Excitement at the pens

We spent two days crashing through the bushes, mesquite thickets, and prickly pear cactus, only to arrive at the pens and have this guy waiting on us.

I refused to get off my horse the rest of the day. Nothing can make you hurt your self worse than a rattle snake.


A few more pictures.

Featured blog!

Thanks to Elizabeth Martin for making me the featured blogger on her "faces of agriculture" page.

http://wagonramblins.blogspot.com/2012/05/faces-of-agriculture-feature-chad.html

She has some good stuff on a regular basis on her blog, and I hope everyone will look through it.

Here are few of more pictures I took. Cow work at its finest!

Pictures from today

 Thomas helping to flank a calf.

Thomas getting pitched off the flank of a calf.

A photo of the photographer.

In the news

I've been waiting on something like this to crop up.( pun intended )

http://www.naturalnews.com/035964_superweeds_GMO_herbicides.html

All actions have consequences, and I guess super weeds are the result of super crops. I try to stay as close to natural as fiscally possible, both on my pastures and hay meadows. I dislike any chemical application, including chemical fertilizer on my pastures, but sometimes there is no other way to make things work.

http://farmprogress.com/beef-producer-story-are-milk-meat-selection-overemphasized-10-60025

I have been saying this for years. I'll take a smaller, well balanced cow for the long haul.

I can feed these corriente cows for about a 1/3 of what it takes to feed my good cows. They won't bring near as much at the end of there life as a big cow, but the savings over a 10-12 year period more than make up for it. I hold most of the steers through the feed lot, and they feed just fine. I have also found a market for the angus/corriente heifers. They make easy to keep cows.

This week in the shop

I managed to get these built around a busy week. I put them in the mail to the sheath maker this afternoon, and all will be for sale when they return.

Corn cob handle

Pencil cactus handle

Agarita bush handle

King's Arsenal

http://kingsarsenal.com/

I met these guys today at the gun show in Abilene. It is an understatement to say that I was highly impressed with what they are doing. Plus they are local.
I know where my saved pennies will go from now on. I guess I need to hit the shop and turn some work out to sell.

Simple spurs

These are about as simple as you can get.

These are one piece spurs, with a 1" band, 1.5" roper shank, and an 1.25" clover rowel. The steel I use is 4140.
These spurs sold for 325.00$.

I built a set for Curtis (the new owner) a couple of years ago, and the only complaint he had was they didn't rust fast enough. I stopped polishing on these at about 400 grit, and they should age a little quicker. The last set were long shanked and big rowelled, and have got him bucked off a new horse a time or two. Maybe these will cure the problem.