Getting the last meadow sprayed for thistles. We have a decent stand of timothy in one meadows and good grass in the others. Should be cut in July.
Took a drive over the Snowy Range to help some friends brand in Saratoga. 250 calves and no problems, we use a table for working the calves.
Lots of snow still up high. rivers and streams should have good water for quite a while this summer.

Bucks are getting there. Grass is thigh high now and thistle spraying is winding down.

Good stand of timothy in one meadow and nice flycatcher has nested on the porch. She gets a pass this year.

Got buzzed on the way out today. Relocated to a spot not so near the road.

...beautiful snake.....

Lots of moisture and not enough sunshine so far, but the grass is growing . Antlers are looking better and the first elk sighting in a few weeks, a beautiful calf in the meadow. Didn't see Momma but we sure could smell her presence.
Got our whitetail tags now have to decide who gets first shot at the buck in the pics, archery season opens Sept 1.
Check put the bases on the biggest buck.

Oh and. snow tonight in the mountains .

Didn't check the game cam this trip up, wanted to give the calf elk some quiet time .
Got a little dusting of snow on the west end of the ranch.
If the weather forecast hold we'll finally have some warm sunny days for growth.

Finally a week of warm, dry weather for the hay to grow.
The cow elk and calf are still hanging out in the far meadow and the whitetail bucks are looking good.
We'll see how the young mulie turns out, unfortunately we have a strong 2 pt gene on the ranch so he may get taken in archery season.

The timothy hay is over waist high now and the baby fly catchers are growing.

Really enjoy your posts and pics. Hunted Wy several times back in the day. TY for the memories

I had re positioned my camera and had it too high, missed some activity, but the cow and calf are still hanging out. Just caught the one buck on cam but, look closely and see if you can spot what looks to us like mt lion eyes watching the deer. It's either a mt lion or black bear judging the distance between the eyes. The buck has an interesting pedicle or extra point on his base .
I moved the cam back lower on the tree for better pics this week.
Sounds like the hay guy will want water shut off on Sunday so he can cut in a week or so. Be interesting to see how much he gets this year and what shows up after the cutting.

Very Cool!

We have a short series of pics that clearly shows it move it's head to follow the deer. Looks like a good sized cat to us. We have a tag and the quota is open.

And, the baby flycatchers are growing nicely.

Hay is cut and baled. Things were a little slow this year and perhaps a little over grazed last summer into fall. The hay guy will have a talk with the landowner about the cattle in the meadows this year. We have nothing to do with the cattle lease.
Looks like the landowner got his 150 bales for his roping steers and horses, the hay guy got about the same. Didn't cut all the meadows as the grass was thin in spots, due to the over grazing.
We'll get some water moving again next weekend for a little green up before fall.
Cow elk and calf are still hanging out, the whitetails moved down stream a bit, we think due to the big cat, but are still around.
Now we have time to locate a nice stand of dead lodge pole pines on the NF for firewood cutting. Felling those tall trees is actually fun.
The flycatchers have left the nest, but left a mess under it.

The landowner came up today and got his hay loaded up. Looks like the creek has enough water to get the meadows greened up some what before we put the horses in.
Whitetails are back and one is looking pretty good now.
Pretty sure the cow elk and calf have joined back into their herd up in the hills.
I might set a second camera in one of the cut meadows.
Now we have time for firewood cutting.

And, stopped to get a nice prairie rattle out of the highway, wouldn't ya know it, a truck pulling a camper with Texas plates ran over part of it before we could get to him. He was able to find cover after the relocation.

Wytex, are the square bales still the predominant way of baling up there, or are the big round bales used on most of the bigger patches....

Round bales or big squares are what's mostly baled up here. The landowner uses these small squares for his roping steers and horses.
We'll get in 13 big round bales of horse hay for the winter feeding.

Sure miss the hardwood firewood we could cut down south, we cut lodgepole pine now. Prefer the tall limbless trees , they are impressive to fell. This one was not as clean but good wood. We'll get some taller trees down next weekend. No shortage of beetle kill and fire killed wood in our favorite cutting area. Thankfully the Forest Service cut the permit fee in half this year.
4 cords ought to get us through the winter, $20 total fee to cut them.

Went up to check on things and see how the water is doing. Meadows are greening up somewhat, the ones we can get water on.
Moved my trail cam to a creek crossing, forgot my viewer but had 137 pics on it, some nice sized deer tracks and elk tracks at the crossing. Looks like a nice coyote too, we caught bobcats while trapping the crossing.
Stopped along the highway to fix a gate sign and looked up on the ridge above us to see a nice band of ewes and lambs, they are about a quarter mile from some state land I'll be watching for my ram tag.

Got back to the ranch to check my trail cam, move some water and scout for my bighorn sheep hunt. We went and looked over a landlocked piece of BLM I can hunt for sheep. I've never been back to this far west pasture and to the BLM, rugged country and looks very interesting for this fall. Found a few mule deer antlers and saw some bomber rams, a band of 7 together. We were only about 1/2 mile above and from the highway where we saw the rams.

Deer and elk are using the creek crossing in the meadows so we may have a nice bow hunting spot.

Sheep country pics. We're thinking the biggest ram goes over 180 easily. 3 rams I would take in a heart beat. Their curl is below the jaw line and wide with heavy bases. One is broomed but 2 have nice outward sweep to their horns.
I gave the spouse my camera to take a pic of an antler he was going to pick up, I walked right up on the rams bedded down, maybe 75 yards without the camera. The pic was taken as they skirted around him.

Impressive group of rams!

We've had some cooler temps in the morning and it looks like the animals are starting to move more during daylight hours.
I just might put the long spike on my hit list, but we'll see what shows up to check out the cows in Sept.
The group of spikes looks like they will be rag horns next year, brow tines are forming already.
Hoping the bigger whitetail buck from up the creek is still hanging out.
Doing a little archery antelope hunting this weekend after a nice small town brewfest in Saratoga, Wy.

Looking good!
Thanks Wytex always look fwd to your posts and pics. Love that country.