The Weekend From Hell

[CattleAnnie]

Freezing rain on Saturday morning (poured for two hours straigh) turned the entire ranch into a skating rink surface that the NHL wished it's professional Zambonii drivers could attain.

Sunday started off on a sad note, as Honey had mixed up some "Wolf Tonic and Elixer" to medicate them with on Saturday night, but the kids' favourite pooch somehow managed to get into the shop, knock the sealed can off a shelf five feet off the ground, and met her demise after consuming the entire contents. Still haven't told the kids. This close to Christmas, it'll be a sad one for the little ones without Ginger around. Managed to get her out to the far quarter without them seeing her. They think she's off snooping around in the bush.

Loaded thirty of my girls on Sunday at noon to head to Red Deer auction market, after much praying for no broken legs or splits for them(but a few pulled muscles from sliding all over the place for me). Fortunately the trucker had the common sense to put a full set of jewelry on his rig, so he was able to crawl up to the chutes. Sure sad to see those girls go.

Then the wind started gusting. Weather office said it was reaching 90 km an hour. All I know is that it took one of my NEW (this spring) calf shelters and hurled it through a barbed wire cross fence 200 ft to land against the big calving pen fence, whereupon it broke the left side off completely. :roll:

To add inury to insult, one of Honey's replacement prospect heifer calves got hung up in a round bale feeder (hip locked) and died.

Sure hope today is a better day than yesterday. Can't take too many of those anymore. ;-)

Honey's going to fire up the Cat this morning and see if we can dig down to the problem with "Old Faithful" the gushing Franklin. Sure hope we can get the new furnace hooked up today. Supposed to have a minus 36C windchill by this afternoon. :shock:

Done playing with the funny faces. Take care.

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

It just seems that when you are already having problems, every extra thing that goes wrong is just magnified so much. I took the release bearing out of my tractor last weekend. Fortunately, all my bales weren't delivered yet so I've been running to the bale guy's place and having him load bales on the back of the truck and hauling them. I've been bedding them with some old square bales. Some of those bales are pretty heavy after all last years' rain but no sense leaving them lay around the yard. It's working not too bad but not as good as having a tractor. I also got a new bull in the pasture last weekend. The guy who owned him said he liked having his ears scratched but its a bit unnerving when he comes running up to you out of the dark. Saturday he seemed downright aggressive when I was chopping the hole in the ice so I took a few swings at him with the blunt end of the axe (didn't quite connect) and chased him around a bit. He seemed more docile yesterday. Hang in there, better times are coming.

 

[Kelly]

My thoughts & prayers are with you. I hate those times when everything seems to go bad at once - it makes a person just want to crawl in a hole & sleep for a week! Keep your chin up! Don't let it get the best of you.

 

[Bez]

CattleAnnie:

Good things will come in time - as some kind soul recently said to me - grit your teeth and hang in there.

CRR:

Get him trained to keep his distance.

Take care

Bez

 

[cattle_gal]

When it rains it pours.

To bad about the dog. At least up there you can say publicly that you mixed up the wolf medicine. Down here they'll throw you in jail for 10-20 years with a 100,000 fine.

I think that's the first time I've heard the term "jewlery" used for that.

hope it's a better day and week for you.

 

[CattleAnnie]

Can't announce publicly about mixing that elixer up here either...but with 28 calves and 10 cows dead due to wolf kills there's not much in the way of options for our grazing association.

Monday has been another day like the rest...CV axle that I had replaced in September went on the pickup, so no four wheel drive meant ditching the truck while trying to get up the icy driveway. Tractor with chains on it barely pulled it into the yard. On the upside, managed to dig down to the waterer and plugged the line until we can afford to fix it.

Bad news today. My bred cows that I sold yesterday averaged $370.43 a head. Far cry from the $550.00 I'd been quoted.

Have no idea how we're going to make it through this. Can't believe it's all because some fool dragged one down cow to four different processors to have her butchered. Can't afford to buy feed now. Might be able to finish paying for this year's payment on the cattle loans , but sure don't have to money to pay for my Class One drivers course now, unless a miracle comes our way.

Sorry to be such a sad sack. Sure getting tired of getting lemons and no sugar to make lemon-aide with. Thanks for putting up with my venting. Can't bear to tell anyone I know up here how dire our straits are.

Hope everyone's having a good day, though. Stay safe. Take care. :heart:

 

[Ellie May]

Howdy,
I am sorry to hear that. I hope all is well.
Best Wishes,
Ellie May

 

[Jake]

We've had weekends and weeks like that quite often just not in quite the same boat as you. But we've lost $9,500 in calves in a few days before, not to mention all the other stuff that can go wrong, just seems to be our luck.... You sure we aren't related somehow? Seems to be a genetic thing...

 

[Texan]

Hope everyone's having a good day, though. Stay safe. Take care. :heart:

Boy, if that's not Classic Cattle Annie! Problems most of us can't even comprehend and still worried about the rest of us having a good day and staying safe!

Hang tough and chin up, Annie! No choice anyway, right? ;-) Best wishes from Texas!

 

[Bez]

Well, CattleAnnie - I cut down the Christmas tree today - the kids put it up tomorrow.

It's been real cold here with the wind blowing strong - minus 30 for the past couple of days and the girls were all huddling in the spruce and cedar bushes. Started to warm up today and I think the animals were happy about it. No wrecks here, but thought you might like to know we sold the last of our Alberta cows at the Grande Prairie auctionmart on Dec 20. Prices as you well know depend strictly on whether or not there were some buyers on hand - so time will tell.

Have not got a clue what they went for - but I am now out of the Alberta cattle business - just have the girls here in Ontario. It's bothering me a bit - last of the old roots gone for now. We culled out - actually some very, very good friends did it for me - one for science - a cheque for 225 to come some day down the road - and the rest took the last ride into town looking for a new home.

I wonder what the cheque will be after covering trucking? What did your trucking costs to Red Deer run you?

Wife got her airbrake ticket the other day - neighbour took the cost for her - wife in return had to run his dump truck for two days and haul chicken manure for him. He said it was cheaper than hiring a driver.

You hang tough. This darned season of distress will be over some day - and if we are all not so deep in debt that we can't crawl out - well, then we'll get on with it.

Ever look into school bus driving as a supplement? Wife did that for a while - she started mid year as a relief driver - company trained her. What the heck - give them a shout.

I'll be in touch when I find out how bad we got taken - you stay well.

Bez

 

[CattleAnnie]

Sorry about the cruddy, depressing post.

I didn't think before I dumped all that garbage on all you fine folks, and I apologise for that thoughtlessness.

Anyway, everyday is another chance to get it right, and I'll endeavor to keep it lighter in the future. Thanks for your forebearance and kind words. Hey, wish I'd been on the ball and taken some pictures of the hoarfrost here this a.m. What a pretty sight! If we get another frost like that I'll take some shots for you southern folks.

Take care.

 

[txag]

Sorry about the cruddy, depressing post.

I didn't think before I dumped all that garbage on all you fine folks, and I apologise for that thoughtlessness.

no need to apologize, Annie. that's what friends are for ;-)

may 2005 be more prosperous for you and our other Northern friends.

 

[mwj]

Cattle Annie
You are posting to friends that only by good luck are not in the same straits!!!! It is a shame that you are not closer so I could share some extra hay Let us know how things are going and if there is any way that we can help you thru this rough spot. A few years down the road you may be able to look back and smile a bit. We should all count our blessings wether we think we have any or not.
your friend
Mike

 

[dun]

It's kind of nice for others to know that no matter how crappy things are for them, it's even worse for someone else. Unfortunetly so far your the "worse" that everyone is comparing to.

dun

 

[cattle_gal]

Sorry about the cruddy, depressing post.

I didn't think before I dumped all that garbage on all you fine folks, and I apologise for that thoughtlessness.

Heck no don't appologize. If you need to vent then have at it. I'm sure we all can relate just needing to get it out of your system. Besides gives the new guys wanting to get into the business some prospective.

Merry Christmas to you and all.

 

[Jake]

Sorry about the cruddy, depressing post.

I didn't think before I dumped all that garbage on all you fine folks, and I apologise for that thoughtlessness.

Anyway, everyday is another chance to get it right, and I'll endeavor to keep it lighter in the future. Thanks for your forebearance and kind words. Hey, wish I'd been on the ball and taken some pictures of the hoarfrost here this a.m. What a pretty sight! If we get another frost like that I'll take some shots for you southern folks.

Take care.

I wish I could have taken a picture of last night.... we were watering calves around midnight and that was purdy as could be... frost on their backs and everything else imaginable had frost on it, the moon was hitting it just right and it all glisened...

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

Sorry about the cruddy, depressing post.

It's a cruddy, depressing situation so I think your post was totally appropriate. It seems that when you already have cashflow problems that every extra thing that goes wrong is just so much worse than it would normally be. I took the release bearing out of my tractor two weeks ago and have been doing chores with the 2 WD 3/4 ton truck ever since. Most nights I can run over to the hay farmers house and he'll load a bale for me. The other night, he had the wrong attachment on and wasn't able to load me so I hooked a bale with the chain and tried to drag it in. I shovelled snow and did my best to get it in and finally after about an hour I got exasperated with spinning on the ice and digging myself out of the snow and decided to try pushing the bale in. I managed to get it through the gate but took the grill out of my truck in the process. Oh well, it probably needed replacing anyway. Keep your chin up, Annie. things will get better.

 

[frenchie]

Sorry about the cruddy, depressing post.

I didn't think before I dumped all that garbage on all you fine folks, and I apologise for that thoughtlessness.

Anyway, everyday is another chance to get it right, and I'll endeavor to keep it lighter in the future. Thanks for your forebearance and kind words. Hey, wish I'd been on the ball and taken some pictures of the hoarfrost here this a.m. What a pretty sight! If we get another frost like that I'll take some shots for you southern folks.

Take care.

CattleAnnie....... :stop: No apology needed. Still think you are a class act . ;-)

You are not alone in the having difficulties department...there are thousands of cattle producers in this country in the same boat.

I wish you and yours all the best this christmas season.

 

[Bez]

Well CattleAnnie, I suppose misery loves company. Shipped our bred cows last December - like I told you we did. Cheque arrived today.

I also told you I would let you know how we did.

333.04 per cow was the final average. So, you did better than I.

Kinda makes ya' wonder how long a fellow can hang on.

Anyway, might have a job offer in the wind - means some travel to a big, hot desert if it comes through. Only 30% chance of it happening - but I will take it despite the separation from family if it does happen.

Not a happy camper tonight. Stay well.

Bez