in the back shed.

A bit dirty, but should work.

Just set the box.

And wire in the switch.

Which fed the new/old light socket.

Which energized the light bulb and lit up our saddle room!

Good stuff. It's nice to complete projects that have been in the works for years. Having no loose ends is great. Not that there's not more to be done, but putting final touches on wiring projects sure beats the days of setting brace posts. Besides, lighting up the saddle room for the first time ever, is a big day on the ranch! I think this is a good stopping point for projects around the corrals this year. Let's see what else we can find to do. Ranch on.