Locomotive - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Days of Branding: How we do it

April 22, 2014 by Allison

You really should come spend a day branding with us. You could almost pick any weekend and we would be going out. Most days we brand the association cattle. We have 7 ranches worth of cattle together on the range, which means a lot calves! But more about branding with the association another day.

The day that you want to brand with us is when we do our cattle on the Peterson Place. We have about 350 cows to sort through and brand. We start in the morning gathering the cattle from the north. This year we did it in the rain, and what started out as a refreshing little shower turned into a soaker (be glad I didn’t tell you to come until AFTER the rainy year).

We sort the cows out (but we leave a few… the babies are happier with a momma around) and then start to work. Actually this year, we had to wait a while before we could start- blame the rain!

But eventually we got to work. The ropers rope (obviously) and drag the calves to the “fire” where the ground crew is set up. The calves are caught and held with Nord Forks. Don’t know what they are? (neither did I until I started branding with The Rancher). The are a handy tool that is staked into the ground and has a fork like head catch. It slips on the calf’s neck and catches at the base of the head.

The forks make for an easy way to hold the calves while we mark, castrate, vaccinate, tag, and brand the calves. Its a lot to do, so we need some one to run the shots, guys to do the castrating, others to brand and the top dogs mark and tag. Once we hit our groove we just roll on through them. Before we know it, the calves are branded and the dinner bells is a-ringin’!

And then we start over.

We gather in the bunch from the south. Then sort (and no waiting!), rope, drag… you know how it goes!

Days of Branding

April 21, 2014 by Allison

Branding. So much branding. But that’s normal. Every year at this time we pull out the iron sharpen the knives, start the fire and get to work. The ranch trucks have an eternal burnt hair smell. Its stinky and dirty but we love it.

The boys especially love it because that means LOTS of roping. The long days are totally worth it when the work is more like play!

There is a lot going on when we are out there. And you are going to hear all about it! This week I’m going to show you the how’s, why’s, and what’s of branding on the Eliason ranch.

A Good Day for a Haul: Taking the Heifers to Locomotive

March 25, 2014 by Allison

I’ve mentioned that we like to calve out our heifers on the ranch because they need a little more help. But at some point they need to make it down to Locomotive. The range is the ideal place to have the calves to avoid the sickness that can travel through a herd when they are close together. The whole kids-share-germs-like-candy concept isn’t just for kindergarteners. Instead of a ball to pass the gems around, it is usually the mud, the straw, or the trough. Being spread out on the range decreases the contact they have to other germs.

Eventually they will join the rest of the herd in the spring pasture, but when they first get to Locomotive they have their own range. We haul down a little unloading ramp and unload the heifers and calves right on the range.

Cows have a funny tendency to just take off and run when they get to new pasture. We like to hold them in a corral if one is available. If not, which was the case this time, we just unload a few at a time and circle around them to keep them put. This gives them a little time to mother up and find their calves before they take off.

Taking it slow to unload them might take a little longer, but it pays off to know that everything is paired up and ready to make it out on the range!

Happy 1 Month Birthday, 7!

March 18, 2014 by Allison

Babies grow so fast! Its amazing the changes that can happen in only one month! A baby calf is born and can hardly stand and then just a few weeks later you see them racing around the field. I’m glad that my babies don’t grow up so fast!

I had to find #7 and wish him a happy 1 month birthday. He was the the first baby born on the ranch this year. Because he was the first, he has a special place in our hearts. We couldn’t let his birthday pass by with out a shout out!

And we wanted to show you just how much he has changed. Ok, I know, these aren’t great pictures to see the changes but he really has grown a LOT! I think he didn’t want to listen when I told him to say cheese. I’m just happy that we have a picture of his face. I guess he’s like kids- too grown up and embarrassed for momma to have a picture to document the day. Or not willing (able?) to hold still long enough to get a good one!

And I won’t have many opportunities for pictures because we have taken him and his momma out to the range in Locomotive. He’s all grown up and off to new adventures! Maybe at branding time I will have a chance to give him a little pat…

Our Ranching Start at Locomotive

March 14, 2014 by Allison

Over the last several weeks I have been looking through some of Grandma’s history books. She has piles of them with all sorts of family stories. There is even a Holbrook history (who knew?!). I’ve been reading through them to get a sense of the ranch’s beginning. Ranching really is in the Eliason blood!

It really all began at Locomotive Springs, clear back in 1885 when he railroad was new. There was a railroad tycoon that realized that there was good land to be had after the construction of the railroad. He bought up thousands of acres, put some cows out, and created the Bar M Cattle Ranch. Being busy with the railroad business, he turned his ranch business over to his son. In turn, his son hired up foreman to do the daily work (probably because he was no cattleman himself!). This is where our story starts.

August Eliason, The Rancher’s great-great grandpa, had left home young looking for some work to live on. Somehow (the books don’t really say) he wound up working for Bar M as a foreman (we figure somewhere in his late teens). He would run with the cows from east of Kelton, Utah (5 miles east) to at least Holbrook, Idaho.

Being a business man and NOT a cattleman, the Bar M owner ran the ranch with little cow sense. When it came to the grass on range he would have the cowboys graze the range hard. That left little feed for the winter. Since they didn’t buy or put up any hay in the summer, this meant that during the winter it was hard eating for the cows.

In 1889, the blizzard of a lifetime came through. When cows get a hard storm they just start walking, the wind pushes them along until something stops them or they are exhausted. With nothing to stop the Bar M cattle, they walked for miles and miles. The snow covered what little feed that was there, leaving the thousands (like 45,000) of cattle to die. There wasn’t a lot the cowboys could do- they wouldn’t survive the storm looking for the herd. All they could do was wait.

Once they were able to get out to the cows they realized that their losses were huge, like astronomical. I read in some places say that they lost all but 10,000 cows but another said only 800 were found. Either way, more than 30,000 died! They said you could walk for miles walking only on the dead cows. I can’t image what that must have been like to experience! I hate when we lose one, I can’t fathom THOUSANDS!

At this point the Bar M just threw in the towel, dissolved the ranch and left everyone to fend for themselves, the cowboys and the cows. Grandpa August and a few cousins saw an opportunity to be had and decided to strike out on their own. They gathered up what unbranded cattle they could find and headed north into Idaho. Having already run the cows that way, they knew where to find good feed and water to set up as their ranch headquarters. They still would summer the cows in the Curlew Valley and then every fall they would head back to Locomotive to winter the cows.

Over the years they built up a few small shacks for cowboys to stay in through the winter. Cowboys would stay a few weeks at a time to feed and watch over the cows and then head home for a rest. We don’t do that anymore, but those old shacks are still around. I try to envision what it must have been like in those. No electricity, no running water, and nobody for miles. Incredible!

And it’s cool to think that the cows we have now are from some of the original cows that survived that blizzard. I guess even the cows have little bit of heritage to them!

On our last trip to Locomotive to check, we took the long way home to go past what Grandpa August started with. We don’t own that piece anymore so we couldn’t go right up to it, but is was awesome to see it all in context, knowing how it all got started.

Calving Down South in Locomotive

March 7, 2014 by Allison

Every operation has its own calving process and the crucial chunk of ours is in the location. Locomotive is such an ideal place for our cows to calve because it only (ok, usually) gets little bits of snow. The weather is mild enough that there is still good range feed (aka grass) and warmer temperatures that we don’t have to worry about losing calves to the cold.

Being that it is out on the range, there are wide open spaces for the herd (channel your inner “Home on the Range” background music!). They can be spread out to make sure that the right momma and babies get paired up together. There are times when cows are bunched up too close that they try to claim another calf as their own. We tag them when we can, but since cows can’t read, it only helps us. I guess it doesn’t work like in the hospital when the momma and babies have matching bracelets!

Another plus of calving on the range is that it also helps to prevent sickness from spreading through all the calves. When the calves are so spread out, they have less contact with each other. When they have less contact, the germs don’t move from calf to calf so much. Just think of a kindergarten class of kids that are always wiping their runny noses on their neighbor. This is what we are avoiding! Young calves have young immune systems. And although they are building their immunity, especially through momma cow’s milk, we want to lesson their exposure as best we can.

Its a more of a hands off approach. When I was very first involved in the process I was sure that we weren’t doing enough and we were doomed to fail… But I was so wrong! We have incredible calving percentages every year. These are experienced momma’s that, with the right location, have babies without any problems. And then once the calves hit the ground, they just get growing!

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t put ‘hem out on the range and forget about them. We (read The Rancher and Rancher Sr.) ride through them nearly every day on the off-chance that there is something going hay-wire. But we certainly don’t wear ourselves out as if we calved all 600+ at home!

“They’re Sheep… Not Cows!”

February 20, 2014 by Allison

On our last outing to check water we came across some range neighbors. As soon as The Rancher’s Sidekick could pick out what they were he shouted, “They’re sheep… not cows!”

Apparently we need to get out and see more critters than what we normally see on the ranch because our kids loved seeing those sheep!

There is a big sheep herd sharing the range with our cows in Locomotive. They blend in with the country side really well and when you finally recognize that the sheep are there they just POP out at you. Hundreds of sheep! There is even a little sheep camp and their very own ~~sheep cowboy~~, ~~sheepboy,~~ shepherd…

I think that they must have been surprised to see us because they just took off running. Little fluffy sheep running all over.

I had to do a double take when I saw a black sheep in the midst of the other white sheep. I had to ask what it was… I assumed it was a herd dog! I think that I had better stick with what I know best-cows!

Out to Locomotive Checking Cows and Water

February 20, 2014 by Allison

We are about to put a lot of miles on the ranch truck. It happens every year when we take the cows to Locomotive (we also get a LOT of mud). Its important that we take the time to check out the scene in Locomotive because we can’t let our cows go without feed and water.

For the most part, the work happens from the truck. We drive across the range to make sure that all of the troughs are working and filling. Generally we keep some supplies in the truck in case there is a trough that needs some work. If ever there is a bigger problem the cowboys come home to gather up the bigger tools and head back out.

Along the way we see how the feed is. A drive though helps us gauge when we need to move cows or if we would ever need to bring any feed down (but that usually only happens when the snow comes).

Of course we check out the cows too. Occasionally we find a few on the wrong side of the fence. Apparently, the grass really is greener on the other side!

I let The Rancher take care of all the hard work or keeping the wheels on the road and I just make sure to document the cow scene!

Hauling Cows to the Calving Pasture

February 18, 2014 by Allison

The Rancher has sighed a big sigh of relief last week. All of the cows that were home (about 500) have been hauled to the calving pasture in Locomotive.

It took 3 days to get them all moved down and we jumped in to “help” take them down

Now that we have all of the cows moved we will be making the trip down to check them, but Locomotive is a great place to calves out our cows!

Checking Water

May 6, 2013 by Allison

Something you really should grasp about Locomotive is that it is a wide open desert range. In fact, lets consult the thesaurus to really get a feel for it… DESERT: desolate – deserted – empty – wild – barren – dull. Yes I think that sums it all up! Actually I am afraid to admit it into the blogosphere (because once anything is on the internet it is there forever!) but it does have a unique beauty that has really, REALLY, really grown on me. That doesn’t mean I love it, but the emptiness is somewhat peaceful.

Ok, I got way off track… It is desert which means that there is NO water unless you make it happen, by either hauling water or digging a well. With the number of cows and the thousands of acres they went with the latter. This also means that it needs to be checked often to be sure that there are no malfunction because no water= bad news. If The Rancher doesn’t have plans to stay to Locomotive all day we will ride out there with him. The actual checking of the water isn’t that interesting, but it is always fun to go for a ride and look for a good picture.