Weaning and Hauling
Top - Paregien Ranch
May 30, 2009
Day after being separated from their calves, the cows find shade near the corrals.
West Side - Paregien Ranch
June 4, 2009
We hauled 2nd & 3rd calf-cows up the hill and weaned calves and cull cows down yesterday. Up and down the mountain, we hauled over a hundred head with three rigs over a total of 52 miles each on our 4-wheel drive roads. With light loads in tractor mode, my 2005 Ford diesel only averaged 4.5 mpg, while the 2007 Dodge averaged 11.2 mpg.
June 4, 2009
Robbin caught this shot of the Valley, Colvin Mountain, Elderwood and Woodlake from Paregien's West Side as we headed to the corrals to haul the cull cows to Dry Creek.
June 4, 2009
Paregien Corrals
Nerve wracking, tough driving, we load the last of the cows for our last trip down the mountain. With another week of weaning left, Robbin and I are headed to Greasy this morning to put out mineral and salt, and with a little hay, to make friends with the last two bunches to gather... it'll be like a day off!
6:45 a.m. update: It started raining at 4:00 a.m., and now with about .80 in the gauge, we can't go anywhere!! But we're tickled and thankful that we got our hauling done yesterday and no calves up the hill to feed in the corrals.
10:00 a.m. update: An hour or so ago, this morning's rainfall total was .95 of an inch. Broken clouds now, it's warming-up as the chance of afternoon thunder, lightening and more rain increases. The dry ground has absorbed it all, our dry feed already waving in a warm wind. You can feel it - anything is about to happen.