Mirror KB Ranch Tales of the Twin Wranglers   Summer 2009

July 13, 2009

This week we've pert near been as active as the horses' tails - that are always busily swishin' an' flickin' flies off 'n their backs durin' the hot summer days. 

The fourth of July turned out for the birds...literally.  Early in the mornin' we woke to find a Tree Swallow flyin' 'round in our bedroom. Wahosi, our cat had managed to push open a corner of a window screen (on a window that happened to be open of course) then stickin' out a clawed paw snatched the swallow that was sittin' near the window sill an' pulled it into the room.

Our first thought was that a bat had entered our bedroom which first sent us under our bed covers. But then we realized that it was just a little bird. It landed in another window where we quickly captured it then set it free back out through the torn screen an' open window. After we dressed, an' brushed our teeth we headed down to the kitchen for some bait, in the form of one kind or another of breakfast cereal. We'd barely entered the kitchen when we heard an' unmistakable scratchin' sound comin' from the Monarch kitchen stove.

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Dark clouds rolled in for the next couple of days an' gave us a drop or two of very much needed moisture, but it was barely enough to water a thirsty ant. With lightnin' flashin' across the sky an' thunder rumblin' up through the valley we spent this time in the house workin' on an order for t-shirts and a Robert Fuller seatback cover.  We also put together a digital photo submission for one of the equine magazines we freelance for.

Early yesterday mornin' was roundup day....we saddled up our two favorite ridin' horses an' rode out to gather the cows.  Hoot, our resident fence jumper had jumped out of the pasture while we saddled our two cow horses so he ended up trailin' along behind us as we gathered the cows.  He seemed to enjoy the job though he didn't actively take part in the gather, though once in a while he inadvertently  helped us move the cows, an' kept 'em lined out as we passed the barn yard then through the gate to the south pasture. At this point he evidently tired of the job  an' chose to remain with the rest of the horses who we had put in the south corral so that they'd be out of our way when we herded the cows through.

Our trail drive went well for the most part. The cows were a tad bit confused on where we were drivin' 'em, but once Sota the bull spotted the open gate into the new pasture, he picked up his pace an' charged out into the field headin' south like he was runnin' late an' had it in mind to make up some time. Sota was actually aware that the neighbor's cows are pastured nearby, so along with his stepped up pace, an' in a bravado challenge to the neighbor's bull he'd begun to bellow like an ol'  rusty gate.

Well 'bout this time we realized that another gate, which Sota was headed directly for had inadvertently been left open.  Puttin' our horses into a higher gear, an' stayin' wide of the cows so's not to stampede 'em, we charged down the field.  It was nip 'n tuck a good deal of the way, as to who would win the race, an' with very little room to spare, Kari forked on Solo, nosed out the bull for the win an' was able to hold the bull while Kim struggled with the gate.  All in all it turned out to be a fun ride with just enough excitement to make it memorable.
 

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July 3, 2009

It appears that we let the month of June sneak right out of the gate!  Roundin' up all that we did this past month is goin' to be like roundin' up a bunch of missin' cattle in a thicket of alder an' hawthorn brush. In other words we'll give it a try, but may miss a dogie or two.

During the second week in June, most of our time was split between mendin' fences, clearin' out trails on the west ridge, or workin' with a few of the green broke horses. We also spot sprayed weeds - Tansy an' Hawkweed in the northeast field an' east river pasture as well as spent a little time on photography projects for magazine publication an' worked on several orders from our web store.

On the 21st we drove into town to pick up ranch visitors at the train station.  Our two young cousins, Tim an' Jon stayed with us for a week of fun an' a little bit of work.  This was the first time for them to visit us without their parents taggin' along. Even though they probably enjoyed their escape from parental rules, we know they missed havin' their folks with 'em.

The first day we had the boys help us pick up manure then for several days they assisted us in movin' furniture around - includin' a very heavy regulation sized pool table - so that we could toil at pullin' out  30 year old carpet that has by far out lived its welcome. Tim spent a good portion of each day with a 22 rifle in hand, shootin' at the ground squirrels that dig nasty holes in the pastures. While here he learned how to skin his kills so was able to take home several gopher pelts as souvenirs. 

Jon builds a loop  in his lariat

We all had fun ropin' the dummy steer in the front yard an' also enjoyed a little time spent in the saddle.  One day we even put the boys up on one of our  green broke mares an' let 'em help us with a horse trainin' session in the round pen.  They both did a fantastic job!  In the photo to the right is Jon up on our green broke Appaloosa mare, "Whispered Thoughts".  By the way, we must mention that this shot was taken by Tim

Tim takes a break from shootin' a gun to shoot a picture of one of us during our 22 target practice session.

While Jon messed 'round on the computers - he's not really in to guns all that much - Tim an' us Twin Wranglers burned a fair amount of powder target shootin' with the 22 pistols, then trekked out to the knoll in the north pasture to shoot the 410 while aimin' at clay disks that were launched into the air.  The two of us have found skeet shootin' to be a whole lot of fun, even though we don't break our intended targets as often as we'd like to. Tim however is a crackpot shot an' shatters the clay pigeons more 'n 75 percent of the time.  That's pretty darn good shootin' considerin' he's usin' a 410. Most skeet shooters use larger gauge shotguns to do the job. On the right - that's Tim firing the 410 ...we bet that shot blasted the clay pigeon to smithereens!.

Our guests pulled out the ranch gate on the 27th so we are back to our routine ranch life.  On the 28th we finished rippin' out the old carpet in the west livin' room by shiftin' furniture from one end of the room to the other then back again.  We need to pull out the carpet in the office yet but dread the work that it will take, with will entail packin' up the computers to move 'em out of the way, along with the book cases an' heavy computer desks. So, we're goin' to procrastinate on that for a while....maybe even wait for dad to return to the ranch later this month.

With the flooring project on hold, yesterday we noticed that the stream that flows through the ranch had begun to dry up.  Trekking up stream we looked for the problem an' found it at the far south end of the ranch where the stream is s'posed to split - half flowin' into a long narrow pond then out to the river, while the other half is expected to meander northward windin' through various sections of ranch pastures. What we found was that most of the water was pourin' out over a low section of a the dike that regulates the amount of water that can go to the pond.  With shovels an' sandbags in hand we built up the dike then also cleaned out a culvert in the pump house pasture as much as possible. This mornin' when we went to check on the stream we were happy to see a marked increase in the flow of water.

While we've improved the flow of water through the ranch to some minimal degree, we really need to put the backhoe on the tractor to clean sedge grasses out of the stream bed in several locations. That will likely improve the steam even further...but before we put the backhoe on the tractor we'll do a bit more fence repair while we have the post driver mounted on the Kubota.

Our last rain fell on the 14th of June.  Just in the short time that we haven't had any precipitation, the country has begun to dry up like money in our pockets.  While the  danger of wildfire in the forest is already set on high alert, our grazed pastures are quickly fadin' to a flat brown an' they're as scant of grass as meat on a dog's soup bone.

For this reason, the other day we decided to roundup our cattle an' move 'em to new grazin' ground in the northeast corner of the ranch.  Reckon they weren't the only ones that were in need of new grazin' land, as one recent mornin' we woke to a round of sporadic, yet urgent  whinnies.  Peerin' out our bedroom window right off we noted that seven of the horses that were s'pose to be in the south pasture were missin', their deserted pasture mates responsible for soundin' the alarm.

It was time we got up so we quickly dressed then went out to investigate the situation.  We figured that we'd probably find 'em in the east pasture - which we did.  They'd smartly moved themselves to new range by squeezin' along the narrow trail between the river rip-rap an' the end post of the east river fence line.  Doin' so they gained access to the east river section as well as the east pasture, where they're now able to find a much better stand of forage. Their herd mates who remained in the south pasture were quite unhappy 'till we let 'em join their friends in the new pasture. 

Oh yeah, before we rein back out on the trail, we want to wish everyone a safe an' Happy Independence Day this 4th of July!

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June 8, 2009

Its pert near summertime, but today it feels more like early spring. We had a few days of warm weather as we rode into June. Even though we had a bit of sun early in the day, yesterday was a might chilly with 50 degrees Fahrenheit for a high.  By late afternoon the Fisher River valley became choked with dark clouds an' last night we got a fairly good rain. Today it remains cloudy.  With intermittent showers, a light breeze, an' a high 'round 48 degrees it feels almost wintry.

As we did the last week of May, we've kept busy this past week moseyin' between a number of different chores. First off we tackled the mountain of compostin'  manure which we'd piled up durin' the winter months. Usin' the Kubota bucket we scooped it up an' deposited it into "Ole Red" dump truck, then took it out to the large depression in the north pasture where we dumped three loads.

We next headed up the west ridge with chainsaws an' loppers to clear more trail. After a fair number of hours we managed to clear out one entire trail, cut up a nice log for firewood, an' made two more 22 foot long fence rails out of trees that inched too far into the the trail. While workin' on the trail we noticed the remnants of another old skid trail that had once been used to log this hillside an' now have plans to clear it out as well, but we have other established trails that need our attention first, as well as another skid trail that we'd planned to clean out two years ago an' would like to get started on this summer.

The next day was pretty much shot in our weekly trip to town to ship off an order from our web store, then tended to banking an' groceries. Late in the day we decided to hike 'round in the wooded section of the far east river pasture to look for antlers that might have been knocked off as the bucks an' stags wove their way through the trees an' brush. We didn't come home with any treasures but did get to watch a beaver swimmin' 'round in the cresting Fisher River.  Along the east bank of the river we noticed a disheveled pile of sticks an' twigs an' guessed it to be the beaver's house. Our assumption was right on the mark, as we soon watched the beaver swim toward the mass of wood where suddenly he dove out of sight.

The rest of the week we spent most of our time fixin' more fences that the cows keep abusin' in their effort to wander from pasture to pasture. A couple days we managed to squeeze in a bit of time to work with a few head of the younger green horses and of course got out an' rode horses out to fetch home the mail a good number of days.

Durin' the intermittent days of rain we worked inside on the computers. Earlier in the week we got set up with (light) DSL so that we no longer use the excruciatin'ly slow dial-up modem.  Now that we've got some speed, we're able to up load large photo files to the Internet. This means that we've started workin' on designin' several photographic calendars for 2010. Another great feature of DSL is that the both of us can work on the Internet at the same time...no more askin', "are you off yet?"

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