DOG WITH A BONE

I can't believe it - it's been three weeks since I last sat down to write this blog. Where does the time go, anyway?

It has been a very mild fall. We have still to get any significant snowfall; there's just a couple of light dustings from time to time. On the one hand, this makes for less work for Glen as the cattle can still graze out on the oat stubble and he has less bales to haul out and feed. On the other hand, there is no snow to provide them with water and he has a daily job of going out and using an axe to chop through the ice on the dugouts so they can drink. I'll be glad when the snow is there - I worry about him slipping on the wet ice and chopping his own leg, or that the cattle will all go out on the ice together and break through and drown. It seems like you hear at least one of those stories every fall. We have electric waterers for the cattle in the corrals, but the main adult herd stays out on the land year round with Glen putting up wind break enclosures for the winter months.

I think we are finally done the sorting and weaning work of the fall. Our own herd was done a week or so ago, but we also board another guy's herd here over the winter and they have only just been brought back here this week and had to have all the other fall shots and treatments first. This morning we pulled on all our heavy winter clothes and went out to get the last of them sorted.

Glen had already marked the older cows which were going to be shipped so we had to get them off in one pen, the calves off in another one, and the cows we were keeping back into an adjoining pasture. He believes that the calves aren't so stressed if they can still see their mothers for the first week, so they are kept in full view of each other - but with a good solid fence in between. They'll bawl for each other for three or four days, but they both have lots to eat and drink so they get over it. There was one cow/calf pair in that herd where the calf was too young to wean, and we had a very late set of twins in our herd so they will get special treatment all winter, being in the feeder pens and getting grain. Winter can be pretty hard on a nursing mother.

For the first time in years Glen went out deer hunting this fall. Jenn talked him into it because she wanted to try it. They both tagged out and are looking forward to making jerky of the whole works - which really isn't much when you see how little meat there is on a white tailed deer. It would be something else if they had been drawn for a moose license - those things are monsterous and there are a lot of them around. I told Jenn if she got one of those, she was on her own for storage! My deepfreezes are already full!

The dogs are in doggie heaven at the moment with the deer leg bones to chew on. During the winter they get to sleep in the porch overnight but Sam wouldn't come in the first night he had a bone to guard. He knew that if he left it outside that the coyotes would have it long gone by morning, and he also knew I wasn't letting him bring it in the house - so he camped out on the deck that night - the prize between his paws!

Woke up to a world of white this morning - not snow, but frost covering everything. After a few weeks of "after harvest" browns it is a very refreshing and welcome change. Glen is working on leases at least an hour away these days so his alarm clock goes off at the ungodly hour of 4:30, and being a spectacularly poor specimen of wifehood, I don't even acknowledge that I'm alive, let alone that I know he's getting up to face the dark world alone. I know, there'll be a special place in heaven for me when I get there - just outside the gates - but the middle of the night is for sleeping in my books. I didn't hear him do his "winter is really here" groan this morning, so frost must be okay. You don't have to clear it off the roads or dig bales out of it, and it doesn't blow up into banks you can get stuck in.

Since I have been up (at about 7:30, when the sky was at least begining to lighten up) I have started about five different jobs and completed not a single one. The kitchen table is strewn with papers that I have sorted through to find the bills that need paying and things that need filing. That led to putting away catalogues which, in turn, progressed into paging through them to get ideas for Christmas gifts. That led to starting a shopping list for things I need to pick up in the city when I go into Brandon for a medical appointment on Wednesday. Not one of these things is done and in the meanwhile I've called Sandy in Winnipeg just to catch up on her news and Mitchell has dropped in to raid the deepfreeze for some meat. That's something we do for all the kids - they all help with the cattle chores and can have what beef they need anytime they want. Mick stayed for a bit of a visit and a piece of raisin pie - his favorite. Yesterday I did actually get something done - a whole batch of pies and a big pot of stew.

Glen says that the feeders are finally scheduled for market next Monday. They should have gone six weeks ago but with him gone working all the time it's been hard for him to make the arrangements. I have been on his case this fall to cut back on some of this cattle work. What will happen next is that, once last year's feeders are gone, we will wean this year's calves and start all over again. We segregate them and start feeding them a grain diet. That means pails and pails of oats both morning and night, all winter long. Before and after a very long day's work and always in the dark. It's crazy that we continue to do this when we make a decent living at our jobs! Sometimes it almost sounds like I'm getting through to him, and then we end up buying another bull to refresh the genetics going into the herd!

He did tell me the other night that he thinks maybe he'll just fill the creep feeder (a big feeder bin on wheels) with oats and just park it in their pen. That will lighten the work load somewhat. There will still be bales to feed both the cows and the feeders and bedding to put out for them both, but the day to day drudgery will be lessened at least. He teases me that I'll be losing my exercise regimn, and he's right about that - I may be sorry we didn't carry pails all winter long when spring comes around!

I have managed to get the yard cleaned up and ready for winter. There is still most of a bale play house that he put in the middle of the yard for the grandchildren when they were here, but he is slowly carrying the straw off to put bedding into the corrals. It needs to be out of the way before the big snow hits us - they stand exactly where he has to push the snow out of the way to clear a path out of the yard. It won't always be frost like this morning - he had better get that done. And so must I get something done around here ... better get back to that kitchen table!