The cows were out of feed so it was time to move them to a fresh pasture. We all gathered and began saddling the horses.

Two of Nate’s sisters, Anna and Lisle, get their horses ready,

then give their daughters some early cowgirl training.

My oldest holds the Shetland Pony while her cousin saddles him.

Paul puts the reins on Talinka.

Matt’s got his horses saddled and is trying to figure out who’s riding up front, behind, and what path we’re taking to the new pasture. Finally, everyone knows their position, the lead and tail cars are loaded, and Grandpa takes a group of little cowgirls and cowboys to shut gates and guard openings along the route.

The cowboys (and cowgirls) gather the herd as the storm gathers. Sometime before I snapped this picture, Nate’s horse Canyon decided she didn’t want him on her back. She began crow hopping and then all out bucking. Nate stayed on a good eight seconds and beyond, but eventually Canyon got her way. Nate has NEVER been bucked off a horse before. He says forty is not the age to start. He climbed back on Canyon and together they helped herd the cows the four miles to the new pasture at which point it was all Nate could do to get off the horse and into the car.

Paul on the other hand looks like herding cows in the rain is the best way to spend a Saturday.

We brought the cows out and immediately crossed the road.

Here they come

to cross another highway. These crossings are why lead and tail vehicles are needed. They park off to the side of the road, one on each side of the crossing, with flashers going and a stick poking out the window with something red on it. This hopefully alerts oncoming traffic in both directions if they haven’t seen the animals on the road yet.

The camera doesn’t show the rain or the wind.

I drove the tail vehicle. Here’s my windshield.

We arrived at the new pasture …

and the neighbors were pretty excited to greet some new cows.

Our cows immediately headed over to make friends. All this neighborly kindness led to a long night a couple of weeks later. I’ll have to post about that another time.

The storm was picking up momentum about this time so horses were quickly loaded.

Done socializing, the cows spread out to enjoy their new pasture, and we drove home to warm houses.  Nate collapsed on our coach to finish watching a soccer match and I thought we might never beable to get him up again. After a hot shower and good night’s sleep he was doing much better and was able to hobble off to his early morning church meetings. By Monday morning, his limp was barely noticeable, and by Tuesday, his aches were almost gone.

]]> http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/06/30/another-rainy-cattle-drive/feed/ 1 http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/06/07/spring-cleaning-with-the-family/ http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/06/07/spring-cleaning-with-the-family/#comments Mon, 07 Jun 2010 22:21:22 +0000 Kate http://www.katrinapalmer.com/?p=2372 Our string of six birthdays in eight weeks is over.

End of school year plays have been performed.

Advancement speeches have been made.

And now all the children are home with Mom. Time for spring cleaning. I envisioned all the cleaning taking the first week of summer break. We’ve begun week two and aren’t even halfway there yet, but here are a few things my children learned last week:

1. White means no dirt in the corners either.
2. Mom yells.
3. There are four screen edges, eight if you count both sides.
4. Mom checks both sides.
5. The ledge where the latch is attached to the windows is part of the window and has to be cleaned, too.
6. So does the latch.
7. Mom yells loudly.
8. Mom will take the phone from your ear and tell your cousin that you can’t talk right now because you haven’t finished your windows. Especially if this is the third call in thirty minutes.
9. Window tracks go all the way around–they’re not just on the bottom.
10. Straight pins can be used to extricate fly parts from window tracks.
11. Mom won’t let you play until the window passes her inspection–even if it’s 2:30 and your cousins are hovering outside the house.
12. Mom doesn’t understand “I can’t …’
13. It can take two days to clean all the windows if the children help Mom. One if she does it by herself.

And this is when I chant, “Teach your children to work even if it’s easier and faster to do the job yourself.”

This is our water. Once it melts we have no way of storing it. That means after the fourth of July, we can’t water our crops. How many of you stop watering your gardens or yards at the height of summer heat? Eighty years ago a plan was established to remedy this situation. A storage resevoir would be built in Sanpete and the Scofield resevoir in Carbon County would be doubled in size. Sanpete’s resevoir would be built first.

Before work on the Sanpete project, called the Narrows or Gooseberry, commenced, a serious risk was identified in the Scofield structure. “During World War II, it was discovered that Scofield was failing. A catastrophic failure of Scofield would do huge damage, including wiping out the railroad line that carried Carbon’s coal to Geneva Steel in Orem. The damage to Carbon’s economy, and to Geneva Steel’s contribution to America’s war effort was simply unacceptable.” (quoted from The Narrows Project Website)

Sanpete agreed that Carbon County’s Scofield project must be completed first. The dam was repaired, and its size doubled. The war ended. Carbon County had their water. Sanpete did not. Since that time, whenever Sanpete has tried to initiate progress on the resevoir to store its OWN runoff, the Carbon County Commission, the Carbon Water Conservancy district, the Price Water Users’ Association, and others have objected.

We need the capacity to store our water. We need the Narrows Project. Please help us by sending an email to the Bureau of Reclamation. Your email needs to be in their hands BEFORE JUNE 1 and must contain your full name and address.

narrowsSDEIS@usbr.gov

You can read more about the Narrows Project on this website and also in this article in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Here’s the letter Nate sent:

I am a local farmer in the North Sanpete area and have been here for over 35 years. Without the ability to store water, we are 100% dependent on spring run off and when the run-off ends, usually by end of June, so too does our crop irrigation. We desperately need the water promised to us to continue with our crop production. Each year we eek out one and half crops of alfalfa, which is not enough to even pay the expenses. With this Narrows Dam Project, we would be able to get an extra crop, making it possible to sustain our operation and secure a future for agriculture business in Sanpete. I only desire this project to be completed as promised. I have traveled to Carbon County in the fall and observe their continued irrigation of crops well into October. It is only fair, that we recuperate the water that rightfully belongs to us. I urge you, with all of the emphasis I can, to end the bickering and approve this project so we may sustain our desire to preserve our local economy and feed our communities.

Here’s the letter I sent:

I’ve lived in North Sanpete for the past seven years, first in Mt. Pleasant city and currently in the county. Sanpete maintains excellent water conservation principles both within its cities and in its various agricultural pursuits. Utah State University has recognized Sanpete County as a leader in water conservation measures. Even so, I’ve experienced the yearly summer water rationing as a city resident, and witnessed first hand the crop devastation each year beginning in July when we no longer have water for our alfalfa, barley, and oats. Citizens of our cities, as well as our many farmers, would benefit greatly from being able to store our own runoff–our own water.

Repeated environmental impact and engineering studies show there is no better place to build The Narrows Dam and Reservoir. The location is a relatively small area inhabited by sage brush and a small meandering stream. Due to a tunnel ditch and gravity, the proposed site involves no pumping costs. In 1984 Carbon County agreed, in writing, that the Narrows Project should be built, and agreed not to oppose it. I urge you to move forward with this project that began in the 1930′s. It’s time we had access to our own water.

Next, he removed the twine from the four posts

and replaced it with this.

Then we attached short lengths of twine to one row of rebar and the longer lengths to the other row.

Nate placed the PVC over the rebar and

slowly walked along bending the PVC to fit over the opposite rebar.

The PVC fit into the precut holes and over the rebar on each end wall.

When all the ribs were in place he took another length of PVC and began taping it to the center of each rib.

It took two lengths of pipe to complete the spine.

At the opposite end, he sawed off the excess before taping to the final rib.

He also duct taped the pipe to the corners of each end wall.

That’s as far as we got until Friday.

On Friday evening we rolled out the greenhouse plastic along the length of the structure and then some before cutting it. We should have gone another two feet–you’ll see why later.

The plastic should nearly touch the ground when you get it spread over the pipes. We were a little short. Creative- engineer-as-you-go is Nate’s specialty. We still need to get some greenhouse plastic tape to finish it up. Anyway …

Next we secured the plastic by throwing over a couple of the long twine ropes and tying them to their corresponding shorter twine partner.

And posted a child on this corner …

and one on this corner and a wife on another.

Then Nate brought over a pile of these

and began cutting out the plastic about six or eight inches inside the door frame.

Then he folded the plastic around a wood slat

and screwed it into the frame.

He repeated the process for the sides

and the bottom.

Then we secured the remaining lengths of twine.

You should cover your door(s) with plastic before you mount them. There it is! All done! So exciting! Nate quickly set up our drip watering system inside and

we planted our tomato and pepper plants. We haven’t decide if we’re putting a door in the far end or a vent window so we draped a piece of plastic over the opening for now. Here’s the link for step-by-step instructions, and this is a link to a video clip showing a hoop house in action.

]]> http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/10/hoop-house-part-2/feed/ 2 http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/04/hoop-house-part-1/ http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/04/hoop-house-part-1/#comments Tue, 04 May 2010 15:17:18 +0000 Kate http://www.katrinapalmer.com/?p=2291 I blogged about the grow rack Nate built here. This is what our tomato and pepper starts looked like about two weeks ago. They’re bigger now. Originally, we had planned to transplant them into the hoop house in our garden on May 1. Mother Nature had different plans. We got part of the hoop house up on Saturday and we hope to finish it tonight. (And by we I mean I’ll be there with a camera to document all of Nate’s work and occasionally lend a hand–but only if he absolutely needs it. )Then we can begin transplanting.

The first thing Nate did was build and paint the end walls. (We used a gallon of untinted paint. It dries clear.) He also drilled a large hole in each side of the base that extends beyond the walls on either side.

After quite a bit of measuring to make sure everything was square, he pounded in two-foot lengths of rebar and set the endwalls onto them.

Next he pounded in a fence post in front of each inner vertical support.

Then used some handy-dandy baling twine (seriously, how did I ever live without this stuff?) to secure the post to the endwall frame.

Then he stretched a length of (you guessed it) baling twine from one endwall embedded rebar to the the opposite endwall embedded rebar as guide. He stretched out a tape measure and place two-foot lenghts of rebar every three feet. Lastly, he pounded the rebar into the ground leaving a few inches above ground to receive the PVC pipe.

That’s as far as we got on Saturday. Hopefully, we’ll get it finished tonight. Can you taste those tomatoes yet? Tomatoes in July–amazing, miraculous! Is it possible?

]]> http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/04/hoop-house-part-1/feed/ 5 http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/03/branding-calves/ http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/03/branding-calves/#comments Mon, 03 May 2010 15:46:22 +0000 Kate http://www.katrinapalmer.com/?p=2278

It’s that time of year again. The time when we separate the calves from the mama cows.

Nate feeds the cows up the chute

where others stand ready to receive the calf.

These cowboys close the chute and turn it on its side creating a work table.

These gals keep track of how many males and females come through as well as few other things as needed.

Like measuring out immunizations

and administering them.

My father-in-law checks out this calf

while my cowgirl slides a rope into the back of the chute for the cowboys to loop around the calf’s back legs.

Then she and her cowgirl cousin take turns securing the rope so the cowboys don’t get kicked when they raise part of the panel …

to do this. Rocky Mountain oysters anyone?

This guy’s never experienced that.

Branding is the last part of this process.

The calves are released into a holding corral until we’ve worked with all of them.

Grandma helps the tiniest cowgirl peek at the calves.

The calves are released back into the waiting mama cows. Lots of loud mooing ensues as each calf and mama cow call out until they find each other.

]]> http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/05/03/branding-calves/feed/ 1 http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/04/09/day-5-race-to-the-finish-spring-break-2010/ http://www.katrinapalmer.com/2010/04/09/day-5-race-to-the-finish-spring-break-2010/#comments Sat, 10 Apr 2010 02:56:14 +0000 Kate http://www.katrinapalmer.com/?p=2231 Day 5

We spent our last day at Arches hiking the shorter hikes just off the road like Balanced Rock. Then we ended up at Sand Dune Arch. This is my favorite place at Arches and I was excited to introduce my children to it.

They caught on pretty quickly that this is a place to run and play.

And jump. We spent about an hour and half here just playing barefoot in the warm sand. So fun.

The next morning we packed up and drove home while we listened to General Conference. These were some very exhausted children. Oh yeah … I loved, loved, loved the showers at the Moab KOA. Such a luxury when you’re camping. It was almost worth not getting to camp right in Arches. Almost.

Cold, Cold Day 4

It poured rain all night while the wind blew so hard at times I thought the trailer would fall off it’s jacks. So what do you do when it’s cold and rainy? Get in the car and drive to La Sal.

Why La Sal? Fifteen years ago my husband and I honeymooned in La Sal. Yes, it’s true. We stayed on the Sunny Redd working cattle ranch. At the time she had several little two bedroom houses she rented to guests.  One of those little houses was our homebase for our Southern Utah adventures. (Now she has a lodge and one other house for guests.)

My husband had recently returned from a year long student exchange program at the Siberian State Aerospace University in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Coincidentally, the Redds had recently returned from Siberia as well and loaned my husband a book on the history of Siberia they had especially enjoyed. This day–fifteen years, five children with one more on the way later–we were returning that book. So glad we hadn’t borrowed it from the library; can you imagine the overdue fees?

La Sal greeted us with 3 inches of SNOW! We had a good visit with Sunny (and returned the book). Back in the car with wind blowing and more snow threatening, we turned the car towards Mesa Verde National Park. The freezing temperatures and falling snow made spending  a couple more hours in the car appealing.

Not much is open this time of year at Mesa Verde, but we only had a few hours to spend so it worked out perfectly. We took the one hike open this time of year, toured the museum, and stopped all along the mesa top 6 mile loop to view various ruins. My second daughter will be studying the Pueblo Indians in school next year so these memories will make the lessons come alive for her. It was 22° when we drove down the mesa just before sunset!

Even with the cold, snowy weather we enjoyed another great day of spring break.

Day 3

Back to Arches we went. We started out at Devils’ Garden so we could see multiple arches along the way to our ultimate destination: Double O. We passed a man in shorts and sandals getting out of his car. No shirt. My two-year-old pointed and said, “Go bath huh Mom. Go bath.”

It was quite windy this day and a little cooler than the day before. There was so much wind that we had to stow all our hats in the backpack so they wouldn’t blow away. My two-year-old sat nestled inside a wind/rain screen on my husband’s shoulders. Lucky little guy. He even napped on the way back.

There we are in the lower arch.

And the two figures on the top? Yeah, those are my oldest two monkeys. I have no one to blame but myself. I told them how to get up there. Truth be told, I would have been up there with them if not pregnant. And I had to keep the other three entertained.

Which wasn’t hard. They enjoyed climbing in and out of the lower arch and scampering around on the surrounding rocks while I peeled oranges and handed out segments as they ran past.

On the way back we (I) stopped to rest. Nate’s eyes shined mischievious for a moment, and he hurried back up the path we had come. I came out of a stretch to see he had just snapped this photo. He was pretty proud of himself.

This pregnancy has been a little rough on my sciatic nerve. I can go uphill fine. Climb rocks? Never felt better. Climb down? I do okay. But walk downhill for a ways, or worse yet, walk on level ground and I’m in pain in 2-5 minutes. Don’t ask me to stand. Ever. PAIN. So we had been going downhill for quite some distance when I stopped to stretch and relieve the burn from my back to ankle. That’s when Nate decided to document this moment for posterity. Lucky me. And then I post it here. Truth in the telling. That’s what I’m all about.

We finished the hike at 3 PM. It should have been warmer than when we started but it was much cooler and the wind was blowing like crazy. My second daughter and I finished the last 50 yards walking backwards to avoid sand blowing in our eyes. We made it back to the car just as the first raindrops hit. Sad thing is we passed a ton of people on their way in as we hiked out.

Nate’s been reading Chickens in the Headlights aloud to the family at night so we took it along on our vacation. The first two nights we read about the Buckley family vacation. “No Say” is a game the Buckley children devised to entertain themselves on their drive from Utah to California. Thanks to Matthew Bucklely, my children began playing the “No Say” game during our trip.

This third night of our vacation we read the chapter about the Buckley family picking up their chickens and goats. In the family van. Now I’ve read this book before. My two oldest have read this book. Even though the three of us knew what was coming, we laughed hysterically. Like I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard. My poor husband was lucky to get out a sentence at a time through his laughter. Treat your family to this book. You won’t be sorry.

I interviewed Matthew Buckley on my blog about a month ago. At that time his Kickstarter project for his next book, Almost Super, was just beginning. Now he has 48 days left to raise $5,500 to print his next book. As of this morning $2,029 has been pledged. I’m going over there today to pledge my $15. What do I get for this pledge? A copy of his book, Almost Super, which incidentally will likely retail for $15. It’s a win-win situation. He gets money to help print his book and I get a copy. Any amount from $1 to $1000 is accepted as a donation. I’m putting a link to Matthew Buckley’s kickstarter project on my sidebar. Check it out.

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