Corn

 While I was out walking last week, I saw a corn field and couldn't resist the urge to go mingle with the corn. I suppose it might have something to do with growing up in the Midwest surrounded by corn fields. I love corn!

 According to my husband, our fields are about a month behind the fields in the Midwest (or at least those in northern Illinois, which we got to visit in August). We are hoping that hard freezes will be delayed so that the corn can fully mature. This last week has been absolutely beautiful, but the weather folks are saying we're in for a change this weekend.

 This is field corn, which will be used for feeding cows. I've already harvested most of the sweet corn out of my garden.

 Since the corn fields out here are mostly in pivot circles, it's hard to get a photo of a long row of corn!

I feel like I should say more about corn, but I can't figure out what to say. If I were feeling more ambitious I could research the history of corn, talk about all the varieties of corn, the use of roundup ready corn, corn diseases, where corn is grown, how corn is used, etc. But it's really early in the morning and I'm not feeling that ambitious, so I'll just have to leave you with this: I love corn!

The Morning Commute

Traffic report this morning:
Watch out for some bovines cavorting on the ranch road. Especially beware of the young'uns, who are unpredictable and well, let's be honest here, a little dumb. They like to play dodge-vehicle, which really isn't the best game for longevity.

And now on to the weather report...

Tractor Kids

 It's been awhile since we've played on tractors, so it was time to head down to the lower shop and give the kids a chance to "drive."

 Desert Girl looks a little alarmed while Desert Boy gets into some wild driving scenarios--at least in his mind.

 Desert Boy shows Mom what's going on inside. Then he takes off and heads to other equipment.

 Desert Girl is ready for her turn. Even though she has to stand on the seat in order to be able to reach the steering wheel, she's ready to go.

 Look, Ma, I'm doing it!

Afterwards she has a special bounce in her step.

New Babies

The new babies on the ranch are getting acquainted with their new home. The calves are so cute! And they look so tiny right now.

When people say how fast kids grow, they're right, they do grow in seemingly a flash. But if you consider how fast calves grow--whoa, nelly, that's a whole other story. Although gestation for both human and cow babies is nine months, once they're born, they have very different growing rates.

For example:

Little Emma has added ten inches and over ten pounds in a year.

The little calves that were born about the same time as her last year have added several feet and over 800 pounds in a year. Many are leaving the ranch already. Just saying that makes me want to run and get a tissue. I guess those are my maternal hormones speaking!

Well, we'll enjoy these little calves while they're still little.

The mama cows are keeping a close eye on all the little ones.

And that's it for today, time to get back to my little ones! Thanks for visiting.

The Hay Barn - Down, Down, on the Ground

Okay, the title of this post is a play on my last post's title (Helium - Up, Up, and Away). Sorry, I just couldn't resist the urge to be utterly cute and witty. Unfortunately, the subject of this post isn't so cute. In fact, today I have a sad tale to tell. It actually relates to my blog title, Desert Survivor.

In order to help protect hay from the drying sun, soaking thunderstorms, and blowing snow, the ranch constructed some hay barns a couple years ago. The hay barns had a relatively simple structure: thick posts stuck into the ground, curved wooden trusses that stretched from beam to beam, and a metal sheet roof to cover everything. Sure, the elements could still get in the sides of the barn, but the tightly packed hay was much better protected. Only the outside perimeter would get bleached by the sun, while the interior hay would stay nice and green, like it's supposed to.

Except that we had a huge snow storm right before Christmas. Then the temperatures dropped. And the wind blew. And the trusses broke under the weight of all that snow, collapsing the roof onto the hay. My husband and several other ranch employees spent days shoveling the snow off the roof so that it wouldn't melt onto all the hay below. Then the dang desert wind got under that sheet metal and blew the roof off.

Fortunately most of the hay has been sold or moved, so it's not as bad as it could be.

It's a sorry sight, though, to see the roofless hay barn. The good news: It's slated to be rebuilt.

We're not the only ones who've had problems with all the snow and wind this winter. The neighboring dairy also had a barn collapse, unfortunately with some cows underneath.

Although we don't get much moisture in the desert, when it does come, it often brings problems with it. Nevertheless, we still want it! That little bit of precipitation is what makes it possible to survive out in the desert.

2011 Old Sheepherders' Party

Last weekend we were fortunate to be able to attend the 2011 Sheepherders' Party, celebrating a way-of-life that is fascinating to me. It was held at the Border Inn and attracted a full house. Friday evening was open mike, and we heard some great stories of life out on the range, some risque jokes, super singing, and much more.

The next day we missed the sourdough pancake breakfast and range tour, but we were able to make it to the afternoon program featuring Sid Hausman.

Sid Hausman is a real treat. A talented musician, songwriter, and artist, he had something for everyone in the program. I was in awe of his musical ability, he made it seem so easy!

He switched to a banjo, giving a perfect twang for his Southwest-themed music.

Emma was having a ball. She loves music, and she spent nearly the entire program on her feet, wiggling along to the beat. Here she graces Denys with some of her moves.

Little Desert Girl could really move!

She took a liking to the gentleman sitting across the row from us and took her first step on her own without coaxing to go over to him. I didn't get a chance to tell him afterwards what a momentous occasion it was.

Ukelele? You bet. He made it sound good, too!

Then it was time to get the kids to Grandma and Grandpa's so my hubby and I could go enjoy the Basque-style dinner. It was wonderful not trying to entertain kids for two hours and just be able to enjoy conversing with our tablemates.

The food was delicious: soup, salad, lamb, beef, chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, wine, punch, and ice cream and cookie for dessert.

The cafe was packed, and everyone was having a good time.

I love this photo of Sam rushing off to do something important. He looks great in his cowboy hat!

Afterwards it was time to visit with friends and then get the kids so they could enjoy some dancing to the music of the Silver Sage Band. What a great party. We can't wait till next year!

(If you want to see more about sheep on this blog, click the little blue word sheep below.)

A Ride on the Dinosaur

A couple weekends ago we had a chance to ride on this old dinosaur, a 1970s vintage snow mobile. Very few people around here have snow mobiles, as it's only every 5 or 10 years that we have sufficient valley snow to actually use one. This one had previously been used on National Forest and National Park land. A neighbor bought it, and when she heard about how hard it was to go check on cattle in places, she offered to lend it to the ranch. A mechanic was able to get it going again, and before it was taken out in the boonies, it was decided that it needed some test rides close to home. That's where we came in!

As you can see, it was really white! This snow fell before Christmas, but because of the cold temperatures has been hanging around ever since.

My husband and I got turns on the snow mobile, and it was super fun! So fun that maybe in a few years we'll try a snow mobile trip up on the high plateau in Utah. There are lots of snow mobile trails and rentals over there. And more snow than we get!

Even Desert Boy got a ride. I don't think he stopped grinning the entire time. It was a fun opportunity. Thanks, Dave!

The Great Cow Hunt

With all the snow we've had, we've been concerned about all the cows out on the range. Many of the shrubs and grasses they would normally eat are buried in deep snow, and some of the water sources are frozen over. The cows went out healthy, so we knew they'd be good for at least a few days. With the inversion it's been hard to go up in the airplane and get a good look at them, so on Sunday morning we headed out to look for one of the herds. We were graced with over an inch of new snow to start off the day.

This is the state highway. It wasn't particularly early in the morning, but we're about last on the priority list for the plows, so we were in the four-wheel drive truck. The temperature was about 27 degrees Fahrenheit. We took the kids with us, along with blankets, shovels, a picnic lunch, and a sled, just in case we got stuck.

Or wanted to go sledding. You never know when the mood might strike.

Before long we were off the highway and on a county gravel road, but to our surprise, it had been plowed earlier in the week and was in remarkably good shape.

The low clouds (and slightly dirty windows) made visibility really poor, but we were hoping we would be able to spot some cows.

And then sure enough, we did, black spots on the hillside. They had eaten through some of the snow and were nibbling on sagebrush and Mormon tea. Those aren't favorite foods for the cows, but it does provide nutrients and will keep them alive.

My husband wanted to get close to some cows to decide if they looked miserable or not. I asked what criteria he used to tell if a cow was miserable or not, and he said, "You can just tell." So alas, I still do not know exactly what to look for.

This cow was pretty close to us.

I asked, "Is this cow miserable?"

He said, "Maybe."

I grunted. I wanted a definitive answer.

"She's alright. She might be a little tired."

We kept driving.

We continued driving up the one-lane road, finding that the temperature was rising to above freezing as we rose in elevation. Although we didn't have so much fog, that temperature inversion was still in effect.

The cottonwoods and willows along a stream provided some relief from the white conditions. My husband explained to me that the cows would go eat the willows if they couldn't get to anything else. We didn't see any cows in that area, so we surmised that the rest of the herd was elsewhere, but we just didn't know where.

If enough looked miserable, the plan was to try to move them back to the main part of the ranch and feed them.

We had a brief moment of sunlight (on one cliff face), and hoped that the sun would shine more to melt more snow.

We turned around and started back into the colder, lower elevations. The sun disappeared. Dang it!

Then we headed north to look for the rest of the cows. The plow hadn't made it to this road, so we followed the deep tracks of some other truck that had dragged its transmission through the snow. We kept our eyes on the power lines, which in sections had been covered with a thick layer of frost from the inversion. This is one of the biggest reason for power outages around here.

The temperature went down into the teens, and we only saw a handful more of cows. If I were a cow, I wouldn't be hanging out in this frigid spot! Later my husband found them even farther north, where they had found a somewhat warmer spot higher on the bench to hang out.

The deep snow has turned out to be a record for December for a nearby spot and possibly for us. We're expecting another snow storm to come in tomorrow, followed by subzero temperatures. Brrr! I guess we better get ready for The Great Cow Hunt, the Sequel.

High School Rodeo

My nephew was planning to ride in his high school rodeo, and I knew this was an event I couldn't miss. I had never even heard of high school rodeo until I moved out here, although looking at the National High School Rodeo webpage, apparently it does exist in the state I grew up in.

Let me just say that if my high school had had rodeo, it would definitely have given school sports an entirely different flavor! This is a wild and unpredictable sport, as you'll see below. And it's one that is a horse lover's dream. It was impressive all the ways that the horses had been trained, and how well the young adults rode them.

I've only been to one rodeo in my life before, and never to a high school one, so I was impressed with how big the event was. People from all over the state were there, with a huge array of horse trailers and trucks. There was a large arena and a smaller arena so they could run events concurrently.

The first event was barrel racing. The basic premise of this event is ride around three barrels without knocking them down and then back across the finish line. The best time was in 17.something seconds. The times are recorded to the thousandths, with many times very close.

Many of the riders made it look deceptively easy.

It's not easy to make a tight turn around a barrel when you're trying to move as fast as possible. A barrel knocked down is a five second penalty.

After every few riders, the tractor came in to rake the arena.

I had the kids with me, and Desert Boy quickly decided he was more interested in playing in the grandstands. He made a new friend and they played a variety of games.

It was nice to keep him somewhat entertained.

An ambulance was posted at the rodeo and unfortunately had to make a couple trips to the hospital. The events had to wait until a different ambulance came to take its place.

Soon it was time for bull riding.

If I was the mother of a bull rider, I don't think I could watch. I had a hard enough time as it was.

Here's a thousand plus pounds of mad bull charging out of the gate, with a lanky teenage holding on for everything he's got, trying to stay on that magic eight seconds.

The first couple riders got hung up on the bull and didn't get a clean getaway. Another bull charged its rider after it had thrown him and horned him in the bum in retribution for the boy having the audacity to even try riding him. Ouch.

Meanwhile, in the smaller arena a goat tying competition was going on. A girl rode her horse as fast as she could, dismounted while it was still running, then tied the goats legs as fast as she could. It was all over in about ten seconds, they were fast! The jumping off the horse part obviously took a lot of coordination.

We met up with some family and Emma stole the show for awhile.

She just can't help but be cute! You can see by her bulging belly that she's enjoying eating.

Clay and his dad left with their gear so that Clay could get ready to compete.

In the big arena they were steer wrestling. That means ride your horse fast next to a running steer, jump off and tackle it, and turn its neck so that it falls to the ground.

Hmm, sounds fun, doesn't it?

Team roping was next, an event that might be a little more practical than some of the others.

Then there were three riders who competed on bareback, trying to stay on an unsaddled horse for eight seconds.

That horse doesn't look too happy to have a ride on him. Amazingly, two of the three riders stayed on for eight seconds.

Eight seconds might not sound like long, but on a bucking, angry animal, it must feel like eight hours.

I was continually amazed how the horses were so good at having all four hooves off the ground at the same time.

In the small arena it was time for poles, where you weave your horse between the poles as fast as you can.

Then it was time for Clay's event, saddle bronc. These horses looked just as mad as the big bulls.

They wanted no part of having a rider on them.

The riders were having a hard time staying on them.

And some of the dismounts were spectacular.

We watched Clay getting ready with his dad's help. Clay is smart enough to wear extra padding and a helmet so that he doesn't get too many extra bruises. When you know you're going to be falling off a tall animal sooner or later, you've got to think of a good exit strategy.

I'm not exactly sure what they're doing here, but I wonder if Clay ever thinks, 'Why am I doing this?' If it's to make his mom worried, it's working!

The rider and horse behind Gate 5 were supposed to go next, but that horse started bucking before they even opened the gate, so they had Clay go next.

He puts on his helmet...
...gets on the horse...
...and he's out in the arena!
He didn't make it the eight seconds, but the most important part was that he wasn't one of the ones needing an ambulance ride, he was able to get up and walk away.

He's competing again today. Good luck, Clay!