Hello
& Welcome to our Diary page.
The purpose of this diary is to record our adventures, folks who stop by,
travels and events at the Thorne Ranch. It was primarily meant for
family and friends in the beginning, but we have grown a large number of
faithful readers in the past eight years. Over 90,000 from all
over the world have visited us. We don't intend to offend anyone
or to glorify our life here. It's pretty boring most of the time as
you will see! We are pretty common folks trying to make a living doing
what we love, breeding and raising cattle. Our wish is that someday this
Diary will be enjoyed and appreciated by our grandchildren and great
grandchildren. In the mean time we hope you get a few good laughs at
our expense.
Learn
from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them
all yourself."
Abbie and Joan
Last Updated
Wednesday, 03 February 2010
You are viewer
2008
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of
arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to
skid in sideways, Champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other,
body thoroughly used up and totally worn out, screaming 'WOO HOO! -
What a Ride!'' - Author unknown
May you be
in Heaven an hour before the Devil knows you're dead.
August 1 Hot Hot HOT! Your not
going to believe this one! The new tractor came in yesterday
and guess what Abbie bush hogged pasture 17 with? He used
the old 4430 John Deere with no windows to test it out to see if
it was now charging the battery. Plus I think he was
actually afraid he might break something on the new one! ha
I relieved him at feeding time and so I baked for awhile in the
old tractor too! I got out shaking my head at him in total
disbelief! Today though he unhooked from the baler and used
the new tractor and loader to grade our terrible rough and rutted
drive way. I road along on the buddy seat and took in some
lessons of the mechanics. It has buttons for everything.
That buddy seat they also call the Banker's seat! ha I think
it will come in handy and I am going to call it the wife seat or
grandchildren seat. It has seat belts too! What will
they think of next for all the conveniences of home and tractor?
This story is a true life small world connection... that my
dear husband and I found in common.
I have written about
William
(Bill) Nefsy the Banker, Rancher and Cowboy from Miles City
Montana several times and how
meeting him was a sincere treat in life. Recently I received
an email from Mr. Nefsy's grandson Bill Coffee thanking me for
saying good things about his grandfather and that it brought
back many fond memories for him. Young Bill's father was
CM Coffee who owned the Coffee Ranch south of Miles City
Montana. We were there in the 1970's working on center
pivot irrigation systems for Mr. Nefsy. I remembered CM and he
was all Cowboy and a real nice gentleman. Bills
says that the Coffee and Nefsy ranches were separate but they traded
equipment and cowboys once in awhile. Ranchers are an independent
breed but when help is necessary they will be the first one to lend a hand.
Now zoom forward 25 years to when I first met Abbie dear in
1995. I told him the story about the Nefsy Ranch, Bill Nefsy
and CM Coffee. He said, "My folks neighbored and knew a
family named Coffee over in the panhandle of Texas. They had
three son's, Walter (Squint), Thomas and one of their sons was named
CM Coffee." He said he had heard that CM moved to Montana
and married late in life, a local ranchers daughter.
Of course the odds were not
practical that it would be the same person, CM Coffee.
So years have passed and that conversation about the Coffee family
came up, off and on. And again when we received the
email from, Bill Coffee. We started putting the puzzle
pieces together and yes his Dad, CM came from Miami Texas in the
Panhandle of Texas and yes it is the same CM Coffee.
Abbie's recollections as a
young boy were of CM riding Bronc's in Rodeo's in Texas and
that he had won dozens of saddles and he always heard that he
never kept a one. He sold them all. Abbie told about
one time that CM was the only one that rode a bucking mule!
He was bucked off but was hanging on for dear life around the
mules' neck. Abbie's most tragic story is of CM's
Daddy being drug to death by a wild horse he was breaking, when CM
was only nine years old. Bill Coffee's account from
one of the papers of the day was that if young Coffee would have
been a better roper he might have saved his Father. What a
hard thing to say about a young boy. They turned them into
little men way too early in life! Abbie's grandfather
William Quincy Thorne, said that he had his knife out and
the rope was almost cut before he hit his head on a rock.
The rest of the story is that CM's mother took a 30/30 out and
shot the horse afterwards. Don't you know those three boys
had to grow up fast? We really don't know what hard
times are these days compared to drought, wild fires, and
family hardships.
CM Coffee
riding a Bareback Bronc.. see the model of cars along the
fence!
CM
Coffee was inducted into the Montana Pro Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame
an award very well deserving. We were happy to hear, CM is
still living and retired now from the Rodeo Arena but still an
active part of the Coffee Ranch.
Son Bill says that he still gets up at 4:00 in the A. M. Old
Cowboy habits are hard to break! ha Son Bill is
carrying on his Grandfather Bill Nefsy's legacy and manages
the Family Owned Banks called the
Stockman's Bank of Billings Montana. They
have 22 locations. The Coffee Ranch is still family managed
by Bill's sister Caren.
Now you would think this was the end of the
story but it's not! The fat lady has not sang yet! ha
To conclude this story and
the connections to the Coffee family! Abbie's grandmother
Ruby Thorne was good friends with CM's mother. Incidentally
her name was, Abby Coffee. Do you see some connections here?
Grandmother Ruby nicknamed, Albert William Thorne her grandson and
my husband. "Abbie" after her friend Abby Coffee.
It was a name that has stuck more often than Albert. The
other amazing thing is Bill Coffee's young daughter's name is Abby
too.
Thank you Bill for allowing us to tell the story of your amazing
family.. We are looking forward to a trip to Montana some
day and you all will be the first on the list of folks to visit.
"We name our beloved after those we beloved." "Now you know the rest of the story."
August 2-3 The Paul family got here Saturday
afternoon and we spent some time in the heat checking out
the cattle in the pastures. We loaded up and headed to the
Chuck Wagon for supper. They were so busy that we had
to wait for a little while and they felt so bad that they
brought us all German Chocolate pie to tide us over!
What a treat. At least we had room for dessert! ha
They picked out a nice heifer for Sydney to show and we will
look forward to seeing her show again. I made up
pancakes, eggs, bacon, biscuits and gravy and sausage
especially for Patrick as he is headed to dorm food and
school. They got left about noon and we sure enjoyed
their visit! We didn't do a whole lot today but we
bush hogged pasture 16 North to get rid of all the weeds
that seem to be thriving. I even got to drive the new
tractor all by myself today!
We had email from Sharon today! Wiley and Patrick won
again! This time he won the New Jersey State Fair Open
Show. He had to beat 15 steers in his weight division to
get into the final drive!! Congratulations Sharon and
Patrick! What an amazing job! They also won Reserve Grand
Champion Heifer with Paige the Hereford heifer they got from
Erica. We can't wait for the pictures!
August 4-6 Monday and Tuesday was spent sorting
pastures, pulling the bulls, pouring for flies and also
doctoring some pink eye and sore feet. Who says that
raising cattle is easy work? Let them come follow Dear
Abbie around for a day and they would be looking for an
airconditioned desk job real quick! ha I keep telling him
he didn't find me in the barn yard? I used to wear dresses
and heals to work at the last job! ha Shouldn't
complain though as we have accomplished a lot together in our 12
year of wedded bliss. I almost had too much heat though and I
thought I was seeing things in the show barn yesterday morning
when a pile of cow manure was hopping about. (Language from my
Aussie friends) I took a second look and a little toad had
gotten in the wrong spot at the wrong time and he was covered.
It was pretty funny looking actually. That is the first
time I have seen cow dung move by itself with out a pitch fork!
ha I wonder if I could pay him to haul it all out of the
barn on his back! ha Just dreaming again! ha
Word from Sharon and Patrick from New Jersey! Wiley won
Grand Champion Steer at the 4-H Show and Paige was Grand
Champion Heifer over all. So you could say that they kind
of wiped the slate with Oklahoma cattle. Wiley won 3 Grand
Championships in four days of showing! The open show had
80 head of steers of all breeds in it so it was not an easy win
either. It sure makes you proud when one of your babies goes to
the top of the show! Of course it helps when they are fed,
and taken good care of too! Sharon put Wiley on a horse
walker to keep his joints moving fluid! It makes sense!
They sure don't let race horses lie in the stall all day long to
get stiff! Abbie says that is why he keeps me out chasing
cattle to keep my joints moving fluid! ha
The Paul family got here last night late, less one.
They left Patrick in Des Moines IA at Grandview College to go to
school and play football. I think they were feeling pretty
lost with out number one son. They made one more trip to the
heifer pasture to check out the heifer Sydney will get in Oct
and then took off for south Texas. I made it to my dentist
appointment across the road and had my 6 month check up and
cleaning. So today is gather equipment from the
various shops and prepare for haying!
It's time to wash all the beds again! I think I need a
sheet with 800 thread count to keep up with the washing they get
around here. ha
Hope you like the new buckskin background! Kind of reminds me
of Wiley our Buckskin horse! Shareen sent a pictures of Dalya,
Logan, heifer Grace and me when we were doing the obstacle
course at Junior Nationals. The showmanship the next day was
when we both took a tumble! I visited with Dayla yesterday
and she is riding her horse Beau now maybe some day she will
graduate to a big horse like Wiley. If you will note the
saddle on Wiley that is the background for the web site color
these days! ha
Tonight is ride night but Ya Ya Sisters all decided to go
swimming instead of making us and the horses work in this heat!
It's a great idea to me!
Dalya and me at Jr Nationals.
Logan ready to lead Gracy.
Wiley all saddled
up ready to go!
August 7-14 It's been more company at the Thorne
Ranch Motel.
The Wilson family from Missouri came and spent time here on their vacation.
Not much of a vacation here but that is how it goes around here
it seems. Vacation here is a trip to town to pick up parts
and groceries. ha
Matt helped Abbie work on the John Deere tractors. Thanks
Matt for your help! We met Robert and Gracie in
Pryor for lunch on Saturday as they were headed to cooler
territory. If we hadn't gotten company I would have flown
to Michigan with them for a real vacation of my own but I didn't
want to leave Dear Abbie home alone! ha
We had three days of rain and accumulated five and half
to six inches. It was running over the East Pond Dam.
They started mowing hay down today over East. They did get
the East pasture pairs worked and found several with sore eyes.
Hardy came back out of the breeding pasture, too.
Terry and Susan came out for coffee on Sunday morning. Monday a gentleman from Wagoner stopped by to look
at the bulls and it looks like he will take one of the
yearlings. So it's been grand central station as
usual. I think we can easily call us a Guest Ranch, not a
working cow ranch! ha At this point I am ready to get into
the hayfield and quit cooking and playing hostess for awhile.
It might be peanut butter and jelly sandwiches too!
Justin came and trimmed
the horses feet. Tee is getting better but he has a soft spot in his hoof and it's still draining.
So we wrapped him up and put medicine on it.
We wrapped up some hay finally over in one of the East
pastures. Abbie got to try out his new tractor and baler.
S and H Equipment sent a technician out to help adjust it.
I raked with the John Deere that was supposed to be air
conditioned now. It didn't take long and I was in a sauna.
First he had me rake it wide and then it was too wide so he had
me rake it again and throw it together to make it narrow.
The new baler didn't like either for a while. By the time
he got done he had mastered most of the process. He hauled
the John Deere Sauna machine back to Mike Courtney to fix what
ever was wrong again on the air conditioner and picked it up
again yesterday. We got the 41 bales hauled in from the 10
acres we cut and now have fresh hay for the traps. It is
hard to believe but that is two and half tons to the acre.
We had company yesterday from the OK City area. The
Weger's and Carr's came right after lunch. They were
interested in Fullblood Braunvieh heifers. So showed them
what we had. The husband wanted Fullblood and the wife
would have been happy with Purebred for their grandkids to show.
We really didn't want to let go of some of our babies at the
price they want to pay, so will send them to some other breeder
friends. We met these folks at the Tulsa State Fair
last year. A little seed planted turns into a large oak
tree sometimes! ha
I took pictures of almost all the Spring calves and got
several up on the
Club
Calf page.
TLCC Hardcore's Verna ET calf from
Veronica H3
Big stout heifer with
some color. It won't hurt her production any!
She is half Maine and half Braunvieh and we will come back
on this heifer with possibly an Angus bull for her first
calf.
Recipient, TLC Apricot (Half Gelbvieh and half Braunvieh
cow) and her ET calf TLC Peggy Wave. This embryo calf
came from a flush we purchased from Larry Aschermann in
Missouri a couple of years ago. She is half Charolais.
The weather has cooled down and we are expecting more rain
this coming week. So Abbie has continued to clip pastures.
One of these days we will get to the hayfield. If the
creek doesn't rise too high! ha
August 18-19 We dug
up some T Bone steak and had supper with Bobbie and Karen on
Sunday night! Great to see them this summer! We had a
great visit with Randy, Pam, Mike and Angel.
The past couple of days have been cloudy and damp. It
rained some last night just enough that you can't hay. So
we are buying our time and doing other projects. Abbie is
working on his tractors and I am registering cattle and
selecting cattle to show in Tulsa. The deadline will be
here before we know it! Sold a butcher beef today so will
take those big boys to the butcher in Miami next week.
This lady got half of a beef last time from us and she said it
was the best they had ever had. Funny how store bought
meat just doesn't compare to home grown. They are finally
going to get COOL (Country of Origin) set up for the Beef
Industry. We have labels of origin on our clothes, shoes,
medicine and everything else why wouldn't you want to know where
you beef comes from? The bad veggie scare maybe forced
some vegetarians to check their produce origin. Other
countries do not have the strict FDA guidelines and laws that we
have to abide by so how can they continue to send foreign food
without any control of pesticides, hormones and drugs induced
into the food chain? Hello they are very picky about what
we send over seas!
Abbie had to repair fence yesterday morning as someone drove
through the fence out into the pasture over north taking two
steel posts and a five wire fence out. Crazy people who
drive up and down our roads at night! They usually hit the
dead end at least once a year and end up in our pasture.
Makes you wonder if you shouldn't load the shot gun and leave it
by the door instead of under the bed. ha We gave up
and just rolled the mail box in the ditch, until we can build a
Mail Box made of Fort Steel. We get our mail about twice a
week at the post office now in Adair. Some people get
their kicks and giggles at everyone else's expense!
How about the Olympics? Wow we have been enjoying it
every evening. Great to see our USA athletes win and
compete in the national sports scene! Those little Chinese
girls in the gymnastics look more like grade school than high
school. So cute and competitive! Michael Phelps was
fun to watch too! Eight Gold Medals is amazing! He
seems like a nice down to earth young man too! He will be
the talk for several years to come! Poor Mark Spitz will
be forgotten now! ha
Blue
skies while we were haying
last
week on the East Pasture.
August 20 Cloudy, muggy and a
little rain made the day another dreary one! Wish it would
just get with it and rain and get it over with. So as you
can imagine we aren't getting much hay put up at this rate.
Weather sure has been strange this year, almost like last year.
At this rate we will be putting up hay with coats and gloves on
and that air conditioner I was so worried about will need a
heater instead! ha You guessed it! It doesn't
work! ha
August 21-23 Happy 65th
Wedding Anniversary Dorothy and Gordon Polack! Wow that is
something to be married for that many years! We are proud
to call you family!
The past few days have been busy! The weather never
cleared until today after the rain storm this morning.
When the sun came out it was muggy to say the least!
Jessie and Dani Leigh spent the night last night and we worked
with cattle until dark and then got up early to rain to load,
Lexus and Carolyn to take to Brian's show camp. They did
great and there were 30 anxious kids there with cattle to learn
how to maneuver a show stick and a bovine. Sheila and I
took registrations and grilled up the hot dogs for the lunch.
We were done by 3:00 and I dropped off Jessie and Dani in Adair
where they were both tired and excited about all that they had
learned. Abbie was home from Claremore with a load of beet
pulp. We caught all the show cattle and tied them under
the fans and misters. They were easy to catch and very
content to stand under the fans. I think I counted five
new recruits, five bulls, and six heifers and one cow calf pair.
All I know is we are running out of space for bodies! ha
The new recruits are enjoying life in the barn real quick!
Funny how fast they figure out climate control! ha I am
headed over to the lease place to pick up a big trailer of hay.
So best get off here and go back into the elements! You
all have a great weekend and enjoy the little things! Big
things don't always pay off!
August 24-28 A week of trying to hay. We at least
have about 80 acres mowed down and today the 28th we will try to
bale it up! We have 16 had tied in the barn now, so that
is a full time job in it's self! We mow hay until 7:30 and
feed cattle until 9:00 almost every night. The summer is
going way too fast and we will be seeing dark earlier each day
from now on! Anti Plasma is in the countryside and we have
lost two head to it! It is caused by mosquitoes and flies
bites. It can also cause cows to abort early. So we
ran bred cows through the other morning and gave LA 200 to
several until we ran out of medicine! Always something to
take the good times out of some days! One of the cows we
lost was a ex-show heifer named Wonder that grandson Phillip
showed last year in KY. Always sad when you loose one of
your pets! The old angus cow wasn't anything special
but she did us a good job.
Jerry Cole and Charles Hammond came by the other day and they
picked out weaned Fullblood bulls for their cowherds.
Thanks for the visit guys! We appreciate your business and
friendship!
Jerry
Cole and Charles Hammond buy bulls.
Half
sister to Turk
Half
Maine and half Braunvieh heifer from Hardcore and
Veronica in tall grass!
I went out to help catch and tie up the show cattle and Abbie
called and said bring your camera. You aren't going to
believe this one! Cowboy had went up to the halters
hanging on the fence and proceeded to put it on himself!
He almost had it on too! Who says they aren't darn smart?
He really wants to be a show bull! ha He was being pretty
stubborn and not wanting to lead so he got the mule treatment
the other night and now he has finally subsided to thinking
possibly this might be a good thing. I get bathed and my
back rubbed and have a cool dry spot to lie in the fans and
misters. We are off to the hayfield so you all hang in
there and enjoy the day and coming Labor Day weekend.
Travel safe and keep the good Lord in your passenger seat!
Show string of
heifers tied up for their morning training!
The boys!
Starwar, Knight
and Cowboy
August 29-31 Happy Birthday brother Tom,
daughter Delynn and grandson Logan! We kicked the show
cattle out on hay and grass, dropped the pups off at the vet
clinic to board and headed south. We made it to Cleburne Texas
for grandson Logan's 3rd Birthday party and Grace will be a
yearling on the 17th of September. Whitney, Ruby and Baby
Fred were there too so we spoiled all the grandbabies as rotten
as we could in the short time we were there. We left
Sunday afternoon and made it back to OK by 1:00 a.m. on Labor
Day.
Remember to welcome strangers, because some
who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it! Hebrews 13:2
