Life on the Ranch......Fixin Fence........

Life on the ranch mainly consists of two things...........

What are those two things? 

Why fixin' fence and feedin' cows a course!  Naturally different things crop up during different seasons, such as calving, haying, branding, and whatnot, but the day to day, every day tasks are feedin' and fencin'!

Yesterday after The Man got done feedin' cows he and I went to cut a load of wood and on the way we stopped to fix two places where the antelope/elk/deer had broken the fence.

The first thing we had to do was dig the strand of barb wire out of the crusty snow......The man did one end and I did the other.

When the wire breaks you have a left side and a right side.  On the right side of the broken wire, I made a loop.......

Then we took the new barb wire and stuck it through that loop that I just made......

And tied it back on itself.  So now we have the right side of broken barb wire looped together with the new barb wire which is still attached to the roll......

Then you attach the fence stretcher to the tail of the new wire on the right side, and the tail of the broken wire on the left side, and crank that sucker till the wire is tight enough to sing opera.  The fence stretcher holds everything nice and snug while you get it all attached together.

Next you cut the new wire off the roll, leaving a long enough tail to loop it back on itself like we did the right side in the beginning.  Remember? 

Then you take the broken wire on the left side, and loop it with the loop on the new wire, thereby fastening the whole mess neatly together.

Now you can take the fence stretcher loose, very carefully.  You want to be for sure and certain that everything is tied together, or else it will go zingin back apart cutting you to ribbons when you take that stretcher off!

Then you have to put the stay back on.  Yup, just like a corset stay, this little gizmo makes sure everything stays where it belongs.  It keeps the barb wires equidistant and snug.

And now we are done!  We can move on to the next area of broken fence!

Now, a few weeks ago Anonymous had a question about bears getting in the cows.  I talked to Mouse about it and she says bears aren't a predator issue with the cows.  We do have bears here but they are snoozing right now.  It seems that our side of the mountain is where Yellowstone likes to drop their "problem" bears so we do have a few Grizzlies and a lot of Black Bear. 

I said they weren't an issue with the cows, however, Mouse's mom does run a flock of sheep and they have had a few troubles over the years with bears in the sheep.  Right now there is a wolf pack that is preying on sheep in our area.  We've been spared any losses, but our neighbors haven't been so fortunate. 

The dumpster also is favorite prey of the black bears as evidenced by their wittle paw prints on the side, as well as the chokecherry and raspberry bushes behind Mouse's house.....I hope to get pictures this spring when they wake up!

Well that's all for now.........till next time..........God Bless.........