October 4
Last Sunday Andrea’s washing machine quit working and Jim helped her take it out of her house; he hauled it and our old stove to the dump.
Thursday Jeff Minor brought his dad back from the hospital in Idaho Falls and got him situated at Discovery care center here in town. He’ll be there a while, and doing physical therapy to try to get stronger before he goes home.
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Andrea drove to Vern England’s place to pick up our old stock trailer. Vern fixed the door hinges, welded several broken areas, and put a bumper beneath the back door to make it better for backing up to the loading dock without a space for cattle to put a foot through the gap.
The next day Andrea helped me trim Ed’s front feet. They were getting too long and one front foot was starting to split at the toe. We got it trimmed enough to remove the split and smoothed the toes to where they won’t be splitting.
Yesterday evening Andrea took a young kitten to town with her to visit Bob and it curled up beside him on his bed and went to sleep. Bob was more comfortable and content than he’d been for a while; he really likes cats.
Today I found a few more old photos for Andrea to add to some she is putting together to make another poster for Bob’s room. I had a lot of photos I originally put together to illustrate my book Beyond the Flames; A Family Touched by Fire, but the photos were never used in the book.
This evening our granddaughter Heather in Canada called to tell us her 2½-year-old boy James had a broken elbow. He had surgery on it and is wearing a cast. He’s frustrated because he’s having trouble riding his tricycle with one arm in a cast. The exciting news is that they are planning to come next week to visit and we’ll get to meet those three great-grandsons that we’ve never seen. We haven’t seen Heather and Gregory since their wedding here in July of 2016.
October 9
Last Wednesday Andrea helped me take shoes off Dottie. We only got to ride a few times this summer (Andrea rode Willow four times and I rode Dottie five times) and Dottie was the only horse I put shoes on.
We started picking rocks in the main corral so Dr. Cope’s van can be driven in there without high-centreing on big rocks. He’s in a wheelchair but the guy who drives the van for him has been taking him around to some of the ranches so he can still preg-check cows (reading the ultrasound screen while his helper runs the probe). Andrea and I took a big piece of particle board and some smaller boards into the corral to put on the ground next to our chute, for Dr. Cope to have his wheelchair on a level spot.
Thursday Andrea visited Bob at Discovery and was able to take him outside in a wheelchair. Being out in the sunshine lifted his spirits tremendously.
Friday I lured the weaned calves in from the field below the lane and into the grassy area next to Sprout’s pen. The two little bulls were slow to come so I was able to leave them in the field and didn’t have to sort them. We needed just the heifers to Bang’s- (bovine brucellosis) vaccinate the next day; the calves have had all their other shots.
Andrea and I moved the cows from the ditch pasture to the lower swamp pasture above the corrals. Yesterday morning when I did chores I called those cows into the holding pen above the corral. Andrea came soon after and helped me put them in one of the side corrals and bring the yearling heifers into another corral. Then we brought the heifer calves and put them in the grassy runway to the chute.
We had everything ready when Charlie got here, just before Dr. Cope and his helper Bart arrived. Cope expected to just sit in the van to read the ultrasound, but when he and Bart saw the nice level board we’d set by the chute, he was able to get out of the van in his wheelchair to sit right by the chute. Another friend, June Playfair, arrived. She often helps when Cope goes to various ranches. We Bang’s-vaccinated the heifer calves, with June giving the shots and Bart putting the tattoo and clip in their ears. Andrea, Charlie and I took the heifers back to the field below the lane and put the yearling heifers in the chute. Dani and her boyfriend Roger showed up, and they were good help moving cattle through the chute. Charlie ran the head catch, Andrea took out the old fly tags, and I vaccinated.
To use the ultrasound probe, Bart had to be behind the squeeze chute, so Roger’s job was to keep the next cow from coming too close and bumping into him. Dr. Cope read the screen and told us the results. Luckily, we’d monitored the cows and heifers closely enough during the past two months and saw that two heifers and one cow were cycling (not pregnant) after we took the bull out in early July; we sold them a few weeks ago when we sold our steer calves. However, we wanted to check the rest of the cows and heifers to make sure we hadn’t missed any that were open. They all were pregnant!
It was great to have Cope out here again. He was so happy to be outside, and not just sitting in the van. He was at the chute like old times, swapping tales with the crew. As he loaded up in the van again to leave, I thanked him for doing this, and he said he’d promised his clients that he would continue to do whatever he can for them, for as long as he can, and he wants to keep that promise.
October 14
It’s been freezing every night but temperatures have been warm in the afternoons. We desperately need rain, but we’re enjoying the nice days.
Monday evening we talked with granddaughter Heather in Canada; they were still planning to come later this week to stay awhile with Michael and Carolyn and have a chance to visit us. Joseph was excited, wanting to meet his second cousin Christopher and to pet the cats and hold a baby kitten.
The next day, Lynn went down to Baker to locate water for Gordon Stephenson on the little place where he keeps some of his cattle. He doesn’t have enough water for cattle in winter and was hoping to put in a well. Lynn found several spots where there’s water, but it’s at least 160 feet deep. Gordon was hoping for a shallow well, since the cost of drilling has increased dramatically. Well-drillers used to charge about $90 per foot but now it’s $116.
Yesterday morning I called Michael and Carolyn, to see if Heather and Gregory and kids had made it down from Canada. They tried to come the day before, but when they got to the border, Gregory was not allowed to come through because he hasn’t been vaccinated for COVID. They had to turn around and go home again. So Heather and the boys were coming by themselves; Michael and Carolyn were getting ready to drive to the border (in Montana) to meet them and convoy back with Heather and kids. They finally got here at 1:30 a.m. this morning.
Michael and Carolyn had to go to Montana today for more fencing materials, so Heather and kids came to visit us. It was great to see her again and finally meet our three great-grandsons. We showed the boys around the barnyard and they got to meet the horses and cats. They were most excited when we took them down to the creek. They’d never seen a creek before; there are no creeks on their big prairie in Saskatchewan. They spent about an hour throwing rocks in the creek.
Then they went to Andrea’s house to see her cats and pet the baby kittens. Emily brought Christopher (Andrea will be keeping Christopher for a week while Emily and AJ go hunting) so Christopher got to meet his second cousins and they had a lot of fun together. After they played awhile at her house, Andrea took Joseph and Christopher down to the creek by heifer hill, where they had fun throwing rocks in the water and putting sticks in the creek as “boats.”
They stopped here again as I finished chores, to visit with Lynn and me a bit more. By the time they went back to Michael and Carolyn’s house, those kids were exhausted and so were we, but will be fun to have them here for a week. Heather wants to drive to Arco tomorrow to see her other grandma, but we’ll have a chance to visit with her and the boys several more times before they drive back to Canada next weekend.
