Getting Ready to bring in the Mares and Colts

We are going to gather mares and colts next week and work with each pair in the corral and do the registration markings and take pictures.  This is one of my favorite things to do. I love to see the new babies and how they have grown.  I love to see the mares and the markings and personality they have given to the new off spring.  The weather was beautiful this week?  Rain, sleet, snow, wind, and wonderful sunshine.  We are hoping for something similar this coming week.  I just need sunshine for a hour or so each day for good pictures.

We have had summer late into our normal fall but when it turned to cool it did it fast.  We have had snow and frost almost every night since.  But fall, even though it is short, is beautiful on the Dryhead.

Family Happenings

We have had many special events this summer in our family.  I want to add just a few pictures: Howdy Charles Hahn was born, Brittany and Eric had their children sealed to them at the mormon temple, Kristen turned 17, Miss Iris is hanging in there at 86 in October, our Stringham/Bassett/Brimhall family reunion was a great success with 114 attending in June. 

Breaking Colts in July

Jake and Tyler take several weeks during the July-August summer season to invite neighboring cowboys to come and start young colts.  During these two weeks they halter broke, saddled, put the first rides on 30 colts.

Finishing up Branding at the Dryhead

Finished up all of our branding this week (June 3-9, 2012) and so now our cows and their calves are all out on their summer pasture. Have been getting substantial rain storms about every weekend so this has really helped our abnormally dry spring turn into a promising summer for good grass and fat cattle.
Beginning this week (June 10-16, 2012) we are gathering all our mares and their new foals to put together our mare bands for the summer breeding season. Those that have come in are of course cute little buggers and we are looking forward to seeing the rest come in tomorrow.

Cassidy and Maddy were thrilled with their new water buckets for Easter. They were thrilled to water the Iris's that are coming up along the walkway at Grandma's house. We had a beautiful Easter Day. Church in the morning and a nice dinner in the afternoon. Hope all of you also had a great day to celebrate the Atonement of our Lord. Even with all of the turmoil we have a lot to be thankful for. Each of you coming into our lives and becoming our friends, that is a lot to be thankful for. We are looking forward to seeing those of you who are coming back to ride with us in 2012 and for those who cannot make it this year we hope the best for you and pray that you will be able to come another time.

We bought a new bull to breed to our cows this summer season. It was quite an event for those of you who have never seen or done anything like that before. We received a catalog with 634 bulls listed on the pages. Around 420 of the bulls were pictured and personal statistics were listed. The other 200 or so were just statistics and a name. Each bull was listed for those important statistics each buyer was looking for such as bulls birth date, birth weight, his weaning weight and several other statistics which we were not looking at for that moment. Listed also was the calving ease (small, medium, large) rating for the size of calf he will throw and the amount of milk that he will produce in his heifers. This was our second experience at buying a bull. The first bull sold for $45,000. and the others ranged above $3000. to $13,000. They were all registered Angus bulls sold at Pays Auction Yards in Billings, Montana. Great day.

My grandaughters, Maddy and Cassidy and my good friend, Debbie, loved looking and petting the goats and the new babies that are at the neighbors. This is a sign of early spring when the baby goats and sheep and calves begin to show up in all of the fields close to home. Jake and Will are calving and checking for calves every two hours all day and all night long. They aren't getting much sleep and they struggle with the cold nights but we are getting close to getting all of the calves born. After they get them born then they tag them with the same numbers as the mother cow has and then turn them out in larger pastures to grow. Anyone want to come for a week of calving?

We are all looking forward to the beginning of the 2012 season. We were into the ranch on Saturday to show our new cook where she would be working and what the ranch looked like. It was not the best impression, as it was covered with snow and Jess and Jake got stuck looking for horses, but we had a great time. We are ready to "throw our hats into the air" looking forward to spring and having all of you come and join us.

The next exciting news is we are bringing Tyler and Cassie Croft back to the ranch this season. Many of you already know them as they were with us two years ago. Tyler and Cassie will start by April 1, 2012.

I had forgotten how to do this. So I am learning all over again.

Hello to All. Hope you come and chat with us here on our blog. News for February 2012. We have been busy this month and are excited to share all of our news.

Will and Keshia got married February 4, and they will be moving to Hardin, Montana where Will has a cowboy job and Keshia manages the FSA office.