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You are here: Home / life / An Update On Home

An Update On Home

January 26, 2010 by ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~ 5 Comments

I had something else planned to write about today, but I am going to be taking two horses to the vet this morning, so that limits my time. One is Gump’s little brother, Dino. He’ll be getting castrated. The other is a client horse that has something wrong with him. He’s a bleeder, for one (we’ll get into an in-depth discussion on that later) but he’s very thin, doesn’t have a big appetite and seems lethargic.  He worries when the girl goes to make barrel racing runs on him, and has started ducking off the first barrel and running out the alley. Part of that is becuase they haven’t addressed the bleeding in his lungs, and part of it is her ability to ride him, part of it is his training and part of it is stress. I think he possibly has ulcers. It’s going to be an interesting day at the clinic, no dobut. The owner is meeting me so she’ll get to learn some wonderful things.

As for home- we had a calf born in the blizzard on Sunday. Which was surprising because we aren’t supposed to calve until April. We did buy some new cows though, and were told they’d been ultra-sounded, (yes, you can ultrasound a cow) for an April 15 calving date. So either the guy lied when he sold them, this cow got missed, or the ultra-sounder sucks. It wasn’t a premature calf- he was a healthy 90-95lbs. So he comes into the world, in the middle of a snow storm with no electricity. Zach wrapped him up and put him in a blanket and left him in the cab of the pickup to get warm. He then spent the night in Bud’s garage, and is on a bottle now. Zach hopes that today he can get him back with his mama and keep them close to home, once the situation improves.

Which leads me to the update part of this. There is still no power, and now there’s no water.  I’ll let the news story update you- but we’ve had to kick all the animals that we were keeping up in a wind-break pen, out so that they can water on our artesian line. Those that don’t have artesian water, are probably having to water their cattle in dams or tanks, by chopping ice daily.  We’re very fortunate to have those artesian lines.

From The Sioux Falls, Argus Leader, yesterday:

Interstate closes, Reservation Loses Drinkable Water

Interstate 29 is closed from Sioux Falls to the North Dakota border due to whiteout conditions, the South Dakota Department of Transportation announced this afternoon.

Interstate 90 from Chamberlain to the Minnesota border also was closed Monday as gusting wind whipped falling snow through the air and shortened visibility to near zero.

“Visibility has been a real problem for travelers this afternoon,” Transportation Secretary Tom Dravland said.

Power was still out for 7,200 people in the state as electric crews worked though blizzard conditions to restore power to 10 different electric cooperatives.

The Cheyenne River Indian Reservation is without drinkable water after a clogged fuel filter caused a backup and filled the basement of the Tri-County Water Association’s water treatment plant with 20 feet of water.

The South Dakota Office of Emergency Management has gathered food and water to distribute to those in need, but low visibility has supplies trickling in.

“Because of the travel problems we’ve been having, we’re having trouble getting those resources to people,” said Emergency Management Director Kristi Turman.

There are 31 shelters open across the state for those without power, she said, and 270 people have been staying in them.

The winds that downed power lines and stranded motorists on the eastern side of the state will slow over the coming days, however. Winds will die down this evening and into tomorrow morning, said Greg Harmon of the National Weather Service in Sioux Falls.

Temperatures will drop again when a surge of arctic air rushes through Wednesday evening into Thursday, with overnight lows expected to fall to zero with wind chills at 20 below or lower.

At first Zach was told they’d be a week without water. But as of last night they thought they’d have it back up and running soon.  I spent a good part of yesterday being frustrated by the lack of contingency plans; but Zach reminded me that there’s no way to plan for 6200 downed power poles. What say you power people?  He also says that in a poor, rural area such as ours, that it’s not cost effective to have backup generators and such in place.   The state of South Dakota called him yesterday to let him know that there are shelters available; he can’t leave though- someone has to stay and take care of livestock.  They’re calling all the residents- which is pretty cool.

The boys got back late Sunday evening, and missed watching the Vikings game, to buy generators for 6 households (Uncle Leo and their sister, Lorelei).  They hooked Bud’s house up in the early hours of Monday morning; Granny’s was done first thing yesterday- lest we lose all our home raised beef, then Guth’s house, and last night, at about 7:30 Zach got ’round to doing ours.  It blizzarded yesterday too, which made things a bit more difficult and slowed down repair efforts.  Otherwise everyone at home is doing good and I slept better last night, knowing that there was some semblance of normalcy back.

I’ll continue to keep you updated on the progress that they make with restoring things. I read yesterday that they are sending in another 600 people to help repair the downed lines. So awesome!  I must give thanks and props to the lineman that are out there doing their best, freezing their tails off to save people lives.

We’ll talk about bleeders and about what happened at the vet clinic today later. In the meantime, y’all stay warm and have a super Tuesday!


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Filed Under: life, ranching, winter weather Tagged With: life, ranching, Western Lifestyle, winter weather

About ~The South Dakota Cowgirl~

Jenn Zeller is the creative mind and boss lady behind The South Dakota Cowgirl. She is an aspiring horsewoman, photographer, brilliant social media strategist and lover of all things western.

After a brief career in the investment world to support her horse habit (and satisfy her mother, who told her she had to have a “real” job after graduating college), she finally took the leap and stepped away from a regular income; trading the business suit once and for all for cowgirl boots, a hat, and jeans. She has not looked back.

When Jenn first moved to The DX Ranch on the South Dakota plains, she never imagined she’d find herself behind a camera lens capturing an authentic perspective of ranching, and sharing it with others. Jenn has always been called to artistry, and uses music, writing, images, home improvement, and her first true love of horses to express her ranching passion.

Horses are the constant thread and much of her work centers around using her unique style of writing to share her horsemanship journey with others in publications such as CavvySavvy, the AQHA Ranching Blog, the West River Eagle, the family ranch website, and her own website.

Using photography to illustrate her stories has created other opportunities -- Jenn’s brand “The South Dakota Cowgirl” has grown to the level of social media “Influencer”. This notoriety has led to work with Duluth Trading Company, Budweiser, Wyoming Tourism, Vice, Circle Z Ranch and Art of the Cowgirl, to name a few. She also serves as a brand ambassador for Woodchuck USA, Arenus Equine Health, Triple Crown Feed and Just Strong fitness apparel. Her photography has been featured by Instagram, Apple, TIME Magazine, The Huffington Post, and Oprah Magazine. Jenn’s work has been published internationally, has been seen in several books and has graced the covers of several magazines.

Jenn became a social media influencer by accident when she started to explore Instagram as a way to share her life on the ranch with folks that don’t get to experience it. It’s grown into an incredible platform that she uses to empower women, create an environment for self improvement and share life on the ranch.

When she’s not working, she loves to drink coffee, play with her naughty border collie named Copper, start ranch colts, and run about the country chasing cans. Her mother still thinks she doesn’t have a “real” job.

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Comments

  1. Weekend Cowgirl says

    January 26, 2010 at 10:50 am

    Hope things get better in SD soon and glad to hear baby calf in garage. Will be interested in hearing how your vet visit went.

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  2. Robina says

    January 26, 2010 at 1:57 pm

    Good Lord. What a mess, and all because of a storm. Amazing what havoc Mother Nature can create.

    Here, we serve just over 90,000 customers. We have never provided any type of back-up power because of the liability.

    If we had 6,000 poles down, it would take MONTHS to get them back up. It takes a minimum of 2 1/2 hours to replace one pole. That’s why I was wondering in your last post if the company there will be sending for outside help. When the ice-storm hit KY last year, we sent crews up there to help get the poles and lines back up. They didn’t have nearly as much down, but they had way more customers out, and it took over a month to get all the power back on.

    I feel so bad for all those people with no electricity and no water. And it sounds like most people are VERY far away from any place they can get help from. I hope they all stay safe and take care themselves.

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  3. Heather says

    January 26, 2010 at 4:43 pm

    The miracle of life in the middle of a blizzard! Amazing! I guess it is going to a bit of a struggle to keep the calf warm and healthy, while having to deal with no electric or water.

    I have never heard of a horse being castrated. My eyes bulged a little bit when I read that! Maybe you could tell me the reason why. Sorry, I’m such a city girl.

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  4. BrownEyedCowgirls says

    January 26, 2010 at 5:31 pm

    I think it was March of last year when the same thing happened west of my home town. Around 6000 poles down and lots of people out of electricity. They called in people from all over and it still took 3 weeks for everyone to get their power back.

    It’s been so long since we have had real wintery weather in SD that people kind of forgot how drastic things can get. I know my mom is sick of it this year. She said the wind blew around 50m/h for 2 solid days and nights.

    Our neighbor, poor guy, found one calf(already frozen) and a cow down and calving. Man was he hopping mad. I guess someone’s bull got in early and they didn’t bother to tell him when they came and got him out, so our neighbor didn’t know he had cows exposed earlier than anticipated.

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