Feeding horses on the ranch

Feeding horses 

With this little bit of snow, the horses out on pasture were asking for some hay this morning. My six year old and I fired up the old feed truck and tossed them a few flakes of hay. This group of horses were in the pasture to be on a "diet" because they were the fat ones. The other horses are in the corral on free-choice hay. The ones in the corral are the ones that get rode often enough to keep them slimmed down. The horses here, though, don't get rode that often, hence the weight issue, as seen easily by "Oreo" the pony in the front.

One of life's greatest pleasures is feeding animals in the winter.  Yes, it's hard work, and there aren't too many beautiful days like today. I'm struggling to find words to describe how fulfilling it is to push some hay off the feed truck and watch the hungry horses nibble and chomp at the hay. It's just one of those things about the lifestyle of ranching.

This fills my soul and gladdens my heart to be a good steward of the animals in our care. I'm thankful for this opportunity to be involved in the daily ranchwork and especially for being able to feed the horses.

Weaning Calves

Fall Ranch Work

Weaning Calves from their Momma Cows

A day in the life of a ranch wife doing fall weaning work.

What a gloriously beautiful day to wean!  We started gathering the cows and calves early in the morning. They were spread out all over the meadow pasture enjoying the good fall grass. The cattle just came off the range a couple of weeks ago and they look great--nice and fat and very healthy. The calves are big, healthy, and happy.

But their happiness is about to change.

To wean the calves from their mommas, we round them up, gather the cattle to the corral where we--on horseback, sort off the cows and let them back out onto the pasture to continue grazing for another month (or two--snow permitting). 

If the calves aren't weaned, both the cows and calves don't have a chance to fatten up and get ready for winter. Both the calves and cows stay runty and scrawny if not weaned. 

The calves are then hauled back home on multiple semi-loads--it's a 15-20 minute drive. The calves go into a corral where they have free access to water, hay, straw, silage, and a mineral/vitamin lick in a molasses base (think sticky-sweet vitamins--they love it). The calves weigh about 600-750 pounds.

Even with all these comforts, they continue to cry for their mommas for a few days. 

Imagine the sound of hundreds of bawling calves for three days. . . .At the end of fourth day, peace and quiet is restored to the ranch and the calves are happy and completely independent.

We actually have two crews sorting--the cowboys and I on horseback in the main pen of cows and calves, sorting on horses, and the foot soldiers who gather a small batch, push them into the alley way, and then peel off the calves and stick them in the pen while the cows run out the gate and to the pasture.

Sorting does take most of the day, with this large of a herd, even with two crews sorting.

Grandma brought us hot potato soup, bread, and pumpkin cake for lunch--much needed and welcomed on the chilly day. 

The last load of calves had to run into their corral in the dark--so it really did take us all day. But it was a great day. I enjoyed riding and sorting all day. The kids, after they rode all morning, played "fort" with their cousins.

For now the calves are hanging out in their corral. We are about to turn them back out onto a bigger pasture where we will continue to monitor their health and wellness.

The cows get over their sadness much quicker, and after a day of wandering the pasture, they just carry on with their cow-ness of eating and napping all day long.

Now that the calves are all weaned, some of the winter feeding begins to supplement their diet of pasture. Herd monitoring for sick calves allows us to saddle a horse daily--even in the chilly November days. They cows stay out on their meadows for another month, and life is quiet and peacefully busy here on the ranch in the fall.

Until next time, happy November!
Charlotte Reid

August and September 2014 in a Flash

The months of August and September in Review

Highlights from the life of the Oil-Rubbing Ranch-Wife

August and September FLEW by!
We were so busy. . . . here are some of the things we worked on and enjoyed during the months of August and September:


Pioneer & Little Buckaroo Rodeo Parade
Dad got to hitch up his team and his freshly painted Freight Wagon and drive them through town. It was probably the highlight of his year. Very neat.

Visit to the Zoo.

Family Parties and Reunions.

Canoeing trips--along the river that runs by our house and through our pastures.

Burning Ditch.
The weather was rainy so it worked out perfectly--other than I had to stand by the propane torch with a ready match because everything was wet enough not to stay burning!

Hauling Hay.
This Peterbilt semi is way nicer to drive than the Mack truck below. No air conditioning, but the nice soft summer breeze kept things cool.

 Hauling Hay.
You'd think this old piecer white Mack truck couldn't pull the big hay train, but alas it did quite well. I opted for the Peterbilt truck (above) with a working Jake Brake, though, since we had a few steep hills to maneuver.

and more Haying

Ranch Rodeos and Ropings.

Checking cows in the hills.

Rain in August caused quite the havoc with the grain farmers. In this area we all commented how we hadn't seen such crazy rain in August as to prevent the harvesting and make standing fields of wheat and barley turn black with mold and sprouting. It was wild. So the price of wheat will increase--this whole Snake River Valley was affected, and there's a ton of wheat that comes out of this valley. Much of it is feed wheat now, but I still see some piles of wheat in fields that couldn't even be sold as feed wheat. What a waste, and the poor small farmers were hurt the worst. 

Canning fruits and veggies from the garden.

School starting.

Our one camping trip to the lakes north of Island Park where we stayed for 4 days (that's a miracle for us that we could get away that long!!!) and we fished, canoed, biked, and hiked, and ate a ton of delicious camp food. It was a glorious camping trip.

Corn Harvest.

We grow a few pivots of corn to be chopped and fed to the yearling calves to fatten them up. This is a more cost effective way to grow cattle than to feed them straight hay.

Don't even get me started about corn, GMO, and all that junk. I may not fully agree with this particular ranching practice, but as a whole, our ranch really does try to do things right, safe, and holistic. Come up with some good organic natural cheap and viable corn or cheaper feed alternative that's not GMO and that's still cost effective and we'll gladly jump on board.

Our fields were some of the last to be chopped due to the frost that affected everyone else but didn't seem to get our corn. Now, though, we are dealing with rain again. It's not hurting the corn-----yet, but it makes the field and the yard too muddy for the semis. They are almost done--even as I type this I hear the semis and packing tractor hard at work.

---I'll have to share the link here from the youtube video of the corn harvesting with the packing tractor, it's apparently too big for google to handle, lol.

Fall roundup is happening now, for the next two months as we move the cattle from the high hills of summer range to our private fields midway down the mountain. There will be daily riding, gathering, sorting, and sandwiches. Bummer for us, the rain and our extra pickup is still getting fixed, so we've been hindered from riding with the cowboys. (I'm NOT missing the sandwiches though!)

So we end the months of August and September. A little sadness as I wonder where the warm weather went to. Nevertheless, we got in all the playing and outdoor work we could while the weather was tolerable. And here comes the colder part of fall.

Until next time, work hard and enjoy life.

Cheers from the ranch.

Charlotte 

The Oil-Rubbing Ranch-Wife

How to Grow Spiritually. A Lesson on Building a Testimony.

How to Grow Spiritually

A lesson on building a testimony

Book Recommendation of Journey to the Veil by John Pontius, compiled by his wife Terri after his death.

A collection of blogs from John Pontius's "unblog", as he transitioned from healthy to dying, and the spiritual lessons learned.

Since I loved his other book, Visions of Glory, I knew this one would be good, but I didn't realize how much doctrine and how many new spiritual insights I would gain.

This book instantly vaulted to my Top 10 best books of All Time.

Because immediately after the first couple of chapters, Pontius invited me to pray differently.

So I did.

Then he invited me to fast--seeking more wisdom and light.

So I did.

And he invited me to listen to the spirit and be more obedient.

So I've tried.

And my life has really changed.

It's been several weeks since I got to the fasting part, but just as he mentioned in the book, once a person asks for more wisdom, if they diligently seek it, it'll come, 

bit 

by 

bit.

I've now fasted dozens of times, off and on, over the course of the past few weeks, as the spirit directed.

I'm amazed at how much stronger--spiritually, I became.

Well, actually, physically too, in that I was able to "put off the Natural Man" and my spirit was given priority over my body's constant whines and demands for care and attention.

Fascinating.

I've been blessed with dreams and ideas and thoughts that previously weren't my own, nor did they have any other way to come into my mind other than the spirit. It's been quite the bunch of tender mercies, or blessed insight.

I've felt my testimony grow. I've felt my spirituality grow. It is wonderful, I want it to keep growing, and keep going. I can see I've still got a long ways to go, and it's exciting.

Yes, reading the scriptures is excellent, and a person will surely grow simply by reading them, but there's something in the way John Pontius shares stories from his life that leave an impact. His stories and direction point us upward, they invite us to become different--better.

The part I'm still working on?

Actually jumping and moving fast on the instructions I'm given by the spirit.  Taking Action.

Often I'll get a command to, "do that, go there, or write that blog."

And I just delay, procrastinate, and put it off---don't know why, just the darky powers seem to struggle against this increase in light and truth too. So it's been a battle I've been able to witness. The sad part is, sometimes I do give up, give in, and fall.

But then later I get picked up and on we go.

For me to try it again.

The next time, it goes lots better.

I'm still working on being quickly obedient.

Once, it was hilarious, the spirit woke me up twice in one week, early--4 am early, and told me to get to the temple. So I did. Jess was not that pleased. I went, and it was terrific.

That was cool.

Now, I'd also like to incorporate, "Who can I serve today?"

asking the question, "Who needs my help today, dear Lord? What will thou have me do?"

and as I go on my way, act on the promptings. 

This book was so wonderful, I've got to read it again.

In the end of the book, Pontius lists his way of learning scripture mastery scriptures--with a wonderful chart. It's so terrific, I'm going to incorporate it into our daily school life as we work on memorizing and learning more from the scriptures.

I recommend this book to you, as you search for your own wisdom, light, and truth. This book shows you one man's journey. Yet he teaches principles that apply to all of us--in a way that we feel as if we've feasted upon the word.

It's so good, buy a copy for you, and a copy for a friend and family member.

Enjoy. Happy Reading.
In love, light, and peace,
Charlotte Reid

Summer Reading Books from July

Books We've Enjoyed this July

Here are our favorite books we read for the month of July.

--incidentally one book is missing, as I loaned to to a family member

A bit random, but these are the top picks that we enjoyed for the month of July.

(HOLY COW! This Blog Post sat on my desktop for 3 weeks--as now we are almost through with AUGUST!!! . . . . . Guess I better start working on our August book reads now, too, huh? lol, hang in there, more on the way)

I have a deep love of reading.  My cowboy husband enjoys reading too--but his books aren't on here. He goes through his list of books quite rapidly.  As a family, we enjoy a large variety of books and subjects. My children love books--I think it's because we have so many books in the house, we are often seen reading as parents, and we share our love of reading by reading to the kids.

Children should be read to--and often. 

Each evening we read one of the Little House on the Prairie books as our bedtime story. Then we came to these two books, a couple of rainy days, and we ended up reading some of The Long Winter and Little Town on the Prairie during the day--they were SO Good.  I just love these books.

Pioneer life was tough. But the ladies actually didn't do as much physical labor as they could have--they pretty much just tended house. They would sweep the floor daily. 

Really?

For goodness sakes, go out and help your husband farm.

Okay, the constant cooking, child nurturing, laundry, sewing, and house tending is demanding.

But where's the outdoors-pioneer-woman?

The Long Winter for winter's sake was horrible. I pray we never have to endure something that cold, hungry, dark, dreary, and miserable, and oh so long. That was yucky. 

Made me want to make sure I have prepared every needful thing prior to winter.

I think it was the Little Town on the Prairie book---

I was completely taken aback when Laura Ingalls wrote in the book about some of the things she was learning at school--at the age of 15, and how she had to pass the teacher examinations to teach school at 16. The things she knew at 16 BLEW MY MIND.

For instance, she could dictate the history of the United States, naming the Presidents, and what happened of major consequence during each presidency. She could name all the wars and battles that happened on this American Continent.

Laura Ingalls could add multiple 6 digit numbers in her head. She could multiply the same too.

I bet her cursive penmanship was a work of art--as it was "cool" to write beautifully back then.

Laura Ingalls knew more about grammar and how to construct a variety of very complex and lengthy sentences at the age of 16 than I learned all through high school and college combined. And I still don't know all the grammatical structure she was talking about as she "parsed a few sentences."

She taught school at age 16, without "proper teacher certification training" according to our day. And her students learned well, just as she did. It was something they all just "got" and passed on.

Unbelievable.  

Could it be that today's teacher training and colleges are quite a bit far off? 

Could it be that someone who is well educated and self-taught properly (as that's what Laura's education looks like to me) in turn, teach others as exactly the way they were taught?

My Mind is blown.

And I actually spent time analyzing my paradigms and philosophy of education.

Which fits the other two books on the list--The Core, and The Naked Communist by Cleon Skousen.

With these two books I've been able to look into a different angle of education than I've seen before. It's actually funny that all these books came together at once--I didn't even know what they were, nor how I would react when I selected them.

From The Naked Communist book, I find it interesting how people can be sucked into the socialist/communist agenda. They are so completely delusional.

Yet I also see that there are many elements of our culture that have been "socialized" and we have been carefully influenced and even now we don't even recognize it.

Like abstract modern art.

Ha. Consider that idea.

Or how our educational system has changed to fit that view as well.

I could go on--it's just so fascinating, makes me stop and wonder about our freedoms, especially as we so willingly give up more liberty to trade for "safety."

So sad.

Switching things up a bit to be more positive, The Core --which actually I haven't finished yet, as it's become quite dry through the middle, helps me see education from the opposite spectrum from my college education and years in the classroom.

Interesting.

This book has invited me to look at education, what I've been taught, and how things work. What's spooky crazy is that Leigh Bortins, in the book, brings up nearly all of my previous struggles and problems I've had with the traditional system. She nails my grief with the system, and then she shows what can happen, what can exist, and how we can create it.

It's exciting and gets me fired up again about education.

Aside from daily scripture study, The Ensign reading, and other little random stuff here and there, I also read Journey to the Veil by John Pontius (compiled by his wife, Terri, after his death), and the other book, A Greater Tomorrow by Julie Rowe. This latter book I had loaned out to family members who also loved it as much as I did.

As for lessons learned in Journey to the Veil? I really must save that for another blog, because it's just simply too amazing to make this one any longer.

So, until next time.

Cheers, and happy reading.  --Remember, read to your kids, no matter their age. Share the love of learning with your next great book.

Charlotte Reid