Hi I'm Mike, today we head out to start another day on the ranch.
Every day has its ups and downs, and somedays you get the feeling you should just stay in
bed, but no matter how badly your day goes, around here its not going to stop and you
can't quit on our Wyoming Life.
Welcome back to our Wyoming life, where we explore the ranch life and escape the ordinary.
I wasn't born a ranch kid and I never have been up until now.
Erin, my wife, her stepdad owned a ranch in Wyoming and when he started to get sick, we
quit our corporate jobs to come back and help out.
I made him a promise that we would do everything we could to help this ranch survive and after
he passed away, that promise means even more to us.
If you are new here, please subscribe and join us as we learn everyday about this life
and if you have already, thank you very much for being a part of our community.
Its hard to explain to people why we are here, many have said that we should just sell the
place and get back to our old jobs in broadcasting.
We could do away with the daily grind of the ranch, we could take regular vacations, maybe
even have a life.
But when it comes down to it, we put up with the ridiculous hours, the lack of vacations,
and the daily grind and its because being here makes both Erin and I both better people.
We can work for someone else, make 10 times the money and be miserable, to the point where
we need vacations to get away, but here on the ranch, we make a quarter of the money
we did in the corporate world and we are thousands of times happier.
Not to say that we don't have bad days, or nights….
It's the middle of the night, we are in what we call early calving, where the cows
have started to have a few calves but we are not really in the thick of things yet.
Still we have to check the cows and the heifers constantly.
Every few hours, because when things go bad, they go bad fast.
This calf is stuck in the birthing canal of its mom, I just checked her a couple of hours
ago and she didn't appear to be in labor but obviously that situation has changed.
As much as she is moving around there is no real way to tell if this calf is still alive,
the only option we have is to get her in the barn and remove the calf from her and go from
there.
From the corral to the barn is a short trip though an alley and into the head chute where
we can control mom and help get her calf born.
A short trip that is not needed as the calf eventually works its way lose and falls to
the ground.
Unfortunately, this is sometimes how we start our day, and how this mom gets to conclude
the last 9 months of her life.
We leave them together to say goodbyes and after a few moments of reflection, its back
to work.
There are over 150 calves out there that still need to be born and one may need our help
yet.
As the sun rises, the regular chores of the day begin, feeding the cows being the main
chore performed every morning, but this morning, my luck continues as the spooler, or bale
unroller breaks while feeding.
And not just breaks a little, but breaks a lot.
Taking it back to the shop we are going to take it off the tractor and get it down on
the ground.
This will be added to the project list as we will try to fix it.
A new one costs a little over 1000 dollars, a cost that if we can avoid we will try, so
come back Tuesday as we get it pulled apart and hopefully get it back into working order.
While we have it off we are going to take this opportunity to clean out the hay and
chaff that fills up the back of the tractor as we feed on a daily basis.
First picking out all the hay we can get then getting the air compressor and blowing it
out.
I cant find my blower attachment for the air compressor so I quickly whip up this little
job, an air hose fitting, and a small piece of pipe make a decent blower.
With all of that done, then its time to go and check cows and heifers again, first walking
through the heifer corral, and then driving through the cows.
Where we find a fresh little calf, just born and quickly get a tag in its ear.
The tags are there to help identify the calf and link it back to its mom, just in case
they become separated.
A storm is on the way, we are expected to get between 7 to 10 inches of snow tonight,
so another project that hangs over our head is dragging the pastures.
This is a project I was going to save for the project list on Tuesday, but with the
incoming weather, this might be the last chance we have to get this done for a while and it
desperately needs done.
Cows poop and they poop a lot, each cow on average produces 65 lbs of feces or manure
daily, take that times the 160 cows out here and you get over 10 thousand pounds of poop
per day and over the winter these cows hang out within mostly about 20 acres of land.
By the math that gives us the potential of 936 tons of manure on these fields over the
winter, or almost the same weight of a blue whale, or 12 Elephants.
That's a lot of manure.
And something has to be done with it, part of that process is dragging the fields, and
for that job we use this harrow.
The problem is that its broken right now, but with a few bolts and nuts and lock washers
from the shop we can get it back into business pretty quick.
These attachment brackets have broken off and with a new bold each one can be reattached
and cinched down.
Then we can attach the harrow to the tractor.
This harrow is 36 feet wide and right now its folded up for transport, once we get it
out to the field we can start unfolding it.
Then from inside the tractor we can lay the harrow down onto the ground.
The teeth on the harrow not only break up the cowpies but they also pick up and trash
that might be out there as well, picking up mostly hidden pieces of netwrap that ends
up either stuck to bales when we feed or are hidden inside bales.
With the harrow being 36 feet wide and an average speed of 6 miles per hour we can cover
about 20 acres per hour so this wont take long but will make the world of difference
in the look and the cleanliness of the pasture.
The manure isn't gone, but it is broken up and with the amount of moisture we have
on the way, breaking up the manure will help the nutrients soak into the soil faster and
more evenly than leaving the patties in place.
I love working in the tractor, driving in circles for me is for some reason cathartic.
In a weird way this is my vacation, I am out here by myself.
My mind runs wild and I get a chance to put everything in perspective.
This morning I lost our first calf, the bale unroller broke today as well, but we still
live a life that a few years ago, I had never even considered, but now couldn't imagine
living any other way.
And when we wrap up with grooming the pastures I can look back at a 20-acre job that is done
and looks good and that I did without anyone telling me it needed done.
Just something that I knew I had to do and did.
Much different than a call from corporate telling you that you need to get it done and
have it done yesterday and if you don't do it, there are 5 people standing in line
behind you to take your job and do it faster, or better or cheaper.
The weather moves in, and the barometer is starting to drop, predicting the approach
of worsening weather conditions and with that comes the tendency for cows to go into the
labor, why, I have no idea but its something that we have to deal with as every storm moves
through the area for the next few months.
Headed back out to check cows again and we come upon another cow, we just missed the
birth by seconds and this calf has hit the ground in an odd position, its head is twisted
around underneath it.
And although this is a problem that its mom might rectify its not one that we are going
to give her the chance to.
The calves airway may be compromised by the position and quickly we are able to roll the
calf over and get it straightened back out.
Mom however is a bit cranky, rightly so, but we still have to get this calf tagged.
We sometimes have a small window to get this done, and I would like to say that I get every
calf tagged but that's just not true.
A number will have to wait until branding but the more we get tagged now the better
off we are.
No matter how mad mom is.
So we get the gator as close as we can to the calf, reach down and click.
The tag is in.
Number 9 is on the ranch, and hopefully happy to be here.
Shes up and moving and in good shape.
And it's a great day.
Today started early with what we consider a tragedy, the loss of a calf, but today we
had a couple of healthy calves hit the ground, and one of them may still be here because
we were there to help it.
Even if mom didn't want our help.
A bad day is unavoidable, but you can handle it how you choose, after being here for a
while I have decided that you have to fight through a few bad days to earn the best days
of your life, and sometimes they are the same day.
Watching a calf come into this world, knowing that each calf born here means the ranch continues,
our promise isn't broken and somewhere my father in law Gilbert still has that goofy
smile on his face.
Thanks for joining me today as the sun drops, the ranch continues and so does calving.
Tonight we will continue checking cows every few hours, all night long, hopefully all goes
smoothly and the only thing we lose is a few hours sleep.
If it goes the other way, well lets not worry about that.
Make sure you subscribe and join us as we continue to explore the ranch life and escape
the ordinary.
Everyday around here is different and we love being able to bring them to you.
Check us out on facebook as well for content that you cant find anywhere else.
I'll be back with you on Tuesday as we tackle this bale unroller and it's a live stream
week so mark it in your calendar as I hope you can join us on Thursday at 7pm mountain
time, right here on youtube.
Until we meet again, have a great week and thanks for joining us in our Wyoming life.
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