Provider: Jason Williams
Profession: Rancher
Hometown: Kaycee, WY

November 2007 Journal Entry

Hello once again from Wonderful Wyoming! I hope that this finds everyone’s fall and first semester of school going well. We have been having an unusually warm fall here at the ranch, and didn’t get our first real snow until close to the end of October. Because of this – and thanks to the good grass year we’ve had this year from our spring moisture – we have been able to stay on the mountain longer with our cows and calves this year than we have for quite a while now. By staying on the mountain longer, we aren’t going to our winter pastures as early, which means we will have more winter grass for our cattle, which means we shouldn’t have to feed the cattle any hay unless the grass gets completely covered with snow this winter. So, because of the great spring moisture earlier this year, we won’t have to feed as much or any hay this winter, which can greatly enhance how much profit the ranch generates this year. If you’ve read my diary entries in the past, I have talked about why spring moisture is so important for ranchers out here in the West, and I hope this example kind of shows why that is.

In August we got a big rain here at the ranch – over 5 inches in an hour and a half in some places – that flooded our creek as badly as anyone remembers it flooding. By the grace of God no one was hurt, but it took out miles and miles of fence line. Any place a fence line crosses a creek or a gully, we call that a “water gap”. Water gaps are specially built so that they will kind of “tear away” from the rest of the fence if a flood comes and the water gets high. We build them this way to try and minimize the damage from a flood. However, this flood was much bigger than any previous floods, and it got above our water gaps, and washed away literally miles of fence line. So we have spent a considerable amount of time and money replacing most of the water gaps on the ranch, but I am thankful to report that that project is nearly at an end.

Washed Away Fence Line on the Ranch

When I haven’t been building water gaps, irrigating, or moving cattle, I have spent nearly all of my free time working on our new house. We needed to build a couple of retaining walls, so I borrowed my uncle’s loader and have been hauling rocks up to the new house. I say rocks, but they are more like boulders – some of them probably weigh several tons. Unfortunately, we are still not moved in, but we are hoping to get in it by next weekend.

Hauling Large Rocks for the Retaining Wall

The family is doing well; Radona had to have her gall bladder removed in August, and being pregnant made things a little more complicated, but she and the little one made it through with no problems. Marilee is 18 months now going on 18 years, and she has her Dad wrapped around her little finger (just don’t tell her that)! I hope that each one of you are doing well and feel as blessed as I do every day. I can’t wait to see you on down the road! God bless.

Jason Williams

Other Journal Entries

Summer 2006
April 2007
September 2007