It happened

The annual testicle festival happened. Although the next day when we had lunch at the Cowboy, they were still on the menu, it appears by the sign that they needed more. If you are interested in sampling the delicacies or attending next year's festival, let Marty and I know.

It's still spring

Susan and John McCarthy, Westport, CT sent the picture of the day. I had to post it because it was so fitting. Believe it or not, although it has been like summer for the last 3 weeks, today was spring. Temperatures in the 50's and 60's, mist started around noon and it's more like rain now, predicting snow tonite. Woke up to see our horses all excited about something, it was the neighbor's horses who were not in their pasture because someone left the gate open, traveling up our road and visiting the other neighbors horses.

I took a load of manure to the pasture where I spread it and chased the neighbor's 3 horses toward their pasture, they entered our field where I spread the manure. By the time I was thru spreading the stinky stuff, the neighbor's wife had arrived to help move the horses. I took the spreader off the Gator so that I could help, only to realize the bolt that I had found on the road last week was used to hold the bed of the spreader to the axel. I was in trouble. Horses were back where they came from, and 2 trips later to Absarokee and the lumber company, I had the nuts and bolts I needed to fix the spreader.

The rain started, one of our horses jumped a fence to be with it's buddies and I didn't get much done. Tomorrow the 3000 sheep will be moved down the road to another pasture and another neighbor plans to leave 200 head of cattle on the South Grove Creek Road over nite on their way to their summer pasture.

Clint needs to get better

As I was traveling toward Fishtail yesterday with my camera by my side, I saw at least a 5 foot snake crossing the road. I had the wrong lens on the camera and by the time I had the correct lens, the snake was gone. I got out of the truck, walked through the grass and couldn't find. That's when I found the sheep and the spurge that I talked about yesterday.

After stopping at the General Store, the dump, the lumber company, the bank, the post office, and the IGA, I started down the Stillwater toward the Grove Creek. I spotted a female deer, stopped the truck and with my 400mm zoom lens I took its picture. Not until I saw the picture close up on the computer, did I realize it was not a doe about to have a fawn or perhaps a doe with a fawn. I was too far away to tell when I took the picture.

It is the time of year for the female deer to start having their babies. They usually separate themselves from the rest of the herd to have their baby, that's why I thought I might have found one. Sooner or later, you'll see a picture of a doe with her fawn.

The Spurge is back

Leafy spurge is a weed in Stillwater County, Montana and most other places where it grows wild. It has a very deep tap root, 20 to 30 feet deep, the sap is like latex, and uncontrolled, it will take over your property. Less than a mile from where these pictures were taken, a rancher once lost his ranch because he said, I ain't never going to have sheep on my ranch, I'm a cattleman. The spurge took over and he lost his ranch. How is it controlled. Sheep eat it, it has between 35-40% protein, so it's great feed. There is a spurge beetle that is available to the ranchers in early July. This is the only other way to control the weed. Originally it was imported from Russia as an ornamental plant.

The first picture tells the story. This neighbor has turned his sheep onto the county road to eat the leafy spurge. It is the yellowish green looking plant in the pictures. The county can't control it with weed spray, so let the sheep loose. The second picture is part of the flock as they move down the road, grazing on the spurge, and the final picture is one of a mother and her lamb, the mother's mouth full of spurge and the lamb enjoying the day.

The Johnson Place which is the 5000 acre ranch to the south of ours is loaded with spurge. The semi's have been arriving for several days and ultimately there will be at least 3000 sheep there for the summer. Yes, in case you are wondering, we have spurge on our property also.

DOUBLE CLICK ON THE IMAGES AND YOU"LL SEE THE SPURGE

Rafiki gets great home, Quasar arrives

A sale was consummated for Rafiki. Needless to say as he was loaded in the new owners trailer a lot of tears were shed, but they were tears of happiness, as his new owner, Gayle Wold, from Helena was a much like Marty as Marty, what a great owner and wonderful new home for Rafiki.
Quasar, a 2 year old son of Toby's out of a warm blood mare arrived at the Circle B Bar T the next day. He spent the first day with Doc and then they joined the rest of the horses in the pasture. Quasar was readily accepted in spite of his young age and size. He will easily mature to 17 hands and is already the largest horse on the ranch. Marty went into the pasture the next day to see how they were doing. As the horses saw Marty, they came galloping from the furthest point of the pasture toward the barn. They had to go thru a gate to get there. It appeared it might get crowded at the gate, how would they all fit through at the same time. No problem, Quasar just jumped the fence. HE WILL BE A GREAT JUMPER based on this experience.

Update from the Circle B Bar T

Yesterday was our 10th anniversary of living full time in Montana. There's a lot of change in 10 years besides the obvious. 2 new dogs, 2 cats, 14 horses, a barn, an indoor and outdoor arena, several miles of new fence, a lot of snow, a lot of wind, and a lot of friends and relatives have enjoyed these 10 years with us. We are looking forward to the next ten years as much as we were looking forward to crossing the Montana border 10 years ago.

Several years ago, Bob Houser, our son-in-law, signed Clint up as an ambassador with Maker's Mark, the fine Kentucky bourbon. Soon thereafter we both had our names associated with new barrels of Maker's Mark. They aged to maturity and today, Bob journeyed to Kentucky to get our 2 bottles (each) and offically sealed the bottles by dipping them in the red wax.

10 weeks ago you saw this "red tailed hawk" on our blog.
the only difference between then and now is it's 75 degrees warmer, the wind is still 35 miles per hour, and his picture that was taken inflight is now being enjoyed by a number of people who have purchased it. Today is the second day of summer. We're not sure if we experienced any spring at all. Yesterday it was 95 degrees on the deck and today it has been in the mid 80's.

It's been a great 10 years and we are looking forward to the next 10. For those of you who have been here, welcome back, if you haven't made the trip, we'd love to have you.

More Yellowstone

Today, we start with a young elk trying to hide in the tall grass, curious as to what I was doing, then to another elk who has just started to re-grow his antlers. Growing at 1.5 inches per day, he should have a full rack within a month or two. The finish is velvet but as his antlers get fully grown he starts to rub them on trees to remove the velvet and also we lose some bark from the trees. Do you like pronghorn or antelope - he is the fastest animal on the planet with the exception of the cheetah. The wolves -we'll start with a gray wolf who was in the same area as the black wolf, near a carcass. The black wolf is #480 who you saw a couple days ago with the bison,he's also Casanova's brother. The last picture he was howling. Note sure if he was calling some of his buddies, if he had smelled the carcass, or just wanted to brag.

When you read this, Marty and I will be on our way back to Yellowstone for another day in the park. See you later

Sights you don't expect in Yellowstone

Driving through Yellowstone in the spring, you find lakes with more water in them than you see the rest of the year. But did you expect to see a swan in a lake in Yellowstone. We've all seen the Mountain Bluebird, but how many times have you seen his wife, and in Yellowstone. This beautiful lady was flying around Mammoth Hot Springs with her boyfriend. Just around the corner from her was this magpie. I've been trying to get a good picture of a magpie for over a year, I think I finally succeeded. And look who was trying to hide from me, this ground squirrel. Tomorrow will be wolf and elk.

A hike to an old bear/wolf den

The day I took these pictures we hiked to the sight of an old den. Initially, it had been a bear den and after the wolves were re introduced into Yellowstone, a wolf took possession for a few years. I had expected to hike into the mountains to find the den, but it was just at the edge of some trees. As we have hiked in Yellowstone over the past year, I was looking forward to more hikes off the road until I saw where the den was. I then changed my mind about hiking in unknown territory during the spring. At one time during our hike, I looked around to find Marty sitting on a log. We then arrived at the den site, nothing formal, no welcome signs, just a hole in the ground, large enough for a mama and her litter.

As we headed back across the meadow, I stopped behind a rock to relieve myself and as I looked back toward the den, guess what I saw? A bear headed in the direction of the den we had just visited. I took this picture and yelled at the rest of the group to tell them about the bear.

Finally, Ashea, our guide, came across an elk antler, which I have titled, Clint's new belt buckle. The 2008 antlers have all been deposited somewhere and the males are all growing new ones at the rate of 1 1/2 inches per day. Ultimately, the male that lost this antler will have 2 new ones, at least this big if not bigger. An antler like Ashea is holding could weigh as much as 15 pounds. If you have seen my belt buckle, all I would have to do to get a new one, is to saw off the end at the left side of the picture. Unfortunately, you cannot remove anything from the park, so if I want a new elk horn belt buckle, I'll have to buy one in a store.

Yellowstone was great

We actually spent 5 days in Yellowstone National Park. Our visit was primarily to the area between Mammoth Hot Springs and Cooke City. In addition to the seminar that we attended, we experienced the wolf migration into the area around Mammoth Hot Springs. At least one female has had a litter a pups within a mile of the city and the males have been observed in Mammoth looking for food. Everyone is concerned as to what will happen next. You may have read about this in your local paper.

If you have been to Yellowstone, you know that buffalo, bison, or tatonka, are a major item. You see them everywhere. I captured these pictures to update you on what's happening with them. There were a significant number of new calves that had just been born, this young calf was with its mother in the snow of which there was still quite a bit still on the ground. Buffalo's for a short distance can move very rapidly. I thought this made a great picture of this big bull acknowledging that he could go very rapidly if required, in fact he could exceed the speed limit for a short distance. Finally, I saw this wolf (he is #302's younger brother) by himself initially. He started to wonder across a large meadow - - at the end of the meadow was a buffalo. They started to converge on each other which peaked my interest. Ultimately they got close enough for this picture and after they posed for me they went their separate ways. More tomorrow.

FIELD REPORT: no pictures, go to yesterdays blog if you need an image

Drove the Gator down to the Grove Creek this morning to pick up the live trap, which I had left there to air out yesterday, only to find another skunk in my trap. I had set it but didn't expect to capture another critter. As you may image, by the time the skunk had been put away, Clint smelled just like a skunk. Marty is now washing my clothes and I'm headed to the shower.

We are leaving shortly with Tom Baxter and his friend Linda for a 4 day Lodging and Learning seminar at Yellowstone. Look for an update on Friday.

A stinky mess

It took 2 days to have the trap in the correct setting, but this morning the evidence was in the trap. The best way to move the critter is to cover the trap before you try to move it to avoid the stinky spray. I picked up an old sheet with a garden hoe and attempted to put it over the trap. The critter sprayed the sheet and when I tried to get the trap completely covered, my right glove got a good coat of the perfume.

For those of you who might think that trapping the skunk and then disposing of it is cruel, you have never smelled one this close and more importantly, Stillwater County is one of 5 counties in the State of Montana that is quarantined for rabid skunks. Therefore, to protect the our livestock as well as our neighbors, we had to disposed of the critter. These are the 2 pictures that I promised when I set the trap.

A hunting we will go . . . . .

after Marty assures me that Ruthie and Martha, our cats, are in the barn, I plan to set the bait for a skunk which the dogs found under the floor in the hay. The hole in the first picture is where I believe the skunk enters its home. The dogs were digging in the hay 2 days ago and just missed getting sprayed, that's how we knew what was hiding there.

The next picture is the live trap with a Clint trick to improve the odds of catching the critter. The bait is cat food which when opened should entice the skunk to enter the cage for dinner and it is wired to the floor of the trap to be sure the skunk must work to get all of the food out of the can, this hopefully assures us that the latch for the door will be tripped by the greedy skunk. . If this venture is successful, the next picture you will see is the skunk in the trap.

Have you ever counted deer with Marty & Clint?

If you have been visiting Montana, you soon discover that there are a lot of deer. Someone asks, how many are there? One answer is that for every person in Montana, there are at least 4 deer. So we're returning to the Circle B Bar T Ranch from a hike or dinner or a parade when we start a competition as to which side of the car are there the most deer. The counting starts and the winner isn't declared until we get fairly close to the driveway. The most deer every counted, both sides of the car, from Fishtail to our mail box is around 100.

I took this picture on our way home from the branding. I counted 33 deer. This does not include the males, as they are not with the ladies at this time of the year.

BE SURE TO DUBBLE CLICK ON THE PICTURE

It was a day of branding

In the two prior blogs you saw that the ranchers had arrived with their pickup trucks and trailers along with some horses. They would round up the cattle and calves first at the Donohoes and then the Redmans, close to 300 cows and 300 calves in total. The cowboys would separate the cows from the calves, and then the ropers would lasso a calf, remove it from the holding pen, and other cowboys and cowgirls would hold the calves while they were branded, the young bull calves were casterated, and they all got an immunization shot. They calves would then rejoin their mothers. At the conclusion of the branding at the Redmans, everyone was invited to enjoy dinner of beef. There was a beer and soda truck available from the start to the finish. Bud Lite was the beer of choice.

Pictured below is the brands being heated, the actual branding of one of the calves, a mother cow watching her calf being branded, the look on her face says, "what are you doing to my calf" while one of the workers heads for another calf to immunize it, and finally this bucket will find its way to the Cowboy Bar and Supper Club for the annual Testicle Festival which is held at the end of the branding season.

Here's another hint, if you haven't figured it out

What are these cowboys and cowgirls doing?

It looks like some of the mother cows are outside the fence and some of the calves are on the inside

and maybe some of these people found a job.

What was happening?

Unless you spoke this past week with Marty or I, you will have to guess where we were and what we were doing. This blog does not tell the entire story, it's just the begining.















This is a hint, we weren't fighting fires even
though this is where the fire started 3 yrs ago
You say, there's no snow, it it spring, there's
cows and calves, got an idea yet.














You've seen the cowboys, is this some kind of
seminar, or maybe a rodeo.


you think you got it, a cattle roping contest.

The snow returned today. When we awoke this morning, I noticed the temperature was 37 degress, it was supposed to be 27. I said to Marty, it's 10 degrees warmer that it was supposed to be. She said, and it didn't rain. Then I looked out the window to see 3 inches of snow, you'll have to wait for the green.

You"ll have to wait to see the green

. . . the horses aren't, they know where it is. As you will see, 8 of 9 horses appear to be eating snow, but they really know where the new green grass is and how to find it. We took hay to the pasture this morning in anticipation of the horses being hungry but the horses are a lot smarter than we gave them credit. They know that under the snow is something special, just like finding the candy jar that was hidden in the cupboard.

The second photo is a close up of 2 of the older horses. Tex, the white one, favors the green grass under the snow and Khalli, is either full or tired. She is relaxing in the pasture inspite of the temperature being just 30 degrees.

So, you'll have to wait a little longer for the green.

It happened on the internet

THIS IS IT

I have been trying to be able to google something, anything to the first page of google for at least 2 years. Of course, if I did Marty Baxter or Clint Teegardin, you'd find us on the first page. But how you get the words in your internet web site, that people will find you with a normal search. I have tried and tried and tried. Up until 10 minutes ago, the closest I got was wolf,Casanova, #302, but I did not consider this success because unless you were very familar with the wolf population in Yellowstone, and wanted specific information about Casanova and knew his collar was #302, you would not have googled him.

Today, I googled "bluebird, pet rock" and guess what is not only on the first page, it is the first item on the list. After I publish this blog, I am going to celebrate, and then after dinner spend 3 hours trying to figure out what will be my next winner.

A new bluebird

If you are familar with the pictures I've taken, you've seen a "mountain bluebird" that I photographed last year by the side of the house, another one in Yellowstone was on the blog on April 5th and I promised I would find the male and get his photograph eventually. I am conditioning myself for a 4 day field seminar in Yellowstone in May - they say we will be hiking 3 to 4 miles a day, and on my conditioning walk yesterday, I took my camera. This guy was near a "bluebird box" along the road to the Johnson Place on my outward trip and I failed again to get his picture. Then on the return, he was perched in the trees along the Grove Creek. This is my favorite of him. If you've seen last years, which do you like best. If you haven't seen last years, go to circlebbart.etsy.com, he's there and has had more visits than any other picture.