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 seven 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."
Joan and Abbie
Last
Updated
Tuesday, 22 July 2008 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 but I applaud their view on life!
January 1 -2 Happy New Year
folks! We hope you all brought in the New Year with a Bang!
We were pretty calm here! We spent New years day feeding and
putting out hay. Last count we put out 24 big round bales
and hauled around 60 some buckets of feed. When it's cold like
this those darn cows can munch some feed and hay down! Tech came
this morning to hook up Abbie's new TV, Judith came to scrub the barn
office about the same time. Yep I hired a cleaning Lady for the
Office! Maybe Dear Abbie will wipe his feet and keep the barn
cleaner if he has to pay to have it cleaned! I have threatened
him for the last time to wipe his feet! ha I worked on
Turk's herd sire add most of the night before and was trying to
finalize it so we could go to press sometime this week! I hauled
the trailer in to Cowboy Rigs to get tie rails put in so we can let
the cattle lie down if they want to now while we haul them! I
came back home to get lunch and then head back to Pryor to the x-ray
machine and press! Yep a mammogram! Think I have two flat
tires now, thank you very much! I picked up groceries and made a
few stops, one being the floor and tile place! If I don't get
that floor in soon it will be next year before we find time to stop
and move furniture and appliances! I have been cleaning closets
and the pantry got a real digging out before the year end. Good
feeling when you can find what your looking for now. Surprising
how easy it is to just stash stuff! My new years resolution!
Keep the pantry and frig neater. I gave up on the normal loose
the weight. I have been hypnotized to eat half of anything I
want now! Let's hope I stay mesmerized all year long! ha
Funny thing about spell check sometimes it will give you a word that
is spelled right but the meaning is not the same as for instance..
(Isles and Aisles) Two words that sound the same but spelled
differently and also the meanings are different. The heading for
our add included this. " Listen for the Turkey calls in the
Herd Sire Aisles in 2008" Of course I typed the wrong
one and my friend Sheila helped me catch and confirm the error.
She said of course she didn't want us red neck Okie's to embarrass
ourselves. ha So instead of the Isles of Britain per say
we are the Aisles of shopping malls, furniture stores, grocery stores
and of Show barns and Herd Sire Aisles! ha Words are a
powerful agent and the pen is sharper than any weapon I know of!!
The plan is to hand out some turkey calls we got from our new friend
Kenny Morgan at College
Station Texas at some shows to create a
little intrigue and talk! Turk has been our Turk baby for so
long that he is kind of like the new super star of the family so why
not create a little persona in his names sake! ha We thank
Kenny for going the extra mile and sending us a boat load of callers
to hand out. Talking
about turkeys! How about that OU game with West Virginia?
That was pretty horrible! We stayed in Morgantown WV last year
and they do love their foot ball team! The best team won
without a doubt. Stoops better go home and do some evaluating
after four bowl losses to his credit! Not an easy job but
guess what? He gets paid dearly well to win or loose! ha
TLC Whoa Girl and Kate Shaffer in
2004.
TLCC Turks dam.
Carl and Stacy Taylor
January 3-5 Carl and Stacy Taylor
came from Fox OK to pick up their TLC Dena heifer. It was cold
windy and miserable out so we had a quick tour of the cattle in the
silver truck! They were happy with their sight unseen
purchase! I went in and picked up the trailer with it's
new tie rails in the afternoon. I had a hair appointment
on Friday and got kinky. Don't know what to do with it but
guess it will tame down someday! ha Today we are washing and
clipping out cattle. It's up to almost 60 degrees already!
So they shouldn't mind the baths and hair cuts today! Wind is
still blowing but at least it's not snowing and blowing! ha
I washed and blew out Cowgirl, Vienna and Heart
before we left for Brian's. Abbie fed and put out hay while I
was trying to get them squeaky clean! We took Vinnie and
Full of 602 and Crystal got them nice and clean in Brian's wash
room!. Wish we had facilities like that at our barn! Ours is
outside tied to a panel on rock and mud! Brian got three
clipped out and we left Cowgirl and Vienna for him to do tomorrow
morning. They look so very awesome with hair cuts. Too bad
Abbie's barber hasn't trimmed him up yet! ha Brock and I
had to have our Basketball tournament of PIG. This old
grandmother won again by the skin of her teeth! He is getting
really good. He has been practicing since our last tournament last
summer! I better start working out at our Hoops if I
plan on beating him next time! ha We went to Chouteau for
supper afterwards. We got home and Rick and Barbara were here
for Abbie to AI breed a couple of cows. I am beginning to
think nobody keeps or uses bulls anymore! ha We had to
put down one of our pets the other day! Sylva a coal black
Dragon daughter broke her left front shoulder somehow several months
ago. She was not getting any better and it was the humane
thing to do but it is always hard to put a pet down. I know
Abbie has a really hard time doing it and I don't think I could ever
do it!
Jan 6-7 It was 74 degrees yesterday
and 40 something today! What a big temperature change!
It also created tornados and thunder storms all across the east side
of Oklahoma. We visited with Dion over at Talahquah and they
got 10 inches of rain with severe flooding everywhere. We
missed the hail and hard rain. We got enough rain though that
water was crossing over our drive over cement bridge! We made
it to Claremore to pick up supplies and had lunch in Pryor. We
are putting out more hay and working with seven head in the show
barn.
January 8-16 We made it
to Ft Worth Texas for the Southwest Livestock Exposition and made it
home safely this morning at 3:00 a.m. We had a good time
and the cattle did exceptionally well too. Go to the
News page to see the results.
One of the highlights was being selected Breeders Best Four Head
with Turk, Vincente, Lulu and Heart in the group. Also
seeing youngsters Twinkle and TLC Tabi win their calf classes.
So the future looks bright for the Fullblood Division too. I
am sure they all hate to see us pull in these days at the shows.
I can hear them mumble and grumble those darn Thorne's are a thorn
in our side. Our answer back is, we didn't always have
show cattle, but we have continued to improve our breeding program
and that is what you have to do to stay in the cattle business.
Breed and raise cattle that someone else would also like to have in
their pastures. Regardless of breed, good cattle are good
cattle. Bad cattle are bad and should be culled or used for
other purposes. Of course there are some people who can not or
will not see the bad traits that they are reproducing and will
aimlessly wander through life breeding the same bad traits. We
are still battling the identity crisis in the Braunvieh breed and it
looks to be an on going problem. We feel that by showing folks
what you get by utilizing Braunvieh genetics that you can better
your herd of any breed by incorporating Braunvieh blood. So if
all the doubting Thomas' of this breed would look out of their
tunnel vision and see the whole picture they would realize we have
to show folks what they get by using Braunvieh. They don't get
the picture until they see them in the flesh and blood. We had
an on going stream of fascinated folks amazed at our 25 and 50
percent cattle. Turk was one of the highlights of the show and
folks simply loved his thickness and soundness of foot!
We are not going to capture the world to breed strictly Braunvieh
cattle. We can pick up a few new breeders off and on but the
majority of breeders with big herds already have their breed of
choice. We can only show them what will add value with
Braunvieh genetics and in the mean time enjoy our cattle friends and
cattle.
I somehow lost the big diamond in my wedding ring on Friday
night as we were setting up the cattle display. I never noticed
until we got to the room! So I didn't get much sleep that
night as I kept trying to recall where I was using pliers or wiring
up panels. I know it is probably in a pile of wood
shavings in that display area. So if you saw me looking at the
ground most of the time there now you know what I was doing!
Of course Abbie had to down play it and say that we would get
another one and that the new one could be a cubic zirconium.
Then if I lost it was no big deal! Well you know I had a come
back from Dear Abbie! "A Diamond is forever and a Cubic
Zirconium is a one night stand." This wife of now going on 12
years and is not in for one night stands so guess what? Yep
you got it we are shopping for the big rock! ha I think I
might have learned my lesson to take my good jewelry off when doing
mechanical work now! ha Oh well, who is perfect do you know
them?
We met several nice folks at the show and we even spoiled the
grandbabies, Logan and Grace when Jeffrey and Diann came to visit
us. We also visited with nephew Casey and his wife Brandy over
lunch. We had extra help from friends
Matt and Katie Wilson from Missouri. They had came down to see
the show and Texas! We sure do appreciate all your help!
Randy Free brought daughter Brittney's heifer Elie May they
purchased from us last Summer. He was great help too and fun
to have around the stalls! One of our cattle kids, Crystal Whisner
came with us to keep us grandparents in line. She did an
outstanding job of preparing the cattle and also showing.
Showing cattle is not a recreational sport! It is darn hard
work in fact! It is simply amazing how much stuff you
pack for such an event. It's like taking the living room and
show barn with you. But would we change anything at this
point? No we are having the time of our life! We are
finally seeing the fruits of our labor come true! It takes
only one seed to plant a large oak tree! That means folks we
have Turk and Vincente
semen for sale!
The verdict is out,
The U.S. Department of Agriculture yesterday asked U.S. farmers and
ranchers to keep their cloned animals off the market indefinitely
even as Food and Drug Administration officials announced that food
from cloned livestock is safe to eat. Clones would be pretty
high priced ground beef or steaks. Most cloned cattle costing
between $10-$15,000 to reproduce. So is it worth the
cost? If we could clone some of our old herd sires and donors
that would be simply wonderful. Would they be the same animal?
No they would only be a reproduction or copy, not genuine.
Region, Environment, Handling and Nutrition play a big part in every
animals genetic appearance and production. Clones raised
thousand of miles apart would not resemble each other much besides
the DNA and color pattern.
Breeders
Best Four Head with
Turk, Heart, Vincente, and Lulu in the foursome at
Ft Worth Livestock Show.
TLC Turk
TLC Heart of Gold
TLC Ali's Vincente
TLC Linda's Lu Lu
Grand Champion Beef Builder Bull
Grand Champion Beef Builder Female
Reserve Grand Champion Beef Builder
Bull
Reserve Grand Champion Beef Builder
Female
TLC Fran F6494 ET Sire: Northstar Vernon and Dam: W8R
A97/1
January 17-18 We received a call from
some folks that are doing a
Breeds of Cattle Book. They wanted to use our picture of
TLC Fran for the Braunvieh female We sold Fran in one of our production sales
and we kept her full sib Anna.
She sold for $15,000 that year and I still cried when she left for
KY. If you had seen her a year
later you would have cried again as I did. Thin and she didn't
even look like the same animal we sent off with a pot load of cattle
to Kentucky. She probably ended up at the stock yards
somewhere afterwards. I can't imagine not taking good care of
a high dollar animal like Fran. She was very flighty but was
fine is you didn't try to hurry her. Every one that sees her
picture in the barn says they want one just like her.
Today was wash and catch up on all kinds of stuff. Thanks to
our neighbors Judy and Jack for doing the chores, feeding, putting
out hay and checking on everything. It's nice to have good
neighbors. We are working on various projects today.
Getting repairs for the loader that I bent the cylinder on, lights
for the chute room so we can start clipping out Fall calves for
sale. Sounds like the weather is going to continue to be cold
so the heated chute room will serve us old people well. ha
Tonka toy truck strapped on the trailer on I-70 in
Colorado.
Thorne
Ranch Breeders Best Four Head at
the National Western Stock Show Denver Colorado Turk,
Heart, Lulu & Cowgirl
Mike
Runner, Abbie, Nathan Bankes, Ethan McCabe, Rashele Blakley, Jeff
Anderson, Joan and Judge Rex McDowall.
Photo Credit compliments of Robbie McDowall
January 19-22 We are home again, home
again! We made it in from Denver at noon today the 22nd of
January. Happy Birthday Whitney Grace! Happy Belated Birthday to
Diann and Erica on the 20th. Notice the truck and
trailer in the picture to the left. We saw something strapped
down on the back of the trailer and it was a children's Tonka toy
truck. It gave us a chuckle and I am sure the driver was
enjoying himself too! Nice to know that some people still have
a good sense of humor still. I wonder if that little boy was
in that truck too. ha We had a good time in Denver. We
got left on Saturday evening about 7:30 p.m. after we put out over
50 big round bales. Earlier Crystal and Abbie had to fix
fence. Something ran the little heifers through into pasture
eight. So they were all mixed up! We made it to Hays KS
by 12:30 and spent a few hours in a motel. We were back on the
road at 6:30 and made it to the Stock Show by noon in time to see
Rashele and her Contender heifer win their class in the Open Maine
show. We spent most of the day at the show and it was a pretty
nice Sunday. The weather was nice and pretty comfortable and we had
supper at the Bass Pro Shop Restaurant! Monday was a different
story as snow and wind dropped it down in the teens! Of course
that was our show day! But all went well and the cattle looked
good and performed well for us all! Turk was Grand Champion
Beef Builder Bull and Heart was Grand Champion Beef Builder Heifer
and were surprised when Cowgirl was selected Reserve Grand Beef
Builder Heifer ahead of Lulu! We had Breeders Best Four Head with
them too! Really disappointed in the number of cattle for
the show. It used to be the primary show for the Braunvieh
breed! We are still one of those other unmentionable breeds at the
Pepsi Arena that nobody knows what they are or where they came from.
All the breeds that people know like a house hold word, show up
on the HILL! We didn't even have a place to display the cattle
this year. They had to be tied and displayed in their tie out
pens. Very disappointing when you spend x amount of dollars to
advertise your cattle and then just about the only people who saw
them were your competitors! Rashele rode home with us and we
stopped finally at midnight in Salina after we heard that ice was
forming on I-35. We got up early and had Rashele in Oologah by
10:30 just in time for her Chemistry Class. I am sure she was
thrilled! ha We are slowly getting back to some what
normal activities! Thanks to Crystal and Cody, Jack and Judy
for holding down the fort again! I think we are home for a
long time now! Many more weekends like the last two and I am
booking a room at the local old folks home and walking in with a
cane not a show stick! ha
TLC Heart of Gold Grand Champion at
Denver. Photo credit to Jo Dexter.
TLC Turk as Grand Champion and his
entourage in Denver.
Photo credit Browary
January 23-30 We might be catching up
and then it seems like we just kick it into another gear around
here. The crew got the new lights all hung in the chute room
and now you can pick off fleas on a dogs back. It has been
cold and pretty miserable with the wind. Yesterday we put out
more hay and you got a hay blast every time you pulled the strings
off. There is something to be said about net wrap. Then
you get a whole mouth full at once though. It's pretty amusing
to watch this grandmother chasing a cow that is chewing a bale
string with her mouth of hay. We started three new recruits in
the show barn and we worked with them off and on. Redbud is a
real fire cracker. Kind of like the song out by Josh Turner.
But she is as stout as they come and if they want to change the
breed percentages to try and derail us that is okay with us! She can
also show as a Maintainer! Adrianna and Loretta are going to
be pups. They like being scratched too well to put up much of
a fight. We are already tired of the Politics between
the Democrat nominees! Do they really think they will be
friends after they get done throwing mud? What a bunch
of fakes politicians are! Don't think it has changed much
since the beginning of time. In between feeding and
putting out hay it's been try to catch up on year end books!
Mercy do we spend that much money on feed and repairs? If we
didn't have to feed these critters we could live a pretty easy life
around here plus we would have a lot of time on our hands. To
golf, ride horses, boating or sit by our water tank and sip
margaritas. ha We don't have a pool so that would have to be
the next best thing! ha Hope your staying warm and happy! Stop
back soon!
Dani Leigh, Holly and Hally
Abbie and Crystal blowing out the
new show heifer recruits. Notice they are in Brown too! We
have stock in Carhart! ha
January 31 Last day of January already!
The year is going to go fast again! Dani Leigh made it over
last Thursday to visit. I picked her up from school and we
baked cookies for Papa when we got home! The mutts absolutely
think she is the best thing since treats. Since she spoils
them with treats when she comes so they follow her like the candy
lady! ha We got 3 inches of heavy snow today. It was
actually kind of nice to cut strings today on the soft blanket of
clean snow! The cattle are going through a lot of hay this
year. Sure happy we have enough to indulge them this year.
Last year it was pretty slim pickings. I donned my Carhart
coveralls again today. I told Abbie Dear that I would like a
new set for next year and I think us ladies should have a say about
the design and buttons. Mine could be attired in Rubies
and Diamonds on the over the strap hook up! ha They
should be able to drop from the waist down for convenience too.
My plumbing is not like the makers! ha So a zipper around the
middle covered in lace would be nice! The legs are always too
long and I seem to get them all tucked in my muck boots and then try
to walk with lumps in one or the other. My Carhart stocking
cap is pretty boring too! Brown so that it goes with my
Carhart Coveralls and Carhart coat. What a color Brown is?
I blend right in with our BROWN cows! ha The only difference
is I am the crazy lady with the blue strings and string cutter! ha
Beware I am one string cutting machine! ha Clint had lunch
with us today and they surgically dehorned one of the young bulls
today! You all have a safe and fun weekend with the friends and
family for the Super Bowl Game! I am sure we will be staying
close to home this weekend to watch all the advertisements oh did I
say that? I mean watch the game! ha
Remember to welcome
strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing
it! Hebrews 13:2
2008
