Tag Archives: teenagers

Day 8 – THIS WAS A FEAT (for the feet)

The Bar MW Herd is all home thanks to the endurance and teamwork of our crew. What a relief. It’s Tuesday now and we are sure glad that in the whiteout blizzard conditions yesterday and deep windchill of last night we could picture our cows where they have winter type shelter options. They are sure hardy creatures.

Right now Bingo, Maddie and I are hanging loose in the truck while Russ loads bales onto the flat deck. He drove the tractor over and I the truck. What do you think? Should we eat our picnic lunch out there or stay in the truck?🥶

I am not sure if you readers are getting bored of somewhat similiar scenery from blog to blog if you catch each one, but for us who live these days, each chase has its own color and a memory that goes with it. As you will see from the following pictures, the color of this “Sun”day chase was gloom. However, the theme was youthful energy, our crew was 3/4 teenagers on this day. They endured and smiled at the end of it all. Maybe partly because it was finally done! The gloomy conditions arose from getting little sun and more wind developing than we were expecting, most of the crew stayed warm or almost warm, but the feet, cold feet were a problem, even with the help of hotpocket type boot warmers.

Our job on Sunday was to bring the herd that had been summering in the Souris River Valley home to the ranch. This meant about 12 miles of trail heading north east. The pictures I have here are ones that Russ, Sharon, Teanna and Patrick took. I love getting a broader perspective and thank them for their contributions.

The first thing to share is a video Russ took. The distant perspective at the start allows you to see the cowboys moving swiftly up the herd. Close up you see the snow falling.

Teanna and Dani in the early part of gathering the cows from the pasture.
Morgan in the pasture.
The herd coming up out of the valley.
I think you could say these cows are ready to hit the road.

This next video shows moments of getting out the pasture gate and onto the road. Russ couldn’t get over how dark it was at this point. The sun had already been up for 1.5 hours.

Once on the road the trail work is a bit more predictable and the shenanigans start. That is Jen in the center, Rhett and Dani at her sides. Jen has a knack for connecting with people and especially teenagers. Its cool to see.
A new rider on the trail this year, a brave one to join us for this frosty ride, this is Charity.
Mercy! Teanna this is impressive balance!
Rhett and Teanna in the saddle.
There was no lunch break on this chase, Vicki made coffee that we sent out with the crew at daybreak. Sharon brought homemade muffins. At the right spot they stopped for a coffee break. Things got goofy it seems, with no sick calves to rope this day Morgan practiced on Teanna and Emerson. Beyond that I really can’t explain this picture.
In very good time the cows were at the gate. Here they are, heading into their home pasture. I said we had 10″ of snow last week. It doesn’t look like it here….I don’t know.
This is a momentous picture. All the cows are tucked in for the winter. Here is the boss cowboy (Russ) and Morgan, whom he shares so much of the burden of ranching with. We all benefit from their shared energy, their skills and their humor.
The crew at trails end!
A screenshot of the texts I got from Patrick. A feeling of satisfaction comes through, don’t you think?
Back at the house we were tossing salad at about 2:10, grace by 2:13pm. Great timing! By this point Vicki had helped move trucks, washed every dish I could dirty, helped me form buns, and prepped the salad, in addition to the 6am pots of coffee and hot chocolate she sent out. She also initiated some great conversation, for instance she asked me “what has surprised you most about each of your kids?” That’s Sharon in the background.
At church in the morning Carol Vanstone hosted a delicious coffee time and sent me home with leftover cream puffs and cupcakes. They were very much enjoyed. Sharon and Russ are pictured here.
Russell took alot of delight in calling Lynn “the ambassador of Switzerland 🇨🇭 .” She was great company! Here she is trying her first ever homemade butter tart, a staple Canadian dessert. Thumbs up!

On Monday Russ was part of a conversation on Facebook that had him singing my praises. Returning to the overall theme of our blog, “I see you, you see me,” I screenshot his comment when I saw it because I felt very seen. It’s pretty great when people sing your praises when they don’t have to, just want to, and you get the message that they saw you sweating and it meant something. Our crew has been great about saying thank you.

Well that marks the end of the Bar MW 2023 chase season. We have more work with the cows in the next month and then things settle down a little bit. I am currently working on a blog that explores why we do this fall work like we do, knowing that others look at us and think we’re kindv’e crazy. I have really been enjoying working on this upcoming post. There is a reason for all this!

Saturday Sun and other bits

Good morning, it’s bright and sunny here in Carnduff and the temperature is supposed to rise above 0 today. We sure hope so. I hope wherever you are there is something bright for you to look at or think about.

This picture brightened my morning, Gina sent it with the caption that she is eating lunch with Dad’s favorite horse. She loves her job at Medieval Times.

Yesterday morning began with the news that our cow named Daffodil had lost a set of premature twins. This meant Russ brought Daffodil home where he can milk her. He does this with the hope of keeping her milk supply flowing, should we later have an orphan calf we have a Mom ready to adopt it onto. Daffodil has been sweet to Russ, despite her rough day yesterday.

A short video to give a glimpse of part of Russell’s work with Daffodil yesterday.

I was just leaving town yesterday when a call came from Russ to pick up Oxytocin at the vet. (This would help Daffodil release her milk). Later Russ commented, “I am milking a cow, I guess we can say calving season has begun.” To that I add, once I am making trips to the vet and finding containers to freeze colostrum and milk it’s definitely calving season. Are we ready? Well, we didn’t have oxytocin on hand, so maybe not. We have almost watched all 9 seasons of Seinfeld so that hopefully means personally we are almost recharged.

A Morgan anecdote for you this morning…..Morgan has noticed and felt slightly chagrined by my hobby, (he calls it an addiction) with Mixbook and Shutterfly, websites that allows me to create photo books and many many other personalized household items. His main concern is that I have taken to personalizing everything possible. We now have over 20 dinner plates personalized with photos and words on them. I have created and ordered in bulk our own sympathy, graduation and thank you cards, personalized with photos and our own sentiments. I have my own personalized notepads and sticky notes. We make our own calendars, and I have to say I adore making them and having them. I love the thought of creating personalized gifts and I do it alot. Morgan is almost at his limit. At the same time that I am creating away he is engaging in his love of online shopping. The result of this is that he sends me links all the time, directing me to websites where I can find the latest thing he needs in the way of tack for his work on and with horses. I often resist looking at it closely, perhaps overwhelmed by what I do not understand. Last week Russ started chuckling to himself. He said, “I shouldn’t tell you this, but, Morgan figures he has come up with a genius plan to get you to buy the tack he wants.” “Uh huh”, I said. He went on, “either he needs to get Shutterfly to start selling tack or he needs to find a way that you can put pictures on and personalize tack, then he figures you will be all in.” I laughed. I find Morgan’s humor about me endearing, as much as it can be edgy at times. (Did you read about him wanting to get amputation for my leg last week?) I think his comments say to me, “I may be rushing around here, busy, thinking about ranching, Jordanna, my truck, my horses, trying to rope you, wondering what there is to eat, but Mom I see you, I see what you love and what you avoid, and I like you.” So I was glad that Russ shared Morgan’s wry observation with me. Having told me about it I was in the right space to understand the comments Russell made when he opened up a package we picked up in Sherwood this week. I ordered Russ a personalized barber cape. It was a practical but fun thing to include for his birthday. For twenty years I have been cutting Russell’s hair with, I think, the same plastic wrinkly cape that came with our first clipper set. It is now almost crispy and held on during a haircut with a clothespin. As Russ opened the package and caught a glimpse of himself on horseback on this filmy fabric the first thing he said was, “oh Morgan is going to lo-ooove this!” We laughed. It turned out beautifully. Here it is….

It says Kathy’s Kitchen -Cowboy Cuisine- -Cowboy Care- -Cowboy Cuts-

And below….a Gina picture to end the post as it began…..Gina has been enjoying what Toronto has to offer. This mechanical bull and she have had a few showdowns over the weeks. Gina sent this picture yesterday and told us she was complimented by a 50 year old lady for her great dismounts every time she came off.

For the record….both Gina and Morgan gave their permission for the bits shared about them today.

And…..Have a great weekend!