The Neighbor's Bull Came Calling

Well, the furnace is on.

 

Remember that fog we told you about back in June?

 

According to the 90-day fog storm rule, it was supposed to bring us a change in the weather right about now. And it did.

 

We had a little rain here at the ranch, snow fell in the mountains, and all of a sudden it feels like fall.

 

We've had the furnace on every night this week. Our nights have been around 40 degrees, the days in the 60s and 70s, and they're calling for more rain this weekend.

 

I'm not quite ready to give the old weather lore all the credit, but its timing wasn't bad.

 

Meanwhile, the bulls had other things on their minds...

 

Friday, we brought our heifers home and sorted their bull off.

 

His real name is Slinky.

 

He grew up with a family of four little blue-eyed kids, and they named him.

 

I call him Slinky Dinky because he's quite a bit smaller than our other bulls.

 

 

We breed our heifers for forty-five days, so Slinky's work with them was finished. We loaded him in the trailer and hauled him over to join the big bunch.

 

Slinky stepped out of that trailer ready to establish himself.

 

There was bellowing. There was fighting. He made a couple of laps around the horse trailer.

 

And the cows? They watched.

 

And the calves? They thought the whole thing was great entertainment.

 

They were running around the pasture with their tails up, watching these two bulls carry on.

 

Slinky apparently thought he was going to move right up in the pecking order.

 

The big bulls had other ideas.

 

The funny part was that the bull who is actually in charge wasn't concerned about Slinky at all. He was off resting and chewing his cud.

 

It was the bull at the bottom of the pecking order who needed to make sure Slinky understood where the new fellow belonged.

 

Want to see the herd in action? Tap the picture to watch our T Bar J 5K.

 

Meanwhile, this older bull was acting like a bull who knows his place in the herd.  

 

But while all this was going on, we had another bull watching from across the fence.

 

There's an old joke among cattlemen.

 

You can go to a bull sale, spend a pile of money on a fancy bull, bring him home and turn him out with a perfectly good set of cows and then find him standing in the corner of the pasture looking at the neighbor's cows.

 

Well, this fellow had taken it one step further.

 

He'd jumped ship.

 

Some neighboring cows had gotten out onto the wildlife refuge east of Big Lake, and their bull had wandered south until he was standing across the fence looking at our cows.

 

With Slinky carrying on, apparently he decided crossing that particular fence wasn't such a good idea.

 

So he just watched and walked the fence line.

 

At that point, we didn't even know whose bull he was.

 

By Saturday morning we'd made enough phone calls to figure out where the cattle belonged. Justin came over and gathered his cows...

 

But the bull was gone.

 

Later Saturday, somebody spotted the bull on the road east of us.

 

By Sunday morning he'd moved farther south.

 

One of our neighbors came over. They'd been trying to get him rounded up and informed us that this particular bull did not appreciate being told what to do.

 

Al called another neighbor to see what the plan was and was getting ready to go over and help.

 

Before Al got there, they finally got the bull contained.

 

He'd found himself another group of females.

 

This time it was Mark's heifers — definitely not where a big bull needed to be, but at least they'd found him.

 

Justin lives about 10 miles from us, and we were all glad when he took his bull home, although I expect the "traveling man" is looking for a new job about now.

 

Then it was time to ship beef

 

Sunday we turned our attention from wandering bulls to getting orders ready to leave the ranch.

 

Monday, nearly 900 pounds of T Bar J beef and pork left here in 18 boxes.

 

It was so windy I didn't even stop long enough to take a picture of all those boxes before they left.

 

Then more went out Tuesday.

 

After spending the summer looking after pairs, stocking the hay yard, and getting ready for weaning calves and winter, it feels pretty good to see those fall beef shares finally heading toward family freezers.

 

We do still have a couple of fall beef shares available, so if you've been thinking about filling your freezer and aren't sure what size would fit your family, just tap reply.

 

I'm happy to help you figure it out.

 

And an Ayla update: we have some more good news about our granddaughter Ayla.

 

After getting out of the hospital, she did have to go back in for a couple of days while they got one of her rejection medications straightened out.

 

But she's back out again.

 

She's feeling good, and she's nearly caught up with all her 5th grade schoolwork.

 

Her hair had been falling out, and what was left was making her head itch, so this week she wanted the rest shaved off.

 

And judging by this smile, I'd say she's handling her new look pretty well.

  

For now, she and her family are staying in their apartment at Brent's Place, near the hospital, instead of being confined to that hospital room.

 

And this week they found out what's being served for supper at Brent's Place on Monday.

 

T Bar J Beef

When we were in Denver, we took half a beef to Brent's Place because they take such good care of families who already have plenty of other things to think about.

 

Knowing that Monday night some of that beef will be going on the table—and that Ayla will be there to eat it too—made this Gramma pretty happy.

 

Jane's Joke Corner

Our second-grade granddaughter Jane has been working on her jokes.

 

With all the bull activity around here this week, she happened to have just the right one:

 

What do you call a sleeping bull? A bulldozer.

 

Jane thought that was pretty funny.

 

And I told her I'd put it in the Ranch Roundup; that made her smile.😊

 

That's another week from our little corner of Montana.

 

The furnace is running, the bulls are back where they belong, beef is heading out the gate, and we're awfully thankful for the good news coming from Colorado.

 

Thanks for riding along with us for another Day on the T Bar J...

 

We are glad you are here.

 

Amber, Al & Fritzie
T Bar J Ranch
Molt, Montana

 

P.S. Has fall shown up at your place yet, or are you still hanging on to summer? Tap reply and tell me. I'm curious.