Levi's Remuda

Levi now owns more horses than any other three-month-old that I know.

Thanks to coworker Denise, he inherited this collection of model horses.

They will remain packed away for quite some time still, but I'm looking forward to watching him play with them when he gets older.

My thought is to get a few out for him, saving enough for his younger siblings that they can each have their own. Why not share the good fortune?

All I know is that I would have loved to have this many model horses to play with when I was little, so I hope he enjoys them as much as I would have. :-) Thanks, Denise!

Fall = Lots of Cows!

I didn't really have anything to write to go along with the above photo, but I liked it so I figured I'd post it. Nothing like standing out in a crowd! I think Mrs. Red Cow is very pretty, even though black is preferred and rewarded in the U.S. cattle markets right now.

After a summer of not doing too much livestock work because of my growing belly and achiness (Is that a word? My computer doesn't think so), this fall I got in on some fall gathering and shipping up at the Association. On this particular day I think Levi was five weeks old, and we packed him up and took him to the ranch while we shipped the calves off this bunch of cows.

My photo trips this fall have paid off when it comes to the paper, because the last six weeks have featured images from the Association.

The photo above also ran on the cover of the paper. When I was taking pictures this day I didn't think I'd really gotten anything I could use, but it turns out we've used several for the Roundup cover.

Have you heard it enough already? I still love my new T3 camera, and my Pixma printer. So far the printer's only been used to print photos of Levi to give away to family members, but I think that's a worthy cause. :-)

This photo also ran on the cover, and features two of the heifers we brought back from Iowa last winter. They were wintered in a feedlot at Thermopolis, then came to the Association for the summer to eat, grow and be bred. So far they look really good, and none the worse for the elevation, but it remains to be seen if they'll calve this spring. Time will tell!

The last month and a half I've been working really hard to keep doing my best work at the paper while taking care of Levi 24/7. It's certainly been a challenge, but I feel like the paper's been going really well. There were a few bumps in the couple weeks after I came back to the office in early October, and I realized the importance of being in touch with the news on a daily basis to generate article ideas. It's really easy to get out of touch really fast, and that's something I'll do differently next time I'm out on maternity leave with Levi's little sibling.

I owe a big 'thank you' to the other half of my editorial team - Saige did a great job handling the paper while I was out with Levi, and came out alive even after a few surprises. I got her a fifth of Pendleton and a set of whiskey glasses for her trouble, because I know that being in charge of an endeavor like the Roundup can certainly call for a drink every now and then. :-)

Levi: 11 Weeks

Because I have so many photos of Levi, I decided to dedicate a post to the latest batch. :-)

I have really enjoyed the higher ISO speeds on my new camera - up to 6400! That allows me to take photos of Levi in the dim lighting of our living room, without using the dreaded flash.

He's starting to get the hang of this photo thing. It's quickly become a fact of his life. :-)

He knows he's cute.

So these photos were mostly posted for his grandmom in Iowa, who can download whatever ones she might want to print.

The one above is one of my favorites.

And the expression on this one's pretty good. :-) I obviously enjoy taking photos of Levi, so hopefully some of you enjoy looking at them!

Hard at it: Cattlemen's

At the Roundup we're right in the midst of convention season, bull sale ads season, and Winter Cattlemen's season.

I spent the majority of today about 60 miles north of Glenrock, in northern Converse County, doing some interviews for Cattlemen's. The ranch pictured above belongs to the Hardy family, and they run sheep on this location and cattle in southern Iowa in a partnership. The scenery around ranch headquarters is pretty typical for that area of Wyoming - lots and lots and lots of open space.

On my way in to visit with the Moore family I was glad that someone had already come out of their road and left a set of tracks, otherwise some sections of the road would have been left up to my best guess.

Baby Levi spent the day with his Grandma Shirley again, and I picked him up following my last interview. I am just about done with interviews, and that means that my next task is to start writing.... the hard part. So far I'm on schedule, though, because my goal was to get interviews done by Thanksgiving.

Other than that, life is consumed by writing and editing the regular weekly paper, cleaning house, looking after Levi and other things of that nature. Raking the yard remains on my to-do list. If it's lucky it'll get done before we get a permanent blanket of snow for the winter. :-)

Speaking of winter...

This ad our designer made from a photo I took in Johnson County for the cover of last year's Winter Cattle Edition. She's turned it into a house ad, and I still really like the looks of it. So much so that I got the red snowflake graphic from her, to perhaps make Christmas cards this year. We'll see if I get to make time for that project in my schedule....

That time of year: Winter Cattlemen's

And so it begins.

This is the time of year when the paper gets busy. It's convention season, which keeps us traveling around the state and listening to many speakers at the annual meetings of several Wyoming ag organizations, like Wyoming Farm Bureau, the Wyoming Association of Conservation Districts and Wyoming Women in Ag.

It's also the time of year when we try to attend all the conventions, put out the weekly paper AND squeeze in two dozen extra interviews and articles for Winter Cattlemen's Edition, which has a deadline in early December. 

Last week I started on my Cattlemen's interviews. This year we're in Converse County, which I planned so that I can drop Levi off at his Grandma Shirley's house for the day while I go out and about to visit with people and take pictures. 

Of course, the day that I scheduled my interviews for had a winter storm warning, which made it a little iffy for driving, but at least I got some wintry photos out of the deal. I was able to get five interviews that day, and only one on the other day I'd planned for interviews.

Because our Cattlemen's editions have grown in size since we first started them five years ago, Saige and I now have 15 articles each, while before each of the Roundup writers only had to do 12. Trust me, the extra three really do make a big difference in time and effort. 

This is my 12th Cattlemen's edition. It really doesn't seem like that many - now I've been in on featuring over half of Wyoming's 23 counties. I enjoy the interview part of it - driving around in new country, visiting with new people at their ranches and businesses. It's the transcribing and writing part of the project that's the killer. Each year I tell myself I'll be more on top of it and get them written gradually, but somehow that's never happened yet.... All the other day-to-day tasks of the paper tend to take higher priority, as they, in themselves, are a full-time job and take up my entire week. There's not much 'spare' time left over for such a big project as a Cattlemen's edition, so I usually end up writing it on the weekends.

And, of course, I haven't started the writing part yet. For now my goal is to get all the interviews accomplished by Thanksgiving. I have seven done, so here's hoping the rest will fall into place in the next couple weeks!

This squirrel was at the Wyoming Pioneer Museum, and he was so upset that I was taking photos of him that I thought he might jump on me to get me to stop.

With a baby this cute...

With a baby this cute, can you blame me for posting mostly photos of him over the last several weeks?

I took this series of photos so that I could print some off to send to my mom's Aunt Millie - she made him the fleece blanket with the cowboys on it. Last night was the second time I've printed some photos on the new printer, and I love it. The colors are accurate, the lines are crisp and the images turn out great. It was definitely worth it - oh, what, it was free with the Rebel T3 camera purchase. :-) I love the camera, too. If I take meticulous care of it, it should last me for years. Wyoming Camera Outfitters is officially my new favorite camera store. The printer is a Canon Pixma Pro 9000, and it's as big as its name is. I admit, I am having some trouble deciding where to keep it set up. Right now it's on my sewing table, but it takes up practically the whole thing. I can't wait to get some of the fancy paper options and try some photos on different textures. Maybe people will get a lot of photography for Christmas, since it's my new toy. :-)

Today Levi and I are headed to Douglas. I'll start on the first four of my 15 Winter Cattlemen's interviews - we're featuring Converse County this winter - and Levi will go to stay with Grandma Shirley for the day. Right now we're in a winter storm warning, so the roads might be iffy but at least I'll get some wintry photos!

And I'm supposed to be in Douglas by 8, so that means I better get off the computer and go get all our things together and get ready to go. Hopefully I'll have a new batch of photography to share with you when I get back!