Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Bridget (with Ralph), Sharon, and Siobhan--off to feed the rotting jack-o-lantern to the pigs
Home Ranch
photo by Pat O'Toole

Halloween treat
photo by Sharon O'Toole

It has been a stormy week, so there has been much discussion about cold weather Halloween costumes. Many years the kids and their costumes are covered up by coats, hats, boots and gloves. Several solutions can be employed. The child can go as a skier, a hunter, or some other being that calls for heavy clothing. One Wyoming native offered that his mother always dressed him as a "fat ghost"--she'd throw a sheet with eyeholes over his winter wear. Luckily, Halloween marked the start of a warming trend. It was 35 degrees instead of twenty. Here's some photos from our Halloween. Bridget and Chris came from Denver to help Siobhan, 5, Seamus, 3, and Maeve, 1, trick or treat in Baggs, 25 miles away, and points in between.

Bridget, Chris, and Siobhan

Seamus, before the dragon costume

Maeve" Cow Girl coming...

...and going

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Sunlight over Battle Creek
photo by Lynn Cox

Fall tree

Squaw Mountain, Upper Smylie

Geese. flying south

Sandhill crane, walking south

Battle Creek
photos by Pat O'Toole

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Dunkin
Cottonwood Pasture
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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Bucks with fall colors
Home Ranch, Battle Mountain

We have tons of fall work, as the cows and sheep come off of their National Forest permits, and we prepare for fall trailing and the coming (rapidly I fear!) winter. Last week, Dr. Kimberling and his crew from Fort Collins came to test the rams, then we sorted them and put the stud rams in for the March lambing. Early lambing always seems like a good idea during the Indian Summer. We actually haven’t seen too much Indian Summer, as an unseasonably cool fall has followed an unseasonably cool summer. Here are some photos of working the bucks.

Bruiser stalking
Home Ranch, corral

Richar and the one that almost got away
Home Ranch, corral

Maeve and Sharon supervising
Near the chute

Meghan, with Maeve still supervising
Chute
photo by Meghan Lally

Rambouillet
photos by Sharon O'Toole

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Trish with cows
Tennessee Creek, Routt National Forest
photo by Sharon O'Toole

We have marked the end of our summer grazing. We are fortunate to have good forest grazing permits for our sheep and our cows and calves. Our livestock enter their summer country from mid-June (the cows on the Medicine Bow National Forest) to July 1st (the rest of the cows and the sheep) on both the Medicine Bow and the Routt Forests. They happily graze—except for the occasional murder of some of their numbers by bears and coyotes—until late September, when we trail them off of the Forest to fall country. Most of our fall country lies on private land near the Home Ranch. There wework both the cows and the ewes, and sort the calves and the lambs. Here are some pictures from our first gather on the Routt Forest of the cows and calves. We had an early snow, and it was pretty deep when we got to the high country to kick the cattle down. Cold weather makes them eager to trail down, and they know the way, even without us.

Crew heading up Beeler Draw
Routt National Forest
photo by Lynn Cox

Sharon: camera at the ready
Beeler Draw
photo by Lynn Cox

Cow, lurking
Tennessee Creek
photo by Sharon O'Toole

George and Lynn: crew
Tennessee Creek
photo by Sharon O'Toole

No speeding
Bedrock Creek Hill
photo by Sharon O'Toole

Pat and Sharon: turning the lead
Lidstone gate
photo by Lynn Cox

Snow on aspen
October 3, 2009

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Beeler Draw
Routt National Forest
photo by Sharon O'Toole

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