Mom's Week in Gallup

The next week mom and I hung out around the house a lot and cruised around town. Gallup is located on Historic Route 66 and there are lots of old shops and little museams with the old neon signs and lots and lots of Native american art & jewelry. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day they have Indian Dances in the Town Square every night so we made a point to check that out too. The dancers that night were from the Zuni tribe. Their reservation is about 45 minutes SouthWest of Gallup. The guys are doing the buffalo dance and the lady is doing the pottery dance.

We also drove about an hour away to a wolf rescue and took the tour there. that was awesome. The taught us about the wolves as they walked around and we got to see most of them. There are 4 types of gray wolves: Arctic, Tundra, Timber and Mexican gray. they had the first 3 there at the rescue. the Mexican Gray is local to this area but endangered and trying to be restored. This is a picture of an Arctic Wolf. They live the farthest north and have long thin legs that help them get through the snow.

We went to the Lion's Rodeo at Red Rock State park in Gallup on Saturday, June 20th. Alpine Lumber was a sponsor so we went to check it out. It was really fun. They had two arena's side by side with alternating events happening at the same time. The ropers and barrel races on one side and the bucking broncos and bull riding on the other side. They also had the little kids riding sheep. they were soooooo cute!! The rodeo cowboy was a comedian with little skits and comments during the down time. We checked out the dance after but it was super crowded so we just hung out for a little bit while we were waiting for the parking lot to clear out.

Instead of mom flying home as planned, I decided to driver her home and hang out in LA for a week. But I'll save that for the next post.

Taking mom to the Ranch

My mom came to visit us in Gallup for a week. She flew into Albuquerque on June 11.

We took her to the ranch to visit and help us do some projects. First on the list was to repair some fencing. There were several of us there to help. In our truck was Trace, his mom, my mom, & me. And with us was Trace's uncle Dave, his cousin Brandi, and Brandi's husband and son. I was mostly in charge of re-nailing wire to the posts that had come loose. Trace was re-stretching wire and reattaching sections that had broken from weather or elk. We worked on two sections and it was fun. The weather was good and we got a lot done. We did plenty of sight seeing and wondering around too. The wildflowers were beautiful and everything was green. We had a great time!

Sunday was time to brand the calves. We got then in the corral and separated from the mamas first thing. Then brought them down into the chute one by one. I think the first guy up was bandit. We named him that because of his white face and black patches on his eyes. The process for a boy is the cut the bottom of his "sack" then Trace squeezed out the testicles and pulls the hell out of them. then they put pine tar which really just looks like tar but smells like pine to the cut and that part is done. then we put an ear tag in with what looks like a giant whole punch. I was in charge of giving them the antibiotics. a big-ole shot in the shoulder. Last on the list was to brand them. that part was worse than the castrating... it's a large cast iron branding iron that they heat up with a torch and then press into their sides.... they didn't like that part. But as soon as they were out of the chute and back with mama, they were pretty happy again. it took a day or two for the boys to walk normal but they took it surpisingly well!

Milking a cow

May 30, 2009.

We were at the ranch for the weekend with the intention of branding the calves. But the weather wasn't great and one of the cows had just had a calf that was too young to brand. But we weren't off the hook just yet. The cow that had just had the latest calf had a huge impacted milk bag. She was even having trouble walking because she was in so much pain. We could tell that the new calf was nursing the front two teets but not the back... and we weren't even sure if she was letting the calf at the front because she was kicking dirt and soar.


So we got her in the corral and into the chute. We decided to milk her out to relieve the pressure and hope the calf would begin sucking on all four. Mama cow was not happy to be in there, that's for sure. Casey had her back leg tied up so we could get to her and we rubbed some vasoline on the nipples to soften them and then milked her. Trace and I took turns while Casey watched that we didn't get kicked in the head. Thanks Casey!

By the time we switched sides, she didn't even need to be restrained. she was so happy to have the help. She was practically purring. So I felt like a real country girl that weekend and I was happy to help the mama cow. Turns out the calf did take to all four and mom and baby are happy.

Catching Up!

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted anything. Let me catch up...