A Thousand Hills: A Day in the Life

One of the farm crew here on the ranch came up with a brilliant idea. Why not acquaint my readers with an average day working on the ranch. So, I'd like to introduce "The Kid," as the other workers call her. Yes, The Kid is a "her." A lovely young lady with a hankering for being in the outdoors and working close to the earth. Yet, lest you think a girl working on a ranch is maybe not so feminine, I've seen The Kid with her hair done up and wearing a splash of bling. She's a spunky, hard-working, and beautiful girl.

Here, in her own words, and with her own photos, is a typical day.

At dark o'thirty, the crew meets in the shop. We have coffee and talk about what's to be done. Pre-check the tractors. The buster-driver decides when it's time to head out. (Hay-buster--an apparatus used to de-twine the 1500 pound bales of hay and then "bust" them up into finer-sized feed.) Get to the stack yard by the barn, place one bale on the grapple, back up in pitch-dark to the second bale, lift it into the buster, and pick up a third bale on the buster forks. Head out. Factor in any wind the night before, blowing the road in and driving through big snow drifts.

Field 5 blown in. The Cowboy had to
clear the way before the tractors could
get through to feed the cows.

Depending on the wind is which way we drive, so the dust from the hay doesn't clog up the radiator. We've been feeding between 19-21 bales to the cows in Field 5. It takes a little over an hour for that field, if I don't have to stop to unclog the hay buster. If I do, I turn off the PTO (power take off), idle down, put the tractor in park, put on my gloves, and go 'round the back of the buster, get underneath the shield, and haul the clogged hay out with my hands. Wet bales are foul smelling and sticky. Disgusting. On windy days, it's blown right into my face, down my shirt and jeans, and makes the rest of the day itchy and uncomfortable.

Resume busting.

R, one of my co-workers, drives the feed wagon, which can be hitched and unhitched to his tractor. Therefore, he can load and unload (with the unhitched tractor) the desired amount of bales the buster driver has asked for. He sets them out a certain way: one bale, then two bales, about 50 feet away. That gives the buster driver room to maneuver when reloading. I pick up the single bale first, then the two, and away I go again.

Oh, and don't forget to close the gate after leaving any field or pen!
The only wildlife I've seen lately are a pack of 'yotes and numerous ravens.

By the time I'm done Field 5, the sky has begun to turn pink, yellow, and orange. Lately, the sunrises have been pretty good!

When R has unloaded the correct amount of bales for Field 5, he heads to Stackyard 3 (there are five stackyards) and loads up for the next field. The haywagon can hold 14 bales. Heading into Field 4 now, the sun is starting to shine through the tall trees. I always enjoy Field 4. On the downside, Field 4 is very open and has very deep snow. Sometimes, I get R to plough lanes through the snow so the buster won't get stuck, as it's very low to the ground. And sometimes I get good and stuck!

Tractor and Hay Buster. Had to get pulled out.

If it's a cold or blizzarding morning, the cows are reluctant to come out of the trees until I've completed about the fourth row with the buster. If it's warm, they are already coming to greet me, and I have to lift the bucket so I don't clobber any as I go through.

After a few days of feeding in the same spot in the field, the field gets very bumpy from frozen cow manure. Slowly, I make the feeding ground bigger, to find not-so-rough ground. Deep snow is hard to go through, let alone backing up to a bale in 2 - 3 feet of settled snow. The Cowboy or Leroy (the farm foreman) plough roads into the fields, and in some places, the ploughed-up snow is taller than the tractor wheels. (Picture below, Road 2. The ploughed snow is taller than the truck.)

By 10 am, I am done Field 4, and R has headed off to set up the hay for the next fields.