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Saturday, Mar 29, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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Aidan, Dan and I spent yesterday moving some lose ends around and riding through the commercial cows in the Carpenter. We have lot's of new calves, which was great to see, and green grass starting to pop up in the sub irrigated ground along the creek bottom. It was cold and grey all morning and we were getting a bit chilled, so we went into the Bar JH cabin and lit a fire at lunch time and got out of the wind for a bit. As we were trailing some odds and ends home the sun came out and it felt great, from winter to spring in 60 seconds.
Today we will get around to check heifers, put out more protien tubs and I will try to fix a windmill.
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Posted by Michael M. on 03/29/2008
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Wednesday, Mar 26, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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More wind, blowing hard out of the West. Wind is the bringer of spring time here, just a fact of life this time of year.
I took another loop through the heifers this morning and doctored a few. I have been riding a young horse (the one who fell on me earlier this year) for this work. She is real excitable, but after quite a few trips she is starting to settle into the job. She still gets worried, but is developing some trust and doesn't try to quit me anymore. She is a big horse and can really pull, I can't wait to get her into the branding pen this spring.
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Posted by Michael M. on 03/26/2008
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Tuesday, Mar 25, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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I spent the morning doing one of my favorite things, riding with my 11 year old son Aidan. We homeschool, but Mom decided this was spring bread none the less, so Aidan came with me this morning checking the yearling heifers. It is one of the great benefits of ranch living to work with your kids. Aidan kept up a running commentary on the various Lloyd Alexander books he is reading and practiced dallying his rope, while helping me look for sick cattle and put away a few that had wandered through a new hole in the fence.
We doctored just one before turning for home about the time the wind really kicked up. This began some lessons on proper techniques to keep a hat on in gale force winds. It really is a learned art. A good day all around.
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Posted by Michael M. on 03/25/2008
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Sunday, Mar 23, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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My wife and I just wanted to introduce ourselves to everyone. We moved to the Chico a little over a month ago from eastern Oregon. We're just about settled in here at the Casita and we really love it here. Our first baby should be here in late August, and we couldn't think of a better place to start our family.
Our thanks to everyone here for the warm welcome we received.
Tex and Teylor Goates.
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Posted by Tex G. on 03/23/2008
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Thursday, Mar 20, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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Spring is here and calving is going into full swing. The first calf heifers are in the Vega and Tex will be living with them for the next couple months. He has pulled( assisted) a few and had to bring one into the corrals that would not let her calf suck. A couple days of help and she should mother up and be turned back out.
We have two bottle calves, one has a sick mother who won't produce milk and the other lost it's mom during the birth process. Teylor has taken over the bottle calf job, and is keeping busy with that.
We are still out patrolling the yearlings, and treating some here and there. We had a nice wet snow last Sunday. It was much needed moisture, but the I have seen a few more snotty noses since then.
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Posted by Michael M. on 03/20/2008
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Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
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Birding at the Chico
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Migration - Mountain Bluebird
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During most winters there are a few Mountain Bluebirds on Chico. This winter was an exception, but today there were a few birds seen in open grasslands in a couple locations, north-bound, or elevational migrants.
There are three species of bluebirds in the world, and all three have been recorded on Chico Basin Ranch. Although some would argue for their favorite species of bluebird, Mountain Bluebird is mine. The color of blue is intense and unmatched, which might be why it is my favoirte.
Bluebirds are in the Thrush Family and the three members (the other two are Eastern and Western Bluebirds) are unique, for thrushes, in the method they employ to feed. In addition to hovering next to the fruit they intend to pluck, bluebirds also ground-sally. In this foraging strategy, birds hunt from a perch, fly down to the ground, grab an insect, and then return to their perches, which is often a stiff stalk of grass.
As their name implies, Mountain Bluebirds breed in open mountain areas, especially where conifers and grasses are found together. All three bluebird species are cavity nesters, and all three readily take to homemade nest boxes mounted on fence poles or on tree trunks. When a series of boxes are placed in a row on fence posts, this is referred to as a bluebird trail. In Colorado, members of the Bluebird Society, maintain bluebird trails that they check on a regular basis, recording the success and failure of each nest box. All boxes have a hinge that allows the box to be opened, and after each season, all nesting materials are removed from the boxes. One of the surprises of monitoring a bluebird trail is encountering other cavity-nesting species using boxes that were intended for bluebirds.
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Posted by Bill M. on 03/19/2008
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Thursday, Mar 13, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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It does feel like spring. I was surprised this morning to step outside on damp ground. It didn't even rain enough to register in the guage, but it was rain none the less. We actually have a chance again tomorrow, and though it would interfere with work, I'll take the rain.
We had a good day shifting cattle around. We took the bulls (115 of them) from the Waylan up to the Pease, and then moved the first group of yearling heifers( around 800) from the South Wolf to the Waylan, which has excellent grass. Tomorrow we will move the heifers from the Horsetrap up to the South Wolf( which still has good grass) because the Horsetrap is staring to look thin.
Soon we will be combining the herds, but we want to keep them seperate until we are sure they are over their intitial sicknesses. Combining them too early could lead to another outbreak.
We had been waiting to move our bulls until we could get the windmill in the Pease pasture running. It is a sandy area and over time sand had seeped into the well and blocked the pump. Last week we "bailed out" the well by lowering a long metal cylinder that is able to collect sand into the well repeatedly. We were successefull and now have a working well. Dave was out this morning putting in a new windmill pump in the well, just in time for the bulls.
Tomorrow morning another change of pace. We have a group of students from Fountain Valley School (a local private high school) here to experience ranch live for the next for days. They will be helping us with cattle work and in the shop tomorrow, water tanks on Saturday and some conservation projects on Sunday. It should be a great weekend.
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Posted by Michael M. on 03/13/2008
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Wednesday, Mar 12, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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While riding yesterday, Brian McPeek and I saw two bird species for the first time this year: the burrowing owl and kildeer(spelling?). The bird that I am always waiting for at this time is the snipe because we can hear it in early spring up above us diving and making it whistling noise, over and over again through out the day - mating I presume, or putting on a show for the ladies. The return of our birds stamps the time of year firmly into place: Spring is here!!!!!!!! The lakes are filling with duck too. As we rode by the HDQ lake, seemingly hundreds of them flew off the water.
For those of you interested in birding, Bill Maynard, our birding specialist, keeps the ranch birding journal
( www.chicobasinranch.com/icws260w3/index.cfm?ID=6D88CA3B-E782-4F23-8B83B12A8E0F60F1 ). He not only tells about what birds are on the ranch, he goes into detail about specific birds, providing information about where it lives and why and where. Its a must read if you are interested in life on the Chico because birds are a big part of it.
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Posted by Duke P. on 03/12/2008
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Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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While riding home a couple of days ago, I noticed a coyote keeping even with me through the cholla cactus, about 50 yards away. I'de stop, and he'd stop. I'd go, and he'd go. When standing there, he would look off, as if he was embarrased to be so close to me.
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Posted by Duke P. on 03/11/2008
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Friday, Mar 07, 2008
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Birding at the Chico
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Virginia Rail - Marsh Skulker
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As the winter fades and temperatures rise, noises begin to be heard out in the Chico marshes. Virgina Rails, breeders and sometimes a wintering species, are beginning to be heard and occasionally seen where water flows through cattail marshes. Rails have narrow bodies and strong toes enabling them to pass through the marsh reeds and grasses.
Virginia Rails will build platform nests in the marsh using overhanging vegetation in early summer. If the nest gets threatened during incubation of eggs, this species is capable of using their bills to move their eggs to another nest. Nests can contain up to 12 eggs.
It usually takes many visits to a marsh before one of these shy rails walks into the open while they search for food. They use their downcurved bills to probe in the mud for insect larvae, and they can eat earthworms, small fish, and some plant seeds.
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Posted by Bill M. on 03/07/2008
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Thursday, Mar 06, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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Riding today in the sand was cold. The sky was steel grey with a little cold breeze blowing all day. We troted through the sand looking at grass ahead of us and at the calves we weaned last year - they are fat and round. Horacio and I had a great day. I rode Media Noche, Julie's filly and she was mostly a pain in the ass, but showed some potential on her first day outside.
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Posted by Duke P. on 03/06/2008
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Thursday, Mar 06, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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Yesterday Dave and Horacio went down to the Little Chico pasture at the far southern end of the ranch to work on the springs there. On the main spring, the tanks had rotted out, and the pipe had stopped flowing. They replaced the tanks and had assumed we would need to replace the pipe and reset it. On further investigation they discovered that roots from a cottonwood had grown down into the pipe, blocking it completely. With some difficulty they managed to pull the roots out of the pipe and came home with a dense twine of pipe shaped roots over thirty feet long. The spring is flowing well now and our Beefmaster calves can quit drinking from muddy puddles on the ground.
The sickness in the heifers seems to be under control, but we will be remaining diligent never the less. That is Tex's full time job right now, with the rest of us chipping in as necessary.
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Posted by Michael M. on 03/06/2008
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Sunday, Mar 02, 2008
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Birding at the Chico
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Sage Thrashers Return
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Sage Thrasher, a Chico breeding species, retreats south into Mexico for the winter, but begins a northbound migration in late February. The first bird of the season was seen yesterday by birders Mark Peterson, Jim and Bill Schomler, and myself.
Four species of thrasher have been recorded on Chico Basin including the Sage Thrasher. The name thrasher is given to this group of birds presumably because of their tendancy to thrash about on the ground, searching for insects. During the summer, Sage Thrashers will eat small fruits. Although the name suggests that this species is found predominantely in sage, it is most ofen recorded on Chico in cholla grassland or shrubby habitats including four-winged saltbush or greaswood.
Of all the thrashers, Sage Thrasher is thinnest with a short pointy bill. It spends most of its time running on the ground, but during early spring it will perch on top of a cholla cactus to sing it varied, sometimes mimicky song. Like its bigger, larger-billed relative Curve-billed Thrasher, Sage Thrasher begins to sing in late winter.
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Posted by Bill M. on 03/02/2008
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Saturday, Mar 01, 2008
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LIVE from the Ranch
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We've been doctoring quite a few of the hiefers that have been coming in. Some people may think that roping cattle is stressful, but from our veiw point it is the opposite.
We take pride in our skill at roping an animal in such a way as for it not to even realize that it has been roped once the noose tightens around it. It saves the animal from having to walk the mile or more back to the corrals and when it is released, it goes immediately right back into the herd where it
is most comfortable, to heal. So when you think roping, don't think of the arena type where you go as fast as you can, as hard as you can. Our loops are thrown slow and easy, many times from a good distance from the animal, our horses most the time do not get out of a walk, we hold the animal on a short rope to minimize it running, we work in teams so that our partners can get the best shot possible.
The cattle are scattered most the time over about 3-4 thousand acres, so it takes some time to get through them all. We trot across the pasture, but when we approach a group, we slow down to a slow walk and go through them looking for any weepy ones. Its a great training excercise for the cattle as well because they learn to stand where they are grazing as you ride past, instead of running off. Later in the year, this is really handy because you can always go up and take a good close look at them when are checking things out, and if we are going to be selling them later, which we hope to, we can take the buyers up close and they can get a good look at them, and buyers always like cattle with good dispositions as well, so it helps with marketing them.
A big part of taking care of cattle that are in this fragile a state, is making sure their nutritional requirements are being met. Young cattle like this take a while to settle into their pastures because they have just arrived off a truck, in some cases from several hundred miles away, and they've been handled fairly harshly by auction ring crews who run thoughsands of cattle through their pens. So one of the important things we do is push them into areas where the grass is the best, slowing them down so they begin grazing or laying down, feeling comfortable with where they are. It takes a great deal of sensitivety to understand their needs: when are feeling comfortable, when you need to back off and let them go.
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Posted by Duke P. on 03/01/2008
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