Category Archives: Lennie Phillips
H-E-B Visits the Ranch
Recently H-E-B, a grocery store chain from Texas, came to the ranch to see how the ranch operates and how the cattle are handled and raised in a natural environment. In an effort to further educate the customers and end users, when visiting the ranch we included them in working ranch operations. In the middle of September we were pre-conditioning our calves, which means we were giving them their vaccination shots before weaning time as we will wean sometime mid … continued…
The Farrier
As we get ready for calving we make sure we have all the right gear – warm jacket, long underwear, a good pair of boots, maybe some new gear and horse shoes. That’s right – horse shoes! Not only do we get ourselves ready for calving, we get our horses ready too… and part of that is a good set of shoes. Shoes help protect the horses’ hooves from rocks and hard, uneven ground. Are they necessary? Well, that depends … continued…
Babies!
It’s that time of year again that the babies start to come and we sure look forward to it. This year we had 4 mares due to foal in the end of March/beginning of April, before things got too busy with calving cows. Two of the mares were maiden mares (meaning they had never had a baby before) so we weren’t sure what to expect from them. They both did great and both foaled very early; one had a filly … continued…
The Easter Bunny
Seeing as Easter is just around the corner I found it ironic that I just happened to run into this jack rabbit, as well as appropriate to have some rabbit pictures to post. I was going out to check on some horses and this rabbit just hopped in front of me; of course I just happened to have my camera with me. I debated whether or not I would be able to get my camera out in time but the … continued…
Buttercup in the Springtime
I have a cute story that a friend here (who is a teacher) told me. She said she was teaching school one day and one of her female students who is around the age of 8 came up to her and started telling her about her horse Buttercup. This little girl was telling the teacher how buttercup is a sweet horse but in the spring time she gets really frisky and likes to play and buck and act up. Then, … continued…
March – in like a lion, out like a lamb…
Too bad they forgot to tell the weather that, because March came in like a lamb and has been all lion. As you can see from the pictures, winter is still here and it’s coming down in big, wet, flakes. Hopefully spring is somewhere around the corner.
Breaking horses
Winter on the ranch is a somewhat slower time as there’s not a lot you can do when the ground is full of snow and ice. We generally feeds cows, do some basic maintenance on equipment and if we have time we work with some horses. We have a big enough barn that we can set up a make shift round corral in and it at least gets us inside and out of the elements. You can’t really ride any … continued…
The Fox On My Morning Drive
I’m headed to work this morning and I’m listening intently to the radio because there is some crazy news story on about a new use for toilets in Japan. They were saying that they have found that they can use toilets as desks if they have kids straddle the toilet backwards facing the tank……….the tank can be used as a desk top. Why am I telling you all of this, because this is the reason I almost missed these amazing … continued…
