Here lately… (an update of the happenings on the ranch)

Mom and Dad have been experiencing typical Kansas weather back home – it snows one day and is 60 degrees two days later.  When we had our big winter storm come through a week ago, Dad called and told me they had brown snow there. If you are from SW Kansas, you know the wind blows all the time. A day with 20 mph winds is a “nice” day back home. They had gotten a little bit of snow with a whole lot of wind and from all the dirt blowing around, they had brown snow. With all the dirt and snow, there was also below zero temps and the wind chill was nearly unbearable. When the weather is below freezing Dad has to break ice at least twice a day; but when it’s really cold several times a day. When the cold winter storms pass, Dad will spend time cleaning the ice out of the tanks.

The huge pile of ice after cleaning out the water tank. Some of those chunks are 6” thick!

When Dad is out doing chores his cow dog, Sport, always gets to go along. Sport is a 6 month old Border Collie and absolutely loves the cows and calves. When Dad isn’t watching him, he tries to sneak into the pens where the baby calves are. He isn’t harming them, he just wants to play! The calves aren’t scared and are used to him now, they will lick each others noses and play. Hopefully someday Sport will grow out of the puppy stage and be a cow herder…until then, he tries to do his best.

 The cows aren’t convinced that he is in charge yet. Sport tries hard to be in control…

For the most part, we are done with calving on the ranch! We have a few heifers that should have their calf any day now.  Dad is hoping that with the little snow storm that is headed in tomorrow, they will go ahead and have their babies! If not, they will spend the night in the calving barn so if any babies are born they can keep warm in the hay piles. 

 Here is one of the newest additions to the herd…a little heifer calf!

Hope everyone had a great Monday! Stay warm if winter weather is headed your way… Look for more blog posts later this week!

FYI…

heifer (ˈhɛfə) — n     "a female that has not yet calved," as opposed to a cow, which has calved, and a calf, which is an animal of either sex not more than a year old.