Category: Digital Scrapbook

Digital Scrapbook of December '16

1/7/2017

Posted By: Jesse Williams

I can’t believe I am writing my last Digital Scrapbook of 2016! Twelve months ago I made a resolution to be more consistent with my blogging in 2016, which included doing a monthly review of life on our farm. I may have been late some months, but I did meet my goal, so can I get wahoo!? My favorite part of these blogs is looking back at my own posts. It’s funny how much you forget in 12 months! If you want to take a look back with us you can watch our 2016 Year in Review video below.

Meet Beatrice the Simmental Cow!

Some of you may know that Clay has a background in raising purebred cattle. Growing up he helped his parents raise Gelbvieh bulls, which his brother and sister-in-law (Flatland Ranch) now excel at. Clay was always famous for saying that he didn’t want to be a purebred breeder, only a commercial cattlemen… Well, insert a wife who grew up showing cattle, and a new barn, and I finally convinced him to buy our first purebred cow to start our Simmental herd. Whoop, whoop!!
This month we purchased SFM RS 16B, which I affectionately nicknamed Beatrice, to be the matriarch of our future purebred herd. Bea is a polled red Simmental second calver who is bred to Skors Casino 53C for a late January calf. We are really looking forward to growing our herd with this powerful, high weaning weight dam, so stay tuned for updates in the future!

Grazing into the New Year

After a very mild fall, winter finally decided to show up in December with some chilly temperatures. A few inches of snow and temperatures in the -30C range meant extra special attention for our livestock. Even with the cold weather, we were fortunate enough to graze our herd for all of December. In order to do so we did need to add extra straw bedding, top up supplements, salt & minerals, and increase supervision to ensure the herd was doing well. During cold snaps ranchers like us bundle up and head on out to the herd even more often to ensure water sources are flowing, cattle have adequate shelter and their nutritional needs are met.

CowBytes
I talk often about our local research association, CARA, in my blogs as they have some great resources. This month was no different as they hosted a CowBytes workshop we attended. CowBytes is a cattle ration building software that you can add your own feed samples into. If you haven’t tried this program before, I highly recommend it. You can build bale feeding programs, grain rations, tub grinding combinations, silage mixes and much more. This program really impressed me because you can insert your own livestock details (breeds, weights, body condition scores, hide thicknesses, etc), change the temperature and wind ranges that your cattle are exposed to, and even input your own water source sample information. Add your own feeding, yardage and forage costs, and you can create the most economical ration that also satisfies the complete nutritional requirements for your particular herd.

Left: This month we finished hauling all of our bales back to our feed yard. These bales will feed our herd from January to May. Right: Our cows grazing the headlands of a canola stubble field.

#buildingafarm

Progress continued on our new farm yard this month. In between the cold snaps our amazing contractor managed to tin the roof of our house and wrap the exterior (thank you, we are in love with the tin look!). Clay was also busy working on the interior of his shop, completing electrical work, and finished the last of the trench digging in the yard for the winter in preparation for some winter livestock waterers from Legacy Drilling (yes, shameless plug!).

Our new farmhouse at the beginning of December (left) versus the end of the month (right).

Looking Forward to January

Ladies Calving Clinic
Denver National Western Stock Show & Canadian Cattlemen's Young Leaders/ USA National Cattlemen's Beef Association Bilateral Roundtable Discussions
Tropical Vacation
Tiffin Conference

Check Out Other Digital Scrapbooks...

November 2016
October 2016
September 2016
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July 2016
June 2016
May 2016
April 2016
March 2016
February 2016
January 2016

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Digital Scrapbook of October '16

11/1/2016

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Fall is my absolute favorite season of the year. I just LOVE the fall colors, the leaves on the ground, comfy sweaters and of course- PUMPKIN EVERYTHING! I tried to savor every second of October but yet another month flew right on by and before I blinked it was November. The most exciting part of this month in my opinion was the progress on our new home- I simply cannot wait to fill it with pumpkin smelling candles ;)

Some calves on weaning day 2016

Fall Calf Run

Weaning day came early this year. We wean our sale calves the same day we ship them, which means we separate the calves from their mothers using sorting pens. We then load the calves into trailers to be transported to the auction market, then their dams are allowed to stay in the yard for a few days before going back out to pasture. This process all happened on October 13 this year. In the past we have sold at the end of October, so it was a risk selling our calves two weeks earlier. And to be honest, it was a risk not worth taking. The market report for the last week of October was up in comparison to our sale date, plus we would have had those added pounds. There is no point in wallowing in that decision, however we did decide we wanted to explore alternative marketing options in 2017- stay tuned!

Our annual weaning day photo. It was a beautiful day to work outside- which hasn't always been the case on past weaning days.

An Albertan Thanksgiving

It is tradition in my family that the men take off to the mountains for their first horse-pack trip of the winter, and all the ladies gather for a Thanksgiving celebration. This year we celebrated at my parents’ ranch. You can read about what we did last year, here. It was a wonderful weekend full of good eats (get my pumpkin pie from scratch recipe here!), great company and way too many laughs.
It was also extra special because I got to sit down with multiple generations of my family to do some sewing. Both my grandmothers were amazing seamstresses and quilters. I remember my cousins and I always being the center of attention with our beautiful home-made skating dresses, flower girl dresses and adorable jump suits. This Thanksgiving was a great time to reminisce about my late Grandma Terry and make more memories with my Grandma Judy.

#buildingafarm Update

October was Framing Month on our new home on the ranch! As of the last day of October we have the majority of framing completed, even though there was a slight delay when it SNOWED! I was hoping that our home would be to lock up stage (framed, windows & doors installed) before the snow flew- insert hysterical laughter here- but you know what they say about the best laid plans…
Regardless, we are so happy about the progress on our new home. You just can’t wipe the smile off my face when I am anywhere near the new yard. And that makes Clay very happy (happy wife means happy life, right?!).

It's crazy what can happen in a month!

October 1, 2016

November 1, 2016

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our house to yours! I didn’t get Clay to dress up this year, but here are some fun pictures of Halloween’s past. We hope you had a spook-tacular day!

2016

2011

2008

Looking Forward to November

Farm Fair International & Canadian Finals Rodeo at Northlands
Beef Advocacy Tradeshow Booth Volunteering
Canadian Western Agribition in Regina
Cow-Calfenomics
CARA’s Cattlemen’s Clinic

Don't miss a thing with these past Digital Scrapbooks...

September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016
April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

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Digital Scrapbook: September '16

10/1/2016

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Posted By: Jesse Williams

The Month We Broke Ground on our Dreams

While there were lots of fun things that happened in September, all I can think about (all I ever seem to think about!) is FINALLY building our new home. And this month we BROKE GROUND on it! Wahoo!! We also were very busy rounding up our cow/calf pairs in various pastures to bring them closer to home for the winter. Fall is my absolute favorite time of the year so September was a fabulous month and October is shaping up to be just as great.

#BuildingAFarm

Well, we FINALLY did it! On September 4, 2016 we broke ground on our dream house! It felt like September just flew by. Accomplishments this month included our basement excavation, foundation & floor, plus the beginning stages of framing!

So far the process has been great. Our basement contractor, RMS Construction from Brooks, was so fantastic (definitely recommend them)! I want to send the biggest thank you out to Rick and his team. They worked fast, hard and did amazing, quality work!

We also were finally able to fill up our shop foundation that we moved onto our yard last fall. Our contractor that built the foundation for the shop built it sticking out of the ground a long ways, against our wishes, so we had to find material to fill up the 5 foot hole before we could lay cement. (Read about the shop move here). After we stripped back the top soil (we will put it back after landscaping), the subsoil was moved from our basement excavation into our shop, and out front to create a pad. Clay is pretty darn excited to be seeing progress on his shop after a whole year of it taunting him! We are hoping to pour the cement shop floor in December so stay tuned!

Fall Round Ups

In preparation for October’s calf weaning & selling, the month of September revolved around getting all our cows and calves home. As I’ve mentioned before, we rely a lot on rented grass for our operation, much of which is located a fair distance from our home place.

Our closest rental is the Bullpound Community Pasture. We are super lucky that it is within riding distance for us. We had a 7.5 mile ride in the spring, but only a 5.5 mile ride back home, which was really nice. And I think the cows enjoyed it too, as they were pretty slow the last half mile! The cows that were allotted for this community pasture were bred to Charolais bulls and will have strappin’ tan calves this winter.

We also had two other pastures to bring cows home from. These are about 30 miles from home, so they had to be trucked with stock trailers and liners. It’s always so rewarding to see your cows & calves at the end of the summer, and this year was no different. I am definitely looking forward to seeing what some of our 2nd calvers will produce this upcoming year!

We will be soon bringing all our cows and calves into the corrals for weaning. We sell both our Charolais X tan calves and red Angus/ Gelbvieh X calves on October 14, 2016 at Balog Auction Mart in Lethbridge. Feel free to stop by and say hi if you are in the area!

Cattlemen's Young Leader Program

For all of you that keep asking- no, we haven’t found out who our mentors will be yet, but I will let you all know as soon as I do! I am really looking forward to seeing who the CYL Program matched me up with. In interviews this month I explained I was looking for a mentor who possibly manages a large backgrounding operation as it is something Clay and I are really hoping to ramp up in the next year. My areas of interest include risk management, production economics, innovation, advocacy and using data and technologies to achieve economic returns in my cattle operation.

I would like to take this opportunity to say THANK YOU to everyone who watched, shared and discussed the two videos I posted from CYL graduates (Ben’s Ag Career and Penny’s Sustainable Beef Story) and for participating in the Canadian Ag Challenge. The message went far and wide, reached a variety of audiences and sparked great ag conversations. I will post more about this wonderful experience soon!

Looking Forward to October...

House Framing Progress
Thanksgiving
Calf Weaning & Selling (October 14!)
Halloween
#AgMonth16 Ag More Than Ever Agvocate Challenge- I am posting one picture per day of my operation to share what agriculture is all about! Join the fun!

Don't miss a thing with these past Digital Scrapbooks...

August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016
April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

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Digital Scrapbook of August '16

9/8/2016

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Posted By: Jesse Williams

The Month of Wahoo!

We pulled our bulls in the beginning of August. Clay is pictured here, bringing in the cows to sort off the bulls

I am characterizing the month of August as my month of excitement, opportunity and generally just Wahoo-ing! It has been filled with exciting events at every turn, including the Inaugural Canadian Beef Industry Conference which was paired with the selections portion of the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Program, our 5th wedding anniversary and drum roll please… ACTUAL PROGRESS ON OUR HOUSE BUILD! Can I get a wahoo!?!

Canadian Beef Industry Conference

The beginning of the month brought the 1st Canadian Beef Industry Conference (CBIC) that I was able to attend as a CYL semi-finalist, dragging my husband along too. I shouldn’t say dragging because he agrees with me that it was SO WORTH IT, even if he lost a day or two of baling. I can’t say enough (and haven’t shut up since!) about this conference for any and all beef producers in Canada (or elsewhere!). I not only learned a lot about production, advocacy, sustainability, economics and stewardship, I met the BEST people. It was the most unique conference I have ever been to in that every single person I chatted with, I learned something from.

One of my favorite parts was the very last evening where we went to Heritage Park for our wrap up supper. I was seated with people from Ontario, South Dakota, Rocky Mountains and all across the prairies. We got chatting about our biggest challenges in beef production. For the Ontario gentleman, he had too much water. His biggest investment was tiling his land so that he could divert the water away and be able to make the land useable. The couple from the Rocky Mountains, their biggest struggle was protecting their cattle from bear and wolf attacks, which took considerable amount of investment, time and a whole lot of regulation, paperwork and the frustration that comes with that. Another family expressed their biggest worry was being land locked by hutterites, unable to expand their operation size and therefore trying to change their ways of operating to make more money on less land, supporting more family members.

This is just a small sampling of the conversations that were had. It was by far the best networking opportunity I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing, and I truly believe that some of those connections will be lifelong. This conference reminded me how blessed I am to be part of such a diverse, hardworking, pride filled industry that brings protein to tables across the world. I would highly recommend attending next year’s conference, again in Calgary, AB.

The above, middle photo pictures my highlight of the week! On my left is CYL alumni and Beef Advocate Amanda Broadhagen (@AmandaBrodhagen), and to my right is fellow farm blogger, friend & self-proclaimed range nerd Jill Burkhardt (@Crookedlakecows, Crooked Lake Farm) and her newest ranch hand! I admire both of these ladies very much, having 'met' both of them on Twitter, and now actually have gotten to meet them in person! Thanks for tweeting up ladies!

Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Program

As mentioned above, it was the Cattlemen’s Young Leaders (CYL) program that led me to the first ever Canadian Beef Industry Conference. I applied with a written essay in March of 2016 outlining my ranching operation, my background and where I wanted to improve my abilities within the Canadian Beef Industry. I was lucky enough to be chosen as one of the 24 semi-finalists from across Canada that were awarded registration to the CBIC in August where the selections process would occur, dwindling down the 24 to 16 finalists. The selections process was amazing. Of course it was also incredibly nerve wracking, out of my comfort zone and beyond intimidating. That room of 24 semi finalists blew me away. In fact, I couldn’t believe I was actually chosen to be present there with those individuals, as it truly was a room full of unbelievable talent, passion for our industry and expertise that was way above my head. Over the course of a day we participated in 5 roundtable discussions about topics affecting our industry, all while being judged by facilitators on our performance. Topics included farm succession (by far the most heated of discussions in my opinion!), global beef market outlooks, advocacy, social media and mentorships.

A panoramic view of the CYL Roundtable selections room

The whole experience was beyond what I ever imagined. I kept liking it to what I imagine 4-H for Adults would be. It reminded me so much of my 4-H days, including the lasting relationships that often accompanied 4-H programs. I would recommend that anyone between the ages of 18 and 35 that is in any way involved in the beef industry (you don’t have to be a primary producer) give this opportunity a whirl.

I was fortunate enough to get the email on August 23 that I was one of the lucky 16 to be chosen for a mentorship in the 2016-17 CYL program year. I am so honoured, humbled and beyond thrilled to have been awarded this opportunity. I have not yet heard who my mentor will be but I did request a production focus, so I look forward to sharing with you all my adventures and learnings throughout the next year. Thank you to everyone that made this experience a possibility for me!

The 2016 Cattlemen's Young Leaders semi-finalists, facilitators & judges. Photo courtesy of @CYLprogram twitter feed.

Happy 5th Anniversary!

On August 20 Clay and I celebrated our 5th year of wedded bliss by attending our dear friends’ wedding, Tommy & Gabrielle, in the Handhills. In my opinion it was an excellent way to spend the day and super fun to reminisce about our big day all those years ago. You can look back on our wedding day with us in a blog I wrote called
Married {with Cows] for 5 Years!

#buildingafarm

In 2014 I designed my dream house plans. It took until August of 2016 to actually make those dreams into a reality, and I am still constantly asking my husband to pinch me because it can’t be true! The papers are signed, the building permits are sent away and I am SO EXCITED to announce that ground breaking on our dream ranch house will occur in September 2016!!!
I will keep you all posted on the blog and via social media through the hashtag #buildingafarm. Stay tuned to watch my dreams be built one nail at a time! WAHOOOOOOO!

Looking Forward to September...

Breaking ground at the ranch
CYL Mentorship Announcement
Maybe some relaxation? HA!

Don't miss a thing with these past Digital Scrapbooks

July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

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Married {with Cows} for 5 Years!

9/8/2016

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Posted By: Jesse Williams

Well actually, I've only been with cows for 4 years, but the marriage part has been a solid five!

I know this post is a few weeks late, but anyone who has been married for 5 years will tell you that the day-of celebrations are out the window and you get to it when you can... Regardless, on August 20, 2016 the hubs and I celebrated 5 years of wedded bliss and we are still here to talk about it. Can I get a wahoo!?

Five years ago we said our 'I do's' at my parents ranch near Brooks, AB on a beautifully sunny, hot August day. I remember freaking out the week before because showers were in the forecast, but the day of our wedding we lucked out- and Clay even got a sun burn!

Here is what that fabulous day looked like 5 years ago...
(The first song 'Look at you girl' by Chris Ledoux is the song I walked down the aisle to. The second song 'Wildflower' by Dean Brody was our wedding song)

J + C Wedding August 20, 2011 - Kizoa Video Editor - Movie Maker

Life then...

I thought I would share some of our life then versus now, as a lot has changed in 5 years, let me tell you.

In 2011 Clay and I were living APART. I was in my between my third & 4th year of university and I had taken a job in Devon, AB with an agriculture company doing canola yield trials as a summer student. Clay was fresh out of university after earning his engineering degree and took a job with a fracing company, where he worked all around Alberta, travelling in their convoy of frac trucks. I think he was supposed to work 2 weeks on, 4 days off, however his schedule was never what it should be. I remember him phoning me the Thursday before our wedding and telling me he *hoped* he would make it back in time...

Take it back a few months before and Clay was in Houston, TX doing some fracing training. This was to fast track Clay to an international opportunity and I found myself delaying my 2nd last semester of university in hopes of following the hubs to Abu Dahbi in the United Emirates for a 1 year frac job... Well, as exciting as that sounds, Clay and I were homebodies. We didn't want to travel across the world to a country where I couldn't even wear a tank top, and where we certainly wouldn't be herding cows. So before Clay was to depart for this big trip, he solidified a engineering position with Husky Energy, much, much closer to home, in downtown Calgary. I jumped back into university to finish my degree and we bought our very first home together- an acreage near Strathmore, AB. And more excitingly... then we bought our first yearling heifers!

Life Now...

Well, you know what life now is like, on account of the blog! But in short, it consists of building our very own ranch from the ground up back in Hanna, AB, expanding our cow/calf operation and running our own business. Clay is busy, busy, busy with his water services company Legacy Drilling, where he drills & maintains water wells, and provides a whole host of agri-services from livestock watering systems to solar installations to pipe & panel sales! I keep busy with my dream job- I am an agricultural fieldman for our municipality, which allows me to be immersed in agriculture & our community on a full time basis. When I'm not doing that, I am pouring over plans for the new house & ranch yard, riding pastures and dreaming up new ways to improve our operation. I must say, five years blew by SO FAST, but we are right where we wanted to be, and darn that feels good!

And here's to many more!

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Digital Scrapbook: July '16

8/6/2016

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Posted By: Jesse Williams

RAIN, MOSQUITOES & VACATION

July, where did you go?! This last month was rare for us, as typically we rarely ever take time off the farm, however we had several great long weekend trips with family and friends! When the hubs and I decided to make the big move back to the farm from the city we vowed we would spend more time doing fun things with friends and family- but everyone says that don’t they? I must admit that I really didn’t think it would happen, yet July came and went with nearly every weekend jam packed!

In between all the fun we managed to squeeze in some haying between the constant rains and the swarms of hungry mosquitoes. Clay is still laughing at my drought ’16 prediction…

Indian Graves Horse Trip

July 8-10 brought one of my favorite trips so far this year. We wrangled up the horses, hooked up the holiday trailer and headed to Indian Graves Provincial Park in Kananaskis Country of the Rocky Mountains. My sister, her family and my parents also joined us with their ponies for this whirlwind trip. I must mention that our prairie quarter horses aren’t used to trees, let alone going up and down mountain trails, so it was quite the learning adventure for both horses and riders! Clay brought our home raised paint colt along, who added roping, climbing cut lines and swimming (up to his neck!) to his list of talents. I am so proud of that horse (and his rider, too!).

Montana Bound

Trip #2 for these homebodies took us to Eureka, MT for a very special wedding. Friends of ours tied the knot on the gorgeous shore of Lake Kookanusa followed by a fabulous night of celebrating at a local saloon. We truly had a blast and enjoyed visiting with many ranching friends that we hadn’t seen in years, from all around Alberta (our industry really is SO small!), however if I never do another tequila shot off a blue salt block again, I will be a happy girl! Thanks Hayley & Adam for a great weekend celebrating your love!

Right: Striking a pose in front of Lake Kookanusa!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Wayne!

My maternal grandfather Wayne Martin turned 79 on July 31st and the whole family showed up to our Cypress Hills, SK cabin to celebrate. My grandpa Wayne holds a very special place in my heart as I was his ‘lap lander’ and he was my ranching hero extraordinaire. My grandma and grandpa Martin operated a mixed farm/ranch near Cadillac, SK that 5 generations proudly graced before they sold out in 2005. Retired now, my grandpa is still my ranching role model and one heck of a golfer (he whooped his daughters!). Happy Birthday Gramps. Here’s to many more!

Right: Grandpa Wayne and I strike a pose at the Cypress Hills Golf Course

#Hay16 Update

This has been one very interesting haying year. Usually we start laying down hay first thing after the July long weekend, wrapping up in just a few weeks. This year… we couldn’t even get into our hay fields because it won’t stop raining! We can add another 10+ inches of rain this month (we stopped counting!), including 6” when we went to Montana and another 3” while we were at the cabin… Maybe we should go on holidays more often? We can’t complain, because our country is typically bone dry, so while a few of our swaths may have gotten rained on, we are happy that we actually have hay to cut.

To give you some perspective, the bottom left picture was taken in 2015 after swathing. The same field, same spot is pictured at the top right. I think there is a bit of a difference there!!

Looking Forward to August...

Canadian Beef Industry Conference
Cattlemen’s Young Leaders Experience (wish me luck!)
Our 5th Wedding Anniversary (WHAAAT!?)

June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

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Digital Scrapbook of June '16

7/11/2016

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Posted By: Jesse Williams

Rain. Rain. and More Rain.

If I had to pick a theme for the month of June I would definitely pick RAIN. We have had probably about 8" of rain this May & June on top of that 8" of snow we got in April (read about that here). Which is FABULOUS for our part of the world, especially because we were bracing for a drought this year- HA! Compare that to last year and throughout May and June in 2015 we had 2-3" overall. Needless to say, we are very very thankful for these rains, even if the daily thunderstorms are getting annoying.

There is literally standing water in our flat tame pastures, our dryland garden (no we still haven't hooked up the water!) is looking great, and our hay will probably yield the best it has in the last 5 years (if we can ever get it cut!).

Our dogs Pickles & Ruger are almost lost in the smooth brome

Our garden is slowing coming along, June 16, 2016

Cow Wise

Bulls are out! Actually they went out the last few days of May, but they spent June getting down to business and hopefully breeding the majority of our cows so that we can calve the beginning of March in 2017. We decided to back up our calving by two weeks compared to last year because the early calving fits our lifestyle better. To read more about our decision to calve in the winter, click here.

Below: Photos from our Gelbvieh breeding group

This year we are focusing our efforts on producing replacement heifers so that we can expand our herd in the future. Because of this we have three separate main breeding groups, which makes things a little more complicated than usual. Our main herd is bred to purebred Charolais bulls to get hose strappin' big tan calves that bring us big bucks in the fall, but we also have Gelbvieh and Simmental breeding groups. We hand picked our best Simmental cows to be bred to purebred Gelbvieh bulls, and our highest performing red Angus cows to be bred Simmental. Our hopes are that we can make some really great red white faced, moderate sized heifers with maternal characteristics, high milking ability and tame demeanors. We shall see next year if our crosses worked!

Below, Left: A Charolais x red Angus cross steer out of a second calver
Middle & Right: Red gelbvieh cross calves out of first time calvers

Because I was certain it was going to be a drought year, we secured several rental pastures in addition to our home pastures. We have been busy running around to each one, checking on the health of our herd and grass. We are also very fortunate to be able to utilize the Bullpound Community Pasture, which is only 7.5 miles from our home place. We trailed a selection of pairs to the Community Pasture on June 23, 2016 with the help of Grandpa & Grandma Griffith (in their truck, below) and Clay's Uncle Bruce. Big thanks to them as it wasn't the funnest ride being poured on with a straight sideways wind for the last 1.5 miles, but we got 'er done!

Below: Trailing to the Community Pasture

#buildingafarm

On the home front we are actually FINALLY definitely making small steps toward progress! Due to some 'interesting' dealings with a certain house moving company, our house plans were put on hold since March. While we don't have the 2400 sq ft home we purchased and expected to arrive the first week of June, we are happy to announce that we officially have our completed blueprints for our DREAM house. And now when I say dream house, I mean DREAM. Clay and I actually designed this house in 2014 but changed our minds for cheaper options- several times. We since decided that because we are going to live in this house until we die, and are putting it on our brand new yard site we are designing from scratch, we might as well build our dream home to match. I will keep you updated over the summer but we are hoping to have a basement in July or August!

In the meantime, between what felt like a million brandings, and putting bulls out, moving cows and our day jobs, we have been slowly chipping away at some yard items. The power has officially been trenched and the electrician has given the go ahead to turn the shop power on! While we don't yet have a floor, we do have power! Clay has also been busy gravelling our very slippery driveway, thanks to the rain, and completing the fence around our yard. However, that wasn't completed quite soon enough as my cows had a bit of a party in my garden corn...

Left: Trenching in the power to the shop

Looking forward to July...

Mountain horse trip to Indian Graves
Montana trip to celebrate love!
Hopefully, more house progress
#Hay16 (if it ever stops raining)

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May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016

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Digital Scrapbook: May '16

6/1/2016

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Posted By: Jesse Williams

I think the best description of May 2016 would be "Branding Month" in our part of the woods! May, being the first really nice month of the year meant that we spent every second we could outside, soaking up the sunshine... and even some rain!!
Here is a look back at our month...

♦W♦ Branding

We rang in May with our branding on the 7th and it was a gorgeous day! The sun was beaming and I even got my first sunburn of the year. We had about 45 wonderful friends, family and neighbors come help us brand about 200 head, a combination of our calves and my husband's parents'. Many hands made light work and the branding was over before we knew it! Thank you so much to everyone that helped!

Because we had so much great help at our branding, we needed to return the favor. So far we have attended 6 brandings of friends and family that attended ours. By our calculations we have three more to do in June and July. Let the fun begin!

M. Williams Branding

Griffith Branding

Baron Branding

Let it Pour, Baby!

You may have read in my previous spring posts that we were really, really worried about moisture around here. Well our crossed toes and fingers must have worked, because the clouds opened up and delivered 2" in one shot, then another 1" after that, with some intermittent sprinkles on top! I am certain I can hear the grass growing!! And HAY! We think we are actually going to have a bit of hay to bale this year. Can I get a hallelujah!?

Ranch Work

There was no shortage of work around the ranch this month. We spent a bit of time on our horses moving cows from pasture to pasture after branding. We were very happy with our decision to hire a liner to move our cows to some of our further away pastures this year. Last year Clay spent 4 days moving cows with our trailer, and this year we moved more cows to more pastures for cheaper, in just one day. I call that winning!

On the 28th & 29th we also put our bulls out with their ladies. This means our cows could start calving as early as March 6, 2017.I thought for sure we were going to get rained on but we got the boys to the yard just as the rain started. Score!

Clay rides his 4 year old colt "Blackfoot" to move some Gelbvieh & Simmental bulls to the yard

#plant16

We started #plant16 with our very first garden on the new farmyard! It is excessively large with a fence that isn't done and water lines that are yet to be hooked up- but it is planted!! I will post later about what we planted and how it's doing throughout the summer. A big thank you to Clay's brother Cody for the cultivating, Clay's aunt Connie for the rototiller and my dad for the post pounder! The support we have in our life is tremendous :)

Looking Forward to June

Looking ahead to June, we are still busy, busy, busy! I am hoping to share with you all...
    Hand Hills Lake Stampede (Happy 100th!)
    Garth Brooks Concert in Saskatoon
    Hand Hills Ball Tournament
    Original Grazing School for Women
    More Brandings
    Finalizing the blueprints of our new home!

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Digital Scrapbook: April '16

5/2/2016

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I think I always say this, but this month was A WHIRLWIND of a month. Clay and I were crazy busy with life, work and the ranch, and I apologize for not posting near (or any!) as many blog entries as I would have liked to. I honestly can't remember a time in my life where I felt as busy as I did this month... and it's only the beginning!

April 17, 2016: Blackfoot just can't resist us when we are out fencing

April 26, 2016: 6" of fresh snow sure gave us the moisture we were looking for

Like any good farm wife I would be amiss not to mention the weather. April was GORGEOUS, with summer-like temperatures reaching upwards of 28 degrees. Crazy, right!?! Or that's what I thought until April 23rd hit and we got 6 INCHES OF SNOW!!! Not to worry though, in three days it was all melted and the hubs had me back out fencing (yay).

While it may seem silly, that snow dump may have been the BEST part of the month. No, I do not like snow. In fact, I hate all forms of weather under 20 degrees. However, we were so dry that we were really starting to worry about having enough grass for our cows. Things are looking up now, but we will still need timely showers to get out of the woods.

#Calving16 Photos

Calving in April went very well, despite the snow. We had excellent calving success and are now just waiting on the last five cows to calve before our branding on Saturday. Here are a couple of snaps I got over the last month of heifer's calves.

Happy Birthday to Clay & Gage!

I think it's safe to say my one year old nephew Gage partied a bit harder on his birthday than his Uncle Clay. 27 must be a really hard age- not even Ruger could wake him up to celebrate! Either way, happy birthday old fella!

April 6- Happy 27th!

April 16- Happy 1st!

#BuildingAFarm Update

The warm dry weather at the beginning of this month allowed us to get a great kick start on this summer's farm projects. We started by fencing our new yard and driveway, and dug in the water and power from our pumphouse to my newly created garden, and the shop.

We did do some home shopping as well. We *THINK* we have the floorplan nailed down FINALLY! We'll let you know more next month ;)

My brother Cody made quick work of this water line trench. My garden will now have water!!

Clay is, of course, quite pleased with his well. It will feed our garden, yard, shop and barn!

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Digital Scrapbook: March '16

4/4/2016

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March... In like a lamb... out like a lamb?

March has truly been an INSANE month around here- a lot of emotions, a lot of changes and a lot to be thankful for. While we can't say too much, I can let everyone know that the beautiful 2400 sq ft home we were anxiously waiting to arrive in June will not be coming (more on that topic in the future months when the lawyer's give us the go ahead!). HOWEVER, as my mom always says (insert eye roll here) "everything happens for a reason", and we are excited to see what the future holds for us in terms of our forever home on our ranch. Hopefully in April we can share some good news on this front! In the meanwhile, this is what's been keeping us busy, busy, busy...

CALVING IS HERE!!!

Can you tell that I am EXCITED to announce that calving 2016 has officially began at our place!?! Things started off on March 16th with three calves, two from heifers (right on time) and one from a 2nd calver (a week early, but a great size!). OF COURSE, this all happened while I was away at a work conference in the city, so you can imagine how pouty I was about that...

And things didn't slow down! In the last two weeks of March we managed to get 40% of our herd calved out and I am happy to say no losses and even one set of twins! (Middle bottom picture is of 'Snips' the bottle feeder heifer twin)

We were SUPER lucky to have such beautiful spring weather this month. While we are loving the dryness for calving, we are starting to get worried about spring moisture. Time will tell but we are definitely bracing for a drought this year, and are hoping to utilize a lot of rented pastures to spread out our grazing intensities at home. The other big fear we have is grasshoppers. We are located just inside a grasshopper hot spot from 2015 and if the dry weather persists, we may be looking at quite a challenging summer ahead of us. Cross your fingers and toes for us!

Trailing the cows in from pasture on March 6, 2016. Look at that beautiful spring weather!

A lot of BULL

Cousin Shelby helping out on semen testing day

We welcomed the arrival of a new polled fullblood Fleckvieh Simmental bull from Movald Ranches and their BullRush Sale this month and we are so excited to see what he throws for calves in the upcoming years. I am falling more and more in love with felckviehs every single day (I think Clay is starting to worry about my obsession!) and am already hand picking the cows that this guy will get to love this summer. We are hoping to breed him to our angus x and gelbvieh x dams for some smokin' red white faced replacement quality heifers and heavy steer calves that won't loose us a dime, either. I have to say a special thank you to Duane Movald for this guy, his delivery and the extra work his daughter put into washing him up real nice for us. We hope to make many future deals with Movald Ranches!

We also played with the big boys this month to prepare for the upcoming breeding season with semen testing. The fabulous Dr. Q was out once again, with trusty sidekick Shelby to make sure the bulls were in top breeding form.

Hoppy Easter!

Since calving was in the full swing of things by the end of March, we stuck around the farm for the long Easter weekend, just enjoying calving cows and catching up on farm work. However, it's been tradition to color Easter eggs with my niece & sister, so I managed to sneak down to their place early in March and get a bit of coloring done!

Right: Paisley giving her Aunty her best smile while we painted Easter eggs. But seriously, how cute is this kid!?

And yes, I did turn another year older on the 27th. The hubs treated me to TWO kinds of cake (of course my favorite and his favorite!) made by my mother in law, and I was blessed with many phone calls, facebook posts and text messages. A special thanks goes out to my Aunts for finding the most embarrassing photos they could of me and posting them to facebook ;)

On the Drilling Side

While it is still too soft to get the rig out and going in our country (we have to wait for road bans to lift), the boys have certainly been busy in March. Clayton and Royden have been welding machines, using the squared pipe that Clay sells to create a whole wack of corral panels, free standing panels, calf shelters and bale feeders. Not to mention they built some pretty great jigs to pound the panels out of and a really nice cutting table to make their jobs super efficient. I have to say I am so proud of the work these two have been doing and am really happy to see these two cousins work so well together. Royden is an asset to our team and we're proud he is part of the Legacy Drilling team!

Now hopefully in April we can get some drilling done!

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Meet Beatrice the Simmental Cow!

Grazing into the New Year

#buildingafarm

Looking Forward to January

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Looking Forward to June

#Calving16 Photos

Happy Birthday to Clay & Gage!

#BuildingAFarm Update

CALVING IS HERE!!!

A lot of BULL

Hoppy Easter!

On the Drilling Side

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