Tricks of the Lick Tub Trade

If you've ever fed lick tubs, you probably know what I'm talking about when I say they are a royal pain in the neck to handle. Weighing in at 250 lbs, these short, stout tubs are beyond my ability to manipulate. Perhaps some of you other ladies, or anyone for that matter, have similar gripes about lick tubs.
Here is the solution I have devised, using tools from the ranching version of "duct tape and twine can fix anything" box.
First, I have my dad or brother place a block under one side of a few tubs wherever they are being stored. This gets them in a position so I can tip them over and roll them around. One key point here is not to have the lick tubs tipped over on their side wherever you are storing them if it's hot. This will result in no lick being left in your tub when you go to feed it....
I roll the chosen tub outside. Then, I go get a chain and the hydrabed. Or, this particular pickup is sporting Mr. Hydrabed's great grandfather, but it still gets the job done. While the tub is still on its side, I wrap the chain over the top and around the sides to the bottom. Then I half twist both ends around each other and wrap it back around the tub on the other two sides. This is just like wrapping ribbon on a present as far as technique goes. Once both ends of the chain are back on top, I tip the tub back over so it's upright again, and adjust the chains if they need it.
I then twist/tie the chain again at the top in a highly technical fashion that would have the men (who are not involved in the feeding of this tub and therefore have no input) cringing. Next I back the pickup up, lower the hydrabed, loop one end of the chain over the arm and secure it, then lift.
To help you visualize this procedure, I took photos the other day:

Once set on the pickup, I unhook the chain attached to the arm, and lower it around the top of the tub like so for transit. I haven't had one rattle off yet from this location. I think if you were going on a fairly smooth road you could just let it hang from the arm just off the pickup bed. I am in no way responsible if you decide to try this and it goes very wrong.

Upon arrival, the hydrabed arm is lifted and the tub rolled off the side. A mild struggle to get it tipped upright ensues. Eventually I win, and everyone is happy - me that it will be empty when I pick it up, and the heifers that they have something to eat.

My Second Cow: Lacy

A while ago I share with you how I got started in the cow business with the purchase of my first cow.

Well, Sassy certainly wasn't the last cow I ever bought, and was just the beginning of a long run of heifer and steer projects I showed over my 11-years in the 4-H program.

This being county fair week where I'm from, it seems fitting to introduce my second heifer, and 4-H project, Lacy. Named after my best friend until we moved when I was four, Lacy the cow came from a longtime registered Angus breeder in the Bighorn Basin. My dad purchased several of his 4-H heifers from this same operation, and is who suggested I purchase my first Angus cow from them.



 I do not remember taking this photo, or that we haltered her that day. I do remember that this nice man had several pens of heifers, sorted by price, ready for us when we arrived. We looked through all of them, enjoyed the ones that were too expensive for me, asked if the one that jumped the fence was cheaper since she jumped into a lower priced pen, and eventually selected number 1111.

 I paid for her, received her registration papers, obviously haltered her, and took her home. That's my dad on the right ready to do most of the work on the first attempt at leading.
She proved to be 100% Angus in nature. Where Sassy was mellow, sweet, kind and laid back, Lacy was the opposite. She wasn't wild, but derived particular enjoyment in walking wherever she wanted, dragging me along as I "lead" her. She was also not mellow or very kind. She was quite the eye-opener after my first heifer!

 Despite those attributes, and my sister being born in May of that year, in the middle of a major remodel of our house, I somehow got her as ready for fair as possible when you're 10

 Here we are on show day. By the end of the day that showstick was done from whacking her over the nose every time she tried to drag to me off wherever she pleased.

But, for everything she lacked in her desired show heifer disposition, she more than made up for as a cow. Lacy was a steer maker, and I believe she only had one or two heifers during the roughly 12 years she was in my cowherd. She didn't just raise any ol' steer either, she raised good ones. The people I bought her from were carcass oriented in their program, and her offspring excelled that way. I attempted to show one of her calves as a market steer, but he too lacked the show steer disposition. We ended up having him butchered, and the butcher asked all about him and complimented the carcass extensively. That's high praise if you're a rancher.
Other things I remember about Lacy is that she could flat out walk just about any other cow on our place, and was sneaky. You had to watch her on every gather, but she always had her calf with her. And, while I could always catch, scratch and feed cake to Sassy, it was a rare day to be able to even give Lacy a piece of cake when she was a cow. She was a harder keeping cow, but was always bred and always raised a calf that was among the best each year.
It may not sound like it from this post, but I really appreciate this cow. She was another foundation member of my herd, and she did a lot of good things for me by raising all those good steers. Plus, regardless of her quirks, there is a unique bond when you show an animal, especially when you're young. I loved her.
Just like with Sassy, she eventually got old and lost her teeth and couldn't keep herself in good enough condition. Her gate slowed and her calves started reflecting her age.When the time came I sold my first two cows the same fall, and that was very hard. But, I cared enough for them and what they did for me to do the humane thing and not allow them to suffer through old age in the harsh environment our ranch is located in.

Here Lately....

I realize I have been very absent on here. It has been a hectic, hot, busy, hot summer, and for some reason those seem to suck the extra time and energy out of a person faster than cooler summers.

Among my recent activities:
- Helping with hauling water to our house because our house well pump quit working
-Watching a litter of pigs be born
-Photographing my second wedding of the summer
-Getting bulls out of heifers
-Moving heifers from the creek of kosha weed and Russian thistle to the pasture of year-old grass and sunshine.
- Having the most expensive bull we've (err...I bought him) ever purchased be hurt, badly.
-Spending approximately half my working hours for the last two weeks on the phone with Dell, trying to get my laptop to work, and stay working. Grrr... This particular point is one key reason why the blog has been seeing less action lately.
- Finishing the editing of the first wedding of the summer, in spite of this faulty machine I own.
- Working on writing assignments
-Fighting fire
-Sweating...it was over 100 degrees here for a week straight
- Re-tinning the side of our trailer house that the wind blew the old tin off of. Heaven forbid we actually get rain and not have tin on the "new" trailer house.
- Providing moral support when we had to haul more water because a toilet in our garage and one in the trailer house ran all the previously hauled water down the sewer.
- Running errands all over the state
- Spending a weekend at the Sheridan-Wyo Rodeo
- Family Reunion
- Starting the move into the trailer house, which is currently sporting half new and half old tin.
- Checking water
- Checking (looking hopelessly for) grass
- Being very relieved when the house well pump suddenly, with no explanation, started working again. Laughing as my dad called the company he bought it from and chewed on them again, telling them he either wanted it broke or working, why was it not doing one or the other (he is under a lot of stress)
- Preparing to wean and ship and pull more bulls, and getting ready to do the daily fall ranchwork mostly alone as my dad and brother are gearing up to start hauling a massive amount of hay.

I have lots of pictures, and several posts involving those photos, planned for on here. Hopefully I will have a chance to catch up on at least some of my summer activities in the near future! Hope everyone else is having a nice, wet summer : )

2012 Summer Grass Report

This year's grass report is short....literally. In case your new, or have missed these in the past, I try to do a post on our grass from time to time to compare the current year to the past few. The idea is to show you what I'm talking about when I say a good year, or bad year, or the grass is great, or doing poorly.
Perhaps you've heard that we are having an odd year out west. It's hot, dry and about as unconducive to growing grass at it gets. We're typically semi-arid where I'm from, and this year calling us arid would be complimentary.
Here's what I mean -

Taken in one of our pastures on 7-18-12. This is as tall as it got this year (about an inch on average), and it was only greener than this for a couple weeks.

 Another photo, taken on 7-2-12. This is also in the middle of a pasture, in the bottom of a draw, which are typically greener than the tops like what was shown in the previous picture.

 Our creek bottom, as of 7-18-12. Anything you see that is green is either Kosha weed or thistle.

 A close up of the forage on our creek, taken 7-18-12.

Now, let's see how this compares to the last couple years

2011:

 Taken in a pasture on 6-26-11, very similar location to the top two photos from 2012.

 Our creek bottom on 6-18-11. I realize this is a month sooner than this year's photos. But, it never even thought about getting this tall this year.

 Creek bottom on 6-16-11. Same tree in the background as the 7-18-12 photo, I'm just turned slightly more toward the east in this photo.

Now for 2010:

 Pasture photo on 6-28-10. This was a great year.

And the creek bottom on 6-27-10. No, they aren't standing in a hole or anything, and that yellow spot on the side of that heifer is the head of a shoot of grass. Yes, we can grow grass like that here....on an exceptional year.

So, just in case you don't want to scroll back and forth. That was 2010, and here the same location in 2012 again, which is anything but an exceptional year.

If you want to see how the years prior to 2010 were around here, you can head over to my 2010 June Grass Report post.