Provider: Jason Williams
Profession: Rancher
Hometown: Kaycee, WY
September 2007 Journal Entry
I want to apologize for not writing for so long and updating everyone
on what has been going on out here at the ranch in Wyoming. I also
apologize for not having any pictures of our baby calves like I
promised I would in my last entry. We are always very busy in the
summer time, and this year has definitely been no exception to the rule. In
addition to our regular ranch summer time duties, Radona and I have been
preparing to put in a modular home here on the ranch. Right now
we live in a 29 year old double wide trailer house, and it is growing quite
small for a growing family (more about that in a minute…). I
have always wanted a house with a walk out basement, so that is what we
are doing, and we have spent a lot of time this summer preparing for it: digging
the basement, putting in a septic system, running a water line
from the well up the house site, building a road to the house, etc. But
our long days are about to pay off as the house will be set this week and
we are hoping the basement will be completed and we will be able to start
moving in by the first of October or so.
Home Site
The other big news we have is that we are expecting our second child on
February 5th (although we think it will probably come in late January)!! We
are going to wait to find out the gender, just like we did for Marilee. Radona
and I are both extremely excited and are looking forward to our new arrival!
In addition to those things, on the ranch we have been busy with our usual
summer time activities – irrigating our hay meadows, moving our cows,
fixing fence, that kind of thing. One new thing we are trying this
year is that we are grazing all of our irrigation meadows with pairs (cows
and calves) instead of haying it with machinery, and then just buy any
hay we may need for the winter. It is something we have “penciled
out” (did the calculations to make sure it is a sound financial decision)
and have been working towards, and this summer we finally did it. Also,
for the second straight summer we hired a local high-school girl, Kelsey
Straub, to help out on the ranch. She is a great worker, a top hand,
and most importantly, is very patient with all of us!
In order to graze the meadows more effectively, we put up a lot of temporary
electric fence this summer. This is single-strand electric fence,
and the wire looks and feels like a string. The posts are light fiberglass
posts that you just push in with your foot, so it is easy to build
quite a bit of new fence in the meadows in a hurry. Radona, myself,
and my Mom build over a mile of temporary fence in just over an hour one
day.
Teaching Marilee how to best eat cake batter
off of the beaters.
I hope this finds everyone well and that you all have had a great summer. School
just started here in Kaycee as I’m sure it has for most of you folks
to, so I hope you have a fun and productive school year! I’ll
see you on down the trail! God bless.
Jason Williams
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