The past few weeks found my family traversing across northern Nevada gathering cattle and branding calves. My husband and I successfully convinced the kids that this would be a perfectly acceptable summer vacation. It wasn’t until people along the way began to question the wisdom of taking seven horses and six dogs on a summer vacation that the kids began to doubt the wisdom of their parents. It may not have been a typical relaxing vacation but we had a great time doing what our family enjoys doing: riding horses and working cattle.

Throughout our trip we logged a lot of miles in the saddle and in the pick-up. Many hours of roping and branding, but we also made time to check out the scenic country in Nevada: O’neil Basin, Ruby Valley and the Jarbidge Mountains. Not everyone appreciates the beauty of northern Nevada and the drought has certainly left its mark, but I love this rugged country.

Our cattle know this country inside and out. The cows know where to find each water trough and salt lick. It’s our job to make sure they have enough feed and move them to the next field in the rotation when they have grazed off about 50% of the available forage.

All in all, it was a great couple of weeks and the kids are already making plans for our next working vacation!

My older boys just completed their 4H steer project at the local county fair. It was my nine year old’s first year in 4H and I have to tell you that it was a struggle at times to convince him of the importance of feeding his steer twice a day! But he had a grand time at fair and admitted that hauling grain buckets morning and night was worth it after all! Nothing warms a 4H Mom’s heart more than those words.

Throughout the year my boys learned about animal identification, electronic identification programs, proper animal handling, trimming and fitting their steer and when a steer is finished (ready to go to market).

Continuing with their education, at the fair they learned about barn duty and show rings… and … cotton candy and carnival rides. Success!

Part of our day to day job is checking on the various groups of cattle on the ranch. Recently, during our check of this group of pairs we noticed we had a few sick calves.

We brought the pairs into the corral in order to doctor those calves that needed it.

We separated the cows from the calves to make it easier to work with just the calves.

Then we put the calves into the alleyway leading up to the chute.

My husband worked his way down the alley giving a nasalgen to each calf to protect them from the respiratory infection that some of the other calves have. The calves that were sick were given a shot to help them recover quickly.

I stood behind the last calf making sure they didn’t turn around and make a break for it out the back of the alley. It was a quick process and we soon had the calves back with their mama cows. It wasn’t long before we had taken the cows and calves to a new field.

Our crew hard at work!