Our Herdmaster

Our logo - He looks just like our herdmaster. Our appologies to the artist for not giving credit. Unfortunately, we do not have artist's full name or web site

We went to a job fair sponsored by the local newspaper of a neighboring town. Unfortunately, ranching does not make us much money and an in-town job is an important source of additional income. The pickings at the job fair were pretty thin, unless you wanted police or medical work. Three local customer service sites were represented - one representing a wireless telephone company, one representing a credit card company, and the third was not even telling prospective employees who they would be representing.

While were all dressed up, we also made the rounds of the local banks to try and find a new primary bank. The "service fees" charged by our present bank are getting out of hand - they are charging $33.00 for a overdraft and the monthly charge has gone up to $7.50 per month. We signed up with a competitor whose fees are much lower.

After all that, when we got back to the ranch, we went out to the east pasture and resumed clearing fence line. Some "mountain cedar" trees have grown up through the fence over the years and they have to be cleared before we can replace the wire mesh. The old mesh has holes that the herd can walk right through. Even with a chain saw, this is slow work.

When we bedded the animals down for the night, we noticed that one of the puppies appeared to be a little weak. We brought her up to the ranch house and gave her a supplemental feeding and she perked up considerabley. We are going to have to watch the litter more closely. The mother may be having trouble providing enough milk for all ten surviving puppies and if we do not supplement, some of the puppies may not get enough milk to thrive.