My Blog…Ranch Life With Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs

Day 18 2019. Well, it was a repeat of Day 17.
Long about four past noon, there was this odd sighting. Looking up. Looking S. Looking E. I could actually see the clouds. We have been living in constant fog…24×7…for days ‘n days. But yesterday, at the late end of the afternoon there were the clouds. If I could see the clouds, that meant there was a shift in the upper air mass. Could it be? Could it be that the crazy Storm Harper might be changing in path and direction? Dear God…let it be. In the very far, far SW was a tiny and faint pink color behind the grey. Pink! Could it be? Could it be that the lifting air mass was trying to punch a hole in the center of the fog and the coming of Harper? I was so spent from the past week or drudging and slogging along in the mud and melting snow that a part of me “didn’t care”.
Day 19…long about midnight, I drug myself to the door, flipped on the pole light, looked at the sidewalk to see how wet it was and if the snow had truly begun…as forecast. What I saw? Stunningly, I saw two bunnies sitting out in the yard nibbling on exposed grass. I stared hard at the sidewalk. It looked like it was drying. Not adding “wet”. Not adding white. I was so shocked. I felt a small smile come into my face. Bunnies. I was seeing bunnies. Dear God! If I was seeing bunnies then there was more than likely a true shift in the dreaded Harper. I shut off the light. Could not go back to sleep. I got up each hour to flip on the pole light. There was no change in the wetness. And there seemed to be similar dryness. And I kept seeing those two bunnies. The wind had shifted and was now beginning to gain speed, some gusty roars, and by four past midnight I was still seeing those two bunnies. At 0500, the local weather people were showing that the dreaded Harper truly showed a bow in its back. Central Missouri to the W was showing signs of dry air, the cold air was about 20 miles to the NW. All I could think was, “Praise the Lord!” I know that feeling the 25-45 fast winds will be a sharp shock as the temperatures drop into the teens and head to the single digits. But for some reason, I feel a huge sense of relief. Not quite joy, but relief. No more accumulating snow today. Thankful. There is a week of hardship coming but today and tomorrow I am going to try to remain thankful for the cold and sharp wind.

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Working Our Way Through 16 Inches of Snow

Well. It rained an inch or so then turned to snow. It snowed. It snowed. It snowed. If you wonder why I have not called you back the past eight days (or longer), well, it has been nothing short of horrific here.

For the full post of the day’s ranch work, please feel free to follow along on Facebook…

Day 17 2019. Thursday. Another day of near zero visibility. Another day of no sun. Another day of melting of 16 inches of snow…we are down to about 4 inches. Expecting rain tonight (Friday), changing to snow, 2-6 inches of snow, then the polar vortex air is to be here. Wind chills to double digit negatives. Extreme weather on the livestock is the way it has been since October. The struggle is real. From drought, no pasture, no hay, to this…(find the rest of the story and pictures on my Facebook site or pages).

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My Blog…Ranch Journal on Facebook

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Tammy’s Cowdogs 2019

To follow the updates on Tammy’s Cowdogs and our ranch life please consider using our Facebook site:

https://www.facebook.com/TammyJCowdogGoldammer

I had set up my Facebook site to post all updates on my website blog and somewhere along the line the Facebook posts over the past two years keep getting deleted.

It appears to be a Facebook marketing issue. Always something.

Thank you…from Tammy and her Hangin’ Tree Cowdogs

#tammyscowdogs #tammyshangintreecowdogs #hangintreecowdogs #ranchlife

Hey? Hey? Where Did You Go?

Ah…alas…Tammy and the cowdogs are still here. We never left. We never quit. We are still raising retained ownership feeder cattle and feeding cattle in SW Nebraska. We are still AI’ing SimAngus cows…reds and blacks. We are still calving in Autumn. Puppies are still being raised. Young cowdogs are still being shown around the place to let them grow up into working cowdogs. We still gather cattle from pastures, bring them home to the working facilities on the various locations/pastures, and we still sort and process cattle.

What has changed? Well, in September of 2015, the matriarch of Tammy’s cowdogs passed away. Cowdog Hawk joined Cowdog Bert and they met up again in the loving and peaceful arms of God in heaven. Even though the sun still came and went each day, the sense of a normal life was completely shattered. A month later, I had to put down my oldest horse friend…Eight  2015 was just a bad year. Yet, despite the terrible hands dealt I carried on with raising planned litters of cowdog pups for my customers. Nineteen young cowdogs were started and moved along to their new working ranch homes. All the life of 2015 went on without broadcasting fanfare. There was too much work to do to spend time in the broadcasting booth.

I made a decision to lessen my work of keeping four written updates going on at the same time. With all the technology in our lives I was being buried for hours with keeping up to the minute with everything “techie”. Cell phone ringing, cell phone messages chirping notifications to me, text messages coming in, email notes flying through the cyber air, landline phone stacking up with voicemail messages, Facebook (FB) hack attacks messing with my oldest Facebook timeline, Facebook hackers to my Tammy’s Cowdogs FB page, FB automatically transitioning my FB timeline to a second FB page (without notice),and FB denying my access to my own FB pages. My website blog (here) being facilitated by WordPress and WordPress not being totally compatible with FB and posts and pictures being lost in thin air. My nine year old smart phone took a death fall and cracked up on a sharp rock in October 2015 and after four months of limping along with a cracked phone screen I bit the bullet in January 2016 and took a day off to go get a new smart phone. Low and behold, the AT&T techs could not get my email to work on my “smart phone” and I am into August 2016 and still do not have email on my smart phone. But hey! Life has gone on without email on my smart phone. I mention all this trivial stuff because I made the decision to lesson my work. Being a slave to gadgets beeping and collecting requests from folks was just a full-time job and there wasn’t time left for me.

I maintain a FB presence on a daily basis. FB is simple, easy, sometimes cranky, yet it is the ease of use that has trumped all the other technological accesses to my ranching and cowdog business life. During the fall of 2015, I transitioned all my contact information to an office address and set the wheels in motion to nix the landline. My posting to my blog (here) was suspended when Hawk died. Even with a narrowed up social media presence I still have to spend a few hours a day or night to visit with folks on a one-on-one basis. The Spring litter of pups came and have left.The Fall litters of pups will be here soon and they are all sold. The started cowdogs being worked with are sold and will leave once I get through with Fall calving and early Winter CIDR/AI work. So, as usual, I am sold out of pups and young started cowdogs for the remainder of 2016. Life does go on. It doesn’t end until God calls us home.

I am very lucky to have such a solid customer base for my cowdog program and for the cattle program that we work with each day. It has been a long, hot, humid summer in 2016 and it will be a welcomed relief to have some rain show up to grow grass and hopefully put the pastures in better condition before going into Winter.

If you want to follow along on what goes on here each day please consider trailing along on Facebook. Facebook is easy to use and you can limit your social exposure by being selective in creating a list of folks to follow on Facebook. Here is the link to my Facebook timeline… https://www.facebook.com/TammyJCowdogGoldammer . You should be able to copy this link, paste the link into your browser, and get routed directly to logging in to your Facebook account or if you are currently on Facebook the link will take you to the Facebook site of Tammy Goldammer. You can also find Facebook pages Tammy’s Cowdogs and Tammy’s Cowdogs Page. The pages are not updated each day simply because I just don’t keep them linked. When things go haywire with FB automatic linking then I just let it go and move on. So, the best bet until I mentally make up my mind to tackle all the technological snafus is to just search Facebook for Tammy Goldammer.

Anyway. Tammy and the cowdogs are still here…working…taking life a day at a time…and planning on our future of tomorrows. The retained ownership cattle business has one certainty, “What I do today is how prepared I will be for 15-18 months from now.”

#hangintreecowdogs #TammysCowdogs #RockOnRanching

~~ Life’s Transitionings ~~

FB Post…September 14, 2015

From soft and silent to rustling rigid paper tones.
Spring’s life yielding to Fall’s birth.
The winds’ music on the leaves is more bass than soprano.
There is a new gathering taking place…from growing on limbs from buds,
To gathering where ere their new travels take them.
Roaming free or others held by their surroundings.
Life’s transitionings.

~~ Smoke on the Water. Fire in the Sky. ~~

FB Post…September 13, 2015
~~ Smoke on the Water. Fire in the Sky. ~~
NW Cole County central Missouri…46F, 100% humidity. Was a tad of a soaking cold to the face and fingers this morning. Come January, 46% will be a no coat Indian summer, a welcomed relief, a day to let the sun radiate on the face. Today, that 46F signals to the trees and leaves that they need to move along in their transitioning to make ready for winter, resting, sleeping, and survival. The 75F of today marches to 90 over the next few days. It will be a warm week again…hastening the leaves to let loose and begin their journeys across the pastures and finding places to take ahold and be organic. Letting loose, letting go, holding on…I miss you Cowdog Hawk. Thank you for all you gave in your life with me.

~~ Fall Coming ~~

FB Post…September 12, 2015
Coming home last night at 8:30 and the air had a newness to it as it called out, “Jacket.” No sleep for the weary, a heavy heart, a heavy shirt for the day, a silky warm paisley rag to keep the cold air from trespassing to my core, out the door at 5, and it was there…Fall. Fallish has arrived Those shortening days which have been whispering “change”…it is here…Fall.

~~ Slammed into Neutral ~~

FB post…
Friday, September 11, 2015, 7:48 AM
~~ Slammed into Neutral ~~
I didn’t want Cowdog Ducchess to forget her mom Hawk so I have taken Ducchess home at night to sleep in her mom’s second comforter. Ducchess found her on the comforter and on the floor next to my second Sandhill’s Saddlery saddle from the Feusner family of Ogallala, Nebraska. Putting on my boots this morning I missed Hawk’s head bumping for me to wipe my palms across her loving, soft and glowing eyes. My face grew flush with tears and Ms. Ducchess quietly got up from my side softly whining, “Hey, hey, don’t cry. I know. I miss mom too.” Up, to the door, shutting off the light, and pulling the door shut I felt so empty. So much to do today.The feed truck coming this morning, the virgin heifers to get in and deworm, then haul them N to a winter pasture for the breeding season. Then, back to home to get the heavy heifers in to deworm them and move them out of the dry lot to the NW hay field where they will stroll, eat and learn the nightly drill of the coyotes who will be watching the calving range sisters every move. Time permitting, then move the handful of spring calves out to roam with the coming yearling fall born heifers of 2014. The two bull calves now steers will be held back for a few days since I castrated them yesterday and I should keep them handy to watch for pesky flies. Remember Mr. Tuesday, the little frozen earred popsicle that I walked home to save from the wrath of the 30 some below zero wind? He is now less in the scrotum as is one of the last twins of the spring. Maybe I should go N to the Windmill and check the handful of cows that I hauled to there yesterday. See if they have settled in, found the rest and comfort of the trees along the big steep banks of the branch, and look to see if the gal with the fresh pedi is enjoying having the hind foot flush to the ground again. I need to take them mineral but I have to wait until the truck arrives today from Quincy, Illinois. And, I will need to go S to see what the logger fella has left for me in the skidder. Yesterday, the dozer man filled me in about the nests of yellow jackets, large red wasps,bumble bees, honey bees and hornets that he and his helper have found in the past few days. The dozer fella’s story of how Wyatt had a cab full of yellow jackets was a gasping tale of humor and terror. Wyatt’s high lift was overrun with yellow jackets. Wyatt jumps out and runs, leaving the high lift running in neutral against a stump bottom, and Wyatt is swarmed with the striped bastards. Wyatt runs over the ridge to the dozer fella and says, “What the heck do I do?” The dozer fella tells him to go home and get a sprayer of gas and find the nest. Wyatt leaves, comes back with a sprayer of gas, finds the nest about 15 yards from the still running high lift and sprays the piss out of the area. Wyatt gets back into the high lift, puts it in gear and from under the floor board comes the masses of the yellow striped bastards. The wasps had stayed with the high lift and had been taking in the heat of the motor while Wyatt was out gassing the wasp’s home place. Wyatt got stung 8 times or more and had to go home. Yep, life can sure dish all of us out a crappy hand. The sting of wasps. The sting of death. The lingering impacts of things gone wrong.
We got an inch of rain last night. Standing in my mom’s back yard this early morning and to the SW behind the steers, the timber was releasing waves of steam which was forming and rolling up from the rocks of the woods. Surreal. A flurry of thoughts power-stroked rapidly through my mind…all my heart, all my soul, all my energy, like sinew, you are the air I breathe, you are the beat of my heart, you are the steps of my feet, you are the fiber of my being, you are me, life doesn’t have to be sad but it is. The inch of rain is nice but for some reason, “I don’t care.”

~~ History Repeating Itself ~~

FB post…
September 9 at 6:53pm · Edited ·
~~ History Repeating Itself ~~
Here they are. The twin girls from the 1st calf heifer. Ms. Ducchess and I went and brought them home from the N place. While Ducchess and I were driving home with the twins I thought we’d just go ahead and gather up the virgin range sisters, spray their flies off and haul them home too, “Heck, why not.” We unloaded the twins and their mom, got her a bit to eat, opened the pen so she could stroll to water and we were off to the N and W to the Windmill. We took the Iron Steed and the spray rig. Through the pasture we drove…just me and Ducchess…aka the gate getter and the range sister wrangler. About 1/2 way through the pasture, down along the steep banked branch. I stopped and told Ducchess, “Hunt ’em up and bring ’em.” She bombed off the iron horse like a rocket, down the steep E bank, grabbing dirt and smokin’ up the W bank, out wide, in behind the heifers on the W side and down the bank to the E and catching the E side heifers. With her heifers all gathered up, Ducchess pushed them up the steep E bank and I drove on to get the gates at the corral. Ducchess and the virgin range sisters were not far behind and coming at a walk. A few tried to break and beat it down the steep bank at the corral and take off but swifty Ducchess was all over them. Little heading job and all were turned back and headed to the gate. Ducchess held the heifers in the pen on the come by side, the iron steed and I had the middle and the away side. The fly killing commenced. We got the gals all sprayed down and headed back home for Ole Red the flatbed and the trailer. Four loads of 9 and we had everything hauled home before noon. Tomorrow morning we will pour them and haul them back to another place to the N for the winter and breeding season.
It did not dawn on me until Ducchess and I were coming down the drive at home that I had repeated history this morning. Unknowingly, repeated history. Five years ago on this same day, Hawk and I headed to the Windmill and did the exact same thing. Gathered up some heifers and hauled them home a few days after we buried Daddy Bert. Today, Ducchess and I took on the same task a few days after we buried her mother Hawk. I wonder if Bert and Hawk realize their first born girl carried the same torch today as did Momma Dog Hawk five years ago when we lost Daddy Bert. I choked back the tears and looked at Ducchess as we crossed the autogate, “Ducchess, thank you for your help.” Then I realized I said the same words to Hawk five years ago after we accomplished our first work task after burying Bert. I started reciting Psalm 23 to calm myself. Then it dawned on me that I recited Psalm 23 as I fought back the tears with Hawk five years ago.
To try to shift my mind from the dark sadness, I grabbed the camera and took pictures of my new twins and found two photos of their sire. This heifer is a dandy. I’ve gotten 7 calves in the last 24 hours out of this bull and they are all as gentle as can be. Gestation is running 273 days, birth weights are in the mid 60’s, and the calves are built perfect, fly right out of their moms and hop right up to nurse. So far, all the heifer udders are in great shape. Time will tell how the milk quality is. ~Sadly, Life Goes On