October Ranch Update

Howdy friends! Thank you for being patient with me it has been a crazy month here at the ranch and for us personally.

Texas Fall Work

We started off October with our Texas work on the 1st. For me it was an early morning. Since we live on the ranch, I always get up early and make breakfast for everyone. This work I decided to make biscuits and sausage gravy with scrambled eggs. Not super fancy but it is one of my favorites to make for works.

After breakfast we all went to the pens and got everything set up and ready to work. We start by setting up a table by the chute. This table holds all the medicine, tags, extra needles, and syringes and it is where my mother-in-law sits to keep records. We also set out all the hotshots and flags we need to get the bison through the chute. Next, we moved the herd into the small trap, so it is easier to push groups into the alley. After this we got our skid steer set up with the pusher and in position to push the herd down the alley. After the set up was done it was time to get down to business.

The work went really well for the most part. Everything went through the chute just fine. Even the bulls did not give us any trouble. There are a couple of our bulls that like to jump and luckily, they did not want to give us heart attacks this time, thank God.

We had some trouble with the red dots. Some of them kept going through the fence back in the trap and some of them went through a fence into another pasture. When they got into the other pasture my husband, brother-in-law, and our Oklahoma ranch manager had to get them. You would not believe how far they went. Unfortunately, we had some trouble with some weaned calves and cows after the work. But I am not going to go into detail about that.

State Fair

Right after our Texas work, we left for the State Fair of Texas for a week. We took my husband's cousin who is in high school to show her market steer and her prospect steers. Since she was old enough my husband and his parents have helped her show cattle.

The show went by fast. We had two different move ins because they split up the market steer and prospect steers into two different shows. During the first wave we took her market steer, and she did great showing the big boy. Once she finished showing him, we loaded up and switched steers out the next morning. Luckily, we have family in the Fort Worth area and we were able to layover steers during the shows. Our cousin showed very well and had a first in class with her Simbrah prospect steer. We were all excited by how great she did and cannot wait to see how both of this year's steers do at the Texas major shows this coming spring.

Oklahoma Fall Work

Just a couple of days after we got home from the steer show we made a quick trip to our ranch in Oklahoma to work the herd there. It was an early morning in Oklahoma because we had about 230 head of bison to work. We work the herd there the same way we work our herd in Texas.

After a quick breakfast we went out and got everything set up and ready for us to work. Once we were set up our Oklahoma ranch manager and a family friend got on their horses and started pushing groups into the little trap and then into the alley. Once in the alley we had someone on the skid steer pushing small groups to the chute system. I know this sounds like how we work in Texas but trust me the pens and chute systems are nothing alike.

The work went well, and we got the whole herd worked by the end of the day. We ended up having to doctor a couple cows and calves because they had some cuts on them. Other than that, the rest of the herd was completely healthy.

Planting

This month we started discing and planting our pivots in wheat. While we were at the state fair my father-in law started discing the first pivot. As soon as we got back my husband finished discing and started planting. Of course, when he was almost finished planting the first field something broke on the planter and he had to stop and fix it. Once we got all the parts and finally fixed the planter my husband was able to finish planting the first field. We still have two other fields under pivots to plant, but we are trying to let the herd eat the grass down before we disc and plant those.

Birthday Party

This last week we celebrated our little boy turning two. It is so hard to believe he is two and we cannot wait to see what this next year will bring him. We had a small “Two Wild” birthday party with family and some close friends. We all had so much fun watching him open his presents and playing with his cousins. I had so much fun planning his party, everything from decorating, to making the balloon garland and my favorite thing baking the cupcakes. I made funfetti, and smores cupcakes and oh boy were they good.

October has always been such a busy month for us between ranch works, steer shows, birthdays, and just life but we would not have it any other way.