Sad time

Kate was excited to get out of the house to go on a quick trip to the ranch Sunday to check ice on the tanks and be certain that the cattle were alright.  She was anxious to be out of the pickup and was being her usual exuberant self while going to the shed to get feed for the heifers.  Somehow she went under the pickup and was ran over dying instantly.  The human members of her household are very sad.  Kate will be fondly remembered forever.

Drink then back to work

The autumn construction project was to build permanent corrals around the central water tanks with gates going to 4 separate pastures for the rotational grazing.  An old theory was to have a pen around the tank with only enough room for cows to come in to drink and then need to leave to go back to grazing.  The thought being that they would not lounge in the area of the tank destroying the grass.  We needed a small entry gate rather than having a wide opening as we have had in the temporary openings to the whole pasture since building the cross fences several years ago.  Now we wait to see if the theory works.

parks and fossils

 This past week Paul Phillips and Arden toured 4 national parks in the Black Hills with Abdul from Afghanistan.  Abdul is preparing to head up 2  national parks that are set to open up in his country in the near future.  We not only toured the parks over 3 days, but had an inside look of park programs and discussions on park operations and management.  I have visited all 4 parks in the past, but this time I learned many things that the typical tourist doesn't.
One of our more interesting discussions was had with the paleontologists that were salvaging a 30 million year old turtle fossil in the Badlands national park. This was of interest since the Agate fossil quarry is 20 miles from our ranch and occasionally we come across a fossil on the ranch.