Last Week

A good deal of things have been happening around here.  The most inconvenient event has been that we are over our GB usage of the internet this month.  I am becoming a proponent for rural broadband access, quickly.  I believe the current Farm Bill includes a broadband loan program for rural areas. I wonder why the country has not taken up the rural electrification approach from the New Deal and have broadband co-ops across the rural America.  Well maybe if Congress ever gets around to passing a Farm Bill they will also pass the loan program for broadband access.  I guess, I should write my congressman.   

Let’s see here,

Last Tuesday was very interesting.  I spent my entire day attending the quarterly Rio Grande water district meeting.  G happens to be the president of the council and they over see something called the Closed Basin Project.  The Bureau of Reclamation over sees the funding for the project and the board is responsible for spending the taxpayers dollars appropriately.  Now, the Closed Basin Project was developed to store water from the surrounding area and funnel it into a canal system that feeds into the Rio Grande River and assists the State of Colorado in meeting its water compact between New Mexico and Texas.  There is also some international water compacts between Mexico that have to be met.  The Closed Basin Project is very interesting, but there is also a great amount of detail to the project. Here are a few links to the project:

Last Wednesday consisted of stringing polywire fence lines around a new piece of property.  The property is about an hour away from the ranch, but it is by the river and is forested.  We have been hired to control the spread of weeds and invasives.  The land is under a conservation easement.  I have learned, here in the DRY west you can hang polywire lines on trees and bushes without the branches shorting the fence out because of the arid climate.  

Thursday was our big move or as they say over here a drive.  The yearling herd had been grazing a crop circle about four miles from the new property.  The journey was not long.  It took us about two hours to get them from point A to B, but there were no big issues along the way.  The horses helped with the drive.  I drove the 4-wheeler around instead of being on the horse.  I’m not ready to herd a bunch of cattle down a road on horseback.  It was a long but exciting day, and the cattle were very happy to not be on crop land anymore.  We fenced in a patch of woods for them.  The woods are a big cattle playground now. 

While all this has been going on we’ve had 25 calves born and a few that have needed some extra care.  Along with calf care, we have been working hard on our Organic Re-Certification forms.  Many hoops to pass through…lots of paper work to prove that our cattle have been on pasture 24/7 365 days a year.

Might be a couple of days before I write again…