More Farm Life

Wes took the kids for the first ride of the season in between sessions of General Conference. The horses have lost almost all of their winter coat now..

 

Wes is trying to teach the kids how to improve their riding every time they go out...this time they worked on sharp turns...

These two have been doubling up on Rusty since Red died...typically Jax rides Hercules, Hallie and Kamryn on Rusty, and Wes takes turns with the little girls on Chet.

Our sheep were in serious need of shearing. Wes tackled it one night, and only got through two because it was so time intensive/we had the wrong shears. It was a really, really nasty job, lets just say that.

 

 

The little girls had fun climbing on the fences.

  

  

Wes gave each of the older kids a job to make sure each calf got what they needed. Hallie made sure they were immunized, Jaxson made sure they got an ear tag, and Kamryn that they got treated for bugs. Wes did the branding (and 99% of the work).

Getting an ear tag. Jaxson tried, but doesn't quite have the strength yet. He did have the job of picking out the ear tags, according to gender. Having to figure out which cows were which gender was a good life lesson for him.

 

This cow was previously #20, until he got a new tag. He is by far the feistiest. Right after I took this picture he tried to jump through the chute where the kids were standing.

 

A couple of weeks ago we took the cows up to the ranch for branding and to turn them loose on the property up there. This year we have 15 cows. It was a chore to load them up into the trailer, and then Wes got seriously stuck in the mud at the ranch, so it took a lot longer than he anticipated to get started. His dad still isn't back to his normal self, and I'm afraid the kids and I are poor substitutes. The kids actually do pretty well, they are just small. I'm just no help because I am small and also have no knowledge of how to work cattle.
An update on the lambs:
A week and a half ago the kids were walking up from the bus stop and pounded on the door. I came running to find them frantically telling me they thought the white lamb was dead or possibly just bleeding. I ran out to the corral, to see if I could save this poor lamb, only to come across the black one dead. Hallie began hysterically crying/screaming because they were both dead. Something killed them, we think possibly a dangerous-breed dog that we saw running around the neighborhood  that day (our neighbors breed them, and we have never seen them out, except for that day). The other sheep had several wounds as well. It was tragic and a hard day for everyone.  I know the kids are learning a lot of good life lessons having all of these animals, but boy it is hard sometimes. We are hoping that more of our ewes are pregnant, and that we have no more incidents like this one.