Preg Checking

Spring isn't your usual time to preg check cattle. But if you know of a guy who is capable of it, why not. Once the big rush of calving is over, you always have a few stragglers that make you wonder if they are pregnant or not. This being the case for Randy and Sheila Burggraff, and knowing that Fr. Zane Pekron was in the neighborhood, they set up a mid spring preg checking party. 

There was 17 girls who hadn't calved that needed checking. 

So they called in Fr. Zane and newly minted Dcn. Lee Noel. 

Zane's no stranger to the rear-end of a cow. If I have my facts straight, he started leaning the trade as a young lad from his grandpa. As the years went by, he'd pick the brains of the local vets who'd come to check their herd and they would let him arm a cow or two and give him pointers. Lately, he's even attend some clinics that are geared to teach ranchers some of the tricks of the trade. Needless to say, he's a sought out commodity to his Catholic Cowboy parishioners. 

Having the right set up is key to a smooth operation. 

Randy and Sheila, along with other members of their family, ranch off of Oak Creek, northeast of Aladdin, WY. They first met Fr. Zane when he was associate pastor in Belle Fourche, SD, which is their closest parish. After learning of his preg checking abilities, this has been an annual event for the past several years. 

Preg checking is not for the faint of heart. A brave soul reaches up the rectum of a cow to be able to palpate their uterus to determine if they are pregnant or not. 

There are four basic features that will determine whether a cow is pregnant: You can feel the actual calf; you can feel the cotyledons attached to the uterus; you can feel the artery pulsating, which is feeding the calf; and, if its very young, you can feel the small fetus slip by your fingers within the uterus wall.

Zane is also a good teacher. Little Ezra is a ranchher at heart. 

Not being her first rodeo, she knows what to look for.

Meanwhile, Dcn. Lee keeps the other cows from sneaking down the chute. 

Fr. Zane even got him gloved up to take a feel. 

In the end, the verdict was 12 bred, 5 open. 

Just ranching.

Fun time. I'm always game to see beautiful country and learn a trick or two. I played it safe with my clerics and was able to just be the ranch photographer. I'm a big fan of priests’ healthy extracurricular activities. Palpating cattle keeps Fr. Zane in the saddle of sonship. From here, he is not only able to help preg check his parishioners cattle, but he can also relate to them on a human level. Kind of like Jesus. Keep it up, pard. 

Back to Eden

Jesus redeemed our human nature by His life, death, Resurrection, and Ascension. 

           https://youtu.be/TkS9rHtiSrU         

Encourage

Don't listen to discouragement. It never comes from the Lord.

           https://youtu.be/y_QBMhbySGQ         

Feeding Horses

With three horses in possession, we are burning through a lot of hay. More than my little square bale pile can keep up with. Thankfully, I have access to some round bales and am equipped to handle them. 

You ain't no Catholic Cowboy priest unless you have a bale feeder flatbed on your truck. 

Chuck and Joanne Tweedy have some two year old Crested Wheatgrass that they have been donating to the cause. Much obliged. 

White Horse's Hydra Bed is built to load and feed round bales. However, I put arm extensions on it to string up cows. She still works to load bales, but the extra length makes for a lot of leverage. Got to take it easy when breaking over center. 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the horses were out of hay. The recent storms this week have dropped about 3" of rain in this area. Beautiful moisture, thanks be to God!

With rain comes mud, though. Not really sure why I didn't think it would be muddy in the corral. But all White Horse did was slip and slide until we were up against the fence with no where to go. 

The gumbo mud just caked the tires and took away all our traction. 

So we had to bust out the iron. When chaining up a truck, make sure the cross-links have the open ends facing up when you throw the chains on. This allows for more slack when hooking them up. Also, if your connecting ends are one hook and one cam lever, make sure the cam lever is facing the outside. 

If you're smart, and stop spinning before you get stuck, you can roll over the chains and get the ends in front of the tire, which makes for easier hooking up. However, in cases like this, you can still hook the chains up from the bottom of the tire. It's just harder and dirtier. Often you'll have to dig around the tire to get enough slack to just barely grab a link. 

Then you can roll the tire around a bit and re-hook your chains tighter. 

Once chained up, we were able to crawl away from the fence and aim up the hill. It definitely got western. But with a limited-slip rear-end, White Horse is an animal with chains on. After we got to the feed ground we unloaded the bale. With net-wrap, you want to cut it off the bottom before you set it down. 

Then we rolled over our new feeder and placed it on the bale. I usually tip the bale on end. But with this mud, I was just thankful to get it off my truck in the right place.

Mission accomplished. 

Happy Horses. 

Sometimes I think the Lord clouds my good judgement just so I can have a little cowboy fun. It would have been nice to be in and out of there like I planned. Then I wouldn't have been late for my next appointment and have had to come in all muddy. But what fun is that? Having to chain up warms my heart. 

I hope these horses appreciate what it takes to keep them alive. However, their turn to earn their keep is coming. With branding smoke in the air, we'll be pulling Chief out of the bunch to go drag some calves soon. Get ready Ol' son. It's Ranch:30 !

A Little While

Don't be discouraged, but wait with faith.

           https://youtu.be/viTQ4cbK8NQ         

Truth

Truth is when my mind conforms to reality. 

           https://youtu.be/pM1tQTeCkHo         

 

Desolation

Just wait in faith.

           https://youtu.be/ipw-n-H6GKE         

Go West Young Man

Springtime in the priesthood is always a bit uncertain. Depending on your rank, you may or may not be asked by the bishop to pull up your stakes and head to a new assignment. Usually guys in my position as associate pastor have a two year stint. I've had three bonus years on top of that here at St. Matthew's in Gillette and surrounding missions. It's been a great run, but Bishop has said that it's time to go. 

If you'd asked me where I'd like to go in my next assignment as a priest, I would have said Buffalo. Northern Wyoming is a land I'm familiar with and Johnson County is a people I'm sure I can relate to. I'm thankful to Bishop Steven for this new assignment and I'm looking forward to meeting the People of God at St. John the Baptist parish and adjoining missions starting in July. But until then, let the farewell tour around Gillette begin! This has been a great ride. With five years in Campbell and Crook Counties, there are many stories to revisit and people to reminisce with. I thank God for my time here. I came in a newbie and am leaving a parish priest. Let's ranch. 

Gift of Love

Love is a total gift of self. 

           https://youtu.be/K3e08W8y6rY         

New Pump

In general, most ranchers would not consider themselves farmers too. The Lungren's are a rare breed. We came to town farming and only in the next generation did we pick up on ranching. Subsequently, farming is always in our blood. And if your are going to farm in the Big Horn Basin, you better get good at irrigating. 

The valley around here was pretty much settled on flood irrigation. But over the years, pumps and sprinklers have prevailed. Our little place has always been pumped. Grandpa started out with a 25hp pump, but after we put a pivot sprinkler system in, we didn't need that much pressure. So Dad toned it down to this 15-horse, which has served well for the past 15 years or so. But with our set up today, we could use a bit more power. 

So we set out to exchange this good and faithful servant with a new 20hp set up. 

There's a bit involved in this pump station. Beings we pump right out of the canal, we have a moss-catcher that sits right in the water and a horizontal filter immediately after the discharge. 

The first step was to unbolt the filter. 

Then break loose the fittings. Only a 36" will do. 

Once unbolted, our handy farmhand lifted it right out of the way. 

Then cleaned the pad up for the new pump to bolt in. 

In a project like this, make sure and have plenty of WD-40 on hand. 

Safety first. 

To our surprise, it bolted right up. Gear-wrenches are handy in places like this. 

All the fittings lined up as well. Made sure and doped the threads good. 

Then re-bolted the filter back up. 

And put a new gage on, rated for higher pressure. It’s good to use a liquid filled gage when working with components that vibrate a lot, such as a pump. They just hold up longer. Also, when using teflon-tape, always wrap with the direction of the threads. 

This is a three-phase pump, so it can run in either direction. We had a 50/50 chance of wiring it right the first time, but we were wrong and had to switch two wires. No problem at all. 

Bingo. 

We like to use this little cover to shade the motor from the sun. Helps it run cooler and use less energy. 

It fired up and ran real smooth. This centrifugal pump has packing that allows the input shaft to drive the pump without water leaking by. That being said, a little water trickling through is necessary to keep the packing lubed.  

Nice. 80psi at the wellhead. 

And 48psi at our big gun. 

Sweetness. It's easier to deal with too much pressure than not enough. This new pump certainly enhanced the one-sprinkler-wonder on our little alfalfa corner, and will really lite-up the hand-line on the 5 Acre as well as the pivot on the big barley field. It's like my old ranching buddy would say, rain will make a farmer out of anyone. True, but around Worland it doesn't rain enough to grow a weed. Thankfully, the Good Lord made a river run right through our little valley. From it, we can grow the best crops in the state. Irrigation is great, but it comes with a cost. If you want to be a farmer/rancher in the Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, you best get used to pumping water. 

Human Flourishing

All moral teaching of the Church is ordered towards human flourishing.

           https://youtu.be/cxHRD9otTzs         

Brothers

Jesus teaches us well how to work within the tension of being a child of God and still having family relationships. 

           https://youtu.be/tsx0f9zNVwk