Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Our son Eamon is a junior at the University of Wyoming. This fall he fulfilled his dream of team roping on the University's rodeo team. Pat, Dad, Siobhan and I traveled to Cheyenne to take in the last college rodeo of the season. Eamon and his partner Lee caught their steer, but not quite quickly enough. He is really enjoying this experience, and, we trust, applying equal enthusiasm to his studies as a Natural Resource major.

Eamon and Lee heading into the box
Laramie County Community College Arena
photo by Pat O'Toole

Eamon and Hickock
photo by Pat O'Toole

Steer in the lead
photo by Pat O'Toole

Hot on his heels
photo by Pat O'Toole

I'm glad Eamon isn't a rough stock rider (though he was quite a mutton buster in his day!).
A bareback horse fell on his rider in the chute. The coach and other contestants skillfully freed rider and horse, with no one hurt, but it was a scary few minutes.

Horse and rider down in the chute
photo by Pat O'Toole

UW student bull rider
photo by Pat O'Toole

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 4:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Dear All,
Well, summer has been over for some time now and its beginning to get cool here. Pretty soon we're going to be sitting on roof tops in the middle of the night shivering and freezing and wishing for a little more warmth. Ramadan is finally over, it was a difficult month, the bad guys were a lot more active and a lot more successful and we, well I guess we were respecting their holy month because we didn't do too much in response. We're down to about five more months left over here and we have begun our countdown. Needless to say everyone is looking forward to getting home, to seeing loved ones, eating good food and drinking some beers. I've been following the Rockies fairly closely and even got to watch the first NLCS game...and then our satellite went out. It hasn't gotten fixed yet, but hopefully it will be up and running for the World Series. We have a mouse that is living in our room that is friggin' huge. We believe that he's gotten that big by eating through a bag of protein. We've been trying to catch him for a week by using various methods. The other night he scratched our Forward Observer, 'Noza, which made me glad for once that I sleep in the top bunk. This really got to noza and he decided to catch him the hard way. He rigged up a box that was supported by a fork attached to a piece of string. Underneath the box was a cup of Peanut butter and the string ran to Noza's bed. Well Noza got out his night vision and sat there waiting for the mouse (who we've nicknamed Ratada al Sader after the militia leader Moktada Al Sadr) to go for the peanut butter. After three hours the mouse finally began inching his way to the peanut butter and at the crucuial moment, someone came into the room to scare the mouse away, all because they had to wake me up for guard. So we continue to be terrorized by the world's largest mouse and I constantly try to catch up on sleep due to guard. Well, take care and we'll talk to y'all soon.
Peace,
Kevin

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 3:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Antelope in Headquarters pasture
Medicine Bow National Forest
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Fishery reflections
Battle Creek
photo by Pat O'Toole

Elusive fish in Battle Creek
photo by Pat O'Toole

Beaver dam in the fall
Battle Creek
photo by Pat O'Toole

Sun through the Cottonwoods
Middle Smiley
photo by Pat O'Toole

Pat with our Hampshire ewes
Smith Creek Pasture
Routt National Forest
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Daniel and Nerio bringing in the blackfaces
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Horses with Columbus Mountain
Reidy corrals
photo by Pat O'Toole

Sorting
photo by Pat O'Toole

View from the Overlook
Forks grazing allotment
Medicine Bow National Forest
photo by Pat O'Toole

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 4:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Don Ogg
Lower Smiley
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole

Don in the tractor
photo by Pat O'Toole

Livestock husbandry is our main business, but it is not our only business. All those animals have to eat (just like us), and we put a lot of time, dollars and literal energy into raising hay and alfalfa to sustain them through the winter months.

The ace number one farmer on our place is a gentleman who has worked here, off and on (mostly on) since before I was born. He and his wife, May Emma, lived on the ranch for many years. Don Ogg is 80 years old, and shows up virtually every day during the farming season. He shows up sometimes in the winter months too, to do machine maintenance, or just keep us lined out.

Don knows every rise and fall of the Home Ranch fields better than anyone alive, and probably better than anyone ever. He started farming it after his return from the Korean War. He describes the troop ship riding out a storm. “See Squaw Mountain over there? The waves rose above us like that!”

Upper Meadow after harvest (with bird shadow)
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole

Upper Meadow and Squaw Mountain
photo by Pat O'Toole

Alfalfa, ready for winter
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 4:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)

Pat gearing up
Home Ranch
photo by Pat Tognoni

Pat & Sharon looking for cows
Routt National Forest
photo by Pat Tognoni

Tricia & Pat T. looking for cows
Medicine Bow National Forest
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Recent posts show fall colors in our neck of the woods. Of course, some of those red ones are afflicted with pine beetles. It seems like we just finished trailing all of the cows and calves, and ewes and lambs, onto the National Forest for summer grazing. Our off-date has come and gone, and so has the fall gather of our cows. We are blessed with great grass in our summer country, and we are leaving lots of it behind. Fall moisture has really greened things up, after yet another dry summer.

October 1st is the date that we are required to move the cows, and we were lucky to have several of our friends show up to help out. Everyone had cameras, including me, so the cows probably felt like they were being stalked by paparazzi! The outcome was lots of great photos, which we share with you.

Pat pointed out that we could have all stayed at the ranch and drank whiskey. It snowed the next day, and most of the cows would have walked home anyway!

Cows!
photo by Sharon O'Toole

More cows!
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Between the aspen
photo by Sharon O'Toole

To see more photos, go to "Continue Reading"

Mike ahorseback
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Putting them together
photo by Pat Tognoni

Mike and Big Ed
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Lunch break
photo by Pat Tognoni

Pat on Plata
photo by Pat Tognoni

Cowhand
photo by Pat Tognoni

Almost there
photo by Sharon O'Toole

End of the trail
Chief, Siobhan, Seamus & Sharon
photo by Pat Tognoni

Day's end
Home Ranch
photo by Tricia Moore-Gode

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 12:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)

Sheep Mountain
photo by Pat O'Toole

Posted by Sharon O'Toole at 3:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)