Of Turkeys and Heelers

All the turkeys hanging around now seem to be gobblers. I guess that's why they appeared so huge and I wonder if the hens chase the gobblers away when mating season is over, like the female antelope and deer do the bucks. I'd think they'd freeze to death roosting in the trees with the nighttime temperatures hovering around zero. My cats and dog, Nacho, don't seem to know what to think of the turkeys. A cat was stalking a turkey, then thought better of that idea as it got closer to the turkey and saw how big it was.

Nacho just follows them at a distance and looks at them questioningly. I'm sure he'd have fun chasing them if I just gave him the go-ahead. Nacho is a red heeler mix dog that I got from a dog rescue facility. He's a very good dog and doesn't chase anything unless I tell him it's ok. He does get very worried about me if he thinks the horses or cattle are giving me a hard time. He loves going with me in the truck when I'm feeding, but he got very nervous the first few times I just turned the truck loose in 4-wheel low with him in the cab so I could pitch hay off as it went forward. I guess he thought I expected him to steer or something. He's very smart. I think he must have belonged to a truck driver in his previous life, because he gets downright mad when I don't take him with me. He pouts and sulks and won't let me out of his sight for days. Twice he's torn up window curtains just trying to watch out the window for my return. Makes me feel needed, but I wish he'd quit tearing up things. Here's Nacho.

Red Heelers are also known as Australian Cattle Dogs and have an inbred instinct for chasing cows and other livestock. Nacho's prior owner must have taught him from an early age not to chase things, because he very seldom exhibits this behavior. I'm glad, because this behavior can be very undesirable around horses. Horses are mostly what I raise here, although I do have a few cattle. My accountant keeps telling me I have lost enough money on horses now, and that I need to get more cattle. I just tell her the horses may lose money, but cattle do too, and horses are way more fun to ride.

Turkeys Too

The wild turkey are back tonight, though fewer in number. Wile E. Coyote must have had a meal or two. A few months ago, there was a flock of about 30 roosting in the cottonwoods around the house, then they went away. Tonight I counted only 12. They had either grown or had their feathers fluffed out against the cold--only plus 25 with a slight breeze. They looked huge as they flew up into the trees.
It's against the law to feed wild animals in Wyoming, but everyone in Lance Creek does it, everyone except me. I learned why it's not a good idea to feed wild turkeys. When my children were in school, we had a flock hanging around the place, so I began throwing them out some corn as I would feed the livestock in the mornings before I went to work. I went to work before the school bus came to pick up the neighborhood kids. When my son and daughter came out of the house, the turkeys had usually finished their snack and were looking for more, and soon became aggressive in their search. They would actually chase the kids to the bus door, then attack the bus tires as it was leaving the driveway. Wild turkeys have big talons and sharp claws and spurs.
My son and I drove into the yard one day to find two gobblers locked in bloody battle. Their necks were twisted together and one had hold of the other's wattle (that piece of bluish-red skin above their beaks that swells when they strut for the females) in his beak. My son jumped out and tried to break them up, but they just ran off all locked together and still going at each other.

Big Bucks

When I go out to feed in the mornings, I am never quite sure what I'm going to find in my yard. Sometimes there are racoons, skunks or stray cats, but always there are deer. They come right in by my corral to feast on the hay I have stacked there for my livestock. Yesterday I saw this big guy. He has been hanging around here since about Thanksgiving. He is smart enough not to show his rack during hunting season, but immediately afterward, he began coming to my yard with his little herd of does and fawns. I like seeing them and I don't mind sharing my livestock feed with them, as long as they don't eat too much.

I have an animosity for those darn racoons, though. They get into everything and make such a mess, besides they are little thieves. They cabbage onto anything shiny and take off toward the creek with it. They get into my grains no matter where I store them. I finally foiled them, though, and put the sacks of feed in the cab of an old pickup truck. Then they got up on top of the cab above the windows, and I found where they were trying to pry open the windows to get to the feed. Really. They even do team-work. I used to store my dog food in the garage in those large plastic garbage containes that have lids that have to be turned and lifted at the same time. Those little terrorists figured out how to open them. That's why they have masks over their eyes. They are robbers.

Recently, I sat out in the truck all one night with a gun and my dog, Nacho. I was determined to shoot some coons. They came in about two a.m. and I was dozing, but Nacho sat up and growled. I looked and saw one shinny up into the front of the livestock trailer where I had some feed stored, so I jumped out with my gun and Nacho took off after another racoon. By the time I got to the trailer, the little bugger knew he was in trouble and was hunkered down behind the feed. I didn't want to shoot a hole in the front of my trailer, so I got a rake and raked him down. He sprinted for the trailer door and I jumped out after him, but he smacked himself up against the house and ran along the perimeter. I got one clear shot at him as he scurried from the house to the garage, and I missed. Oh well, I really don't have the heart to shoot the little furry critters, anyway, so I just put the feed in metal barrels and placed big rocks on the lids. The next day I noticed the robbers had come back and were scratching on the lids and the rocks trying to get into the feed. All in a night's work for them and me.

It's Still Cold

I think our seven year drought might be coming to an end. We have had snow on the ground for almost a month now. That hasn't happened in my recent memory. There is over a foot if it had stayed in one place, but since it didn't, there are drifts almost knee-deep in places. Temperatures have been hovering around zero at night and +20 during the days. I do hope we get a January thaw, though. I am finding it hard to stay upright as I go about feeding the horses and cows.
It was nice to have a white Christmas for a change. I spent Christmas Eve about 40 miles away with my niece and her family. The kids got sleds for Christmas, so they were sledding. My niece has a Brown Swiss milk cow that she milks. That cow is so tame, she would follow Mandy in the house, if allowed. I told her to let her in and call the entryway a "milking parlor." That way, she wouldn't have to milk out in the cold.
I made the pies for the celebration, pecan, pumpkin, and apple-blueberry, and Glimmer, the cow, provided cream for real whipped cream on the pies. Yumm. Thank you Glimmer.
Glimmer is a very special cow and a gift from God. My niece, who has three young children, and loves everything about country life, wanted a milk cow to provide milk for her family and several sheep, goats, and pigs. There were lots of other things she could have spent $1,200 on other than a milk cow, but she figured the cow would pay her back in the long run, so she went to Colorado, bought a milk cow and brought it home. The cow promptly went off her feed. Simply refused to eat, so no milk was to be had. Mandy called the dairy where she had bought the cow. They said the cow was probably just lonesome, but they offered to replace the cow, since it had dried up. Mandy went back to choose another cow. This time they chose one that had been penned alone before. All went well for some months, and Mandy was getting used to having fresh milk, cream and butter, when suddenly this cow became ill. Mandy works at a vet clinic, so she rushed the cow to her vet. The cow died in the vet clinic. The vets told her it had died of a broken heart, because these cows are very social and don't like being alone. Mandy and her husband were just sick over the loss of this cow and the money they had spent. Unbeknownst to them, their vet friends took up a collection at the clinic and went back to the same place and purchased another cow for them, only this time, it was a $1,700 cow instead. This was Glimmer. They surprised Mandy when they drove in their yard with a stock trailer with Glimmer inside. There were happy tears. Glimmer was actually the cow's registered name, and Mandy decided it was appropriate, as she was her "glimmer of hope" for having a milk cow.
Glimmer calved soon after she came to live at my niece's, and in fact, had twins. She seems to be quite happy now and adjusted to living with goats and sheep instead of cows. She was even letting the goats nurse, but Mandy had to put a stop to that. Glimmer doesn't even have to be tied or hobbled to be milked, she just stands there.

Tractor Unstuck

Ok, today I got the tractor out of the stack yard. I finally had presence of mind to unload the 800 pound bale of hay, then the tractor came right out. Plus the outside temperature was only about negative 15 degrees with the wind chill factor, so the ground was really firm and the tires were able to get some traction. So now at least I can back the pickup in and load hay by hand without having to manuver around the tractor taking up half the stack yard.
Lance Creek was placed back on the map recently when our local rodeo hero, Jason Miller, was named Steer Wrestling World Champion at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas, NV. I told Jason what he did was nothing, I have jumped off my horse many times like that without even a nice, soft steer to land on! Jason is a prince of a guy. I have known him since he was about ten years old. He was just learning to drive when I came to Lance Creek and you'd see their pickup coming at you with two little heads just above the dash. Either he or his brother must have been running the pedals while the other ran the steering wheel! Scary. Jason also won first place at Cheyenne Frontier Days this past July. He had long been wanting to win the gold buckle there, so Jason has had a very good year. You can read more about Cheyenne Frontier Days and view some pictures I took of the action at my how to article on ehow.com. Just go to http://www.ehow.com/how_2149629_enjoy-cheyenne-frontier-days-rodeo.html. Be sure to rate the article or leave a comment. You can also view my article about Lance Creek at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/296554/dinosaurs_and_drilling_rigs_lance_creek.html

Somebody Close The Gate

"There's never a dull moment around you, mom," my son and daughter have said. Yesterday my sister-in-law was saying the same thing. She had come to stay with me on my tiny ranch where I am early-retired but now working harder than ever. There was a snow storm coming in and I wanted to get some large bales of hay transferred out of the stack yard onto my trailer in case I was unable to access the stack yard due to snow drifts. I had blown a head-gasket on my little tractor a few weeks back. It was still moving, but had lost over half it's power. Since I can't afford to get it fixed, I'll just have to work with it. I took it to the stack yard and speared an 800 pound bale of hay, then discovered I could not back out of the stack yard. There was just enough snow that the drive wheels would just spin. Luckily, there was still room in the stack yard to get in with a pickup to load hay with a pitch fork. That's what we did. I told Connie we could leave it until the next day when my brother was supposed to be coming. He could help me retrieve it, or maybe the ground would be frozen enough to give the tires enough traction to move it. Freezing drizzle had already started when we emerged from the house the next morning. We went straight to the stack yard but the tractor still wouldn't move. Load hay by hand, feed all critters quickly as it starts to snow. Brother Bill decides not to come because of the weather, and we decide Connie had better get going or she would be spending Christmas with me. Connie headed out, got 20 miles away, but was having trouble driving with limited visibility, would have come back, but they closed the road behind her. Never a dull moment...