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First Cattle Drive of 2009

What??? Where'd all that snow come from??? Well, this is what it looked like around here last year at this same time. That's Cowboy & Abby helping me plow out the drive.

Thank goodness we're having a mild spell right now!

On New Year's Eve, we had dinner at the Pine Room. The owners are our neighbors and have a pretty big ranching outfit. They have property here at Princeton and at Diamond (about 30 miles south). Well, they were talking about trailing cows from Princeton to Diamond, and we offered to help...and they took us up on the offer!

It took 3 days, but we got 'um there...

~~Day One~~

My Man on Whiskey...in his fancy new chinks.

Martin riding Red counting his cows as they go through the gate.
Snoops, one dang good cow dog, waiting impatiently for work to start.

Martin counted approx 170 cows that would make the trip. They're all bred cows, and the majority of them summer in Diamond, so they sort of know the way. They've never been trailed all the way from Princeton before, but they definitely new the right direction.

It took us almost 2 hours to cut out the older cows and get the remaining herd through 2 pastures and 2 miles down State Hwy 78. That's where they stayed the first night. Martin just wanted to get them down the main highway on a slow traffic day...it was a good plan, we only had 4 rigs go through the herd.

~~Day 2~~

My Man had to go to his job in town, so Martin and I...and of course Snoops the cow dog... got started at 7:30 a.m. and it was a cold frosty morning. The pavement was pretty slick, and we took it as slow as the cows would go, but they felt pretty frisky and trotted along pretty quickly.

For the first 2 1/2 miles it was tricky because of open driveways and fields that the cows kept wanting to "go visit." With just 2 riders and one dog, we did a pretty good job.

But, you tell me why the guy who owns the pivot with brand new mint seedlings wouldn't close the gate to his field...duh!!! It's open range out here, and it's the responsibility of the land owner to fence off what they don't want animals running on...well, about 30 head of cows and Colt made lots of big holes in about a quarter acre of his field.

We're finally past all the tricky stuff and into the open range.
Snoops is such a great dog...he does a great job keeping the cows gathered up.

Mary showed up about 9:30 with the support vehicle...water, pop, hot coffee, cold beer or whiskey...whatever suites your fancy...hot coffee was perfect for me. Martin took the wheel (and took advantage of the truck heater) while Mary rode her lil' roan mare.


Of course there was beautiful scenery all along the way.

Riddle Mountain

Dry Lake on the left.

After about 13 miles of trailing, we finally arrived at the Jenkins' ranch where alfalfa and water awaited the herd. They sure were a happy bunch of cows when they saw that hay!

The end of the trail on Day 2.
3:15 p.m.
It was a pretty long day for cows, horses, and riders.

~~Day 3~~

Martin came to pick me and Colt up at 7:15 a.m. It was another cold, frosty morning with white covering the pavement. By the time we got to the Jenkins' ranch and unloaded, it was 7:45...the cows were rested and ready to go again.

Yep, I actually can take photos of something besides cow butts!

Today's trail was a lil' bit shorter...about 11 miles. But, it seemed to go really quickly. It warmed up nicely to about 48 degrees. The cows were a lil' slower than the day before...but can ya blame them!! They stayed off of the pavement as much as they could. Some of the cows were getting tender footed. We just let them pick their pace.

Mary showed up again with her support truck...refreshments tasted mighty good!

We've finally made it to the Diamond Valley and onto the gravel road.

We trailed past Mary's ranch, and she has one
of the prettiest views in Harney County.
This is her ranch with the Steens Mountain in the background.
See all that brown grass, well it's wild hay and in the
summer it grows to 3 feet high...absolutely beautiful.

And here we are...the cows are home!!! See Snoops still working the cows...we had to call him back! Well, that called for a cold beer while we stood around talking for a while. What a fun time it was. But, it wouldn't have been any fun if we would have moved them in blowing, cold snow! Luck was on our side this time.

Some happy but tired cows...now they can calve anytime they want!

I'm so proud of my Colt guy. He had a few moments where he was nervous because he couldn't see the other horses and he got impatient having to stand and wait for the cows. But, he really needed this to help him grow up. He learned a lot, and I think he's taken a big step toward being a well-rounded cow horse. He needs more of the same, but I sure love that horse!

The Chinks

I believe on my very 1st post just a couple of weeks ago, I took a pic of a pair of chinks that I've been working on for my husband. I finally got them done today!!

A little history~~My husband received a pair of deer skin shotgun chaps from a very close, dear friend that is no longer riding. The friend had received them from a friend of his that quit riding.

What's with THAT???!!!???...I plan on riding until I die!!! Anywho...

My husband is 6' 2" and our friend is a little bit shorter, well a lot shorter~~sorry Gene ;~). The chaps were 6-8" too short! After some research and figuring, I decided I could turn the shotgun's into a pair of chinks. I'm kicking myself for not taking a pic of them before I started...but who knew?

This is my leather bench in the back room.

I took out the zippers, removed the fringe, traced a pattern from a friend's pair and cut.
Then I re-attached the fringe using leather lace with a very simple lacing pattern.

Now...I'm ready to attach the buckles, straps, and conchos.

I've got all my parts and pieces ready.

Of course a little liquid refreshment is always enjoyable.
Yep, I drank the whole thing...took me all afternoon!

I marked where the conchos would go and attached the straps.
Leather conchos were glued to the chinks as the base for stability.

Buckles were then attached on the backside of the chinks.

Then the metal conchos were attached on top of the leather conchos with latigo strips.
TaaaaaaDAH...They're DONE!!!!!!

I think were ready for the husband to model them for us...yes?

Front view

Back view...hmmmm...yum...yep!





I think he likes 'um!!

Yep, another satisfied customer...errrrr husband :~)

Never thought I'd be blogging!!! Day one~~

From an inspiration from one of my dog's online friend's mom...does that make sense...I decided to try blogging. Our life here in Eastern Oregon is interesting and quite different from other areas. Something that should be fun to share!

Today is an unusual Saturday; John is usually home, but he had to work the dreaded Inventory at his work...yuck.

So, I've had a quiet morning drinking coffee, baking brownies, carving a pumpkin, feeding the chickens and exploring this blogging thing on the computer. Obviously, it's too hard to try to explain all of one's life in a single paragraph...I'll just take a few days, weeks, months, or years to share our ranch life...

In summary, I've been married to John for almost 10 years and at that time we lived in the Portland OR metro area. We had an exciting opportunity to move and chose Central Oregon as our new home...away from all the people and traffic...someplace where we enjoyed vacationing with our horses sounded perfect. That was in 2000. By 2005, it seemed like everyone from the "Valley" had also moved to Central Oregon....eeeeekkkkk. We took another blessed opportunity and followed our dreams and hearts~~we bought a ranch/farm in Eastern Oregon~~and we don't regret it one bit.

It's hard work...but a work of love. It's work to maintain a lifestyle that is slowly disappearing in America. Small farms and ranches are becoming a thing of the past. Economics pretty much sums it all up.

We have a very small place in comparison to others in the area. But, we work hard raising 45 acres of alfalfa hay. We lease out about 275 acres of grazing land in the summer (cow/calf pairs), and I train horses. To make this work, John works a full time job in town (45 miles away).

Ok...my pics for the day...

Here are my 5 laying hens...they sure do love pumpkin!!

And I sure love the eggs they give us.

My poor garden...when it starts freezing here at night, gardening is a done deal. No amount of covering could save my precious tomatoes and zucchini.

This little flower bed will look great next year. I transplanted these Holly Hocks early this year from out behind the barn where the old homestead used to be which was probably from the early 1900's.

My pumpkin carving project from this mornin'. I love the natural warts and skin marks on it...character!

This is a project I'm working on for John. He received a very sentimental gift from a dear friend; a pair of deer skin shotgun chaps. Sadly, they were about 6-8 inches too short for him. I got a pattern for a pair of chinks, which is a buckaroo type of chap. I took out the zipper and re-attached the fringe using a braided pattern. I now have to finish them by adding the straps with buckles and the concho decorations.