As I wrote yesterday’s post “Honest Abe, clever Abe,” I did it gleefully, knowing it would cause husband Jim to curse when he read it on the blog. His view of Abe is different than mine, thus the cursing. You see, Abe belongs to our son Cass, and he loves Cass dearly. But when it …
Author: Cat Urbigkit
Honest Abe, Clever Abe
While the nation is focused on our new president, and since there are so many references being made to Abe Lincoln, it’s a good day to tell you about his namesake who lives in our household. Abe is a bearded collie, our family’s livestock herding dog. He was my son’s first dog, and is about …
Not sharing
With a new carcass in the neighborhood this morning, area eagles were once again drawn in, and I spent a while hanging out this afternoon, trying to capture the action. There were seven eagles, only two of which were goldens, which flew as soon as I arrived. This juvenile bald stayed around so I got …
Sharing
It’s been really cold here in western Wyoming the last few weeks, with temperatures dropping to -20 to -25 degrees most nights. I tend to hibernate in my pajamas when it’s that cold, putting on my Carhartts and going outside only to drive the feed truck every day, then back to the PJs. Of course …
Livestock guardian play
Once the New Fork River freezes, we have to move our sheep herd from the south side of a highway to the north side, into a pasture with an artesian well. On Saturday morning, we walked the herd underneath a highway bridge on a narrow trail along the frozen river, and they ended up out …
Wintering goldens
Yesterday I drove through the sagebrush country of the Little Colorado Desert, which is always a pleasure as it serves as a winter home to migratory golden eagles. I’ve noticed our eagle population has substantially grown over the last few weeks – the birds arrive with winter temperatures. They come from the north, and most …
Frozen waterhose
Before I’m willing to turn on the big stockwater tank and its heater for the wintertime, for some reason I procrastinate until my little tank is empty and the waterhose that feeds it is completely frozen. That happened today. Usually the hose freezes overnight, but thaws during the day so I can refill the tank …
Fence posts
I love living in the country, but when we moved our new house into our ram pasture in the middle of the sagebrush without a yard and fence, the dang bulls kept trying to scratch their itchy spots on the side of the house, or on the truck mirrors, and the horses would do battle …
Inbox obsession
My recent travels kept me away from the home computer for nearly three weeks. Although my family had done an exceptional job at cleaning off emails for me, eventually they were overwhelmed and the list of emails in the inbox got longer and longer. It took me about three days, but I actually managed to …
Predator defense mechanisms
As a livestock producer, I have an everyday relationship with predators that seem to like lamb for dinner as much as my family does. Our back fenceline borders the Mesa big game winter range, which serves as a coyote refuge with human presence prohibited during the winter months. What to do? We have no interest …