Cattle Drive

Wow, what a weekend it was!

Great people, good food and “nature’s choice” in weather. Our long weekend Cattle Drive was an adventure only few would forget. Saturday morning began with beautiful sunshine and a promise for great riding weather as we embarked on our journey in two groups to where the cattle were waiting to be rounded up. The cattle were in good spirits and moved quite well as the first half of the drive was up and over a small mountain. A late lunch hour found us all next to cud-chewing cattle in the lodge-pole pine trees next to the old wagon road we rode on.

Meanwhile our teamster and the chuck wagon, with all our gear, had an adventure quite unlike ours; it was a bit more exciting, to say the least! The team was not all too pleased when a rather large black bear crossed their path half way up the mountain to camp. So to plan B we went and loaded all the gear and all into the stock trailer and headed for camp that way. A wonderful sprouted lentil stew was enjoyed by all around the campfire that evening while everyone listened to the teamsters tales of the day; they were quite eventful.

Sunday was an unexpectedly rainy morning, but it didn’t discourage the cowboys and cowgirls from getting dressed for the occasion and setting out for the day on their ranch horses. The cattle had scattered around the campsite over night to nearby watering holes and grassy meadows and the initial round-up had been done already by the early rising ranch hands, so we were on our way in no time, right from the camp.

Sunday evening, after all had arrived back on the ranch and had nice warm showers, the sun decided to come out and grace the evening with a light sunset to the west. A bountiful cowboy-steak dinner with red wine and a fresh pudding dessert was the top of the evening at the ranch house.

Mysteriously on the next morning, some of the guests had arrived in shifts for breakfast, which I only found out after someone had told me, that none of them could resist having a close look at the newborn foal from that morning in the field above the guest house. A perfect ending to a wonderful and exciting weekend on a ranch Cattle Drive.

Spring brings more work!

It’s springtime, and that also means more work… More work than in winter! It’s a nice time of year, grass begins growing, many birds come and go and some animals have their young.

Just in the last week we had 3 of our 4 sows give birth to some very cute, spotted and striped piglets. The first one has 9, the second one has 12 and the third one has 6. Piglets are always so cute, they are so cute actually that you just want to pick one up and snuggle them, but I did learn from growing up on this ranch and having witnessed many litters born here, that picking up a little “cute” piglet is not always such a great thing. For one thing, they are not very cuddly, their whole body goes rigid and stiff and secondly, they scream! And loud enough so your eardrums almost burst as you lift one up to your chest which also gets the sow going crazy and running after you! So, lesson learned, piglets are cute and cuddly looking at a distance…

Watch this YouTube film I made the other day of the one litter of piglets!

In preparation for the feeding and finishing of these piglets in the fall we also spent five and half hours picking rocks out of a piece of land that was plowed for the first time to try and grow some wheat and feed beets for the pigs to enjoy. One whole acre of large and small rocks by the tons… some we had to lift into the tractor bucket with much effort to get them off the field. Had some sore thing muscles and lower backs the next day! But since then, a few days have passed and the organic wheat seeds have been sown.

Right next to where we were working the land, another couple who live on the ranch were busy preparing their organic market garden for the summer. It was certainly a busy “Sunday” for us all! But that’s how life goes for us on the ranch, winter is slow and one can sleep more and there is not such a load of hard work all day and then spring, summer and fall bring much more work, but also with great satisfaction. Harvesting fruits and vegetables, watching the animals grow, riding the range to move cattle herds and milking the cows is all a part of something that nourishes us daily and we are very thankful for. Our “hard work” is gratifying and it’s great to see at the end of the day through the bountiful harvest on our plates that we enjoy.

One more thing, yesterday I enjoyed a massive flock of sandhill cranes. They most often happen upon the ranch in spring and fall in groups of maybe 30-40 or so, but this time i was surprised. I couldn’t even begin counting them, I just guessed at a few hundred. See for yourself, I made another small film of them. Enjoy!

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What a night!

I just had the most fun and relaxing “night out” I have had in a while. It wasn’t your typical Saturday night dinner party, it went something more like this;

Make sure the goats and sheep are fed, put the chickens to bed–in their house, milk the one cow that just calved two days ago and feed the dogs and pigs. Go out to the pen and catch two ranch horses and get them saddled and ready for a “ride” to the neighbors! We (Benny & I), were invited for dinner at my younger sister and her partners’ “new” home about 3 km’s west on the ranch near Beaver Lake. They just completed building their home–a white wall tent with a rustic wooden floor and home-made bed. It was no ordinary trip, we had my 3 cattle working dogs along–as they go everywhere I go, and managed to complete another small job before making it to our dinner party out in the bush, which was to move the main cow herd (about 200 head of cows) to a new grazing location which was just along our path as we ventured west.

We arrived, after the small cattle drive, at the new home and dismounted, tied and unpacked our horses. A small campfire was crackling beyond the hut and the smell of freshly cooked potatoes was in the air. All we had to do was spike our beef steaks onto a roasting stick and sit around the campfire and slowly cook our steaks while sipping hot white wine out of mugs. It was a delicious dinner, to say the least!

As the night drew close and it became dark we enjoyed each others company and had a good time around the fire until realizing the late hours and the trip we had to make back to get home again. This, the ride home int he pitch dark, was the most wonderful part of the night. Having said our goodbyes, we rode off, homeward bound and had to let our eyes adjust to the dark for the first little while. Of course the horses knew what direction home was but they still used their incredible senses to follow the trail in the dark. Overhead there were countless stars in the black sky and all I could do to  at them all the way home. It was a bit chilly but I just put one hand in my pocket and the other, holding onto the reins stuffed under the saddle blanket close to the horses body in front of the saddle. It was so relaxing to be in the saddle, in complete darkness under the open sky, riding home from a fun dinner party at the neighbors. I slept very well that night!

Spring break up!

 

Chilcotin River

 

This is what the Chilcotin River looks like at the moment. Ice is breaking up slowly as Spring has officially arrived!
I know this because I now wake to a messy but beautiful morning chit-chatter of birds in the trees right outside our front door. When I look out the kitchen window I can see huge flocks of Canada geese, Ducks and Trumpeter Swans on the meadows looking for the first shoots of green grass to nibble on. We have been able to eat lunch outside on our deck for the first time since the fall because it was so warm and sunny; when the sun would hide behind a cloud it did get instantly cool again though!

Hopefully everyone has had a chance to visit our website and see our NEW package option:
The Traditional Homemakers Workshop Retreat. 5 days of pure learning and fun as you enter a world of empowering yourself on your journey to real health!

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Caribou on the Ranch!

Just last night we had a great herd of about 45-50 Caribou amongst our cattle grazing through the snow on one of our fields. It was later in the evening, I was busying myself with house cleaning when my husband told me that as he was just driving home up our driveway he saw a herd of caribou on our field. I grabbed the camera, jumped in the car and only half way out towards the road noticed that I was only wearing my bottom layer of woolens and barefoot in my house slippers! Oh well, I didn’t know how long the caribou would hang out on the ranch so I kept driving just in case I might miss them. When I got to a point in the road where I could park and see the caribou in the field I saw that my brother-in law was already tehre with his friend halfway submerged in snow beginning to walk out into the pasture to get a closer look. Lucky for me I could just hop from footstep to footstep to stay relatively snow free in my slippers as I tailed along behind them. (It was only about -1 and 1 foot of crusty snow from the melting efforts of spring).

2 fences later we managed to come within 400 meters of the herd right next to the cattle and they didn’t mind us at all. (In the one picture it looks as though they are running away, but really they were just moving in all directions at their leisure.) They noticed us for sure, but they didn’t seem to care that much. It was great to see them even though it was snowing and we didn’t have such a crispy clear picture of the scene. This is something so rare here on the ranch so it was a big deal for us all to see a large herd of caribou right on the ranch! They didn’t seem to crazy about mingling just yet with our cattle even though it seemed that cattle wouldn’t have minded. There is one picture here that shows a cow in the background just to see how close they all were with each other.

After 10-15 minutes of gazing at these incredible wild animals I did have to give in to the cold temperatures mixed with my not-so well dressed self and head back to the car. I kept looking back on our way out and saw that they were still there. Some part of me really wanted to just stay there until they decided to go and just watch them for as long as I could…

Sunday Sleigh Ride

This past sunday was a great opportunity for us to head out on a little sleigh ride with the team and enjoy a picnic in the snow, while it lasts. It seems that spring does not want to come out yet, normally by mid March we would have more definite sign that spring will come. We still have a lot of snow, half way up to the knees and in some places almost up to the knee.

Picnic Sleigh Ride

Our sleigh ride took us to Beaver Lake which is about 3 kms west of us still on the ranch property. It was a great day with a little wind which made fire making a little difficult. We had so

me delicious bratwurst roasted on sticks over the flames with fresh sour-dough bread and hot tea to keep warm. For dessert we enjoyed my famous “apple surprise” which is perfect for camping. A stuffed apples roasted in the embers. Of course the stuffing is a secret of mine, but I will tell you some of the goodies… chocolate, honey, nuts… and more! Always a favorite! It’s also perfect as a dessert because you only put the apples in the embers once the fire has died down a little bit and so it can roast while the main meal is enjoyed.

On the way home, we managed to pack up a bunch of cut firewood onto the back of the sleigh. It is tricky on a flat surface with no walls or stopping agents on the back to stack cut logs. Then driving the team home, missing all the rocks under snow or an other bumps is also a challenge not to lo

ose half the load!

The dogs enjoyed the afternoon excursion and played in the snow the whole time we enjoyed the picnic and the fire…

An awesome sunset!

As I sit here attempting to write the first post on our Ranch blog, I wonder what part of ranch life I could tell you about. A part of me thinks I would rather be outside in the very cold, but crispy fresh air and enjoying the starlit night; but then who would be here sitting at the computer screen sharing with you a piece of the beauty from our corner of the world. I feel privileged to live the way we do out here in the remote wilderness. Yes, there are some things that we don’t have or cannot do as you may be able to in other parts of the country, but we enjoy what we do too and everything is balanced in its own ways.

So, to get to the news of the ranch… It has been a rather cold week, averaging around -32 below (C) at night and getting as warm as -8 during some days. But, I think, when the sun shines as clearly and brightly as it has been, then the cold doesn’t seem to bother me anymore. I love winter and for some great reason, our “dessert like” climate has gifted us with more snow than we’ve had for many many years. Makes for some awesome snowshoeing and not so awesome cross-country skiing as you have to make your tracks here. We’re in for a lot more according to our local weather station, you can check it out too if you want: http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/city/pages/bc-42_metric_e.html

I’m sure, even though we feed all the animals really well, that they are dreaming of some warmer weather again. I have been feeding the cattle every second day with a horse drawn sleigh. My father built the little metal sleigh in his younger years as a fresh cowboy in the tougher times. It works really well. The horses back up to a round bale and then I have to lift the tongue, which is the long wood beam between the horses that they are attached to, then they have to back up even more to place the sleigh upright onto the side of the bale. I hammer in two massive metal hooks on the back of the bale while also trying to hold onto the lines of the horses. Then they move forward again and “presto” the bale falls to the ground on top of the sleigh. Then we drive out to the cattle; I have to find a little uphill section when I can, especially if I am alone, because trying to push the bale off the back isn’t always simple. Then there are two pins that go into the center of the bale after I have pulled back a metal frame that will roll the bale along behind the sleigh. One more thing, I can’t forget to take the ax to the back on the hay bale in order to open the strings holding it together so it will roll out nicely behind us as we go. It’s a lot of work and more time consuming than using a heated tractor, but I enjoy this a lot more than the opposite. It’s also good to keep the horse team in good shape and practice for the summer months for pulling the wagon. The team are: Tia & Willa, sister 1/2 Percheron horses.

They belong to my oldest sister but since she has two very young youngsters nowadays, it’s difficult for her to get away and do something like this.

So seeing as the subject line of this blog is actually “An awesome sunset”, I will finish by sharing my evenings treasure of watching this incredible sight tonight. Out to the west, as the cold air closed in and the few clouds that appeared on the horizon, the sun sank below the trees and mountains. It was as though the sun waved up a “good night” to us in amazing, bright pinks and oranges mixed with a tinge of gold and what was left of the blue skies. I just had to take a walk before continuing work and simply enjoy staring at the sunset. As I walked towards the sunset, the forest came closer and the trees grew higher in front of me. It is my very favorite site when I can see the silhouettes of the big spruce trees outlined against a colorful sunset like that.

There you go, I hope I painted a vivid picture for you and was able to pass along the magnitude of this powerful image I experienced. A real photograph would not do it justice.