June2007

Welcome to the Adventures of Dear Abbie's Wife

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

Abbie and Joan

You are viewer Hit Counter

The Old Farmers Almanac check out the best times of the moon projects!!

January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007

June 1 The rain fell all night and in the morning and then the sun came out again! Working on several projects and seems like the farther I go the behinder I get. Ran out of gas in the mower last night so will attempt to finish off the forest surrounding the place! Might need a 4 wheel drive mower this year! Here is a picture I took yesterday of Turk! He is already getting lots of attention. We will be showing him this year! He is ready for that nose ring though! Gosh I wonder if all males need a nose ring?ha Visited with several folks today and got a good lesson on the Scottish Highland breed. They are not called herds they are called folds. Check out these hairy little bovine cattle that the Queen of England raises for her own beef! Makes sense to me! ha Their hair weighs almost as much as their carcass! Interesting information on an old old breed! Enjoy life today and tomorrow!

June 2-4 We got caught up on a few things around here! I got the barn office scrubbed and cleaned on Saturday. Jake got the barn chute area cleaned and hauled out. What a way to make a living. I went to Cowboy Junction Church on Sunday morning. Met Tee Woolman's parents and had dinner with them at the Chuck Wagon. Really nice folks that invited me to stay and enjoy the free lunch with them and the fellowship. Wilma tried to hire me to come help them at the Vinita Livestock Auction office. She said they were short and needed help! Don't know if Mr. Thorne will allow me time off to do office work when the hayfield is nearing daily! Stopped and visited with Jane and Jon for a minute before coming home. By the time I got the wheel barrow full it was almost time to feed. Friends from Chelsea came by to check out the calves after church. They attend Cowboy Junction too. They were wondering what to breed their Angus heifer to. I think they decided Cowboy Up after seeing our babies. Abbie went to Okemah to visit our friends the Warn's and check on a feed truck. He made it home about the time I had most of the cattle fed.

Monday saw daylight and Flush Day! Six head were flushed so it was trailers in and trailers out! I made up dinner for eight people. The Free family from Nacogdoches, Texas got here just in time for lunch. Brittney came looking for a Maine heifer and ended up selecting a little Fullblood Braunvieh heifer instead. I slipped the halter on her and gave Brittney the rope. She fell in love immediately. She will have fun her first year learning about cattle. Her sister decided on a couple of sheep! Thanks Free family for making the long trip to Oklahoma. We appreciate your time and business.

June 5-6 We got a few things caught up on around here on Tuesday. Actually it was almost as busy! I got jackets mailed to Cody and Kylie for the show last year at Tulsa! Better late than never! The lady just got them done! They will enjoy them next fall more when it gets cooler! Somehow a trophy just doesn't impress me much! I'd rather have something useful! I stopped and Kelly cut my hair. She did a nice job and think I will like it shorter better now with the hot weather upon us! The guys worked on the barn tie area all morning and got it cleaned and revamped with cedar shavings. Bob and Karen came by to pick up meds for the next flush set up. They brought Pizza from Pizza Hut. She said she had a trial getting pizza ordered over the telephone. First off they didn't speak good English and they had a terrible time with the simple one pizza order. Plus she was talking to someone not from Pryor OK where she was going to pick it up! Sheila called yesterday and she had the same problem. To make a motel reservation in Oklahoma you have to talk to someone in Pakistan? What happened to our service American style and in plain English? Is it cheaper to send our phone calls across the ocean? I don't think so! What happened to local access to information? I wonder if anyone else has had problems getting local reservations? Are we totally foreign owned now? This is scary folks! We don't have as much local control as we think we do! Today was windy and hot! The barometer says that we will get a change though. Possible rain in the forecast! I had to water my flowers today due to the wind. They are way to used to cool weather and showers daily! Debbie and Brooke came by to pick up her Angus heifer Abbie bred. Always great to see them! Guys are still working on the barn tie area and will get the welding done sometime today! Abbie let Jake take control of the welder. So far so good we hope that they don't pull back too hard! Turk got a new girl friend today! Golden Girl has been a real challenge, so we decided what she needed was some male attention to settle her down! ha This may be one of the first 25 x 25 Braunvieh babies! I have been working on Carol's and Kathy's web sites all morning! Having difficulty getting them loaded and so far have lost the front page extension on Carol's. Can nothing be simple? Have a great day! It's trail horse riding night tonight! Sure hope I can get saddled and out of here before something else comes up or someone drives in!

North Pond - Spring fed and full this year.

June 7-8 Bob and Karen came by to set up their cattle and had lunch with us. Good thing I got domestic and put in a meat loaf and baked potatoes in early. I also took time to bake some banana bread. I have been just tossing brown bananas to the roses for fertilizer but felt guilty today so I smashed them up and baked them. ha They loaded and left. In drove Julie and Ashley Huntington to see the last Fall steer named Tarzan. He is so gentle that is why we kept him. If nothing else he will make a nice steer for our Tulsa Show. Jake and I got almost all of cattle rinsed and blown out before 8:00 in the evening. Abbie is still running cows through the chute so morning are tied up with feeding and gathering the next cow herd to breed or set up for recipients in the next flush! Will it never end? Breeding season has to be as trying as calving season anymore.

The fescue is finally going to seed now. So now the problems of sore feet and sore eyes will start on the cattle. Fescue has it's plus and minus. It grows like crazy but it can be very toxic to cattle if they start stripping the seed heads. It can cause poor circulation in the extremities like their feet or tails. If cattle are not accustomed to it, it can cause swollen feet and some instances they can loose the switch on their tails. Extreme conditions they can loose a foot. It will just fall off. I have never seen that happen here yet but it has happened before to cattle that came in from the south.

Today is about the usual activities. Feed and run cattle through the chute. Cidars in one day and shots the next day! We got a shower last night. North of us they had severe storms and wind. Sure glad we missed that deal. Jake and I are headed over north to dig thistles. They are easy to find as they are about six to seven foot tall now. I am sure we will have a pick up load before noon.

June 9 We got one load of thistles dug before 11:30 and then went to Adair for lunch. We had customers come by at 12:30. Kelli and Morgan Henry and Pat Morgan. They were looking for a heifer to show at the Pryor Fair this fall. Really nice folks and they will be back on Sunday. Brian is coming Sunday to clip out the show cattle too. We are AI breeding heifers this morning. So I am headed to the barn to load AI guns. Then we are picking up a new feed truck this afternoon. Not NEW by any means but at least it may make it around to the bunks with the feeder so we can cut down on buckets! Yep the ole Dodge has been laid out to green pastures.. Literally green pastures.. The grass has grown up all around it and now it's like the rest of the works of iron art around here. ha Visited with Mom and Dad this morning and they have been getting some nice rains up north. We have customers flying in on Monday so we are going to be real busy around here up until I head to Kentucky for the Jr Nationals. So I may not get back to the Diary for awhile.

Don't you all think we should send a "Card to Paris Hilton? I wonder if they will put this real story in her TV Show the Simple Life? Life isn't simple Paris. It's a down right struggle for most of us common and poor folks. We all have to make a living in this world and follow the rules. You have made fun of us all on your retarded TV show so now look who is liking your discomfort? Heard that they have a New Room in the Hilton called the "Paris ConSuite Room". Have a great weekend, hope your not spending it in JAIL with Paris!

June 10 - 17 A busy week! We left from OK at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning for Bowling Green Kentucky. We made it about 6:30 and the cattle rode well. They were ready to get off for feed, water and a straw bed. We were all ready too! Rick, Delynn and the kids made it about 2:30 in the morning. So I got a short nights sleep. Next day kids went to the water park and had a good time. I stayed and baby sat baby Olivia and the cattle. It got hot where we were parked when the afternoon sun got around to the west side. We didn't bring a cool room like some exhibitors. There goes the heat tolerance claim! The kids did really well in Showmanship, Quiz bowl and the obstacle course. Cattle performed well too! No wrecks anyway. See all the pictures at the News Page! Great job; Rashele, Nathan, Reighly, Jake, Madison, Megan, Cooper, Lauren, Alexander, Victoria, Phillip, and Clay. You all made Oklahoma and TLC Cattle look good in several events and we didn't have to hire a professional fitter to pose as an exhibitor to fit your cattle. You did it all on your own! Too bad some folks didn't follow their own rules! Something good may come out of this yet! The true colors came through loud and clear! We made it home about 3:30 in the morning. We had diesel fuel filter problems so that slowed us all down for a little while! It was a good 10-11hour trip home! Today was slow motion! We had two bunches of customers come in today. Bull buyers and heifer buyers. Looks like a heifer will go to Missouri next fall and possibly a young weaned bull to stay in Oklahoma for repeat bull buyers.

June 18-24 We have been playing catch up on all categories around the place. We have had more rain almost daily so that has put any curb in the haying idea at this point. Water was over the bridge for the 3rd time this Spring already. We almost got rested up from Kentucky and packed up after we took cattle to Joplin sale and that night we headed over to Lawton OK for the Junior Maine National show. Witnessed the Diamonds in the Rough crew win several divisions. Blake was on a roll and we got some real cute pictures of the kids after they had won a new show box. We made a trip out for catfish on Friday night with the Sullivan family. The two grandson's were trying to put on their best behavior for Dani Leigh. ha Boys are definitely harder to control than girls. Good Lord new that I couldn't handle boys so he sent me four girls for a reason! But what to do with all these ambitious and over active grandson's? We stopped in OK City and found cowboy boots for them. Maybe we need to bring some calves for them to break to lead! ha

We had a pretty good flush on Saturday. Three donor cows worked well and one bombed out. Of course those were the sold embryos. Never count your eggs until you have them in the semen tank! ha Sunday today has been a nice day to just kick back and relax for a change. Boys are watching a movie and I am headed out to try and mow the road ditch and drive! Hope I don't get stuck! With all this rain you can hardly keep up with the mowing! But what a problem to have this year compared to the past few years of drought. Our old friend Larry Hollenbeck passed away from cancer recently. He was always my hero when I was growing up and like a big brother to me. He was always a great friend and we know that he is riding the range on the great divide now, free of pain and suffering. The things that Larry liked the most in life was his family, rodeo and bowling. Our sympathy goes out to Beanie, the four boys, Doyle, Judy and Joyce and the whole Hollenbeck family back home. It's time like this when it makes me homesick to see you all.


Pretty Bud heifer calf	Phillip, Dani and Clayton	Blakley and Runner kids at Lawton OK Jr Maine Nat'ls.

June 25-26-27-28-29-30 Rain, rain, and more rain! They are talking 8 inches just this month for Tulsa area. Some places got more than that. It will probably turn off hot and dry in July. So guess we had best enjoy all the great moisture. Everything will be so used to this cool damp weather that it will wilt when it gets hot. No doubt in my mind that it will turn off that way very soon. Then we will be cutting and baling hay as fast as we can get it mowed down. The grandsons Phillip and Clayton came home with me from Kentucky and that brings new meaning to mother hood or should I say grand parenting? My patience is pretty slim when it comes to over active boys! I had two brothers that liked to beat up on each other so it's not with fond memories. Trying to keep them busy is the key. It's been so rainy that they have been stuck inside in front of the TV and thank heavens for DVD movies! ha Sam stopped by yesterday morning to visit about bulls. He made it just in time for the warm coffee cake I baked up for the boys. All three boys, Abbie included in that group! ha Worked on the Aschermann web site last night and finally got it updated. It's hard to keep new and current info on but it sure does make the search engines like you if you do.

Happy Birthday friend Nick! We hope you have many many more! I am sure you celebrated after the sale on Wednesday. The folks and brother Bill sold fall calves at a premium at Bassett Livestock Auction. 705# steers brought $124.50 = $877.00 per head for a pot load. The heifers brought good money too! They were happy and they saved back the black and white steer for us. I picked him out last fall when he was a baby. Happy Birthday Mom! Hope you have many many more! It rained off and on all day! Bryce came out and trimmed up the tree that was hanging down on the ground from all the rain. Bob and Karen came by and brought Little Bud for us to take to his new owner. It poured again this afternoon! Wow this is amazing. When it rains it pours!

We made it south of Ft Worth by 8:00 on Friday night to deliver bulls to Mr. James and Mr. McSpadden. We got in the middle of rush hour traffic in downtown Dallas on a Friday night. But we made it out alive and met them and made the swap. Great folks with some cute grand kids! We made it to Jeffrey and Diann's to spend the weekend then. We ran over to Hillsboro to the outlet malls in the morning and had a good time shopping. We spoiled Logan as much as we could. Three boys under one roof was pretty entertaining.


Elgin OK sign along highway south of Chickasha	Reighly and TLCC Isabella 3rd in Class at Maine Jr Nationals