First Mountain Hike of the Season

After months of anticipation, the snow has melted enough for us to hike in the lower part of the mountains.  On Saturday we drove up Red Grade Road, which leads to the east side of the Big Horn Mountain Range.

Our first animal sighting was this male blue grouse, who we caught trying to impress a nearby female.  After about 45 minutes of hiking/looking for elk, deer and moose antler sheds, a thick fog rolled in.  So we piled back in the car and took a drive, which was fortuitous since we might not otherwise have spotted this guy grazing near the road.

Next time we are planning to drive further up the mountains and hopefully see some baby moose and elk.  We're keeping our fingers crossed!

Cattle Branding

 

Last Sunday we spent the morning at a friend's ranch watching the calf branding.  The babies were separated from their moms, and then roped one at a time.

The calves are brought over to a group of people ready to brand, vaccinate and castrate the males.  I was a bit apprehensive at first, quite honestly.  I hate to see suffering.  But the calves didn't seem to mind too much (some barely made a peep), and they were all sitting around chewing their cud shortly thereafter.  Cud chewing is a sign of a healthy, comfortable animal.

Jordan used to help with the branding when he was younger, but this was Annabel's first time.  It takes a lot of strength to hold the calves down so that they don't injure themselves, and Annabel was a trooper.

Thane was content to watch and learn.  He's spending lots of time helping Great Grampa on the ranch, and he'll be ready to jump in next year.

Afterward we ate a huge picnic lunch hosted by these lovely ladies.  There were almost 50 people (including a dozen or more small children) at the event, and we were able to process over 180 calves in a little over 3 hours.  It was a multi-generational event, and it was incredibly heartwarming to see and feel the sense of community here.  This is true farm country, where neighbors help neighbors at the drop of a hat.  You can really get a sense of the value of small farming.  The care for the animals and each other was very evident.  We'll take that over a feed lot any day!

Spring

For Mother's Day, our family took a drive up into the mountains hoping to see some wildlife.  The fog was incredibly thick that day, and we had to turn around after several miles.  We thought it would be a total bust until we rounded a corner to see a herd of several hundred elk near the road.

Closer to home, we've had lots of wild visitors as well.  I found these three does chillaxing with one of our resident bunnies in our side yard the other day.

It's been so good to get outside after Corona jail.  Hope you are enjoying Spring as well!