Eudaimonia

Prologue

I hope that these annual Updates are enlightening, amusing/dramatic and engaging.  With them, my family and friends around the world have an opportunity to catch up on the happenings at Winning Ways.   The stories also give those who have visited Winning Ways in 2017, an opportunity to look back and remember the time they spent here on the ranch. For those who are yet to arrive at the ranch they give you something to look forward too.  Throughout this Update you will only find family members and close friends named.  I believe in privacy for all individuals who visit Winning Ways whether as helpers who join the crew of "Kelly's Angels" or clients who enjoy our equines and landscape.

My updates usually start with last year's Winter arrival and continue through the seasons until we are nearly back to the present Winter Solstice. No one has scolded me unduly that there is a better way or that I should in fact make a Reader's Digest condensed version.  However, if you'd rather skip the factual, chronological items with the occasional silly story thrown in, go right to the end for a summary.  Those last paragraphs about the final concert of the season are worth a read.  They tell a story that is inspirational and uplifting.  

Salutation

Another series of seasons has completed its cycle and the Northern Hemisphere hunkers down for the longest nights of the year.  I'd like wish each of you the Experience of Eudaimonia in the next cycle of seasons.

"Happy Holidays" 

"Happy Hanukkah"

"Happy Christmas"

"Happy New Year"

The greetings go out around the world.  Many different reasons for holidays, many different greetings but they all speak to the common human emotion and the longing for the feeling of joyful satisfaction.  No matter the reason, we wish each other happiness!

Winter

During the shortest day of the year in 2016, marking the end of  Fall and the beginning of Winter, Winning Ways had many visitors.  We weren't celebrating--I'm not sure we even had time for tea!  It just seemed that many of our friends dropped in on some errand or other.  The following day we had to find a Christmas tree and off to the North Ranch we went, to eventually bring home a little spruce since there did not seem to be any suitable pines. The McLeans arrived a couple days after the Solstice with their pets, Yellow, the bunnies and 4 cats to spend a week of holidays at Winning Ways.

December 31 found my helper and I comfortably seated in front of  Brownie's TV fonduing (with chocolate & fruit), munching on snacks and each sipping a favorite beverage watching goofy old movies.  The Russians are Coming provided lots of laughs and so did The Solid Gold Cadillac (b&w except for the caddy).  Of course we looked out and watched the year 2016 depart and the appearance of 2017 from Brownie's doorstep.  AND we toasted the arrival of the New Year.  Quiet evening but filled with pleasurable moments. Happiness.....

The Two Bar C held the annual Sleigh Ride and Potluck that family and friends enjoy attending.  Howard MacCuish brings the team and Jan 1 he picked up our sleigh on his way.  Good thing the sleigh did not disintegrate before the sleigh ride as he had to take it home and make some repairs before bringing it back to Winning Ways.

The big, silvery Wolf Moon appeared when it was -49 C (with the wind chill).  A big bright January full moon is an omen of a good year and so we hoped for an improvement in climatic conditions.  In less than 3 days we were at 0 C and then the temperature rose above zero and there was water dripping in January!  Call it a Chinook or blame it on global warming but we were very happy to be warm again.

 Meanwhile the crew got to experience archery practice, butcher a cow,  practice target shooting at a gun range and attend dog sled races where they even got to hold some very young puppies.  Happiness......

I thought that my friend Tara was acting unusual when she arrived at the ranch on February 1.  She is a great co-conspirator and had been enlisted to surprise me with the return of an alumna who had a few days holidays from her job in Banff.  It is so great to create friendships that have folks wanting to return to Winning Ways whenever they have an opportunity.  Of course we had to visit our friends and fellow ranchers so the alumna could catch up all the latest happenings.

The WW crew headed into Meadow Lake for the Winter Festival and had an opportunity to take a spin on a snow machine, visit with Morris the Moose (note Roughriders shirt) and watch the Dog Sled Races.

Early in March we arranged the hay, for the rest of the winter and into spring, in the paddocks to the east.  Thank goodness it was all set out so that when the snow melted and the ground became very muddy the cows moved to the hay not the other way around.  It snowed some more and the wind blew the snow into such big, hard drifts some folks couldn't get out their driveways. (We could.)  Then winter came back with a vengeance to show us it was NOT done yet.  The temperature dropped and with the wind chill it was down to a bone chillin' -40 C.

When the veterinarian had pregnancy checked the cows in the fall, he determined there were several going to be "early".  Probably going to calve in March he said.  So from the beginning of March the crew and I were diligently checking cows, early in the morning, late in the evening and periodically throughout the day.  I had found a good cow calving video on YouTube and had all my crew watch it so they would know about a calf's imminent arrival.  If they saw the first signs of parturition they would know what to expect so if an ordinary delivery did not proceed they could get help.  Sure enough a helper found a cow starting to calve March 16 and it arrived w/o incident to a chilly but not frigid world. 

Not quite a week later, I ventured to Meadow Lake to have lunch with Granny and shortly after we started eating I received a text that another cow had calved successfully.  Great!  Then a couple hours later I got another text, there's another cow calving and one acting funny.  I hurried with the grocery shopping because the weather was getting stormy!  Sure enough by the time I got to the ranch there were two very chilly, little black bull calves, covered in snow, shivering beside their mothers.  Then there was another cow acting like a thief trying to steal one of the newborns.  That was a sure sign she was also going to calve.  We pushed the one calf that able to walk and pulled the most recent arrival in the sleigh all the way to the barn. Of course the 3 cows followed us to the barn as well.  Eventually we had to lock the newborns in a small pen in the barn, put their mothers outside in the storm and leave the highly "emotional" calving cow to deliver her calf in the barn.

Spring

We celebrated Earth Hour 2017 by dutifully turning off all the lights and playing Rummikub by candlelight.  It was a good way to spend a "dark" hour and we had fun learning a new game.  The next day we met our friends at the Bar P feedlot for the Spring Cattle Drive to bring the cows back to Winning Ways from their winter in the corn fields at the Bar P.  Ten horses and some riders from Meed's Meadows, Winning Ways and Howard MacCuish cheerfully moved the herd in less than 4 hours. 

There were uncooperative cows and cold calves that had to be placed in the nursery pen beside the chute.  We put the cows in the chute and tried to persuade the calves to suck. 

At the end of April the crew went to the Rodeo in North Battleford  where they got to see the pros flip the calf and tie it down.  Meanwhile I went into the Meadow Lake Tradefair to listen to my friend Linda Nadon recite her cowgirl poetry. 

May meant that our enthusiastic little students were out regularly to ride after school.  The cows continued to calve so the helpers were doubly busy, however things started to dry up and we could walk on dry ground.  Well mostly it dried up, except for a few bog holes along the lanes the cattle had to use to come to the water trough.  There was a day when the youngest calf, born the day before, became stuck in the mud.  WW's longest legged helper immediately went to rescue him.  She got him out but then she was stuck--oh boy, was she stuck.  I tried very cautiously to get to her and very nearly became part of the bog too.  In the end she crawled out in her bare feet and, after a terrific amount of digging and pulling, freed the boots that had disappeared in the mud. 

Howard MacCuish picked up horses for the M's Ms & WW's crews the first Saturday in May.  We had a very eventful ride at Tall Timber Trails!  The young people and  Howard attempted to go down one trail while Marilyn and I were going to ride around the trails in the opposite direction.  The storm that brought a foot of snow in October 2016 had been further assisted in destroying trees by the snowfall in April.  The trail simply did not exist where Howard and the helpers attempted to go.  Of course when Marilyn and I finally reached the south end of the trail they had attempted, we also found it had vanished under a terrible tangle of broken branches and tree trunks.

We eventually found each other along the river, but we were very sorry that the trail, that had been so much fun to ride on, was completely destroyed.

About the middle of May we held our first little branding.  Unlike the other ranchers who want to have one big round-up and do all their calves at once, I prefer to have a few smaller, easily completed brandings.  Howard and Leonard do the roping, I brand and the volunteers learn about "wrestling", vaccinating, tagging, record keeping and whatever else needs to be done. 

A few days later, with the help of the MacCuish clan, helpers from the Two Bar C and Winning Ways, we held a cattle drive to move the yearlings and branded calves with their mommas to the North Ranch.

On the long weekend in May the Makwa Sahgaiehcan First Nation at Loon Lake held a Pow Wow and the crew went to watch. 

Initially Franky got a bottle which he sometimes had to share but not very happily.

Dandy, the former milk cow, had a heifer calf, Ici (yes, "I am here"), who was just not capable of, or interested in, consuming large quantities of milk.  So instead of the crew having to milk Dandy, Franky was the "milking machine".