Change of Season

Well, I think we can officially say our season has changed.  With the last rain storm and then the inevitable snowflakes flying through the air, the Haying Boss snorted his disgust, laughed (what else can you do, really....) and headed for the Hills.  If you can't hay, you might as well get the heck away for a few days and hopefully fill the freezer too.  Robbie, who has been our champion right hand hay man this summer, finally got to do something besides drive around in circles.  And did he have a grin on his face for his mini riding lesson in anticipation of his trip.  It was fun too see.  I'm sure he was not grinning quite so much by the time they pulled into camp that night, and certainly Mother Nature still isn't helping, but I know they are enjoying the change of pace.  

Getting away from the ranch for a few days.  They are not heading for the spa....but the snowy mountains.  And the biggest grins on their faces to do so!  

Yep, that's snow in the Itcha's!  The bulls are fat and sassy and enjoying some 'down time'.

Eli is still up on the tail end of his last moose hunt.  It's been a tough one, but luckily we always manage to get great hunters, so all is well.  

As for mum and I and the boys, we are really getting to crunch time for rounding up the cattle.  We are behind as we didn't want to open the gates or really start rounding up, in hopes some miracle would happen to dry out more of the meadows so we could find a few more bales.  So here we go.....!  But it's great, any day on the back of a horse is a good one.    

We have a new friend here (Magalie had to go home....sadness all around....)  Jess is a young Aussie, lots of fun, full of energy and quite experienced in this type of work (from the house to the kids to stock).  We've been able to spend a bit of time working with colts and getting them going, so that is a great help for me.  If we can get 4 or 5 rides on each of them (there are four we concentrating on) I'll be good to go with them next spring. 

Up to our old tricks!  

Looking pretty happy to be riding again.  Nikky's other half just got home from the Yukon so she was able to leave Ava and come riding for a day.  Nice to have my top hand back!  :)  

So to back up a little bit, for those of you who have been following us a bit this summer, we did manage to do better in the hay department than it looked for a while.  Certainly we will have to cull off heavily and sell more than usual and buy hay, but it is not quite so dismal as it was looking a month ago.  The big concern is that the feed quality is simply not going to be there, so we will have to buy supplements to help with that.  That can come in many forms, such as outside hay (with a higher protein level), grain, pellets, mineral supplements etc.  We are still working out what will work best for us. 

Lisa sent me some of her trailriding photos.  Amazing hey?!  

So fingers crossed (again, or more like 'STILL') that Mother Nature turns of the water faucet.  I know many other places in Canada have been hit hard with snow and my heart certainly goes out to the farmers and ranchers and other agriculture based people.  We've been lucky in that regard so far, but if the moisture doesn't stop, we will have 7 feet of snow by Christmas.  Ah, but we might not.......  

So cheers to you all, and all the best.  

Punky