Stories from a western North Dakota badlands ranch.
Lovin' our way of life at the end of the red dirt road.
#westernND
#northdakotalegendary
#ranchlife
#fromtheoneandahalfpercent
Greeting from the ever busy epicenter of the booming Bakken!
'Hay' Skip! - (Not to be confused with "Hey, Kyle!")
I'm sure you have all heard that North Dakota was nailed by a 'Lion-like', "March, exit right"' precipitation and wind event Sunday nigh and Monday morning. They are calling her Gigi and the national news spent roughly 15 seconds on it yesterday morning after forcing ALL +/- 330 million of us to endure nonstop coverage of 'DC' and the eastern seaboard's routine dusting of snow and periodic 'below freezing' temperatures this winter.
The kicker was that the regional weather forecasters were REALLY late predicting Gigi, who dropped nearly 2 feet of snow on parts of ND. As you can see above, we received very little of the white stuff which I was thankful for. It was the freezing rain that was more of a concern. Kyle and I stayed home from preschool yesterday as it was 'all hands on deck' when the sun came up in the morning. It was unknown how the two pastures of 'pairs' had fared the freezing rain and below ZERO (as opposed to FREEZING) wind chills.
We had our Under Armor base layers, smart wool socks and additional winter gear on and we were in the tractor by 9:00 AM yesterday and on the move. Our mission: Get an eye on every calf (there are over 100 of them now) and get the following out to each pasture:
1 alfalfa bale and 3 grass bales to the +/- 50 pairs of older calves (born between March 3rd and March 20th) - almost all first calf heifers
1 alfalfa bale and 1 grass bale to the horses
a grab of grass hay to the stud
5 grabs of grass hay to the mares
1 alfalfa bale and 3 grass bales to the +/- 50 pairs of younger calves (born between March 21st and March 29th)
1 alfalfa bale, 1 grass bale and 1 straw bale to the 15 pairs of 1 and 2 day old baby pairs
1 alfalfa bale and 1 straw bale for the barn babies
5 grass bales and 3 straw bales for the close up (soon to calve) cows
3 grass bales for the third cycle (mid April to mid May calving) cows...
What is my point to sharing all the details with you? It was a HAY day. We have HAY days every three days to be more efficient with our fuel, electricity, labor and tractor hours (depreciation). In any case, it took Kyle and I 10 hours to get everything fed in good locations that offered natural protection from the cold wind and to find all the calves and make sure nothing had got too chilled from the rain and windchill of the night before.
While we were doing that, Brad was taking care of the calving barn, water and mineral. The person taking care of the calving barn either moves cows into the barn before they calve or allows them to calve outside and then sleds the calves into the barn shortly after delivery, with mom following close behind the sled. This is done day and night, every two hours, around the clock when it is too cold outside.
Pete on the other hand was laying inside watching TV... JUST KIDDING. He was over at Pesek's loading fall calving cows that were sold to Nebraska. The trucker drove around and through Gigi to get there and stayed on his busy schedule so on our end, we too 'made it happen'.
OK, back to our HAY DAY. Ten hours is a long time in the buddy seat. It really was a great day though. We would role out the bale tails by hand. We would walk the coulees checking for calves (and pretend to be black bears climbing trees). We would chop ice on the water tanks. We would talk about why we were doing what we were doing - from where we were feeding to how much we were feeding to what we were feeding.
We talked about how expensive the tractor was that we were using to feed with and how two of them cost the same amount of money as it took to build our house five years ago. The expenses are an important part of the equation in all farming and ranching ventures, but especially with registered cattle operations.
When we finished rolling the horse hay out (and the horses were no where around), we ran an obstacle course on the hay back up the hill. It was a race and when we got to the top I declared, "Now I'm thirsty". Kyle quickly scooted over to some fresh snow and scooped it up in his glove. We laid on the hay, ate snow and watched the clouds blow over. I felt like I was 5 again, which was a great feeling!
The day got me thinking about how fortunate we are to live this lifestyle. Gigi had me feeling sorry for myself and wishing I had an office job for a short period of time on Sunday night when I couldn't sleep thinking about the babies outside. Yesterday, I was quickly reminded that I don't have to wait for a 'bring your kid to work day' for Kyle to understand what we do. I've heard this quote come out of his mouth more than once, "My parents don't have jobs. They ranch."
FUNNY ALERT:
So yesterday, he was getting tired and when that happens 'his ears quit working'. After rolling out a bale and watching him jump over and on it acting like a puppy I said, "Hey Kyle. Lets go. We still have a long list of things to get done before dark". He ignored me. The next thing that popped into my head and came out of my mouth (Why? I don't know)... "HEY SKIP!" Kyle's immediate response, "WHAT ROGER?"
This set me back a bit as funny and random. My question to him, "Why Roger"? Kyle's response which will forever stick as one of his funniest, most animated responses, "Skip and Roger! Get it? I love you mom." I didn't get it, but it didn't matter. It was a great day that I was incredibly thankful for for so very many reasons.
The DAILY REPORT from 'Hay Skip and Roger' - all the calves are just fine and Skip's parents don't have jobs!
Greetings from the epicenter of the Bakken oil formation!
Last Tuesday (March 11, 2014) cowboy hats and over boots converged on Watford City in the heart of the western North Dakota oil boom. Pete was determined to capture this sight in pictures after being told by a nice reservation receptionist at one of the new motels in town that a bull sale will never 'work' in oil county.
As they flocked to the Watford City Livestock Scale Association to look through our 2014 offering of Angus bulls, and then to Outlaws' Convention Center for lunch and to participate in our video auction it got me reflecting. It stirred more emotion than I thought the day would and I pondered what the day REALLY meant.
Our Angus cow herd has been very good to us. We challenge those girls and most of the time they rise to the occasion. This day had been 25 plus years in the making and it was possible because a junior high age 4-Her had befriended his neighbors, owners of one of the most respected maternal Angus herds in the country. They providing him an amazing opportunity after witnessing his willingness to help out, to be present and to be curious. McCumber Angus allowed Pete the opportunity to select a heifer from their replacement pen back in 1985, the point where this day REALLY began.
Pete did an exceptional job formulating a 'project' plan for this inaugural event and spearheading the execution of it with help from a team of friends, family and neighbors. Over the past year people would ask how plans for the sale were coming and if we felt 'good' about moving to a sale. If you can remember back to your own marriage engagement period and wedding planning process, well it was a lot like that. There were sleepless nights. There were tears. There was stress. There was love and support. There was yelling and arguing. There were lots and lots of phone calls looking for advice, support and participation. There was a need to cuss the weather and to thank everyone for their behind the scenes contributions. And then just days before the sale the continuous polar vortexes that plagued the high plains since November moved north. Some thawing occurred and the possibility of a seasonal change showed.
The morning of the sale was an anxious one. Will people show up? Will they like the bulls? Will they see value in the bulls for their cattle operations? Will they remember that Watford City is on CST (I'm just saying that LOTS of people missed our wedding thinking that Watford was on MT)?
I remember the day I picked our local veterinary up from the Am-trak station in Williston back in the spring of 2012. It was Dr. Pederson's first time to North Dakota and McKenzie County. Our long time provider to the greater McKenzie County area's four legged critters, Dr. Nelson was retiring and we needed a practitioner. What I remember more vividly than anything else was telling Dr. Pederson about the ranchers of the area. I explained that we were a tight knit group who helped each other out and looked out for each other's interests. There was an unspoken code of ethics in this ranching community where you respected your neighbors and you didn't covet their things. Business was done with a hand shake and your word was your reputation and without your reputation you had nothing. These were salt of the earth folks who respected money (for they knew how difficult it was to make a living off the land out here) and were frugal with it, but who valued their relationships above the almighty dollar.
After Dr. Pederson got to Watford City and started practicing in June of 2012 he commented to me many times on how I nailed that description of our ranching community that day. He has gone on to expand on my observation and add (my paraphrased version of his comments) how faith, family and commitment to others centered our ranching community. He could see through their actions and words how much they appreciated the lifestyle they live and the people they live it with. I couldn't agree more.
TRULY, our local and regional ranching community is one of the greatest communities I have ever known. I am very, very proud to be a member of it. When you are humbled by your company in that way, the support that was shown to us on March 11, 2014 is beyond anything that I can put into words. Below are pictures from the day of the sale. For those of you that were there that day either online or in person, I offer you the most humble "thank you". For those of you that were not, we hope you can join us next year.
The bulls sacked out at the scale enjoying the sun and warm weather (with the recently constructed and just opened Comfort Inn & Suites in the background).
Cattlemen and friends enjoying the warm sun and conversation at the Watford City Livestock Scale Association Yard.
Part of the sale day (and pre-sale day) crew - l to r: Kaley Schmidt (Brad's fiancé), Brad Hagen, Zac Hall (Hall Stock Farm) and Kim (Hovet) Murphy.
A pen of 2-year old bulls on sale day.
The lunch crowd at Outlaws' Convention Center. The Outlaws 'gang' did a great job with our ranch raised beef meal and the entire event... ALL while starting up their Williston location that same week! Outlaws Bar and Grill - Watford City and Williston locations
The auction block - Pete, Roger Jacobs (auctioneer), Lee Murphy (brother-in-law and sale clerk). Not pictured (off to the right) was Logan Hoffman representing DVAuction services.
The south side of the 'sale barn'.
The north side of the 'sale barn'.
The back of the 'sale barn'.
Of the 78 bulls that sold last Tuesday (76 through the sale and 2 afterwards), 54 of them will stay in McKenzie county with the remainder going to Bottineau, McHenry, McLean, Ward, Mountrail, Dunn, Williams, Divide, Billings, Stark and Adams counties in North Dakota and McCone county, Montana. Four west river North Dakota ranches purchased in volume of 5 or more head. There were many debts of gratitude felt that day with the volume buyers' support being right up there along with our long time, repeat supporters who in the past found our program in spite of our low key marketing efforts.
At the end of the day just before climbing into bed my phone chimed with a text from my one and only sibling, my sister Kim. It read "Great sale today! Dad would have been so proud to be there." That pretty much sums it up...
Our debt of gratitude transcends generations, is founded in relationships and could not be more heart felt right now without words to express it.
Greeting from Elkhorn Creek Ranch near the epicenter of the Bakken oil formation!
Yep, we have been ever so busy in 2014.
March 11th will bring our first ever production sale in Watford City where we will be offering along with guest consignors, Hall Stock Farm, 90 Angus bulls and 20 commercial heifers. After 25 years of private treaty marketing of our bulls we are going to a production sale!
So our typical operating procedure is that one of us takes a 'lead' on ranch projects and the other get the final 'do it', 'print it', 'send it'... go ahead.
We have tried to take an approach to marketing our production sale which is as unique as our ranch and the resources of it. When Pete proclaimed that he was going to make videos to bring the ranch to cattlemen's computers for them to experience the environment our cows work in my thought was, 'that's a good idea'. And then before he loaded it on youtube last week I reminded him that I need to 'view it' first. Typically, I am ruthlessly critical when I am not the lead of a project and I expect the same in return. Below is the ranch video produced by our very own Steven Spielberg, Mr. Peter G. Best. After the debut Kyle, who was sitting in Pete's lap turned, puts his hands on each of dad's cheeks and said, quote - "Dad, WE are SO PROUD of you! That was just GREAT!"
Best Angus and Quarter Horses HOME page - visit our webpage and download our sale brochure for additional information on our 'Best Value in the Badlands' Production Sale!
Greeting from the epicenter of the Bakken Oil formation!
The most wonderful WEATHER time of the year in North Dakota (fall - autumn) has since passed us by and left a large, lengthy space in the calendar for winter… and with the arrival of winter comes the holiday season for us on the high plains. This will be our first Christmas without a man who LOVED this time of the year. He loved fall and winter and the daily activities that came with it. He LOVED celebrating the birth of Christ. He LOVED being with his large family this time of year.
And so I am conflicted. I miss him so incredibly much. As I miss him, I simultaneously watch our 5 year old son in all of his wonder and excitement for the season. It creates an internal tug-o-war. Fall back into the past and hang tight to the memories or be present and aware - open to making new, fond memories for and with that precious 5 year old. It certainly has been a balancing act that has proved more difficult than what it sounds.
And so maybe I share that with you in hopes of creating an understanding for how time can so quickly pass us by. Certainly, its not that I don't have lots to share of our goings on around here. Its simply that I haven't found the ever precious time for sharing. So consider this post a bit of a 'catch up with the seasons'…
A BOUNTIFUL HARVEST
Our hay production this year was amazing and the quality was very good. We are so very thankful to currently have on inventory three years worth of hay (which is a blessing and ALSO code for):
'HAY FOR SALE' - Quality tested. Gathered. Ready to Haul!
With that, a quick shout out to the 2013 haying crew - Uncle Einar Prestangen, Pete, Brad, Lyle, Steve and Kyle/Vawnita (we were a single unit).
In addition to growing and putting up lots of good hay this summer, we also had a tremendous garden to harvest. Brad was the driving force to get the garden in and maintained it on a daily basis. Sue, Kyle, Parker Filler and myself were the harvester. I was chief 'red sauce' maker with several assistants to back me up when my schedule didn't allow… lets face it. When tomatoes are ready, they are ready...
Parker picking tomatoes before our first 'killing frost'.
Grandma Sue and Kyle picking in tomatoes in a rush to beat the frost.
Over 300 pounds of tomatoes which made over 24 gallons of 'red sauce'
Cooking down chokecherries and wild plums.
Making wild berry jellies and syrups.
TO FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
The tasks of bringing cows and hay home this fall were made much more enjoyable by the help and company of friends and neighbors. I will probably miss someone and feel terrible about it, but here goes…
Jerry Kelly, Kent Johnsrud, Perry Ecker, Brian Zingleman, Thane Hollenbeck, Nathan Brenna, Christine (who's last name I never did get into my memory), Phil and C'Dale Jory and Terry Filler.
'The girls' coming home. We spent the first two weeks of October gathering cows from their summer grass. On October 16th, Dr J.J. Hovde of High Plains Vet Clinic in Sidney, MT pregnancy checked all the cows and we administered herd health vaccinations for diseases that cattle in the high plains are susceptible to. At the same time, Dr Bruce Pedersen of the Watford City Veterinary Clinic in Watford collected fecal samples for our disease surveillance program that were then analyzed at the NDSU Veterinary Sciences Diagnostics Laboratory.
After their 'herd health' day, the cows being moved over to the Kelly place. Throughout the fall and winter, we rotate our cows from pasture to pasture starting at the Kelly place where a cocktail cover crop (sounds good doesn't it?) - a mixture of radishes, hairy vetch, field peas and oats awaiting them. As they graze this field, they fertilize it for the upcoming growing season. Also, the variety of plants in the cocktail are all included for different soil health or animal nutrition reasons. Radishes root down and break up clay pan and make soil more permeable to water / rain. Hairy vetch and peas are both nitrogen fixers for the soil and will benefit the 2014 crop that is drilled into that field next spring. And the oats… cows LOVE oats.
Several of the people I thanked above for all of their help this fall are bringing up the rear.
We periodically find ourselves waiting on oil related traffic for one reason or another throughout the year. This day there was lots of oil traffic waiting on the cows. And again, those fine neighbors and friends helping us ride (and do our chute work) can be seen at the back of the herd… This was the third week of October.
This was the first week of December. Pete is mixing office work with field work taking a call while looking for cows over at the Kelly place. On this fine day, we sorted off the open (not bred) and late cows who will be sold in February and until that time will be fed over at the development lot (Pesek Farms north of Alexander) that feeds our bulls and replacement heifers. On this day we also sorted off the heifer calves that were pasture weaned and the bred heifers - all of which will be fed supplement starting in mid-December (before the rest of the cows begin receiving supplemental feed beyond grazing).
Bringing home the cows, heifer calves and bred heifers that will go to Pesek's or start to receive supplemental nutrition at home starting in mid-December.
HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS
Well, the weather out here is frightful, but our Under Armor is warm and delightful... Let it Snow, let it snow, let it snow!
One of my absolute favorite memories from my childhood was going out, dad with his ax in hand and finding that 'perfect' badlands cedar for our Christmas tree.
Jaden, Morgan and Kyle out sledding AND Christmas Tree hunting!
Sue and Lyle with their Badlands Cedar...
Without a doubt, we have been blessed with many things in 2013.
I love the reflection that is brought about by the warm feeling of joy and love and the caring of others - friends, family and perfect strangers during the holiday season!
Here is wishing you and yours a down home CHRISTmas with the comfort of past memories and the opportunity and awareness to make new ones as well this year.
Greetings from the epicenter of the Bakken Oil formation!
It has been a busy one. It has been a good one! FALL - the most wonderful time of the year...
I had an amazing opportunity in early October to tell my little story to a group of be-you-tilful rural women from southwest North Dakota, northwest South Dakota, northeast Wyoming and southeast Montana at the Rural Women in America conference held in Bowman on October 5th. A good friend and RLND class mate extended the invitation and I graciously accepted knowing full well that neither I nor my story are exceptional in any way, but rather that I am willing... to stand in front a room full of people and share the story of a rural woman engaged in agriculture living in western North Dakota (all of which I am very proud of)... and encourage others to do the same - to share their stories.
For far too long we have been crazy busy tending to our marriages, our children, our farms and ranches, our off-farm careers, our churches, our communities. We have failed to connect with urban and non-agricultural America. We have not communicated with these folks who have forgotten or no longer know their roots. That was not meant to be an offensive comment, but rather to point out the fact that today less than 2% of the U.S. population is active in agriculture (food and fiber production) and in many instances Americans are 4 generations removed from their agrarian roots. In 1960 that percentage was just a touch under 50%, so if you weren't a farmer your brother probably was. The story didn't need to be told back then because even those living in urban America periodically had an 'on farm' experience. Additionally back then, marketing and special interest groups weren't constantly pushing products, production models and agendas. The story of agriculture was being experienced first hand and not being hi-jacked, manipulated or misrepresented.
My advise to these rural women was simple... be hear able, be relatable, be trustworthy, be respectful, be balanced. Build a platform for conversation. Open doors and walk through them. Don't slam doors (even if you aren't sure what to think of what is on the other side). In doing so, connections will come your way and provide you with space and place to tell your story.
I have made many valuable connections over my 39 years, many I am proud to call 'sister' and 'brother' in agriculture - a couple of them this fall that have provided space and place, a platform to build conversation from:
Greetings from the epicenter of the Bakken Oil formation!
As usual, things have been incredibly busy around here. I was talking to a fellow rancher from the west side of the county today at the Farmers Union C-store. It was self-proclaimed f'real Friday http://www.freal.com. We both have 5 year olds and the coincidental timing of this weekly event provided us opportunity to basically complain about all of the prosperity that this amazing rainfall total of 2013 brought to a typically dry landscape. There is just too much fall's work to do. Too much hay to haul home. Too much corn to ensile. Too much winter wheat to plant. Too many commodity contracts to deliver on. Too many things to get done before winter sets in.
This end to the growing season of 2013 brought me to the realization that the final chapter in our little chicken saga is soon to play out.
(six months earlier...)
In March I get a phone call from my sister who instructs agriculture classes at Williston State College. "Vawnita, I was wondering if Kyle wants chickens this summer", she says. I instantly have childhood flash backs of picking eggs out from under angry pecking hens, being chased by 'the rooster' and pitching 'fertilizer' each spring from the hen house by hand. Oh yah, and then there was the unpleasant chore that we were forced to participate in which was by far the worst part of having poultry on the ranch when we were growing up. Harvesting (butchering) them.
My gut response was to firmly say "No. Absolutely not. I like my Cashwise Grocery Store eggs just fine. Thanks for asking but no thank you."
Kyle and my sister Kim the day his chickens arrived.
Kyle with his six 'laying hens'.
Instead, I said "Only if we can get 6 of them. All laying hens. No boys. No broilers. No butchering chickens." Kim thought this should be doable with the assistance of her Ag Club students who were hosting elementary school kids from around the Williston area on campus to learn about farm animals (livestock) and how farmers and ranchers care for them, and of course TSC (Tractor Supply Company).
Now, due to the early date of this beginning of April event on campus, these sweet, fluffy, adorable little baby chicks spent the first 8 weeks of their life on the ranch in a stock tank retrofitted into a brooder box in our attached (to the house), heated garage. Yes, you heard me. We had chickens in our garage. One wall away from my kitchen to be exact.
I love my child and I do firmly believe that having meaningful chores for children are important. In addition to having the daily chores of checking their feed and water, there were two other life lessons that I anticipated. One, good animal and resource stewardship and two, how fulfilling it is to grow your own food and to share it with others.
What I didn't anticipate was that there would be numerous other life lessons as this saga unfolded. Now, hold on to your over boots and keep up because there are a lot of side bars popping up in this story of Kyle's chicken herd.
(May)
One early May morning I was loading the dish washer. The house was quiet when all of a sudden erupting from the garage, "Cock-a-doodle-doo!". Remember, NO BOYS. That was the deal. This was bad. My hope was that there was one rooster. My fear was that there were three roosters. This fear was founded from watching them interact in their brooder box - the fact that the three black and white ones picked on each other, had big combs and were incredibly flighty.
We rode and sorted pairs that day and our friends, Hayes and Lonny Feilmeier came out to help. After we were done, we all came in to the house to eat. I was going off about this 'rooster' thing that was weighing on my mind. Lonny, who claimed to be a poultry expert went out to the garage to investigate. When he came back in he informed me that we did indeed have three roosters. Which also meant we only had three hens. Both issues = BAD.
As the chicks got bigger and the weather got warmer... and they had definitely out grown their little brooder box (we had a couple escapes before we finally got them moved outside), the construction of the hen pen was on simultaneously as we were getting the barn ready for our annual customer appreciation supper and private treaty bull display (another post for another day).
The hen pen is a converted stock rack flipped upside down with laying boxes built in and a waterproof roof with netting side walls. Kyle's lucky little chicken herd spent the summer grazing (and fertilizing) the yard. During the 'grazing months' the mobile hen pen can be moved from location to location fertilizing and eliminating the labor piece which is typically required for a stick built, non-portable hen house.
He couldn't take anymore hen pen building / barn time. Kyle self napping with his private treaty bull catalog on the barn floor as Pete and Brad worked on the hen pen.
The four lessons that weren't foreseen when agreeing to take the Ag Club's chicks after their kiddy day at the college, but that were very valuable for our four year old son were these: First, there are two things guaranteed to all creatures. Every creature on earth enters this world and every creature leaves this world. How, when, where, why... most of these events are out of the control of the being. It is simply part of life or more accurately, it is simply part of the circle of life. Secondly, make lemonade with your lemons but don't just make your average run of the mill lemonade. Make really good, memorable lemonade with fresh, locally grown ingredients when they are available. Share your lemonade with all who are thirsty and don't waste it. Third, always remember happiness is in the journey and don't be so wrapped up in a picture perfect, Pollyanna like journey that you can't laugh at yourself. Life is funny stuff and if there isn't anything there to laugh at, I pity your journey and the poor people that signed on with you. Fourth, if beauty and function aren't a package deal and you have to choose one, function will serve you much better in life.
Those unintended lessons may have turned out to be more valuable to our four, soon to be five year old son than the 'lesson plan' was... which is likely another lesson. One for me.
(July)
We had the chickens moved out to their hen pen, had them acclimated to that and now were allowing them to 'free range' around the yard. Have I mentioned that the chickens were all named? By Kyle with help from his cousin Jaden. There are Chabella, Big Red Hen and the third one was Salt N Pepper. According to Kyle, Salt N Pepper was his favorite. Unfortunately, she was the favorite of the neighbor dog too. It all happened in front of him and it was a very sad day for both Kyle and the dog. The chicken didn't suffer very long before I relieved her of her injuries. I remember my first 'circle of life' lesson as a young child. It was a twin bottle calf who I fed often and named Barnaby (after Barnaby Jones). Barnaby was a boy and went on to fill our freezer and sustained and nourish our family and guests to our home. After having been through them both first hand, Salt N Pepper was easier than Barnaby, but I won't try to tell Kyle that. Also, it was an important lesson, but I won't try to tell him that either. He will realize that on his own someday.
On a lighter note, the journey as it played out that day through Kyle's eyes was later revealed to me by our neighbor who was there at the time building some shelves in our basement. Kyle was sent to the basement by his father after it was realized that he was watching his mother beat the neighbor dog with a dead chicken out the dining room window. Kyle says to neighbor Jerry who is working away on library shelves and unaware of the events outside, "Oh man Jerry. My mom is really mad. She is violating Abby (the dog) with Salt N Pepper". Out of the mouths of babes. And no, I don't know where he learned that word and no, I don't think he knows what it means.
(August)
There was an expansion to the little chicken herd. Brad's friend from back home had a couple fancy show chickens that she was willing to send with Brad's mom and grandparents when they came to visit this summer. This pair had just been crowned Grand Champion laying hen pair at the county fair. Truly, when they arrived at the ranch I thought to myself "these are the most stunningly beautiful chickens I have ever seen before". Kyle wanted to name them Pretty Dash #1 and Pretty Dash #2... they were and still are a little flighty. I had to shut him down on that one. Instead we did a google search of 'Victoria Secret models'. Along with Chabella and the Big Red Hen, Kyle now has Gisele and Jasmine.
Unfortunately for Gisele and Jasmine (who both lay white eggs), this was the ONLY day in the last six weeks that we have been able to find two white eggs. On the other hand, Chabella and Big Red Hen who both lay brown eggs, and who both would be considered 'big boned' and 'plain' each kick out an egg daily like clockwork.
(present day - October 4th)
The three 'stewies' (AKA - The Three Stooges, AKA - The Three Roosters) had a stay of execution this summer when we had an outbreak of grasshoppers around the yard and the hens needed help keeping those destructive critters out of the yard and the garden. Although they are 'Kyle' chasers (he won't go outside to pick eggs without his handy catch rope (lariat) to defend himself) and incredibly noisy all day and much of the night, they were good vector control this summer and certainly earned their right to stick around through the first killing frost of the season (which is tonight). Their scheduled time to leave this place and fulfill their destiny is next weekend. They will go on to feed us and our guests and we will look back at our time with the three 'stewies' and laugh. They made us laugh; sometimes with annoyance. OK, mostly with annoyance. None the less, when they leave, it will be swift and instantaneous. They will have the death that I hope for for myself and my loved ones regardless of the number of legs they have. It will be painless. It will be necessary. It will not be a time to laugh, but it will be a good ending to three lives that were lived well and with purpose... NOW, here is a tribute to those damn 'stewies' and the struggle we faced this summer keeping them out of the 60 feet by 100 feet of the ranch that were suppose to be off limits to them!
