Road Awards

I drive a lot, and have found some drives to be better, rougher, longer, shorter and worse than others. Lately the majority of my driving has been within the state, and certain drives just deserve special recognition.

Longest Drive: Casper to Shoshoni, hands down. Feels like 5 hours to me every time I make that trip. Runner up for me is Wheatland to Cheyenne, that part seems to take forever. I often wonder if it has something to do with the signs every 10 miles showing your progress. And by the time I reach Chugwater I feel like I should be there.

Worst construction: Lusk? Cheyenne during Frontier Days every year? Highway 85? It's bad in a lot of places.

Prettiest Drive: Spearfish Canyon. Not exactly in Wyoming, but close enough. Anywhere in the northeast corner. Or from Buffalo over the mountain.

Worst winter road conditions: I-80 from Laramie to Cheyenne

Worst wind: Wheatland, especially from Wheatland to Sybille canyon

Scariest drivers: Riverton or Gillette

Best drivers: Cheyenne, you may disagree

Best road: Lingle to Lusk, you can really cruise

Best cut across: They're not even on the map I have, but there's a great one from Gillette down to Midwest and another that takes you from Lance Creek to Gillette/Moorcroft.

Worst, "Oh please don't let me slide off the road right here!!" spot: Dropping into Lander or going down the canyon into Thermopolis.

Hardest town to get around in: Casper!!

Easiest town to get around in: Cheyenne

Best Wildlife: The little back roads out of Buffalo and Sheridan

Worst parking: Laramie! It also gets narrowest main street

Most convenient through town route with a horse trailer: Douglas

Town you DON'T want to speed through: Guernsey, Lingle

Best place to speed: Hartville to Manville (they're not on the map either)

Best pull-up roadside coffee hut :) Either the little red hut one in Laramie or the one at Mule Creek Junction. I don't like the one in Upton, but my dad does. I think this is because I base my opinion on coffee flavor, while he bases his on how good looking the workers are...

Feel free to add your opinions, I'm sure I missed some

A sampling

Neighbors Cow

South of Lusk

Cow in front of our house water well

Replacement heifer waiting to be poured to keep bugs off her

Bringing calves in to be poured

I went home for Easter, and took about 500 photos. More to come, including baby calf pictures.
Happy late Easter to everyone, praise the Lord that he sent his son to die for our sins!

Surprised!

This ad ran in USA Today on 4-1-10. As I have said before the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) is not what it seems.

Twins!!

One of my most favorite lambing memories comes to mind on days like this. It was probably around the first of March with a heavy, wet snow and temperatures in the low 30's, just like today. I was somewhere around the age of 12.
Our neighbors, Clyde and Shirley, shed lamb their registered Rambouillet ewes and we have helped with a variety of lambing tasks over the years. This one still stands out.
A ewe was having trouble lambing and Clyde had given up her. She had a problem inside and couldn't physically lamb. Sheep are notorious for the way they just give up and die, so attempting any advanced medical treatment on her probably wouldn't work. Clyde knows more about sheep than just about anybody, so if he thought she wasn't going to make, he was probably right.
But Shirley called my dad to perform a C-section. (My dad is just handy like that and very talented with his hands.) Me, being the tom-boy I was and still am, became the official assistant.
We head down the road 5 miles to Clyde and Shirlee's place with our supplies, which included a knife, Catgut suture, disinfectant and various other necessities.
We arrive, get the story and begin.
Shirley was the only one with an optimistic mindset.
My dad thoroughly washes his hands, all our tools and the ewe's side.
I was person where dad said, "knife," and I handed him a knife. I also helped hold stuff out of the way and kept everything very very clean.
We give her a local anesthetic to deaden the pain, and wait for it to take effect.
He begins by poking around to make sure she can't feel anything. He chooses the proper location to make his incision and cuts through the ewe's hide to reveal the first of four layers of muscle. Each layer goes in a different direction, and it's very important to cut with the grain each time. You also want to tear muscle more than cut it because the rough edge tearing creates makes it easier for the muscle to heal (larger surface area and easier for the pieces to bind together). I know this because he was explaining it to me at the time, and it stuck.
After carefully cutting through each layer, one at a time, using short shallow strokes we reach the uterus. We cut through it and deliver two live lambs.
Twins!
Next we carefully sewed up each layer, making sure each side of each cut was in proper contact with the other side. This is where we used the Catgut. Since it is made from animal intestines, it will slowly degrade and eventually be absorbed by the body. This takes long enough for the wound to heal, but it limits how much future medical care the ewe will need.
Nobody expects the ewe to make it, mainly because she is a sheep and their will to live is well below average, as I said above.
My dad has performed numerous cesareans on cows and they almost always make it, but this was the first time with a sheep. We still gave it our best shot.
She did make it and raised both her lambs. Shirley named both mama and the two babies.
I decided then and there I wanted to be a vet. I later reconsidered when I found out that as a vet you also have to put animals down. Couldn't do it, would be in the waiting room, crying with the owner, while someone else put down their beloved dog.
But I do love saving animals and this was a great experience that comes to mind on snowy spring days without any wind around lambing time.