September 9
Weather continues very hot. The creek is low but Andrea is managing to keep watering some of our fields with just a trickle from a couple of our ditches.
She brought Christopher Sunday afternoon and we gave him another ride on Ed. This time he rode past the end of our driveway and down to Alfonso’s haystack.
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Bob Minor called that afternoon from the hospital in Idaho Falls. He’d been there five days and we didn’t know. He collapsed last Sunday while getting out of his pickup, and Jane was unable to get him up off the ground. She called their son Jeff, who came and helped her take him to the ER. The doctors realized he had a serious problem and sent him by life-flight to Idaho Falls.
He has prostate cancer that metastasized and the doctors have him on a course of radiation treatments in hopes of shrinking the tumors. Jane had been staying with him and was worn out and needed to come home for a few days to get some rest, so Andrea drove to Idaho Falls, to be with Bob in the hospital. Twenty-two years ago Bob spent more than 40 days in the ICU in Salt Lake to spell off our family members when Andrea was burned and in critical condition. So this is payback. Andrea wants to help Bob and Jane in their time of need.
That same evening our neighbour Tom Stephenson called to tell us that his wife Ann passed away that morning; she’s been in ill health for a couple of years.
While Andrea was in Idaho Falls with Bob she had only one ditch still running. She’s trying to irrigate the field below the lane, to grow as much grass as possible for winter pasture for the heifer calves we’ll be keeping. I changed the water in that ditch several times.
Lynn and I went to town Wednesday afternoon and visited Dr. Cope. He has been our veterinarian for 40-plus years and a good friend, but has been confined to a wheelchair since this spring.
Then we drove to Tower Creek to a get-together for my 60th high school class reunion. While driving through town, we saw a huge plume of smoke rising from the Moose Fire that blew up again that day. By the time we headed up river, smoke was so thick that visibility was practically nil, with strong wind. The fire, which had already grown to more than 120,000 acres the past 45 days, grew another 1,500 acres in just a few hours.
We had a nice reunion, but wind and smoke made it difficult for the outdoor picnic. The fire had burned down to the other side of the river in previous weeks, but that evening was making a big run closer to town.
Lynn and I left early to drive home before dark, since visibility was already poor and we don’t usually drive at night. The entire valley was filled with thick smoke all the way home. Strong winds had blown down trees, and the lawn chairs next to our house had blown out into the driveway.
Yesterday Jane went back to Idaho Falls and Andrea came home for a few days. Michael and Carolyn came by with their truck and six big barrels to fill with water at our hydrant. Their pump quit working and the new one won’t be here for several days, so they need water for house use and for couple of horses in their corrals.
September 18
After all those hot, windy days, it started freezing at night. There was ice in garden hoses last weekend when I did morning chores. Andrea brought Christopher with her Saturday morning when she came to help me hook up the hot wire in the pasture above the house. He played with his little trucks and tractors in the dirt by the gate.
That afternoon Jim tended Christopher while Andrea, Lynn and I took the weaned calves (including Kung Fu) to the corral and put them through the chute to vaccinate. Then we put them in the big pasture below the lane. Kung Fu can now be part of the group, no longer needing grain. Even though his mama died three months ago, he grew nicely with the supplemental grain and isn’t any smaller than his buddies.
After lunch, I helped Andrea move cows and calves from the field below heifer hill; we took them across the creek and into the lower swamp pasture, above the corrals.
Sunday morning when I checked the heifers, there were range cattle nose-to-nose with our heifers through the fence, trying to get into our field. There’s no water in the dried-up bog outside the fence this year, due to the drought, and those range cows are hungry and thirsty.
There was a weak spot in the fence, where the new jack fence ties into the old wire fence, and a cow might push through or over it. So Andrea and I took steel posts and several poles over there and made the fence higher and stronger.
When we got done with that project, I lured the cows and calves into the hold pen next to the corral, and Lynn helped us sort the calves off. We put the calves through the chute, vaccinated them, applied an insecticide to kill horn flies, and Andrea put in their nose flaps. We put them in the pasture above the house for weaning. The calves can still be with their mothers for a week (and not be forlorn and insecure) but they can’t nurse. The cows start to dry up and the calves adjust to not having milk; it’s the easiest weaning, and the least stressful for both the cows and the calves.
Monday when I checked the heifers, some were up on the hill. When I hiked up there, I had a close look at the fence we built last year to fence off the deep eroded canyon where water comes down the hill from the upper ditch. The netting was mashed down to about half its original height, probably by deer going over it, with risk for cattle getting into that enclosure and falling into the chasm. So Andrea and I took steel posts and the post pounder across that field on the four-wheeler, and carried them up the hill.
It was Emily’s day off, so she brought Christopher and Lynn babysat him while she helped us carry more posts up the hill; we set about 20 posts (in between the old ones) and pulled the netting upright again and clipped it to the posts.
We’ve been seeing a lot of bear poop in our fields and in the brush, and that evening we saw a black bear gallop across the field above the cows and calves.
Andrea came home again yesterday. Today Charlie came to help us, and we gathered the cows and calves from above the house and took them to the corral. We put the calves down the chute again so Andrea could take out their nose flaps. Then we put the calves with the other weaned calves in the pasture below the lane, and took the cows to the lower swamp pasture.
September 24
Last Sunday evening Lynn was not feeling well and coughing. He spent Monday in bed. While I was at the dentist, Andrea got the mail and groceries, some vitamins and supplements for Lynn and some COVID tests. She checked Lynn when we got home, and he does have COVID. So we started him on several medications and lots of fluids. By Tuesday Lynn was feeling a little better, and actually felt like eating a little.
That morning Andrea and I got in the two open heifers we want to sell. The next day she hooked her pickup to our stock trailer and checked the tires. Some were low on air, so she used our air compressor to get them up to proper pressure, then took the trailer for a test drive down the creek and back to make sure everything was working OK, since we haven’t used it for a year. I helped her check the brake lights and tail lights
Thursday morning a cow moose walked past Andrea’s house, spooked the cows in the upper swamp pasture, then wandered down across the creek.
Dani and Roger came at 8:30 and helped us load the steer calves, yearling heifers and one cull cow. Jim and Andrea hauled them to the sale yard in Montana (three-hour trip). They sold on Friday, and the steers averaged 460 pounds and brought $2.11 per pound. That’s the highest price we’ve ever gotten for calves!
