24 December 2010, 1649, Friday, Home Patch

Tuesday, we took a trip out to Clear Lake to check on the house and stopped at Star Cinema Grill for a movie.  I miss that place, but other than that, the area doesn’t hold much charm for me anymore.  Wednesday, we put out some hay, and piddled around.  We had lunch at Grandmother’s with my Aunt, Uncle, and a couple of cousins.  That was nice.  They also came over to take a look at the house.  Oh yeah, we saw the crazy sorrel mare and the stallion I’ve been calling Brego in the pasture.  These are the horses that I thought may have gone into the deer lease.  So, they are in the right place and I can patch that hole.  Although it’s not super urgent because the horses are not going to leave the where the good feed is.

Thursday was a Santa and elf day.  We did some more grocery shopping.  On that, we have not been doing well about the groceries.  Whenever we get back from the store, we always think of something else that we need.  Back in Clear Lake that was not a problem, but here, it’s kind of an ordeal.  Even during the week, when I am doing a lot of subbing, I can stop off at the store, but during the break, it’s an extra trip.  Anyway, we went to the store, wrapped presents and that kind of thing.

This morning, we slept in a bit, but I got up and rode Sarge some.  I had put an even better set of reins on his bridle, but hadn’t put them in a knot yet.  I got him bridled, then led him out to the stall that the gray mare and colt are at.  I almost tied his reins in a knot on a little half post on that stall, but decided against it.  Instead, I knotted his reins in a loop to throw over his head like normal, then looped the reins on the post.  Good thing, too.  When I was coming out of the saddle house with the saddle, he got spooked at something.  I think it was the dogs, or maybe he didn’t know he was tied.  He pulled back and broke that little post.  Like I said, it was a good thing that I just looped his reins over that post, because if I hadn’t that post would have been chasing him across the pasture.  Not a pretty picture, I’ve seen it before.  To his credit, it did not take me long to catch him.  He really is pretty gentle, just young and green.  I led over to the saddle and finished saddling him while holding the reins myself.  No problem.  I led him around to the front yard and rode him in the horse pasture some, but the dogs tended to spook him a bit.  I took him out to the rode and there was something by one of the barns that he didn’t care for.  It took some convincing, but I got him past it.  He never tried to jump or buck, or even really shy away.  He just kept turning away from it.  I kept turning him back and we did fine.  We went to the double gates and turned around.  I trotted him most of the way back and did a couple of turns by the trailers parked in front of the horse barn.  He did good.  Like a reenacting friend of mine says, “It takes wet saddle blankets.”  Well, they’re not wet yet, but we’re getting there.

Came back and did some stuff in the office, ate lunch and then Anna and I put out some more hay, brought the tractor back and finished spreading the dirt on the culvert bridge.  My tractor started bucking with me while doing that.  I had a load of dirt and hit an uneven patch and the back left tire came up off the ground.  The engine stalled and everything just held motionless.  I got the engine started back up, dumped the dirt and she settled back down.  Can't be too careful.  One more lesson learned.  Then I stacked up all the hay in the hay storage place.

Tomorrow is Christmas, but it still feels like Thanksgiving.  I’m so happy to be here with a wonderful wife and doing the stuff that I love.  It’s not all perfect yet, but I was reminded by one of my faithful blog followers just how far we’ve come in the last 6 months.  Incredible!

So, Merry Christmas to all of you!  I hope your celebrations of the birth of our Savior and King are as joyous as mine have been and will be.

21 December 2010, 0726, Tuesday, Home Patch

Friday night, we went to the new diner in town.  Pretty good food and well-priced (which is important).  We took Grandmother and saw some friends.  It is nice becoming part of the community.  Saturday, we finally got around to going on a ride.  We saddled up Scout and Sarge and took a brief ride down to the pens and back.  Sarge is pretty green and has not been ridden much.  He doesn’t neck rein very well, so I decided that I needed to put him on a limber curb bit.  That’s a bit that is hinged in the middle like a training or snaffle bit, but the reins attach on rings below the bit like a curb bit so you can brake by putting pressure on his chin.  He did fine, he just needs some experience.

We got back and then I saddled up Rebel and we went out again.  We rode out to the new hay field and counted the rolls out there and we have more than we thought.  Good because we won’t run short.  However, that is a lot to move.  I hope we can get that done before it gets wet, because I don’t want to have to put all that hay out from over there.

On the way back, the wild horses were standing somewhat near the gate out of the home side of the pasture, so I set the gates, put Anna dismounted on the road and made a couple of passes at the horses.  I got them separated from the other horses okay, but couldn’t get them through the gate.  I really didn’t open the right gate anyway.  Once I fixed that, I tried again, but they faded off into the patch of woods.  I haven’t seen them since.  There is a fence that’s low that goes into the deer lease to the east of us.  I will leave that open until I see them again.

We had had a busy week, so when we got back, we took a nap and brought the gator over from Grandmother’s.

Yesterday, we fed and I fixed up the new bridle and bit.  Well, it was all old, but I put the limber bit into a relatively new headstall and some old leather reins.  I got Sarge saddled up and was going to tie him in the empty stall in the barn while I helped Anna saddle up and he just went ape all of a sudden.  Anna was standing in the breezeway with a gate between her and the horse.  I don’t know why, but Sarge started bucking.  He kicked the gate, which hit Anna in the chest, then he bucked his way into the stall with me.  I figured that he would jump a couple of times and then settle down, but whenever he looked like he was going to quit, he just started up again.  I had the reins and tried to maneuver him into the stall with me, away from Anna and she got clear to the other side of the breezeway and then the reins broke and he bucked right toward her again.  I advised her to climb out, but I don’t think she really needed my encouragement.  Then, Sarge bucked his way back into my stall and I went over the fence into the next stall and he tore that partition down right after I climbed over.  Then, he finally quit.

I ran around the barn to check on Anna and she was fine, but a little sore and she is carrying a couple of bruises today.  Sarge was now locked up in the barn, standing, but shaky.  I gave him some feed, attached some new reins (good ones this time) and soberly pondered what I would have done had he started bucking and my reins broke while I was riding him.

Ten or even 5 years ago, I’d have gotten right aboard and ask for the worst, but going to war and turning 40 helps you realize that you are not as invincible as you once were.  However, I’m not going to just sell the horse because he bucked a couple of times.  I rebuilt the barn, then led him down to the pens and by that time he was pretty settled.  I rode him back and used the new bit to reinforce his neck reining.  He did fine.

I came to the conclusion that I would much rather have a horse just start bucking with me, than to have the premonition that he might buck.  To have a horse just start bucking is a bit startling, but the adrenalin kicks in and you want to ride him to the ground.  “Buck with ME, I don’t think so!!”  But knowing that a horse is goofy or crazy makes it all the harder.  You’re nervous and he can tell.

I was at a reenactment about 3 years ago and we were all standing in formation with our horses and the colonel asked for a volunteer.  Crickets chirped and tumbleweeds rolled by.  I realized that I was trying to be a leader in the unit and that I was younger than most of them, plus I had been in the army and all, so I stepped forward.  At that very instant, I realized that I had been in the army and should have known better than to volunteer.  The assignment was to ride a staff horse to “warm him up”.  Mr. Jitters was his name and that branding didn’t cover his disposition by a long shot.  This horse was crazy.  I had ridden him before and he gave me a little trouble, but he was put on very skimpy rations at the time.  Now, he was nuts.  I clambered aboard and rode him around the formation a couple of times and every step, he bowed up his back like he was about to explode.  Finally, I let my weight shift ever so slightly and he chose to start.  Don’t think that he didn’t know what he was doing.  That first jump put me off center even more, but I got over him and tried to tuck his head under him and everyone started yelling at me.  They had left out that this horse had a habit of rearing up and tipping over backwards so pulling on his head wasn’t a good thing to do.  Thanks for the information, guys.  Anyway, he didn’t tip, I rode him down and he went back to the picket line.  I guess the staff officer rode in the wagon.  I had put on a show for the whole regiment and thanked God that I didn’t spill in front of them all.  Anyway, like I said.  It’s worse when you know they’re going to buck.

15 December 2010, 2204, Wednesday, Home Patch

I did not have time to mention this morning my attempt to herd wild horses on foot in a coat and tie.  Well, I guess that about sums it up.  Yesterday, when Dad was here, the gate to the main pasture got left open and two of the wild horses jumped the cattle guard (not much of a cattle guard, I suppose) and ended up in here.  They’re not really hurting anything, but I’d rather not have to deal with them.  So, I’m feeding horses this morning.  Normally, when I work, I dress pretty nice.  Anything that gives me an edge as a substitute will help.  I had on my tweed coat, fedora, nice pants and a tie.  I was also wearing my boots with my pants shoved into the tops.  This is so I can feed, I put my regular shoes on when I get to where I am going.  Anyway, I fed all the horses and these two wild ones are hanging around, so I figure I’d give them a go.  I drive down the quarter mile or so to the double gates that are on the side of the road that give access to the main pasture and open them up.  Then I drive back to the barn.  The horses already start to move in the right direction so I follow.  Now herding wild horses is a lot of luck and a little about knowing where to be.  When you herd cows you herd them from a couple of feet to several yards away.  Horses or more like 50-100 yards.  So, they start moving south and I follow.  They then cut into the area between the horse pasture and the main pasture called “Between the Tanks”.  (Okay, not a very fancy name, but I’m not J.R.R. Tolkien)  They turn into there and I follow and then they go west, but I need them to keep south.  I can’t get around them, so just follow them until they get to the end and have to turn back around.  They do, turn back to the east, go out to the road and then turn south….but pass the gate right up.  They turn back to the east into the woods.  I follow a little bit, but then realize that I have to go to work and it would be better if I’m not dripping sweat and have blackberry briars dragging from my breeches.

In the end, we will have to get a little fancier than Sunday go to meeting wear.  I may even try to use a horse, but luck will be what really works.

Okay, here is a map.  This is very crude, not to scale or anything like that, but it may help anyone who is following along to know where things are.  It is intentionally vague in regards to size, location, etc. just because ranchers like to play it close to the vest.  Example:  I get asked a lot how big the place is.  I know no one means anything by this, they are just interested, but it is the same thing as asking someone how much money they have in the bank.  So, the pastures are bigger or smaller, then what the map says, but it will help you get an idea.

15 December 2010, 0749, Wednesday, Gulf Coast Educational Consortium

Two whole days as a bona fide civilian.  It is a little strange, perhaps even a little melancholy, but I figure it would be melancholy 12 years from now too, so I won't fret it.  Anna and I went to Beaumont on Monday night to celebrate and I'm still trying to decide what kind of nonregulation facial hair to grow.  (Provided I get permission, of course).

Dad came out yesterday morning to move the hay that my truck could not.  Anna followed him in the car as he took the tractor to the field.  Here's a summary of how equipment and assets are currently disposed.  Dad got all of the hay moved out of the old hay field except for 12 rolls.  5 will be reserved for a guy who lives down the road from the hay field.  We sold them at well below price, but he's a neighbor and a friend.  Community relations are important in our business.  There are a good 100 rolls in the new hay field.  This hay field is in the pasture, but can still only be accessed by truck and trailer by going through town.  40 some odd rolls are scattered in the hay storage place at the end of our camp road.  The Kubota is in their, but the bucket doesn't work because it is low on transmission fluid.  The John Deere is still in the hay field.  So, we have to put fluid in the Kubota, move it, and at some point spread the dirt on the culvert bridge so vehicles can cross.  We have to move 5 rolls of hay to the farmer down the road, put out the rest of the hay from the hay field, then start putting hay out from the new hay field while trying to figure out a way to move the new hay field hay to the hay storage place.  I am wondering if my truck can pull 3 rolls or so on the flat bed trailer.  The question then is can it get through the Bobcat Woods with a trailer attached.

We have a lot to do and figure out.  It is one of the things that I like about ranching.  It is a combined lateral thinking puzzle and Leadership Reaction Course.  Leadership Reaction Courses are the training tools used in the Army to train thinking outside the box.  Example:  "Take this rope, this barrel, and this paper clip and transport this ammo box full of radioactive material across this pond of water."  Ranching is one giant Leadership Reaction Course.

I still have to do a lot of home stuff the next couple of days, but after that we will begin putting out hay.  Probably at the end of this week.  I will, of course, start a spreadsheet keeping track of what we put out and how fast it is getting eaten.

I will try to post some pictures and maybe a map.

13 December 2010, 0612, Monday, Home Patch

Okay, it has been a few days, and I am more cognizant of that fact due to the happy development that people are actually reading my blog.  So, I tip my hat in gratitude to those folks who have said that they are enjoying reading it every day.  I offer my apologies for not posting every day which will make it abundantly more interesting.

Friday, was uneventful.  Really uneventful.  The sub job I am doing is good because I get to do a lot of reading while monitoring the class, but as much as I love to read, 8 hours straight of it can get old.  Friday night we went to Clear Lake for a Christmas part with the old singles group and that was fun.  Anna brought a cake for the gift exchange.  We got back pretty late.

We ended up sleeping in on Saturday.  Here is where blogging can help us to good works.  I am now committed to telling the story and when I have to say things like, “we slept in” I have to justify it, at least in my own head.  However, we were very tired.  It had been a rough week and we were trying to catch a bug.  So, we finally got up, got situated, found the tractor key over at Grandmother’s, then began.  Everything was difficult.  Neither of us were in the mood to tackle this job and we were both apprehensive about Anna taking the tractor through town when she had no experience on it.  I even had trouble hooking up the hay trailer to my truck.  It had been attached to Dad’s truck, which is much higher so the jack stand was set in such a way that I had to lower it onto blocks in the back of my truck, raise the stand, adjust it, then, put it back down, and finally hook it up to my truck.  Of course, I will have to do the same procedure in reverse so Dad can hook back up to it.  It is still attached this morning.

Getting through town was not as bad as we thought and Anna did well handling the tractor.  I managed to pull the long trailer into the hay field, and we got the five rolls on the tractor.  We decided that the tractor was so slow that it would be better to leave it there.  We can dump the rolls from the trailer without the tractor, bring it back at the end of the day, then stack the hay in the hay storage place.

Here is where we started to get nervous.  Strange smells began emanating from my truck.  The extra 5.5 tons of hay was too much for my truck and I was burning out the clutch.  We managed to get the one load dumped, but we called Dad to let him know and he waved us off.  Neither of us minded.  Later in the day, Anna hauled me to the hay field in the car and I brought back another two rolls on the tractor.  So, we now have 9 rolls of hay in the hay storage place.  There are 150 or so to be moved.  We will have to work something else out.  I can maybe haul 4 by pulling the flatbed with the tractor, but not only will I not be able to haul as much, I will have to unhook and rehook the trailer to put the hay on and off.  Plus, the tractor is just slow.  Probably what we will do is end up trading vehicles with Dad for a spell.  It just needs to happen before the roads and ground get too wet.

So, other than discovering a new reason that I need a new truck that I can’t afford, the weekend was a failure.  We did get a good amount of rest on Sunday, so I think the bug that attacked us was defeated.

I will keep you posted on what we come up with.  For the rest of the week, I will concentrate on tidying up the house, unloading reenacting stuff, cleaning my guns, etc.  I will try to get a ride in with Sarge.  That will be something.

Anna took some horse pictures on Sunday, here they are.

Thanks to everyone who is following the blog.  I am enjoying having an audience.

09 December 2010, 1739, Home Patch

Finally got the burn barrel set up, so I just burned some trash.  I like fire, but I forgot how much they smell.  It is that chemically, Styrofoam cup burning smell.  We need feed so we will go to the store in a couple of minutes.  Other than that, things are pretty quiet.

On Saturday, we need to try to move hay.  I need to get Anna checked out on the tractor to drive down the road.  I am a little nervous about that.  However, I don’t know how else to do it.

Started a sub gig today that will last until next Friday.  Pretty easy.  I actually get to do some reading.

08 December 2010, 0943, Wednesday, Army Reserve Center #3

I was kidding about the weekly blog, but it looks like it may be coming to pass.  I am spending my last day in the reserve center and in uniform.  I find myself quite unemotional about it.  I’m thinking about where to store my uniforms that will maintain them, but not get in the way.  Friday night was the Dining Out and it was pretty successful.  Mr. Vice (for information on that, you should google it) wore my Yankee Cav uniform.  I wore mess dress and Anna had on a beautiful red dress.  We looked nice, I might say.  The rest of the weekend was spent at Dickens on the Strand doing reenacting stuff.  Nothing really worth mentioning there other than meetings and planning about how to work Co. K back into the mix.  Until I get a large enough group we will just fall into Co. F out of Austin.

Monday, Dad and I penned the cows for the last time of the year.  We didn’t get them all, but we sold everything we were going to except for one open cow and a calf.  We can carry them without a problem.

It rained this morning so it may not be possible to move hay this weekend, but that’s the goal right now.  The priority is to move hay out of the hay fields and into the hay storage place, then to spread the dirt on the culvert bridge, then to mow.  The weather could play havoc with this, but there will be plenty else to do if the weather is bad.

Anna called this morning and said that the gray mare and colt were outside the home pasture.  I don’t know how they got out, so that will be investigated this afternoon.  I’m not too worried about them, but I don’t want to have to hunt the saddle horses.

08 December 2010, 0943, Wednesday, Army Reserve Center #3

I was kidding about the weekly blog, but it looks like it may be coming to pass.  I am spending my last day in the reserve center and in uniform.  I find myself quite unemotional about it.  I’m thinking about where to store my uniforms that will maintain them, but not get in the way.  Friday night was the Dining Out and it was pretty successful.  Mr. Vice (for information on that, you should google it) wore my Yankee Cav uniform.  I wore mess dress and Anna had on a beautiful red dress.  We looked nice, I might say.  The rest of the weekend was spent at Dickens on the Strand doing reenacting stuff.  Nothing really worth mentioning there other than meetings and planning about how to work Co. K back into the mix.  Until I get a large enough group we will just fall into Co. F out of Austin.

Monday, Dad and I penned the cows for the last time of the year.  We didn’t get them all, but we sold everything we were going to except for one open cow and a calf.  We can carry them without a problem.

It rained this morning so it may not be possible to move hay this weekend, but that’s the goal right now.  The priority is to move hay out of the hay fields and into the hay storage place, then to spread the dirt on the culvert bridge, then to mow.  The weather could play havoc with this, but there will be plenty else to do if the weather is bad.

Anna called this morning and said that the gray mare and colt were outside the home pasture.  I don’t know how they got out, so that will be investigated this afternoon.  I’m not too worried about the, but I don’t want to have to hunt the saddle horses.

01 December 2010, 1126, Wednesday, Army Reserve Center #3, Houston

Once again the journal irony has struck.  Whenever nothing is happening you have time to write.  Whenever there is something to write about, there is no time.  Last week was Thanksgiving.  I worked on Monday at Liberty Middle School and spent Tuesday and Wednesday preparing for all the activities.  Can’t remember at all what I did.  We took a bunch of trash to the dump, I think and bought groceries.  Melissa spent the weekend with us and we had a lot of fun.  On Friday we went to the Renaissance Fair and even dressed up.  I had somewhat of a costume, but most of what we had was rented from a great costume shop in Sour Lake of all places.  You never know what you will find in the country.  It’s not all gas stations and corner stores.

Saturday, Scott, Chaundra, Darlene, and Val came over.  Scott works in construction and he helped me put in a device at the foot of the blocking gate that will keep cows from stepping in the track and breaking their foot.  The device looks great and will hold up well.  It was a new experience for him.  “Ranching is not the same as construction,” he said.  We kept using scrap lumber and straightening out 50 year old nails for reuse.  He had trouble getting used to not just going to the nail pouch.  We had a lot of fun with the comparisons.  The girls did a lot of straightening up around the pens and cleaned a lot of brush away to make it easier to get around.

Sunday, we took a good rest.  Dad and Linda showed up on Monday afternoon and I was not satisfied with what we had gotten done to that point.  Nevertheless, we managed to make the necessary pen repairs before dark.  We were ready to round up the cows and have them ready for the doc on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning we started early.  The cows were completely uninterested in the gator and the cubes so it started out as kind of a rodeo.  There was a small bunch just inside the savanna so we went ahead and penned those.  The dogs made it difficult.  They don’t know what to do and at first they have try to just chase the cows.  This splits them up, so we had to work against the dogs for awhile.  After we got them moving, however, they started to get it.  Dixie especially was working the front of the herd and keeping them bunched up.  Once they almost got away from us while crossing the gully, but Dixie set ‘em on course.  When she knows what to do, she can be a good cow dog.  I think they’ll get better.

We went back for the second bunch and it was the same way.  Tough at first, but after the dogs got lined out, things went pretty smoothly.  There were about 10-15 head that we never got.  We saw them when we came back after lunch, but they just ran off and we didn’t have the horses, so it was no go.

The vet got there around 2:30.  We worked them pretty smoothly and the blocking gate worked well.  I kept the cows qued up in the chute while Dad worked the headgate, Linda vaccinated, and Anna kept notes on what was pregnant and what wasn’t.  She also worked the squeeze chute and the back gate.  I kept thinking that I should run forward and do that for her, but every time I did she had a handle on it, so I let her continue.  She did great!

The vet checked 38 cows and 31 were pregnant!  This is a far cry from what we had before.  Hopefully we have turned the corner on our glut.  For what we checked we had an 86% pregnancy rate.  What we sold so far was about 15%.  So, Dad and I culled pretty good based on a visual inspection.  Plus, a lot of what we sold we knew were pregnant, just really old.

We also tagged a bunch.  The next step in our cattle management will be to go out and take notes on the color, brand, description of all the cows that are tagged and enter it into the management software that I bought years ago.  I get to manage cows.  I’m very excited.  All that college training will go to good work.