Memorial Day 5/27/13

The Ranch was a very popular place this Memorial Day.  A lot of family went and had a lot of fun. 

Eric went up on Saturday and planted the potatoes. 

Monday was the popular day though.  It seems like half of the family was up there.  In the morning Erica and Jared use the tractors to make a new road just South of the potato field going to the lookout where Eric would like to make a campsite.  They were able to get it done pretty quick and it is very nice.  You should get up there soon to check it out, I was impressed. 

Peter took his bees up and you can hear them buzzing already, hopefully they will get some of the chocolate flower nectar.  It seems as though he has double what he had last year but we would have to check with him on that one.

Grandpa sent a message about the weekend: Gramma and I went up with Ginny and Janae and had a wonderful time. The hay field looks great and is growing fast and they got some spuds planted that should do well after the nice rain storm we had last night. We left a little early but Eric an Jared were building a road to Eric's favorite spot to camp. I am anxious to see how it turns out. Love to all..

A lot of the family went on a hike.  They hiked up to Nellies and had some awesome pictures in the flowers and on the mountain.

 

Camping in the Rain

This past weekend Jared was at The Ranch with some of his Family and 2 groups were up there as well. 

Jared took work off Thursday and Friday and went up Thursday morning by himself.  He was able to finish all of the fence line on the inner East fence and the South fence.  He also did some tractor work and made a new tent/trailer spot on the North end of the long alfalfa field.  Kerri, Dustin, Tucker, Libby, Toby, and Colby went up on Friday evening.  Eric was already up there with a ward father and sons group that was camping there.   A scout group from Syracuse, UT came down as well and camped out. 

We got right to work and finished the East fence.  It only took an hour and then we were able to just hang out around the fire while Tucker worked on the potato field.

http://youtu.be/d0YRUZRIS_U

It did rain during the night.  We were all dry cause we were in trailers.  The scouts and ward groups were not as lucky, they got rained on all night in their tents but no one complained.  Although it was raining in the morning we still decided to work on the West fields fence.  It was in pretty good condition with only a couple of breaks in it.  We finished that in the morning and then we went up to talk to Doug and Pat Weight.  They were working with their new tractor and getting a new hay field ready to harvest. 

We had lunch and then the rain kind of stopped for a while.  Dustin had to take his trailer down so we tried to hurry and get out while the roads were still dry.  Trent came up for lunch with us and brought Brinley and Porter with him.  While we were driving down we ran into a truck left in the middle of the road.  The keys were left in it but it wouldn't start and no one was around.  We hooked it up to a truck and pulled it out of the way.  Then we made our way down and then with about a mile left on the dirt road we ran into a guy that had a small trailer pulled over to the side of the road.  We stopped and Jared had to help him get the trailer hooked back up to his truck and then we followed him down to Diamond Fork. 

All in all, it was another great weekend up there.  It is very green right now so go check it out if you get a chance before it starts getting too hot. 

May 3-4 weekend

Jared and his family went up to the ranch this past weekend.  They all stayed right where the pavilion will be built.  It was a very nice weekend and didn't even get too cold at night.  We also had our first scout group go up there.  They were able to do a hike for the 2nd Class badge for scouts and also pass off several requirements they needed. 

Jared and Trent were able to do some work on the tractors and were able to work on the fields and on the road a little bit.  The next time you go up you will notice that the new road by the cabin has gravel on it.  It is very nice.  They had done just past the cabin on Saturday and will probably be done by the end of this week.  It is much safer now to drive that road. 

It is a going to be another dry year so please be very careful.  We can have fires right now but we may not be able to have them later in the year.

Jared spoke with John and Chris Child who have property just bellow us and they have again requested that we all drive very slowly by their place.  They said that when people drive fast they kick up dirt and dust and it makes a mess of their set up they have by the road.  Please be respectful so we can have a civil relationship with our neighbors up there.

Everything else is going great up there.  There will be some groups going up there in the next couple of weeks so check the calendar and just communicate with Jared or Eric if you want to stay the night up there so we can make sure the groups are out of your way.

Also let Jared or Eric know if you are having a group go up there so we can get it on the calendar.

Tangled, Rusty, Messed up East Fence

This Saturday a lot of work was done but it did not cover a lot of fence line, just a lot of work due to the mess that we had to deal with. 

Jared, Trent, Tucker, and Gable left early in the morning and started to work on the East fence moving North from the South East corner of the property right by the old coral.  They worked all morning from 8:00 am-2:00 in the afternoon.  They were working on the Child's portion of the fence because they don't work on it and we want to keep their cattle out and the cattle grazing in our side in.  They found many assorted lines of barbed wire.  There was a lot of rusted out lines, broken lines and it was all just a mess.  They also had re-plant T-Posts with just a hammer because they forgot the post pounder.  They were able to finish a couple hundred yards of fence.  Then they stopped for lunch.

In the afternoon Shane and Deanne drove up with Grandma and Grandpa along with a caravan including Ronda with her 2 sons Garrett and Mckay.  Valerie went up with Dustin, Libby, Toby, Tricia, and Karlee.  Some of us helped finish the east fence line up to where our portion of the fence is located.  We finished at about 5:30. 

Everyone else stayed back by the water and played with the kids and just enjoyed the awesome property.  Valerie was on the tractor disking for a couple hours and has nearly finished the entire big field by the cottonwoods. 

We stayed up there for dinner and we all had Tinfoil Dinners (or as I like to call them, Hobo Dinners).  It was a very nice day and made us realize that summer is just about here.  It is still kind of dry up there and hopefully we get a couple of rain storms soon.

This weekend Jared and his family will be going up along with Kerri and her family and staying the night on Friday night.  Dustin will be taking up a scout group up for the night and taking them on a hike up to Nelly's Spring.  It should be a great trip and hopefully we will have some pictures to post next week. 

The main gate to Wanroads is also open so now people can go up any time.  The gate to the flat iron is locked so just check with Jared or Eric to get a key to get into the fields if you want to get into that area.

Turkey Hunt, Disking, and Fence Move

A lot was accomplished this last week.  It was stormy a lot of the week but Friday and Saturday it dried up just enough to be able to go do some work. 

Jared and Valerie went up Friday afternoon and started working very quickly.  Valerie got on the tractor and was able disk most of the big cottonwood field.  It looks really good and with the field still being a little wet it looks great.  She was able to get all the way up to the tree line and make it is about ready to spray for weeds and then plant alfalfa.   Jared got started on moving the east field fence line which was right by where Valerie was disking.  He pulled out 3 railroad ties/cedar posts and planted them back in the middle of the old steep road.  He also pulled out a bunch of T-Posts and planted them in the ground as well.  He pulled down the fence line from the Flat Iron Gate all the way down to where Peter's bees go.  Anyone who has not done this does not realize how much work that is and he did it by himself with a little help from Valerie when she finished disking. 

Dustin went up early in the morning with some of his family to go on the Turkey hunt.  They saw a lot of Turkey but were never able to shoot anything.  It is very fascinating to call them in and hear all of the Turkey around when you just stop to listen and hear what they do.  Dustin's family left at 11:00 after the Turkey stopped responding to the calls.

Trent, Tucker, Gable, and Trent's kids went up at 9:30 and started working on the fence Jared had started moving.  Dustin joined them at 10:30 to work on the fence.  They were able to get the entire fence pulled down that was needed.  They also pulled out all of the T-Posts and cedar posts/railroad ties.  Trent and his kids had to leave at that time and Kerri with Libby and Toby came up for lunch and to finish helping a bit.  They then were able to put the barbed wire back up to then fence.  There is one gap in the fence that still needs to be finished but some of us are going up on Wednesday 4/17/13 to finish it in the evening (if the weather lets us). 

Gable was a lot of help and it was nice to have another person there to help get it finished.  They would not have finished everything if Gable was not there.  We continue to invite anyone that wants to come up with us to just let us know, we may be calling some of the younger grandkids this summer to see if they want to come help us. 

We then had to leave as a storm was coming.  It was a great day and a lot was accomplished.  We wanted to get all of the fence repaired around the property but we at least got that fence moved.  There are several purposes for moving the fence.  First it is to prevent trespassers from cutting through that fence.  That is where most of the people have been cutting the line and riding four wheelers in the fields and also letting their cattle into the property to graze on the hay fields.  Jared also does not want to have 2 different roads cutting through the property.  We now just have one road so there are not multiple access points to get into the property.  If anyone goes up the old steep road they will not be able to get very far because it is no longer a road that a car can drive on.  It is just a fence in the middle of what used to be a road.  We hope that some grass and trees start to grow in what used to be a road. 

Sorry for no pictures but we will get some when we finish the road.

Spring tooth

One of Jareds favorite jokes is about a tooth brush. "You know why the truth brush was invented in the south?" "It would have been called a teeth brush if it were invented anywhere else."

Anyways, Jared took Dustin, Libby and Toby up to the ranch on Saturday morning to do some work. It was an awesome morning and it was great weather for working. We took up the tractor in order to start working and getting ready for the hay crop this year.  Jared quickly got to work spring toothing the long hay field.  When you spring tooth you are basically weeding an entire field. The equipment just pulls out any weeds, breaks up any mounds or cow pie in the field, while still leaving the alfalfa in the ground.  It only took him a couple hours to quickly finish the field and then go to eat lunch.
 

Meanwhile Dustin and the kids worked on the fence north of the flat iron. We were able to get most of it done before lunch and also worked more on our grill pad we started last fall.  The kids will only work for a couple hours (especially Libby) and then they need to eat or drink or just go somewhere to play.  They do all right though and they love helping and learning about the tools.  Libby had a great time learning about dancers and would dance with all of the dancer posts when she walked by them.  She thought it was the funniest name for a tree post. 
 

Valerie, Kerri, Karlee, and Tucker came up for lunch at one thirty.  We had an awesome lunch which included sandwiches, chips, oranges, apples, and cookies.  We then went back to work. Tucker and Dustin finished the fence which started from the gate above the water spigot all the way over to the gat to the flat iron. Jared started to disk the big cotton wood field. Everyone else played on the tire swings and Karlee pretended to be a deer, lucky it was out of season or else someone may have made a mistake and shot her. 

We hope to go up again this Saturday to finish some more fence repair and field work.  We would like to finish all of the fence line around the hay fields this weekend.  We will have cattle grazing up there this year and we really need to keep them out of our fields so we can have a good crop.  We had to leave quickly when it started raining and also we had to get back for priesthood session.  It was a great Saturday and we would love any help this weekend.   Trent, Dustin, Tucker and all 5 kids will be going up Saturday morning around 8-9, please let one of them know if you want to go up in the morning so we can open the gate for you.  Jared will be coming up with other family around 1:00 if you would like to follow him up.

I never had an opportunity to work on things like we do up at the ranch while I was growing up and always loved the outdoors but just never had a chance to learn what I have now learned as an adult.  Let your kids know when we are going up and we can try to make room for them in our cars so they can go with us if you cannot come.  Gable is going to be going up with us this summer and we would love to have anyone else that wants to come.  All that is required is your own lunch and willingness to work and have fun.  I have learned a lot in the few years that I have been allowed to work and play at the ranch and I have loved every minute of it.  Kerri always teases me because a lot of things we own I say we can use at the ranch, we even bought a house closer to the canyon and I brag about how it will take us 10 minutes less time to get up there.  I truly enjoy knowing that I will have somewhere quiet to teach my children life's simple lessons and hopefully help them apply the work ethic and principles we learn up there in their daily lives.  We hope everyone can truly enjoy what it has to offer this summer. 
 

First of the year Trip 3/30/13

Jared, Valerie, Karlee, Tucker, and Beau all made a trip to the ranch last Saturday.  They just wanted to check everything out.  It was really dry and most of the roads were clear of snow.  There was just some snow in the shady areas of the property.  It was a great Saturday.  We are going up Saturday 4/6/13 and taking up the tractor and Jared will disk some of the fields and spring tooth them (I will have to explain that better when I actually know what it entails).  We will also start working on the fence lines and repairing all of the fence since there may be some cattle grazing there this year.  They walked all the way around the property and most of the fences are doing pretty good with not a lot of major breaks.  We should be done fixing them by the end of the month.