Coffee anyone ?

[drstratton]

Good morning all! Happy Mother's Day!

 

[Poka_Doodle]

Good morning! Happy Mothers Day to all! Y'all have a lovely Sunday!

 

[Weldman]

High of 78°F and the auction locally will be ended after a month long run. So I get some excitement this evening. I win either way since soon as this is over with and everyone clears their stuff out I need to do some welding for the owner to move gates and fences around. Ironically one of the items I will be bidding on will help with his job.
This thing weighs 2100 lbs, compacts dirt, can push posts or pipe in the ground and crush the type of rock we have out here with 24k lbs of hammering power.

 

[Weldman]

In 1941, a Crazy Mountains rancher named Bruce Neal wanted mountain goats in a range that had never really had them. So he went to Montana Fish and Game and did not just ask for help. He helped build the effort. In the Sun River country above Deep Creek, crews baited a trap with salt, caught ten goats, wrestled those white cliff-dwellers into crude wooden crates, hauled them out by horse cart to the nearest road, then trucked them roughly 300 miles east to Sweet Grass Creek in the Crazy Mountains.

Two years later, snow got too deep for the cart.

So the men adapted the way hard country has always forced men to adapt. They built lighter crates, balanced them on packhorses, one goat on each side, and led that load down the mountain by hand. Imagine that job for a minute. Narrow trail. Loose rock. Live, horned cargo shifting inside a wooden box. A horse trying to stay honest under weight that kicked, slammed, and did not want to be there.

That is the part of conservation people forget.

It was not always clipboards and policy meetings. Sometimes it was rope burns, busted knuckles, frightened horses, and men figuring it out in country where one bad step could wreck the whole operation.

Then came Jim McLucas.

He was born in Butte in 1921, lied about his age to join the Marines young, and was hit by shrapnel at Iwo Jima. After the war, he came home and went to work for Montana Fish and Game. In time, he became the state’s first big game trapper and helped turn this rough early work into a lifetime craft. Over the course of his career, McLucas trapped and relocated more than 16,000 big game animals.

Not from a desk.
Not from a theory.
From the ground.

He helped develop the methods. Salt traps. Goat crates. Packhorse hauling. Even rafts in other country. He once grabbed a nearly 200 pound billy by the horns, got dragged down a shale slope, and lived to laugh about it. Another time he walked into fresh grizzly sign and found a trap site turned into a feeding scene. He waited, cleaned up what was left, and got out.

That was the work.

And it worked.

Those early goat transplants helped establish herds in places like the Crazy Mountains and beyond. Across the decades, Montana moved hundreds of goats to new ranges. The introduced herds became so successful that they now make up most of the state’s hunting opportunity.

That does not mean the whole story is simple. It is not. Montana’s native mountain goat herds have declined badly over time, which makes this old photo hit even harder. Because it reminds you that wildlife history is rarely neat. It is part grit, part vision, part human ambition, part unintended consequence.

Still, this picture captures something worth remembering.

A rancher with an idea.
A war veteran with grit.
A few Montana wildlife men tough enough to do the work by hand.
And horses steady enough to carry the future on their backs.

 

[SageHill]

High of 78°F and the auction locally will be ended after a month long run. So I get some excitement this evening. I win either way since soon as this is over with and everyone clears their stuff out I need to do some welding for the owner to move gates and fences around. Ironically one of the items I will be bidding on will help with his job.
This thing weighs 2100 lbs, compacts dirt, can push posts or pipe in the ground and crush the type of rock we have out here with 24k lbs of hammering power.View attachment 128343

Now that's one awesome piece of equipment. Of course it needs a "taxi"

 

[SageHill]

View attachment 128344
In 1941, a Crazy Mountains rancher named Bruce Neal wanted mountain goats in a range that had never really had them. So he went to Montana Fish and Game and did not just ask for help. He helped build the effort. In the Sun River country above Deep Creek, crews baited a trap with salt, caught ten goats, wrestled those white cliff-dwellers into crude wooden crates, hauled them out by horse cart to the nearest road, then trucked them roughly 300 miles east to Sweet Grass Creek in the Crazy Mountains.

Two years later, snow got too deep for the cart.

So the men adapted the way hard country has always forced men to adapt. They built lighter crates, balanced them on packhorses, one goat on each side, and led that load down the mountain by hand. Imagine that job for a minute. Narrow trail. Loose rock. Live, horned cargo shifting inside a wooden box. A horse trying to stay honest under weight that kicked, slammed, and did not want to be there.

That is the part of conservation people forget.

It was not always clipboards and policy meetings. Sometimes it was rope burns, busted knuckles, frightened horses, and men figuring it out in country where one bad step could wreck the whole operation.

Then came Jim McLucas.

He was born in Butte in 1921, lied about his age to join the Marines young, and was hit by shrapnel at Iwo Jima. After the war, he came home and went to work for Montana Fish and Game. In time, he became the state’s first big game trapper and helped turn this rough early work into a lifetime craft. Over the course of his career, McLucas trapped and relocated more than 16,000 big game animals.

Not from a desk.
Not from a theory.
From the ground.

He helped develop the methods. Salt traps. Goat crates. Packhorse hauling. Even rafts in other country. He once grabbed a nearly 200 pound billy by the horns, got dragged down a shale slope, and lived to laugh about it. Another time he walked into fresh grizzly sign and found a trap site turned into a feeding scene. He waited, cleaned up what was left, and got out.

That was the work.

And it worked.

Those early goat transplants helped establish herds in places like the Crazy Mountains and beyond. Across the decades, Montana moved hundreds of goats to new ranges. The introduced herds became so successful that they now make up most of the state’s hunting opportunity.

That does not mean the whole story is simple. It is not. Montana’s native mountain goat herds have declined badly over time, which makes this old photo hit even harder. Because it reminds you that wildlife history is rarely neat. It is part grit, part vision, part human ambition, part unintended consequence.

Still, this picture captures something worth remembering.

A rancher with an idea.
A war veteran with grit.
A few Montana wildlife men tough enough to do the work by hand.
And horses steady enough to carry the future on their backs.

My kind of story.

 

[drstratton]

View attachment 128344
In 1941, a Crazy Mountains rancher named Bruce Neal wanted mountain goats in a range that had never really had them. So he went to Montana Fish and Game and did not just ask for help. He helped build the effort. In the Sun River country above Deep Creek, crews baited a trap with salt, caught ten goats, wrestled those white cliff-dwellers into crude wooden crates, hauled them out by horse cart to the nearest road, then trucked them roughly 300 miles east to Sweet Grass Creek in the Crazy Mountains.

Two years later, snow got too deep for the cart.

So the men adapted the way hard country has always forced men to adapt. They built lighter crates, balanced them on packhorses, one goat on each side, and led that load down the mountain by hand. Imagine that job for a minute. Narrow trail. Loose rock. Live, horned cargo shifting inside a wooden box. A horse trying to stay honest under weight that kicked, slammed, and did not want to be there.

That is the part of conservation people forget.

It was not always clipboards and policy meetings. Sometimes it was rope burns, busted knuckles, frightened horses, and men figuring it out in country where one bad step could wreck the whole operation.

Then came Jim McLucas.

He was born in Butte in 1921, lied about his age to join the Marines young, and was hit by shrapnel at Iwo Jima. After the war, he came home and went to work for Montana Fish and Game. In time, he became the state’s first big game trapper and helped turn this rough early work into a lifetime craft. Over the course of his career, McLucas trapped and relocated more than 16,000 big game animals.

Not from a desk.
Not from a theory.
From the ground.

He helped develop the methods. Salt traps. Goat crates. Packhorse hauling. Even rafts in other country. He once grabbed a nearly 200 pound billy by the horns, got dragged down a shale slope, and lived to laugh about it. Another time he walked into fresh grizzly sign and found a trap site turned into a feeding scene. He waited, cleaned up what was left, and got out.

That was the work.

And it worked.

Those early goat transplants helped establish herds in places like the Crazy Mountains and beyond. Across the decades, Montana moved hundreds of goats to new ranges. The introduced herds became so successful that they now make up most of the state’s hunting opportunity.

That does not mean the whole story is simple. It is not. Montana’s native mountain goat herds have declined badly over time, which makes this old photo hit even harder. Because it reminds you that wildlife history is rarely neat. It is part grit, part vision, part human ambition, part unintended consequence.

Still, this picture captures something worth remembering.

A rancher with an idea.
A war veteran with grit.
A few Montana wildlife men tough enough to do the work by hand.
And horses steady enough to carry the future on their backs.

Thank you for sharing this. What a fascinating history lesson!

 

[Weldman]

Now that's one awesome piece of equipment. Of course it needs a "taxi"

I will need to cut the ears off on it and fabricate my own to fit my machine using one inch thick steel. Not my first time making attachments work.The first picture is the bucket ears not fitting to the excavator. And that's all free handed cutting with basic cutting torch. Y'all keep the animals going, I keep the equipment that helps keep the animals going.

 

[SageHill]

I will need to cut the ears off on it and fabricate my own to fit my machine using one inch thick steel. Not my first time making attachments work.The first picture is the bucket ears not fitting to the excavator. And that's all free handed cutting with basic cutting torch. Y'all keep the animals going, I keep the equipment that helps keep the animals going.View attachment 128349View attachment 128350View attachment 128351View attachment 128352

Wowzers - that's some freehand cutting!

 

[RR Homestead]

Good afternoon all!
Been watching the chaos in the dairy pasture.thanks @farmerjan It's working out so far but holy moly. Calves probably lost a couple pounds from the insane amount of playing and running they are all doing still. There's a little theft but far less than I expected. Thanks @farmerjan for the advice on this. This is going to save us so much money. Also may make milking everyone easier. Calves stay up front during the day while cows go out to graze the day away. Milk in the evening then turn everyone back out. I think this is going to be a major cost reduction in feed and a time saver all the way around.
I think I'm thinking out loud here but for some reason I woke up this afternoon thinking we need to sell all the beef heifers/cows/calves and replace them at home. Even if it costs a little extra money. I'm not sure yet but it's a logistics nightmare right now. No one to watch the beef herd there while I come for the last load of dairy cows, horse and our food steers. Equipment not being set up for the beef cows there for doctoring or breeding. Equipment not being here while it's being shipped before the cattle. With not being set up there with the chute etc for breeding and so far I'm finding it not cost effective to rent a bull I'm starting to think finding a group of bred heifers might be a far better investment with far less issues. I'm fine with calving out heifers. If we buy stock there they will already be acclimated to the weather. Our beef heifers here (and cows) are extremely over conditioned at this point from being open waiting for "breeding season" there. I have concerns about them being too fat to breed AI at this point without some serious weight loss. There's a lot of good quality feed there too now so they definitely wouldn't loose a lot of weight once they get there. The market here is still high although it is dropping a bit. We will still make money on the stock here i suspect. Prices are a bit less at home from what I'm seeing. Even if we were able to break even due to the lack of costs of hauling and any cows that get sick I'm thinking it might be a better option for us at this point. Even if I have to go a ways from home to pick up a group. Just something I'm thinking about today. Haven't even discussed it with DH yet. I'm very ready to get out of here and move on with our lives. I don't really have any attachment to any of the beef cattle anymore either so that's helping me separate emotion from what's best for us. On the other hand I could quickly synchronize everyone here now and work on getting them bred before shipping but then I run the risk of loosing short pregnancies before, during, after hauling. Next month is when we want to breed there so breeding here now wouldn't be far enough off to worry about. I'd get them bred closer to the end of the month at this rate as it is. The struggle there is will I be here on on a run home with another load when they are synchronized and ready to be bred. Also their over conditioning is going to be a challenge right now.
Got about a 1/2 gallon of cream warming on the counter. 3 gallons of skim with clabber added to clabber in the next day or two. Have a 1/2 gallons worth of clabber curds hanging for cottage cheese. Supplies are in the dishwasher so I'm sitting down with some coffee to ponder the above paragraph a bit more. Still need to make a block of american cheese and get the egg cups ready to cook this evening for breakfast this week. This will be the first time I've made them sous vide vs oven.
DH worked on my main rig all weekend. Parts keep rolling in. Had to order a few more things last night. Some have already come in. Some come in the next few days. I've been focusing on getting the cattle squared away and figuring out what needs to go in the next load and what needs to stay for now. Have been fighting a few injuries that got infected for some reason in a couple calves and pneumonia setting in on a few of the dairy calves in these wild temperature swings we're still having. It's sticker season with the grass drying so we're fighting foxtail's in the eyes now. I will NOT miss that at our new place. Every time we get one pinkeye sets in and we have to get an eye cleared up. We have so much feed in the pastures this season with things finally coming back from the fire that I suspect it's going to be a really bad season. Just not enough cows here right now to keep up even a little. Hopefully I'll pick up new tires this week for the truck and we can get packed this coming weekend and I can get on the road again. I am really missing home now. Never thought I'd feel this way so quickly but last trip did it for me. Being there living a life there getting things transferred and yard work done etc it really started feeling like home. Even with nearly nothing unpacked.
I guess I've rambled on long enough to bore everyone. Thanks for listening to my debating.
Y'all have a blessed evening!
Happy Mother's Day to all the forum mothers!