Day Four assignment invites us to write a post to our ideal audience. This’ll be easy as I already write to and design my posts for my ideal audience….my family and friends. I seek for them to understand how valuable our rural lifestyle is and that the daily hard work we endure is actually our passion and a source of enjoyment.
There’s nothing better for the heart and soul than a full day of chores…good old-fashioned hard work. No time to be idle nor chance of boredom.
Not when there’s views like this around home.
Tag: Blogging 101
Love of Livelihood
I’m back in class again. Blogging 101 is underway. I have tried to get going with this course offered by WordPress more than once but this time I have no excuses. Assignment #1…Say Hello to The World. Well, since I’ve been writing this blog for a little over a year now…albeit, sporadically….I’ll just reintroduce my self and why I’m blogging.
My husband and I operate a 300 head cow/calf operation in Alberta, Canada. Up until a year ago we both held off-farm jobs and still ran the ranch. After this past year, I still shake my head in wonderment as to how we did it. How did we care for all these critters as well as ourselves and children and the jobs that kept us constantly driving away from the ranch?
It is time now to enjoy our livelihood. We now can stay home together and care for these animals that mean so much to us. Thus the reason for this blog. I’ve always liked to journal life events and I am passionate about taking pictures to support those stories….sounds like the kind of stuff that makes a blog perhaps?
The simplicity and pure pleasure of rural life is what my blog Flicka Rancher is all about. The female perspective behind the life we live out here on the ranch.
Lucky Sevens
Forgive me….but I just can’t get enough of my goose family. Yesterday, I had to check on them to ensure that they made it through their first night off the bale-their birthplace.
Of course, they fooled me again and were not to be found….so I started for home only to be be pleasantly surprised to find them in a smaller slough just a little closer now to our house! I’m hoping they will finally rest those goslings and make their permanent home in the big slough in view of our front room window!
On my next visit, this time with camera, they tried to elude me yet again. Found’em in the grass….mom and dad crouching down but the little ones looking around every which way. And yes, still the Lucky SEVENS.
Branding
Being more involved with ranching duties means being involved with more of the unpleasant but necessary tasks. Like branding our replacement heifer calves. Hubby caught a shot of me working the brand on my prize tan heifer. I had picked her out as a keeper when first born. I love being able to identify her from the rest of the dark red animals in our herd. She’s one of those “pretty” animals.
So I was temporarily concerned about being the one to be applying her permanent mark….but then again….who better than I to be just a wee-bit more on the gentle side. I paid attention to rocking the brand with just enough pressure to evenly distribute the brand and after the few required seconds, I think I did a passable job. I was pleased that she didn’t struggle in the squeeze chute during the procedure. I’ll be less nervous about this part of the ranch chores in the future.
Branding is more important than ever now that the value of our animals is so high. This ensures our ownership is intact should we ever suffer loss or theft. We use an electric brand now that moves the process along so much more quickly and efficiently and humanely. In the past, using hot irons for each separate image on our brand…the L, the Z and the bar (-), would have required three separate applications.
The “girls” got a real treat after the branding session. They finally got out on grass from the pen they’ve been sharing for months. It’s such a pleasure to see them out on the range where they are meant to be.
A Good Time
The talk around the industry now is “it’s a good time to be in the cattle business”. It sure is, prices are the best they’ve ever been, people still buy and eat beef for top-quality protein, the optimism is high. Yeah, sure it’s a real good time.
In my mind though, it has always been a good time. I love raising cattle and being a steward over our precious lands and water resources. I’ve loved the cattle industry maybe even before I married into it eighteen plus years ago.
What could be more purposeful than raising animals towards supplying the food chain of the world. What could be better for the body and soul than to put in a good long honest day of hard work … feeding, watching over, nursing and treating these innocent animals that are always there for you?
We have persevered through the BSE crisis, Ecoli scares and multiple droughts, all the while totally believing in our cows. I ” buy in” to the vision my husband has always held….COWS COME FIRST…it has guided us through the worst and now the best. Love these critters.
De-Clutter
Over a year ago now since I retired from the office job, high on “the list” was to go through every room, every closet, every drawer to purge and throw away and de-clutter and clean and throw away some more. But of course, life events took me away from such an activity until this morning …. when we found a pool of water forming in a storage room in the basement and man-oh-man did I move!
Admittedly, initially I was grumpy, grumpy, grumpy as this meant I would be stuck inside moving items from here to there, shop-vacuuming up water, moving stuff from here to there. It wasn’t looking like a good start.
If I have my preference, when I am home for the day, I prefer to be outside choring and hanging with the critters. However, once I started pitching I started to feel so good…that kind of good one feels when you really de-clutter, when you finally start asking…”Why have I kept this …. and this … and this … back here in the corner, up here on the shelf …. Good grief how does this clutter develop?
Indeed the best remedy for procrastination and inefficiency is to de-clutter….thanks to a mini-almost-disaster, I finally got past those two ill-advised states of being. Look out house (and garage) – things are going to fly! Certainly putting my wagon to good use.
Variety Pack
It was a Flicka Rancher kind of day today. In between the laundry….
I helped pull 16Z’s calf with Cowboy Husband [mom and calf look like each other!]….
mended the fence line….
watched over two calving cows while Cowboy went to town for his eye appointment. Of course they start to calve when he drives out of the yard!
So happy to have them successfully deliver on my watch.
Back to do a little more fencing…
And so, like many other Flicka Rancher days….supper didn’t happen!
Nesting
Our goose momma has moved in!!
Back on March 27 I wrote about the story of my hubby setting up two straw bales in a newly formed slough in our field to attract a goose pair that has returned to our area many years in a row. They must have approved of the facility because here she is!!
The day previous we noted that the pair of them were actually doing a little home inspection and we were trusting they liked the look of things.
Personally, I am ecstatic that they have settled into this environment. It’s the safest one yet that they have availed. Surely, this year we will see some goslings from these two. As much as I’d like to check on her every day, I will respect the rules of nature and not approach, intrude or pester her over the next 28 days which is the official incubation period. At this point now, she does not leave the nest. Her faithful mate, the gander, will patrol the area and aggressively chase away predators and intruders…the likes of me, if I get too close!
Be watching my blog during the week of May 11 for scenes and stories of new life of the soft-feathered kind!
Gentle Assist
The hardest part of calving is after-calving. It’s the days, weeks and months ahead whereby we work to keep the little critters alive, safe from predators, free from disease and well-fed and nurtured. Most of the time the calves jump up a few minutes after birth and head right to their mother’s teats and begin to suck. That first drink, and hopefully that happens within the first hour, sets the tone for the health and ability to thrive for the young one going forward.
On occasion though we have a challenge. This fella from 8U cow is blind. He had a hard birthing experience which may have affected his vision or it may just be his fate. But for these first days he needs a little gentle assist from us to find those precious vessels where he can access his mother’s milk. Eventually we expect he will be able to sniff her out and do this all on his own. We sure will keep this pair close to home. For now, we’re quite willing and able to help him along.
Of course, any animal that gets this kind of special attention gets his own name. I call him Ugo.
Room With a View
During the frenetically-paced days of calving, my kitchen becomes my Room with a View. Just to the east of our yard is a small field where we have our cows living close-by. So here I can check on the girls while I do the dishes, prepare our rare meals, or even the more rare activity of baking. This site also is my head-quarters for record-keeping and tag-making. I so love my easterly view.
Flicka Rancher 