Smith Land and Cattle Co.
Claremore, Oklahoma
Journal March and April
Welcome to the CR Ranch Journal. Look here if you are interested in our month to month activities at Smith Land and Cattle Co. Thanks for stopping by - Carol
Copyright © 2007-2010 Smith Land and Cattle Co. All rights reserved.
June saw sunshine around here. Of course I am ready for a little wet, even after the last month. Seems like I am always praying for it to rain or praying for it to quit. Grass is slow this year, as wet as we were all spring, now we have some sunshine we need a little moisture again for it to take off.
June 2nd was our 36th anniversary, seems hard to believe we have together over half our lives and still like one another. We did get to out to Molly's steakhouse for dinner, so marked the date well. Good company, conversation and food what more could you ask want?
Well we took that long promised trip to Norway this month, we were gone eight days. It was fun to see our exchange daughter and her family. We had an exchange student twenty-four years ago. She, bless her heart has been back here three times and we had promised we would go there and we made it! We got see a lot of the country in a short time and got in a lot of good visiting. We were also show and tell one day for a bunch of sixth graders. Ingar, Janne's son had us go to visit his class and the teacher agreed. We thought we would be there maybe fifteen minutes, we stayed an hour. First question out of the box was ,"What did we think of President Obama?" Oh well can't get away from politics no matter where you go. Then they found out we lived on a ranch, they were interested about the cows, land and horses, you name it they asked about it. Ed and I enjoyed it all very much.
Got back home and hosted the Oklahoma Cattlemen's Ranch Tour on the 22nd. It turned out to be a very hot day 107 degrees. We tried to pull cattle up to the fences as they drove in. They arrived about 4:30 in the afternoon and I had decided not to bring any cows up to the barn because of the heat, we had the porta coolers running in the barn and just told them a little about what we try and do here. Then they left to go to a chuck wagon dinner. A J Smith from the Oklahoma Cowman said there were over 400 people who participated in their tour this year. Great year for them!
The last of the month was trying to finish up paddocks for Ed's horses we have been building all month. Grass has been slow to grow this year so might wait a few more weeks to start hay season around here. Lots of other folks have started so we will see next week.
Got one more note of interest to finish off the month. If you want soft, thick, lustrous hair, the answer might be that herd bull with lots of spare time after breeding season. Hair styling web site Curl Stylist reports that bull semen has become the most talked about hair treatment in London. Touted as Viagra for Hair this 45 minute treatment ranges from $90 to $138 and uses semen from Aberdeen Angus bulls..... What do ya think will it catch on here???
June News 2009
Well it didn't stop raining around here for awhile. Friday May 1 we flooded pretty good in the bottom. The creek rose five to six feet in 20 minutes. At least I had enough time to get the horses and calves to higher ground. As things happened everyone else was on the other side of the creek and couldn't get back across to help. I felt like a drowned rat by the time I was done getting everything out.
There were six head behind the barn and by the time I remember them, there wasn't much I could do for them, the water was whirling up to their bellies. They swam out to one higher spot over by the round top.
Remember that new vet building I was so proud of a few months ago? Well I didn't even think of the semen tanks when the water was rising and they turned on their sides. God was watching out for us though, as they had just been filled the day before and the stoppers stayed in so the worst one had 13 cm left. Also we had to give donors shots that eve and checked things in there or might of lost all semen and embryos. He does work in mysterious ways.
Man what a mess, but a couple of weeks later we have most things redone. It only took 4 hours cleaning and using a wet vac to clean out the new building. We lost all our water gaps and some fence, guess this winter will put on a real campaign to clean up the creek of any and all fallen branches and logs. A lot got cleaned out by nature but seems like there is always something else that needs to move up on the get round to list. Robbie said he is still finding fences down.
Well life has moved on set up heifers and cows to breed. Am always excited when we first start breeding season, same as when we start haying. Seem like it went pretty fast. I think we like setting everything up within a couple of days and then heat check for a week.. Then poof you can get on back to fixing fences and things nature took care of.
We started new horse paddocks this month, for Ed’s mare and foals, as he seems to be getting quite a few. I remember about eight years ago, I said something to the effect that I didn’t want broodmares, oh well kind of reminds me of someone else and her cattle.
It was a good month for Grand Girls as they came to visit several times and Brandi got it confirmed there will be another girl in September sometime. We are all looking forward to her coming.
May News 2009
