The spring melt is underway and the low spots are starting to fill up. It's hard to tell how much water is actually in the snow until the end of the melt, but we're hopeful that this winter's snowfall will be plentiful.
Glen is busy trying to stay ahead of the melt just south of the house where he started digging a dugout last fall. He did get a nice start to it, and was building a bit of a ridge to hold water in a natural depression in the field too, when the CAT he had leased was needed elsewhere and he had to quit. A week ago the CAT was delivered back here to finish the job, but in the meanwhile the first hole he had dug had filled with water. Instead of inlarging that one he had to move over and start again - which, two days into that dig, is filling as well. We're not complaining about the water, but this project is going to be shut down by sundown tonight - CATs are not amphibious.
Over the Christmas holidays a year ago, our daughter Jesse wanted to learn how to run an earthmover so Glen had leased this CAT and showed her the ropes up on our pasture. It took her the better part of a week, but she ended up with a sizable hole. And that's all it's ever been; just a dry hole. All year she has taken a lot of kidding about this lack of water in her dugout. At one point we even found a deer skeleton at the bottom and told her that even the wildlife were dying of thirst in her "watering hole" (although it was more than likely the work of coyotes).
The truth is, that if we had had any decent precipitation last year, that hole should have been at least half full by now - it is dug in a low spot, right along the edge of a creek that normally runs every spring. Although we've given Jesse the blame, it's been Mother Nature who's been holding out on us.
This spring, though, looks more promising. I texted her this morning to tell her that she has three feet of water! Within the hour, her dad reported that he has three feet in his brand new dugout as well - hence he was still the best dugout digger in the family. As he races to finish his dig before he's swamped, I'm pretty sure that he would rather the water would just hold off a little longer. But he'll never tell Jesse that.
We have had our first new calf of the season. Two years ago we bought a bull that (according to statistics) was going to sire smaller calves - something you want with fist time calvers. He didn't live up to his stats - we had more trouble with calves too big to be born that we've ever had before. Every heifer needed assistance and we lost 1/3 of the babies. Last year we bought another bull and put him with the heifers, and it's his baby out there - definately smaller than usual, but bright, perky, and very much alive. I think this new guy gets all the heifers from now on.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Has Spring Finally Sprung?
It is the 10th of March and we have finally seen temperatures above freezing! For three days in a row! If the people of Saskatchewan aren't the ones most worried by global warming, you'll have to fogive us - this has been one nasty, cold winter.
We are still hauling water to the cattle. They've settled down to needing two tanks a day; one in the morning and another at sundown. I guess they've got used to the routine, and so have we. If I'm home I'll go, and Glen hasn't been called in to work for most of this week so he's been here to do it on the days I worked. I can't see the use of an expensive dig when Mother Nature will be making water from snow in the next few weeks, so we'll carry on like this.
One thing that Mother Nature did do for us last week was dump about a foot of heavy, wet spring snow on us. There will be tons of runoff in this year's melt - just what we've been praying for, and we're grateful. We hear on the news that just over a 100 miles west of here the snow ends and they are facing the drought nightmare we've just barely dodged. From Weyburn to the Alberta border there is next to no snow.
We will soon be bringing our cows in from winter pasture; their babies are due to start arriving the first week of April so we'll want them in where they're easier to check on. We've got last year's calves on chop rations now - it's hard to believe that they were cute little fluffy creatures just a year ago, they are huge, hungry beasts now. They are still playful though - when I step into the pen with the pails of chop I watch them pretty close. They tend to run and kick up their heels when food arrives which is nice, you know that they're feeling good, but I'm certain that a happy kick from an 800 pound animal is going to hurt every bit as much as a malicious kick would.
Glen has spent this week carting all three bulls off to town to see the vet this week. One of them has what they called "woody tongue" when their tongue swells up and stiffens so they can't eat properly - they're treating him with an IV infusion to boost his iodine levels. He's been to town twice and is taking a long time to perk up. Our biggest bull had to go in because he had stepped on something sharp and got infection in his foot, and the last guy had a boil on his jaw that had to be drained. This might have been caused by the sharp barley beard spikes in their feed that poked into his cheek and caused infection. It's just coincidence that they should all end up needing to see the vet in one week, and it's not a bill I'm looking forward to getting!
I'm going to make the best of this day of sunshine ... there will be laundry hanging out in the fresh air before noon and some windows open to move some of this stale winter air out of the house. My aunt in England writes of flowers already blooming in her front garden but by Canadians standards, this will have to do.
We are still hauling water to the cattle. They've settled down to needing two tanks a day; one in the morning and another at sundown. I guess they've got used to the routine, and so have we. If I'm home I'll go, and Glen hasn't been called in to work for most of this week so he's been here to do it on the days I worked. I can't see the use of an expensive dig when Mother Nature will be making water from snow in the next few weeks, so we'll carry on like this.
One thing that Mother Nature did do for us last week was dump about a foot of heavy, wet spring snow on us. There will be tons of runoff in this year's melt - just what we've been praying for, and we're grateful. We hear on the news that just over a 100 miles west of here the snow ends and they are facing the drought nightmare we've just barely dodged. From Weyburn to the Alberta border there is next to no snow.
We will soon be bringing our cows in from winter pasture; their babies are due to start arriving the first week of April so we'll want them in where they're easier to check on. We've got last year's calves on chop rations now - it's hard to believe that they were cute little fluffy creatures just a year ago, they are huge, hungry beasts now. They are still playful though - when I step into the pen with the pails of chop I watch them pretty close. They tend to run and kick up their heels when food arrives which is nice, you know that they're feeling good, but I'm certain that a happy kick from an 800 pound animal is going to hurt every bit as much as a malicious kick would.
Glen has spent this week carting all three bulls off to town to see the vet this week. One of them has what they called "woody tongue" when their tongue swells up and stiffens so they can't eat properly - they're treating him with an IV infusion to boost his iodine levels. He's been to town twice and is taking a long time to perk up. Our biggest bull had to go in because he had stepped on something sharp and got infection in his foot, and the last guy had a boil on his jaw that had to be drained. This might have been caused by the sharp barley beard spikes in their feed that poked into his cheek and caused infection. It's just coincidence that they should all end up needing to see the vet in one week, and it's not a bill I'm looking forward to getting!
I'm going to make the best of this day of sunshine ... there will be laundry hanging out in the fresh air before noon and some windows open to move some of this stale winter air out of the house. My aunt in England writes of flowers already blooming in her front garden but by Canadians standards, this will have to do.
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