Dirtiest Job On The Ranch

 

All right, before we get started with this week’s newsletter, I think it’s appropriate to give everyone a little reminder—or maybe you just didn’t catch last week’s newsletter.

Right now, we’re kind of summarizing things a little bit more than normal, and there’s a pretty good reason for that: I have a newborn son in my life. Archer has definitely changed the schedule around here, and life has been a little crazy lately. So while the newsletters might be a little shorter and more to the point for the time being, we’re still working really hard to keep you guys up to date with everything happening here on the ranch.

And when I say “we,” I should really say Tracey has been working extremely hard on the YouTube side of things—editing, putting everything together, and making these videos look fantastic. So make sure you’re checking those out and watching along, because that’s really where the magic is going to happen right now. Especially with this week’s newsletter, there’s only so much I can explain in writing. You really need to see some of this stuff for yourself.

Actually, let’s just get you pointed in that direction right now. If you’re reading this in the email, the video should be right above this. If you’re reading it on the website, it should be below. Just click the thumbnail or picture and it’ll take you straight to the video. You don’t need a YouTube account or anything like that—it should just start playing, and you can come along with us and see what life on our fifth-generation Texas ranch is really like.

If you’re new around here and don’t know me, my name is Connor McCauley. I’ve been on the ranch for about six years now, married for five, and during that time I’ve slowly become more and more integrated into this Texas ranching lifestyle. A lot of what you see in these newsletters and videos is from my perspective as somebody who didn’t grow up doing this but has spent the last several years learning it.

And now you’re also getting to see some of it through Tracey’s perspective. Tracey is relatively new to the ranching world too, and the funny part is that Tracey and I didn’t know each other until I met Helen, but somehow we both ended up here in a pretty similar situation. Even more coincidentally, we’re both originally from Pennsylvania.

So in a way, you’re getting to learn alongside both of us. We certainly don’t know everything, and there’s always something new to learn around here.

Of course, you’ll also see Aaron and Faith in these videos, and I’d really like to get them involved even more. Life gets busy and everybody has their own jobs to do, but they’ve grown up around this lifestyle and know what they’re doing. It’s fun getting to watch them do their cowboy stuff and share some of that experience with all of us.

Now, as for what we actually did this week—we were palpating heifers.

If you’re unfamiliar with that term, palpating is basically how we check our cattle to determine whether or not they’re pregnant. This time around, we were checking our heifers, and we were doing it a little earlier in the year than we normally would. There was a good reason for that, though, because we were getting ready to send these heifers away. Because of that timing, we also ended up starting the weaning process a little earlier than normal this year.

We had the vet come out to help us get everything checked, and one of the really interesting parts is that we actually get to use an ultrasound while palpating. It gives you a pretty incredible look at what’s going on and is one of those things that is a whole lot easier to appreciate when you can actually see it in the video rather than having me try to explain it here.

Of course, before any of that can happen, you’ve got to get the heifers down the chute.

That’s always an interesting time. You’re in the pens with the cattle, getting everybody sorted, keeping things moving, and trying to make the whole process go as smoothly and efficiently as possible. Thankfully, everything went pretty well, and we honestly had a great time getting it done.

Like I said at the beginning, this week’s newsletter is a little shorter because there just isn’t a whole lot more I can say without simply describing the entire video to you. There’s a lot more to see than there is to tell.

But make sure you stay tuned, because this week leads us right into another cattle drive and the start of weaning. Those are always some of my favorite weeks to share, and this time around we had a few unexpected things happen along the way that made it pretty interesting.

So check out this week’s video, and keep an eye out for the next one. We’ll keep bringing you along and showing you what’s happening out here on the ranch.