Posts Tagged With: midwest

A good old fashion blizzard

Posted on February 1, 2014 by bigvalleylonghornranch

It was a brisk Wisconsin morning on January 18, 2014. The snow had fallen nearly half a foot already, covering the valley below with soft, thick snow. The wind was gusting hard. I knew I would have to get the cattle across the bridge and to the open water and shelter on the other side. It was vital that I move the cattle north of the bridge to drink and shield themselves from the wind. I made my way through knee high snow to greet the herd. Lucky for me they stick together. I just needed to get one of them moving and the rest will follow. But they were bunkered down and trying to stay warm. I felt bad making them move but it had to be done. And away we went, crossing the river and down a service road, we curled around the side of embankment. After all that, the cattle arrived at a clearing in the river and filled there tummies with refreshing cold water.

Categories: Farming | Tags: cattle, cold temperatures, cows, Farm, midwest

This Memorial Day

Posted on May 24, 2013 by bigvalleylonghornranch

To those who serve our country proudly, we thank you.

Hugo has the American Spirit, how about you?

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: Bunny, midwest, Summer

Friederick’s Farm

Posted on July 31, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

For a few short days during mid summer, I can watch the sun set directly over the former Friederick farm from our place across the valley. It’s buildings and silos looming as a landmark on the horizon. A tribute to the many working farms that have went the way that our local coops have. The little feed mills and main street farm stores have long since vanished from our lives. The little dairy farms that dotted our rural country roads and made our local economy thrive will soon be as extinct as the dinosaurs.

Many of the farms have been fragmented by severing the homesteads from the land they once served and sold as farmettes. Our woodlots are now referred to as recreation land and taxed accordingly.

Not many years ago if one needed emergency help it was just a short drive up the road. If you didn’t find anyone at the house or barn you would just drive out in the fields and you could find somebody. Help assisting a first calf heifer giving birth was a common emergency. Sometimes you would need someone with a much bigger tractor to pull you out of a mud hole, that you thought was just a wet spot that turned into a bottomless pit.

A short time ago during one of our wet springs, I got stuck in a seep in one of our fields and I had to call my wife at work and she came home and pulled me out of the mud while wearing her long dress.

Yes, things have changed across America’s heartland and as I now look at the Friederick farm standing on the West Ridge, I see a lifetime of hard work, dedication, and a way of life suspended like so many others in a transitions zone of what once was and the new age of high tech agriculture.

Yep! I think we all miss our old neighborhoods.

Categories: Farming | Tags: Barn, cattle, Hot temperatures, midwest, Summer

100 Degree weather killing crops

Posted on July 18, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

What a summer? We’ve had so little rain and 100 degree heat, the corn seem stressed. I don’t know if we’ll have a great yield this year.

Categories: Farming | Tags: Farm, Farming, Hot temperatures, midwest, Summer

Cow on the Roof

Posted on June 30, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

What a surprise I got one afternoon when I walked out of the house and seen one of our Holstein Cows on the roof of the hog house. She was standing there posed like a hood ornament. Years ago this type of buildings were very common on farms as most every farmer milked cows, had hogs, chickens and sheep. Small farms were versified to survive back then. Cows hoofs were not designed for climbing. How the cow jumped up there is a mystery and that’s the only time she ever did it.

Interesting as well is all the clutter of old boards lying around. After my folks bought the farm, it took years to get it all cleaned up. Most of it I guess was from the many old dilapidated buildings falling apart. When I was young I stepped on nails four times. My right foot still shows the affects of one nail. My mother thought I must of had a magnet in my foot.

On the back of the photo shows the year 1968, my sophomore year in high school. Two years later I began my career as a full time dedicated farmer and conservationist. I bought my first farm at the age of 21 and was married shortly after my 23rd birthday. We’re still here today living and farming in the Big Platte Valley.

Categories: Farming | Tags: Barn, cattle, cows, family, Farm, Farming, midwest, Summer

Headin’ Home on the Open Road

Posted on June 16, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

This correspondence was written in response to an article from the Apache Creek newsletter June 2010. Their story depicted a trip a staff member took from the grocery store to the Apache Creek camp. They put their grocery bags in the back of the truck trailer and when they returned, the bread was missing. It was titled Trail of Bread Crumbs.

Dear Friends,

I enjoyed your May 24^th newsletter. I can relate to the story of the bread crumbs.

About 8 years ago our youngest daughter was moving in Chicago so she needed to move her things home temporarily. My wife thought we could tell our little Ranger pickup and pull a small trailer and get everything. Thus, saving money for fuel versus driving a full size 4 wheel drive. When we got to her apartment I just gasp for air looking at all her “stuff”. No way it was going to fit into that little truck and trailer. My wife insisted it would. After we loaded the trailer and truck totally full and roped everything down, we still had lots more to go. We then started to tie things onto the ropes that held the load. We did manage to get it all with what we could pack in our daughter’s little car. At dark we started heading out of the city. I was riding with our daughter and my job was to watch the load and if anything fell off, she would stop and I was suppose to pick it up. (Did they really think I was going to jump out in the middle of 4 lanes of traffic to pick something up?)

I didn’t mind them giving me an important job and maybe I should have been flattered but did they think I was disposable or something?

Once we had made it through all the toll roads and the cities bright lights were just a reflection in the mirror, I started to relax a little bit. I remembered looking at my wife driving our poor little truck and trailer ahead of us with all the stuff dangling on it. It looked like the Beverly Hillbillies were headed north!

Your Friend,

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: family, kids, midwest, moving day, Truck

How Sparky got his nickname

Posted on May 16, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

How did Sparky get his nickname you may ask? That goes back to hot July afternoon some years back. Our old used lawn mower finally kicked the bucket so I promised the Mrs. I would get her a new one. Actually being a conservative (tight wad) I got her a used one; however it was new to her because she hadn’t used it yet. Everyone knows that when a previous owner gets rid of something used there is a reason for it of course. This one had a wiring problem. Well, I was too busy to fix it, the grass was getting taller and the wife was complaining the lawn looked like a hay field. So the pressure was on to let the hired man fix it. Well I just assumed that everybody knew that when you work on electrical wiring that you disconnected the power source first. NOT Sparky! Alias Bright Eyes, smoky hair Sparky likes to learn by hands on. No big deal though. It wasn’t nothing five hours in the local lawn mower repair shop couldn’t fix.

Everybody has an action figure hero; Superman, the Lone Ranger, or Wonder woman. We have Sparky. For who else could we get to keep inventory of the moths that visit our porch light. I don’t have time; I’m too busy trying to tag calves.

Categories: Farming | Tags: Farm, Farming, Hired Man, Lawn, midwest, Sparky, Summer

Part II Continued

Posted on March 31, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

I think back to some of the earlier days after hiring Sparky. I hadn’t realized that Sparky hadn’t much experience in farming or anything else for the matter! I think I probably hired him mostly because I’m a conservative. For those of you who don’t know what a conservative is, Webster’s dictionary defines it as “TIGHT WAD” noun. I since taught him everything I know and he still doesn’t know much???

Before hiring someone you should always ask for a reference from their previous employer. Since Sparky was my first hired man I didn’t even think to ask! One day he told me himself, however. A few weeks later I bumped into his former boss and was telling him about Sparky working for me. He thought that was comical and started telling me about the first day at work at his farm. It was milking time and he asked Sparky if he knew how to wash cows. YEP he knew. So he told him, to go down each row and wash the first and the third cow in each row. After assembly the milkers he walked into the barn. And there was the first cow jumping around in the stanchion soaking wet with Sparky scrubbing its back. It really was his employers fault though, because he should have been more specific and told him to wash the utter not the cow. The next day Sparky’s job was delivering coffee to the rest of the workers.

Categories: Farming | Tags: cows, Farm, Farming, Hired Man, midwest, Sparky

Fun at the County Fair

Posted on March 4, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

As a young boy, I’ve always felt excited to go to the county fair. Every fall the fair would drive into town and draw a large crowd. One game was especially exciting for me – I’m referring to the bulls-eye booth. The object of this game is to hit the bulls-eye 3 times without touching the paper (there’s a small hole in the middle of the target).

I was about 15 or 16 years old when the fair used real .22 long rifles (keep in mind this was 60’s). On this particular day, I shot the target perfectly on the first try. The burly booth operator asked me to sign my target and he then placed it above the firing range on a wooden beam. There it was for everyone to see.

My older brother, a competitive sibling, decided he was going to give it a try (thinking it was easy). He must have spent all day trying to get the tiny bullet through that little hole, but in the end, he was unsuccessful.

.22 long rifle

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: fair, midwest, rifle, Shooting | 3 Comments

Winter in Wisconsin

Posted on February 27, 2012 by bigvalleylonghornranch

Living in the North-Midwest, you have to expect snow every once in a while. Cold temperatures and freezing wind make farming that much more difficult. At some point in the morning, I have to decide whether I stay inside a few more minutes or go out in the snow and feed the cattle. Well, the cows need to eat. It’s not fair to keep them waiting in the cold.

Categories: Uncategorized | Tags: cattle, cold temperatures, cows, midwest | Leave a comment