Pat & Sharon O'Toole: Docking tales

Docking%202010-small.jpg Docking crew
State Land pasture
Carbon County, Wyoming

Our schedule must be flexible every day, yet exact every season. Much of June is the season of docking lambs. We must get the new lambs, all born since May 8th, ready to trail to the Forest with their mothers by late June. Last year we struggled since it rained most every day. This year was wet enough, but we never had to dock in the rain, wind and lightening. We have to wait until school is out, since some of our crew are youthful. Trouble is we are competing with sports camps for our adolescent dockers. Docking, for the uninitiated, is the removal of tails, testicles (buck lambs only), ear notches, and the administration of vaccine and paint brands. Here are some scenes from 2010.

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Oscar and Antonio

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Sasha, Meghan, Megan & Bahnay
the "Dinkum Docker" crew

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Counting tails

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Mothering up
Cottonwood pasture

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Seamus, docking hand

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Siobhan, docking hand

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Matthew (our Canadian recruit) and Siobhan
Cottonwood

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On the Forest
Smith Creek pasture, Johnson Ranch
photos by Sharon O'Toole

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About Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Pat and Sharon O’Toole are ranchers in the Little Snake River Valley near Savery, Wyoming, right on the Colorado-Wyoming border. They raise cattle, sheep, horses, dogs and children. Pat “immigrated” from Florida in 1970. He attended Colorado State University, where he met Sharon when both worked for the campus newspaper. Sharon grew up on their ranch, where they live and work with her father, their daughter, son and granddaughter (soon to be grandchildren!). Pat is a “water buffalo” and has served in the Wyoming House of Representatives (1986-1992), on the President’s Western Water Policy Review Advisory Commission, and is the current President of the Family Farm Alliance, which advocates for farmers, ranchers and irrigators. Sharon is an author, poet and journalist. She writes extensively on Western issues and is a columnist for “The Shepherd” magazine. Pat and Sharon are the parents of three children: Meghan, 27; Bridget, 26; and Eamon, 20.

Pat & Sharon O'Toole

Docking tales

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