May 2006

The purpose of this diary is to record our adventures, folks who stop by, travels and events at the Thorne Ranch. 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 hope someday this Diary will be enjoyed and appreciated by our grandchildren and great grandchildren. We thank all you fine folks that enjoy our adventures. With over 70,000 visitors since its birth we are amazed at our faithful readers. God Bless and visit anytime! COPYRIGHTS JOAN THORNE

January2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006

"Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself."May 1-2 We are getting back into the groove of daily events at the ranch! Four new bull calves were born and we are getting down to the end of Spring calving season! These are all from the clean up bulls. Some of our show heifers have delivered some really nice babies. Burna and Panda both had bull calves. Andrea and Dani Leigh went with me to WW yesterday afternoon. Enjoyed their company! Today is catch up day around the yard and if you can believe it I need to mow grass in the lane and along the road. I should be herding my cows out there and let them get the long stems... I can't think of anything more relaxing than herding cows.. How relaxing is that? ha You all have a great day and enjoy May! I plan on enjoying the green grass of Oklahoma! Come back soon for more exciting times! ha Here is some more pictures from our trip to Texas to see the kids!

May 3-8 A busy week of several projects.. I pretty much finished the garage this week! I sorted bolts, screws and all the little odd and ends you get out of pockets. ha I also labeled all the storage containers so that we can now find all that special stuff! But the garage is looking organized and clean for a change! Let's see how long it lasts! ha Abbie has been busy setting up for A I breeding and for the flush the end of this month. So trailers full of cattle were brought in all week. Bob and Karen came by and helped set up over 100 head that we will be breeding or transferring embryos into. We then went to their place by Locust Grove and helped them set up a dozen head. It was a fun trip and their place is beautiful! Brian brought his cows to breed one day. Allison brought three head to flush. Williams brought cattle to set up for transfer and one man from Foyil brought a cow over for Abbie to A. I. in the morning! So business as usual! ha We got more rain and the ponds are at capacity. We really need some sunshine now to let the grass grow. Fescue has headed out already. The grass is so short that it won't take long for it to get ate off! Susan and Morgan came by in the rain on Saturday and we visited all the pastures of new calves. They were cold and wet so they didn't show themselves of very well! But I got some Ooh's and Ahh's from Morgan a couple of times..ha We made it up to more wet country at Carthage Mo last night to deliver the Power River Chute sold to Larry Aschermann. A good Charolais breeder there. We saw some fancy white cattle. We had a late night supper with Doug, Judy, Will and Kate and enjoyed seeing them as usual! They are busy like the rest of us trying to make a living! ha We made it home about midnight! Well it's off to Pryor for salt for the cattle and my usual Monday weigh in... Wish me luck! Better yet say a prayer for me! We had way too many good meals this week!

Mr. Morrison 717 Polled A calving ease Charolais bull we are going to breed several to for our Club Calf program! Watch for some pretty white babies at the Thorne Ranch. 717 was National Champion Cow-Calf Pair at the 29th National Charolias Show. His daughters are beautiful females with perfect udders!

May 9-13 A busy week! We picked up semen and delivered semen tanks to customers one evening. I went with a friend to Missouri on Tuesday to look for houses and land for sale. Wow, we did cover some ground and saw lots of possibilities. Land, houses and lots are expensive these days in areas that are booming from the economy. I sure don't see any recession! I returned home on Friday to a lawn that needed mowed, and lots of laundry as usual! It was great to get away though and I think Abbie was glad to see me come home! ha He has been busy getting ready for our mass breeding tomorrow. We will have way over a 100 head including several of our customers cattle. I will get good at finding semen in the tanks and loading guns again. Twice a year I refine that art! ha The weather is nice here and the sun is shining. It's great to have ponds full and sunshine!

We heard from the Davis family in California and one of the steers they got from us was selected Reserve Grand Champion steer for their county show. Congratulations Michelle! We are happy for you as we know how much work you put into your animals! We can't wait for the pictures! Also the gentleman we delivered the bull to a few weeks ago called and they are so happy with the bull that they want more cattle sometime this summer. That's what we like is happy customers!

You all have a great mothers day friends! Come back soon!

May 14 Sunday ! Mother's Day! It was a long long day today of making mothers of our cows! ha We just got to the house after a full day of A I Breeding over 100 head..and it's midnight! Brian's brother brought a trailer load. Bob and Karen brought three. The 8 head of donors had to be bred twice today. What a relief to have the major herd gone through. I am sure they were tired of going through the chute too! What a bunch of sweet cows they are! They all just line up and take there medicine. I swear we have some of the best disposition cattle in the world! A neighbor, Mark came by and helped us. He gave a try at A I breeding but was getting pretty discouraged after a few. It takes a long time to get really good. It was a real pretty day today though and we sure enjoyed all the great help and company! I received calls from all the girls today... They are all mothers now so it sure means more when you are one yourself.. Maybe Mom wasn't so bad after all! ha Come back soon this old Mother is heading to bed! :):)

May 15-17 Weigh in was better than I thought it might be after being gone traveling again last week.. Pretty much maintained.. ha No rate of gain! ha I made it to Claremore to pick up supplies and also made it back there on Tuesday to pick up what they missed loading. Good help is hard to find these days. With the immigration problems makes you wonder what we are going to become! A land of non English speaking labor. It's a problem that needs to be addressed... Used to be if you couldn't speak the language you didn't get a job that paid much! Now I guess sign language is universal... Our ranch helper is Juan who is 72 years old and has lived in the United States legally with his green card since the 60's and has his own version of English.. It's a good thing Abbie can understand him. I just shake my head and swing my handsin the air...ha But he is a good person, very reliable, very neat and I have not had to scrub the barn since he came to our door last fall. He keeps the barn isles clean and has learned how to handle the show cattle. He takes my place too, where I can focus on marketing cattle and keeping things running smooth at the house office. Juan worked for Abbie several years ago when he ran stocker feeder cattle. I think he was at the end of his search for a job...being over 70 and with a limited vocabulary he was needing an old friend. And of course Abbie was there! We withhold from his wages for tax purposes, which I think is only fair and legal. I wonder about some employers though. I really think we need to secure our borders to control illegal immigrants. They should have to go through the legal process. Isn't that what we have the laws for? Who knows what they are smuggling into our country? I don't see anyone breaking down fences to get back to Mexico, do you? We have made it too easy to get free food and free housing in several states. I believe in helping people but let's do it the legal way. Think of the millions of immigrants that came to this country through the Ellis Island in New York? They came they learned the language at least their children did and that is us today. We all can trace back immigrants in our blood lines... But let's let them in to the land of plenty with some common sense! Equal rights for all after you get your citizenship and learn the language! See? I jokingly tell folks we are a retirement home for our old Mexican and old Herd Sires... I guess it could be worse! ha

May 18-22 A busy week of preparation for the big flush! In between I mowed and weed ate around the place! That is when I could keep the belt on the mower! Arlis Unrau our nitrogen supplier from Coba and also one of our neighbors down the road picked out the Future Direction bull for his cow herd on Saturday. The Hughes family came by and picked out the Hard Core steer to show in Delaware County. Susan brought out Morgan on Friday evening. I put her to work! We washed and worked with the show cattle, and various projects! ha Morgan borrowed my camera and she got some awesome pictures of the cattle! She picked up photography real quick! We took Morgan to Cowboy Junction for supper at the Chuck Wagon! We also picked up supplies for the barn kitchen and a battery for the golf cart at Walmart! More like Abbie's candy habit! ha We left with bags of his supplies! ha
Sunday was flush day. Bright and early! Dwight got here right after day light! It was trailers in and trailers out all day! A pretty successful day too! Bob and Karen came with recipients, Richard and Barbara came with some too to transfer embryos into their cows. Tim Courtney came later with cows to transfer embryos into, too! I fixed up Braunvieh burgers for nine of us and with Morgan's excellent help we also made potato salad and desserts. David, Madison, Jared and Corey came by to check out he calves and as always enjoyed their visit!
Today, Monday I am catching up on stuff! Laundry was piled up and the bed needed washed! The usual maid duties! ha It looks to be a very hot day again in Oklahoma! No rain in sight for now, but we are sure looking for some relief from the 90 plus days! If this is any indication of what summer temperatures are going to be we better plant some more trees! ha Morgan and I planted a couple of willow trees down by the creek... Maybe some day they will shed some shade for someone! You plant trees for other folks...to enjoy! ha Everyday I enjoy the shade of these large oaks I thank someone!
Pictures below taken by Morgan Haggard! Thanks Morgan for all your help!

May 23-24 Congratulations to Alexander Coleman and family from Tennessee! Kendall called yesterday and said that the steer that they got from us was 2nd in the Rate of Gain! Gaining 4.8 pounds a day! There were 170 steers in the contest! He was also 4th place over all steers for total points! The steer was out of a first calf heifer and Who Made Who! So he was a half blood! We are happy for you all! Kendall said that he weighed over 1300 pounds and was still very sound on his feet and legs! We will share pictures when we get them!

We AI bred 25 head of virgin heifers and all of Brian's cattle today! It even showered on us and settled a little dust for the day! Jack and Kevin came by today and we showed them the calves in all the pastures! Today they all looked much better to me! They were all pretty stressed after being penned off and on for breeding their momma's last week! Now they can just relax and enjoy grass, creep, shade and milk! Cattle like people have their good days and their bad days! ha

I received an email that I think is worth sharing from my friend Faye!! Attitude is everything if life!

Attitude

There once was a woman who woke up one morning, looked in the mirror, and noticed she had only three hairs on her head. "Well," she said, "I think I'll braid my hair today." So she did and she had a wonderful day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and saw that she had only two hairs on her head.

"H-M-M, " she said, "I think I'll part my hair down the middle today." So she did and she had a grand day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that she had only one hair on her head.

"Well," she said, "Today I'm going to wear my hair in a ponytail." So she

did and she had a fun, fun day.

The next day she woke up, looked in the mirror and noticed that there wasn't a single hair on her head. "YEAH!" she exclaimed, "I don't have to fix my hair today!"

Attitude is Everything!!! "Have a Good Day!"

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

May 25-26 It was 99 degrees yesterday and you didn't have to do much to sweat a lot! I decided this old grandmother needed some air conditioning after my glasses about fell off. Abbie spent most of the day organizing his semen tanks after the breeding!
Today Friday, I took the mutts to the vet early for ear infection! Both Holly and Angel are miserable! Clint said that it's caused by allergies most of the time! So anyway I made it to the grocery store, the bank and also picked up a couple tanks of propane for the grill! You all have a safe Memorial Day and stop and smell those roses and flowers you are putting on the graves! That is if they are for real! Amazing isn't it! We give real flowers at funerals. Then afterwards we put out plastic or silk flowers! I wonder why? They last longer right? Enjoy some of my real flowers below from our flower garden's!
We have folks coming in tomorrow to look at cattle so our weekend is going to be full again! The sprinkle we got this morning didn't go very far! It's dry again! I dug holes for a couple of scrubs and it was bone dry all the way down a foot! Oh well it will rain again someday soon! We just have to stay positive! Right? Right!

Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it! Hebrews 13:2