PAST BROWN CREEK RANCH NEWS

From the Banks of Brown Creek - Spring, 2007
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Welcome to our ranch news page! Well as usual there has been lots of stuff going on, never seems to be a dull moment around here!!

Christmas was a great holiday with the kids. It seems you plan and wait for it and suddenly it’s gone and over but it’s a lot of fun. The kids and I had a Texas Christmas this year, so off we flew to San Antonio and spent the main part of the holidays with my parents, aunts & uncle’s and cousins. The kids met family they didn’t even know they had! It had been 6 years since we went home last and so Holly had never even been and she did enjoy her first air-plane ride. They made cookies and climbed trees and rode bikes while visiting the entire time, it was so great. The only bad part was that Brian stayed here during the holidays because we usually begin calving at that time so he just couldn’t go. We missed him a lot. Being that I hadn’t been back home in so long he let us go. He had lots of offers for dinners and Joe from Calgary came and stayed for a few days over Christmas day so that was nice. Our first calf didn’t arrive until the day I came home………….if we could have possibly known he could have gone home with us after-all! You just never know when the weather might turn cold and a calf might come a little earlier than scheduled so “better safe than sorry”.

Calving has gone really well and we had most of our commercial calves in about 3 weeks in February. It was of course the coldest weeks of winter and it kept us awake for most of 3 weeks but they are here and happy so that’s what matters. We had 8 sets of twins this year which is the most we’ve ever had. Unfortunately not all twins live for one reason or another but we only lost a couple and the rest are running around here somewhere!

Our bull sale is also in the 3rd week of February which is a really busy time for us preparing bulls for the sale and cooking, etc. We had a really good sale and also had a good turn-out of people. I prepared Mexican food for the sale and it seemed to go over good. I brought home a whole suit-case of tortillas and beans just for the sale from my visit back home in Texas so it was about as authentic as it gets! We invited Rich Smith from the Alberta Beef Producers to give a presentation about the Environmental Stewardship Award of which the Alberta Beef Producers sponsors each year. This year Brian and I are the recipients! I’ll talk more about that later. We also asked Michael Gerrand from Cows and Fish to do a presentation which directly coincides with the Environment and management. They were very interesting. Our bulls sold well and we made more acquaintances and customers so we are very pleased. We will hold a field day this summer in August so that we can show our customers the up-coming bull calves for next year’s sale and their mothers. We feel that it is very important for a customer to see the mother and sires of the bulls so they will know what traits they carry. We are very particular about maternal traits such as feet, udder and longevity.

Brian and I were one of four nominees for the Environmental Stewardship Award for 2007. In December 2006 we were invited up to Calgary to attend the Alberta Beef Producers AGM and were presented with a beautiful gate sign in recognition of this award. It is truly an honor to receive this award as we know the judges had a hard time making their decision. The award is based are grass management, riparian management, animal welfare, manure control, and community involvement. We were very honored just to be nominated for this award, someone felt that we operated and managed the ranch in a manner that deserved the award, that alone is very gratifying. We were featured on the front cover of the Alberta Beef magazine along with our 3 page story in December and have since been in the Food for Thought magazine which is distributed through your local grocery stores, our story was also printed in our local newspaper. There are many, many other ranchers doing exactly what we are doing who are very worthy of this award, we feel very honored to represent the industry in our little corner especially in such a difficult time with all the turmoil the industry has been through in the last few years. It’s been anything but easy but we do love the land and the life it provides for us and our family and plan to keep on working to improve the ranch, there’s always room for improvement!

We are getting geared up for another guest season and I want to thank our guests that came to visit over the winter, it was great to meet you and I’ll keep in touch. If you are looking for a special getaway or a break from life’s busy pace, let us know, we’d be happy to see you and make your time away enjoyable and relaxing! Have a wonderful spring and Happy Easter!!

From the banks of Brown Creek,

Shaunere

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From the Banks of Brown Creek - Fall 2006
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The summer has certainly wound down and fall has been so beautiful! We have enjoyed very mild weather and un-seasonally warm temperatures. We want to thank everyone who came and stayed with us this summer, it was great to meet you and it was great to see some of our guests return for another visit, it’s almost like catching up with old friends and is a lot of fun. All of your visits made our guest season truly wonderful and we sincerely appreciate you. We hope to see you again in the coming season.

We weaned all of our calves and sold the feeders. We kept back a really nice set of replacement heifers, almost all of them are pure-bred and they are growing like crazy. We checked the cows for pregnancy and then took all of the pregnant cows down to our hay land to graze on the stubble and rows of swaths from the summer.

We made a new addition to our horse line this fall, his name is Gus. He is Chancey’s new horse and is a cute 16 year old paint gelding. Chancey and he just seem to fit one another and Chancey will be using him this winter to do some team roping in town. I love to watch the guy’s rope and Brian will join him with his horse Tac when he can so that will be a lot fun. The roping club consists of a small group of kids and their parents, it’s great to see the kids learning and enjoying working their horses.

We are beginning to prepare for our Bull Sale as well. The sale is set for February 21, 2007 in Pincher Creek, Alberta. We have 8 bulls for sale and I know we are partial but they are a nice set from well tempered, good confirmation cows. Brian puts lots of thought into the breeding program of the cows and very carefully selects bulls and it shows in our bulls and replacement heifers again this year. They are very gentle and we spent some time this summer halter breaking them again. I’m sure some of our guests will remember those “halter breaking” sessions from years past!

The boys have also chosen their 4H steer project for this year and we are in the process of halter breaking them as well. They are coming along really good. It will be a busy year for the kids with the boys in 4H, Chancey in roping and Chloe in dance but it’s a lot fun and we’re happy to be able to do these things for the kids and to be involved with them.

We had a visit from my Mom from Texas this fall as well. We hadn’t seen her for a very long time, it was great to catch up again and she couldn’t believe how the kids had grown. They had lots of fun playing board games and visiting. I hope it won’t be so long before I see her again.

The next thing to do around here is bring the cow’s home from the hay land. We will be trailing them home soon to prepare for calving and get them all vaccinated and processed for the winter. We will start calving in December.

We wish you all the best for the remainder of your fall and I look forward to catching up again soon, and again thank you to all of our guests. Take care and bye for only now.

Shaunere

From the Banks of Brown Creek - Summer 2006
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...summer, sweet summer! I love summer time. We are having a great summer. My Dad came for visit this year in August and we really had a good time with him. The week flew by as it always does but the kids had lots of time to spend with him. We did take a day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park; it was beautiful and we did some shopping days in Nanton on the Antique walk as well. Dad even went riding one afternoon on Bill, I haven’t seen him ride in years, although he had a horse when I was little. He doesn’t have one around now. It was great to see him riding. I always hate to see him go but I was lucky to get to have him here for at least a little while.

I planted a really nice garden this year. We planted sun-flowers for the first time, they were so big and beautiful. I also managed to get some sweet peas to grow so the house had a fresh bouquet of sweet peas for all of August and part of September. We are now enjoying fresh potatoes, carrots and parsnips.

The deer have made a home here as well. Many mornings you can see a group of them in there munching away. I never did get any lettuce from my garden because they kept it mowed off every day. I even told my guests to chase them away if they saw them but deer are sneaky and they move in before the sun comes up. Does anyone have any tips on how to keep them out without building a 10’ high fence? There has been a doe with twins and I have to admit they are cute. I did keep our horses Bill & Cisco busy eating carrots from the garden this summer, they love them.

I hope you have had a great summer and you were able to spend some time doing what you love to do. I can hardly wait until next summer!! Bye for now,

Shaunere

See Past Ranch News

From the banks of Brown Creek - Fall 2005

Hello to everyone reading my newsletter! And I do apologize for the long delay but here-goes! I hope this letter finds you all well!!

We ended last time with Thanksgiving and our bull sale, both of which went along without a hitch!. Thank you to everyone who came to the sale and thank you to our bull buyers, we appreciate you very much and although it was the Bar 15 Simmentals dispersal sale we (Brown Creek Angus), are still going strong with our bulls and growing our pure-bred herd all the time – and we are looking forward to a continued relationship with our buyers and friends who are interested in our cattle. Christmas seems a blur, it was a lot of fun with our 4 kids and our friends, Joe and his sister Bette came down from Calgary to spend some time with us, it was great!

We finished off our 4H year for the boys in June. Achievement Day was another fun filled day and the boys both did very well. Chancey came in 1st place for Juniors (out of 4 clubs in total), for Showmanship and is sporting a really nice new jacket. Chancey also received an award for the Most Improved Junior Member and brought home trophy after the awards banquet in June. He also brought home a really nice set of folding lawn chairs for doing so well in Public Speaking. Ty did not place this year on Achievement Day but also did well in Public Speaking as an Intermediate Member. Thank you to everyone who has supported our kids in 4H; you have made their years in the club so very special, we appreciate all you do for our club. They both learned a lot, and Ty’s heifer, Regina, was a good girl on Achievement Day. This spring she will have her very 1st calf, we are looking forward to that.

Did I tell you how we came up with the name Regina? Well, we had a sweet young German girl who came to spend some time with here at the ranch last summer, she stayed for 5 weeks. She wanted to learn English and to work on a working cattle ranch so we invited her into our home. We enjoyed having her here so much, we all got to know each other so well, she was like part of our family. We had 2 heifer calves out of our pure-bred cows that we planned to keep so they needed names (in order to register them they must be named). We knew that the one would be Ty’s 4H heifer so we asked Regina if we could name his heifer after her... after a “little” hesitation – I think it was the thought of having a “cow” named after her - she relented! And so that’s how Regina got her name. I still hear from Regina, the girl, and she asks, “So how is Regina doing?”. Both are very sweet!!

We carried on into our Summer – it was a wet one!! We normally get about 12 – 14” of rain each year here in Southern Alberta, well, in June we got about 25”, and it didn’t stop there. It rained off and on most of the summer. It was green and beautiful to say the least; we turned off the irrigation for our hay and never did turn it back on, that was really nice. It did flood and made a little trouble but we will reap the benefits of it next year - when the grass is knee high in June and the cows are fat and sassy, we won’t complain! It was a little hard on my guests however, I was wishing I could turn off the “faucet” for at least a little while, but I must say our English guests just went out riding, got soaked, and came back with smiles on their faces – all wet and everything. Our guests never complained once, they were so understanding, thank you to everyone!

We had a completely wonderful guest season this year, we were the busiest ever! Thank you so very much to everyone who came and stayed with us, we truly enjoyed our visits with you and will not forget you. I had guests from Germany, Denmark & Finland for the first time this year. I love looking back in my guest book at all the wonderful notes that everyone has left. I also had more guests this year from the States – I’m still keeping in touch with many of our guests from this year and the previous years. I love hearing from you all. Please drop me a line and I will do my best to get one off to you too. The kids made not only friends but pen-pals too – and Trevor if you're reading this, please be patient with these boys and we will get a letter off to you sometime soon! I hope that everyone is doing well, you will be in our thoughts during the Holidays.

The Summer flew past so quickly I could hardly believe that it was not only time to put the kids back into school but to bring all the cattle home from their summer pastures. It seems when you have cattle you relate the seasons to them too, not only to what your children are doing. The kids got all settled into school well and are working on halter breaking their new 4H steers. Ty & Chancey both have a steer this year, Chancey named his Bubba and Ty named his Captain Insano (from the movie The Water Boy), I hate to say it but the name seems to fit, it may take a few “extra” halter breaking sessions to get him all sorted out. Chancey’s is not so stubborn. Chloe & Holly can hardly wait to be in 4H - they have to be 9 years old to join but they still help the boys with their chores or at least Chloe does.

The cows all came home in good shape this year as they normally do. The grass was good and the calves were big. And since the re-opening of the border (thank you Lord), the prices were better and so we were very happy. The border re-opened in July after many prayers and many long days of frustration. By the end of July many thousands of head of cattle under 30 months had crossed the border and to this day that is still the age of the cattle who are crossing. We are excited about it all and yet BSE has taught us many things too, many hard lessons. We certainly won’t take anything for granted and we’ve all become much more thankful for the things that really count, like family, health and home – and of course Faith!

Brian finally had his long awaited knee surgery and it did all go very well, recovery will be long but it will be well worth it. He’s spending a little more time in-doors these days, we managed to get all the cattle work done and cleaned up before his surgery – he is getting around a little more all the time – cautiously!! Thought I would let you know how he is, he’s BORED – but fine!!

I am already starting to prepare for our up-coming guest season. I am planning a couple new packages and some more updates – so keep an eye out for it! I’m looking forward to meeting new guests and will hope to see some of our past guests again – and catch up with them. This business has given me the opportunity to meet so many people and make special friends all over the world and I dearly appreciate each and every one of you.

We wish you all the Merriest of Holidays & Best Wishes for the new year. I look forward to “writing” again soon with a “Bull Sale” update. Our bull sale is on February 22, 2006. We will be getting the “boys” ready for their big day starting in December with another washing a clipping session. We will also start calving at the very end of December, keep your fingers crossed for good weather for us and those little ones!!

We sincerely wish you all a wonderful Holiday surrounded by those you love and all the very best to you in the New Year! Take care and we’ll talk to you again, soon.

Bye only for now... Shaunere

P.S. For those of you who may be wondering about the “Brown Creek kittens” – they are all doing well and all have thick coats of fur for the winter, they are almost like holding little “bears”, they are still very cuddly.

Fall 2005 - From the banks of Brown Creek

We’ll it’s been a busy 3 months and I’m really not sure where the time has gone, I guess the old saying is true that "Time doesn’t stand still for anyone", even though we wish it would. I have a lot of great news again so grab a chair.

November was a good month, and Thanksgiving was shared with some of our dear friends who we don’t seem to get to see very often so that made dinner all the more enjoyable. We were busy in November preparing for our bull sale which happened on December 3, 2004. Our friends Anne & Quentin Stevick held their dispersal sale as well as their bull sale and we sold our bull calves as well. We sold all of our bull calves and were very pleased with the prices. We hope we have gained a few new buyers and we keep in contact with them as we prepare for our next bull sale, set to go hopefully in February 2006, we’ll keep you up-dated. We spent some time after our sale visiting with some of the buyers as well as many good friends - that is always a highlight. A big thank you goes out to Anne & Quentin who have helped us so much and offered their nice facilities for us to sell our bulls; we plan to continue the tradition of selling good bulls to our customers and to stand behind them.

December went off without a hitch! Santa was good to us all and the kids had a great holiday. I even had company here from back home for a few days. I had not seen my cousin and his wife since I was a kid and we had the greatest time catching up again, Brian and I both hated to see them go. Mike & Meredith if you are reading this give your little grand-baby a hug for me! We had our very first calf the day before they arrived, on December 26th. We also had company from Calgary here with us for the Christmas holiday but only for one night, these visits were way too short, it was great to see Joe & Betty again. We always try to talk Joe into staying for a while to help us calve out cows but somehow Joe always has some "pending" engagement waiting for him – ha! Just kidding Joe! Anyway, the calves started coming after that and the weather did dip down to about –38 for about a week, that made it a very tiring job since we didn’t sleep much. We have to check constantly for new calves when it’s that cold or they will freeze to death. We managed to get through all of that but we did have one casualty, a new born bull calf got stepped on by his mother when Brian went to gather him up to tuck him away in the warm barn, but over all we have done very well – knock on wood! Our pure-breds calved first and then the commercial cows started at the beginning of February but they weren’t actually due until the 7th; we had 14 commercial calves by February 7th, I guess they couldn’t wait to get here!

We had our 100th calf yesterday so we only have about 56 more to go! We are always happy to have this job behind us and when all the babies are about a month old we are even happier, then we know they are all well on their way. For the first time ever since Brian and I were married we had more than one set of twins... in our first 48 cows we had 4 sets! We thought that was pretty amazing. We found a home for one since his mother just didn’t have enough milk for 2 and we took another one away so she could concentrate on one calf as well, so we have a bottle baby. Three times a day we take a big bottle full of milk down to this little girl and she is always so hungry she practically attacks you when you walk into the pen. We go down and play with her sometimes because she gets lonely although she has a small pen in the big 4H pen so she does have some company. She even tries to play with the cats if they walk across her pen, I've named her Sally. We actually bought a new "bottle" this week for her, it is a small bucket with a nipple on it, it looks kind of funny but she loves it and it holds more milk than the original bottle does.

We should be done calving by the end of March for sure and then we will start concentrating on letting the bulls hang out with the cows for a while. Brian artificial inseminates some of our cows too, so that keeps him busy until the bulls take over. We have some beautiful little calves this year, Brian works hard to keep the herd in top shape right from selecting sires to keeping the proper nutrition in place so that the new mothers can produce enough milk for their new babies. It’s very interesting how everything works and when things go well it’s the greatest! I love raising cattle and being at home with my kids! Seeing the calves running and playing is just like watching my children running and playing, I’ve so blessed!

I am preparing for our next guest season. This will be our 3rd season and I am getting excited to meet our guests. Our first visitor is booked in for May. I have plans for lots of gardening and flowers, I can hardly wait to see green grass again – yes, I think I have spring fever! I am planning to do some painting in the main house, and maybe move the kids' rooms around – we’ll see. Our baby just turned 4 years old last week and our oldest will turn 13 in about 10 days so everyone is feeling like they need a little space and some changes.

I hope that you all have a great spring and I will drop a line again before long and let you know how calving wrapped up. Take care everyone and Happy Easter to all of my family, neighbors and guests. Bye for now,

Shaunere

Fall, 2004

A DAY AT BROWN CREEK... Hello to everyone again and after such a long time!  I am sorry for my delay in writing my Ranch News, please forgive me but please sit back and relax... I have so much to share!!

We had an amazing summer here at the ranch this year with much help from my 'guests' It just wouldn't have been the same without them. First and foremost I want to send a big 'thank you' out to all of my guests, we enjoyed our visit with you all and we will never forget our fun times and wonderful experiences, you made our summer the best ever!!  Thank you!! We had a rather cool 4th of July this year, in fact the whole summer was a little cooler than usual, then at the end it turned out great and we had an extended season right up until now really, we haven't had any bad weather as of yet.  I¹m sure those really cold days will wait until we are calving and I have to get up with Brian every 1 or 2 hours, oh well, nothing I can do but complain and we know where that gets us. 

October was so nice and my garden did finally mature and we have enjoyed potatoes, carrots, onions and parsley & zucchini as well as flowers.  I love to grow flowers - this way I can decorate the cabin with them as soon as they are ready for the picking!  Chloe had a lot of fun helping me in the garden this year and she will actually eat fresh carrots from the garden, especially if she picks them herself, so we think it's great.  The hills were so brilliant green and we enjoyed an extended time of lovely green fields, hills and meadows, the cows looked so good out there in the sunshine grazing away - and the baby calves really grew. June is always a great month here, everything starts growing, I can plant my garden and watch the hills turn green, it's wonderful and did I say I started mowing grass in the month of June?  Well I didn't stop until October!!  We had such nice rain falls in late summer that things just kept growing and growing. I won't complain too much though, I love summer time. Since the boys had sold their 4H projects in the very first part of June they were able to take some time off this summer from taking care of cattle instead they helped me a lot!  I had them busy doing yard work and keeping things up.  We also had another student from Germany named Andrea who spent 4 weeks with us. July was very busy as well - we started irrigating our hay land - we were thrilled to do so, we have waited for this irrigation permit for 15 years!!  And now it was finally here so we can grow lots of hay for our cows to eat in the winter time - yippee!!  Brian spent a lot of time moving wheel lines each day, morning & evening then when it came time to start baling Andrea helped us a lo - she lives on a farm in Germany and knew how to run the machinery so I packed a big lunch for her and away she went! 

August was the same as June & July - busy but it was great!  The summer flew past so very quickly that it still seems like it should only be September - now I am thinking about preparing a huge Thanksgiving supper!  I make a Thanksgiving supper for our family for the Canadian Holiday but I also prepare Thanksgiving supper for the American Holiday too, I have a 28 lb. Turkey in the freezer and I can almost taste the pecan pie - wish I could import my whole family up here from Texas to have supper with us too - I¹ll keep them close at heart. 

We also had another young lady come and stay from Germany; her name was Evelyn, she helped with cattle work and taking care of the girls while I went to meetings.  I will miss all of these young people and I'll hope that someday if my kids decide to travel that they will have good experiences too. We also spent time preparing for a livestock show in October.  Our heifers came home from summer pasture on October 1, and we went right to work halter breaking 2 of them to prepare for the show. On the 14 & 15 & 16 we went to Lethbridge to the Chinook Livestock Classic and the boys showed these two pure-bred Angus heifers, one was black and the other one was red. They did very well in their classes, they came in 3 & 4 in the Junior Angus division.  The next day they showed again and came in 2 & 3 place, it was a great time. We are so fortunate to be able to go to these shows and the experience is so great for all of us especially the boys!  We have been spending time in Pincher Creek just lately to work with our bulls to prepare for our annual bull sale on December 3, 2004 in Pincher Creek at the Bar 15 Ranch. I got to help blow dry them all after they had a big bath, then they got a hair cut so they look great - it was like a big beauty salon for cattle!  Our friends in Pincher Creek, Anne & Quentin Stevick allow us to sell our bulls in their annual bull sale, all together with our 8 bulls they will be about 58 bulls sold. We will be spending time there again soon, it¹s hard work but we are fortunate to be able to have our bulls there at Anne & Quentin's and to use their facilities. A big thank you from us to them! Wish us luck with our sale in December. 

The kids started back to school in early September and Chloe started Kindergarten which she absolutely loves. The boys are doing well and working hard and have now chosen new 4H Steers for this year¹s project. We will be halter breaking them next week, they are both Black Angus cross calves.  We managed to get our second cut of hay off as well in late September, it stayed just wet enough that it made it tough to get the cutting and baling done but we did it and boy were we glad. We also sold our calves in late September and felt that we did well considering all of the turmoil in the cattle business right now.  You can only do what you can do and not a thing more - I just thank God for taking care of us. I also thank the Lord for sending us such wonderful and kind guests this year. I truly never expected to meet so many great people, the number of  summer guests  exceeded  my expectations and that was more wonderful than I can say. I made many more new friends from all over the world and I still keep in touch and yes if you have not heard from me lately, I will be sending out cards and letters soon, for before we know it Christmas will be upon us once again.  I want to send a special thank you to each and everyone who made our summer so great and I truly hope that this letter finds you all well, happy and healthy.

Bye only for now,
Shaunere 

P.S. Happy Thanksgiving to all - take care, Shaunere