This is why God made a farmer… and I married one.
4-H Lambs
January 30, 2013 By 6 Comments
I’ve been hearing for the past 9 years how when “Our kids are old enough, Wendy, they are going to be involved in 4-H!” And my San Francisco self would reply, “Great. What the hell is 4-H?”
Well, I found out this past weekend. We all climbed into Darrin’s truck with two dog kennels loaded in the back. We pulled onto Timothy Lane. Ok side note, moving onto Timothy Lane is now on my bucket list. This street is located in the rural section of Reno called Windy Hill. It’s lined with white horse fences you think of when someone says “Kentucky.” All the homes are on acres of land and off to the left, behind The Skagen Horse Training Center, sits a beautifully manicured ranch that talks. Literally, with the windows down, you can hear the land talking. That’s because dozens of sheep are grazing the pastures. Baaaaa’ing at passers by. And two of them were coming home with us on this day.
Eva and Domi are in the Leg of Lamb, Side of Beef, Slab of Bacon club (again, my San Francisco self is saying they do know there are yacht clubs in this world right???). Today they are picking out the lambs they will raise for 
3 months.
They entered a small corral with about 17 lambs jetting back and forth trying desperately to avoid them. They had to pick their favorite. So how exactly do you pick a lamb? 4-H leaders have taught them to judge a sheep four ways. Their backs should be straight. You want the biggest distance between the last rib and the hip bones because that’s where the loin is. Their backsides (I wanted to say asses but I was afraid you would all think we were now talking about donkeys) need to form a triangle. And their legs should be straight. Apparently bowleggedness runs rampant in lambs!
Domi picked number 13. Eva selected number 17.
Darrin then got the fun job of carrying them to the awaiting dog crates and hauling them home. Hey! I would have helped but I was the photographer at this rodeo!!
4-H is all about teaching kids where their food comes from… among so many other things. They will show the lambs at the Nevada State Junior Livestock Show and sell to the highest bidder. I’m already worried about that day in May!
But for now, it’s all about having 2 lambs that will completely depend on Eva and Domi for everything. As we shut the barn door on them that night, Domi whispered in my ear, “Mom, I FINALLY have responsibility!!!” Well HELL!! Is that what it takes for kids now a days to realize they have responsibilities?? 2 4-H lambs??? Good luck with that everyone!
FEEDING THE COWS
January 24, 2013 By Leave a Comment
Pictures say a thousand words. So I’m going to let this blog post be told through pictures taken with my iPhone. Of course, you know me, I’ll have to add my two cents here and there!
You’ve all seen how Darrin feeds the cows in the feedlot. We call that date night on the ranch. Well not all of them are in the feedlot . The lucky ones get trucked to warm, green pastures in California while hundreds graze the pastures here at home. And once they’ve mowed down all the natural feed, Darrin and crew have to hand feed them. Today, we were his “crew.”
These are the heifers. Females that haven’t had a calf. However, they are pregant and will start “calving out” in March. There are about 140 heifers in this pasture.
Each animal eats 20 pounds of hay a day just to maintain its weight. These bales weigh about 110 pounds each.
Now we are heading over to the other pasture to feed the cows. We have about 90 cows to feed.
The cows are pregnant too. They will start calving out in February. And apparently, some have already started.
For all you ranchers out there, I figured you’d want to know abut the equipment. This is a 1980′s model Ford tractor 7700. The hay wagon is well, just a hay wagon.
SNOW ON THE RANCH
December 26, 2012 By 2 Comments
I came home tonight to two glaring headlights flying across the field in front of our house. This usually isn’t a good thing. It means Darrin is on the quad. And that means a cow is sick or a bull got loose or a beaver dammed up the creek and flooded our road. Either way, I’m coming home to a grumpy husband and a late dinner. But tonight was different.
Tonight there were two flashing headlamps about 20 yards behind the quad. Aaaahhhhh!!!! Sledding season at the Damontes!
The field that surrounds our house has been laser leveled so there’s 50 sections that are perfectly level. Each section is divided by burms called checks. In the sumertime these checks keep the water flowing within that section. But in the wintertime that watering system means sweet jumps on a sled! Even when there’s just a dusting of snow the kids beg to go quad sledding. Finally, Reno got dumped on enough the new non chloric silicon base kitchen lubricant was brought out (I assume you’ve all watched Christmas Vacation as many times as we have this past week!!) They had a BLAST! It still meant a late dinner but every family member was happy. Well, all but one. Donner was running along side the sled and Darrin forgot to put her snow boots on. Ha! Just kidding! She doesn’t have snow boots!! So when she came inside she was a covered mess of snow dingleberries. And there is only one way to get those off.
So I dragged her to the shower and melted them off with hot water. Needless to say, everyone will be sleeping soundly at the Damonte household tonight… Including me. While they all played in the snow, I enjoyed a quiet glass of wine to myself.
(personal note: I would like to personally thank all of you for your amazing messages and prayers following my mom’s story. And most importantly, I would like to thank those of you who took action and made an appointment for a mammogram or linked my mom’s story onto your Facebook pages and emails. My mom and I truly believe the more people who see it, the more lives will be saved. If you haven’t seen it, here’s my mom’s story.)
GREEN GENIE IN A HAY TUB
December 10, 2012 By Leave a Comment
The other day, I told you how Darrin and I go on a “date” when we feed the cattle. But what I didn’t mention is there’s a whole day’s worth of work ahead of time just to prep the food he feeds the cows. I know! Sounds crazy to me too. You would think cows simply eat hay. And all one would have to do is cut the twine off the bales of hay and… dinner! Nope. Darrin grinds the hay first. And this always makes me laugh. Here’s why.
He scoops up the bales and drops them into the Hay Buster Big Bite hay grinder tub. And when the hay hits the dozens of hammers in the tub, it spews hay dust into the air like a giant green genie coming out of his bottle.
I laugh because on these days, I always wonder what people driving on the nearby freeway think. Does the passenger wife say to the driver husband, “Honey, is that hay on fire? There’s green smoke coming from that ranch over there!!!”
Once the hay is chopped, Darrin dumps it into the feed truck and mixes it with molasses and fruit loops. He says you have to grind the hay first for it to mix up good in the feed truck. I say THEY ARE COWS! Let them eat baled hay! What ev! We agree to disagree on many things.
So when he finished scooping up enough chopped hay to feed the cows their breakfast (and yes, he will feed them dinner in about 7 hours), he took a little extra time to create this… The Matterhorn. 
He texted me a picture to show off his artistic ability. AAAHhhhh ranching humor. You know what I think is funny? I brought him a super food smoothie and it looks EXACTLY like what he feeds his cows!!!! That’s San Francisco wife humor!!
DATE NIGHT ON THE RANCH
November 20, 2012 By Leave a Comment
If you’re thinking my date night on the ranch includes lighting from antique lanterns, a nice bottle of wine and a roll in the hay… well you’ve seen too many episodes of Green Acres. No MY date night is all about feeding cattle. All 500 of them. It takes about an hour but it’s an hour where Darrin and I are alone together. Just the two of us. I’ll take it! So just how do you feed 500 cattle in a feedlot? It starts with a 1980′s era garbage truck that’s been converted into a huge feed truck. First, Darrin loads the mixing box filled with gigantic augers with alfalfa hay that he grew all summer long. Then he adds molasses. No shit! Molasses! Next up? Fruit Loops, Corn Flakes and any other grain cereal you can think of! I kid you not! Reno happens to be home to a 
Ralston Purina cereal plant and if one little thing happens on the product line, the whole line gets shut down and all that product is recalled. So Darrin hauls a
huge trailer down there once a week and loads up the recalled cereal and brings it home as cow feed. Darrin loads all the food by driving the loader up a ramp that gets him high enough to be able to dump his load into the trailer. Augers, the size of tree trunks, slowly turn and mix all the food together. We are now into our “date” about 45 minutes. So we now hop into the cab and start driving around all the corrals. But get this! Darrin says this load he made weighs nearly 7500 pounds. 7500 POUNDS OF FOOD FOR 500 COWS! That’s a lot of cow feed. And remember he feeds twice, sometimes three times, a day. THAT’S REALLY 
A LOT OF COW FEED!
The food goes into feed bunks that are just wooden troughs, with wood panels on the outside and heavy cables on the inside. The cows reach their heads through the cables to the feed inside the troughs.
Darrin drives up and down the 
bunks spilling out the cow feed down the feed truck chute. Ok by NOW, our date is just over an hour and I’m starving, frozen and thirsty for a glass of wine. Seriously?? When was the last date that ended like that for you and you still ended up with the guy?? And what’s worse? I could relive this date the next morning and night and every day thereafter until I’m 85. As I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, date nights on the ranch are few and far between. And yes, my San Francisco self, still longs for quiet, candlelit dinners at Bix. But to be honest, dates like these are pretty cool too.
PREG CHECKING
November 12, 2012 By 2 Comments
Once again this post is not for everyone. But I kinda think you like it when I start a post that way. That’s because you all are my kind of people. And we like to talk about real life stuff. And often times that “stuff” is gross… and this post definitely falls into that category, even for me. Now that we have the warning out of the way, let’s get to it. On the ranch, we’ve been preg checking cattle. That’s right we manually have to check to see if the cows/heifers are pregnant. And it aint pretty people! But let’s begin this story back in June when the cows and heifers are put in the pasture for 90 days with this guy. Well, this guy and about 25 of his friends. 
The bulls have 3 months to impregnate 500 head of cattle. Tough job but someone has to do it. The cows then live happily eating and sleeping, like every pregnant woman wishes she could do. But how do you know if they are actually bred? That brings us back to the title of this post. We preg check them. And here’s how. One at a time, we bring all 500 of them into the squeeze chute.
It’s the name of the machine that holds them in place so they can’t move. Pretty much the same as the “stirrups” for all us woman in the OBGYN office. Steve, Darrin’s brother, is a large animal veterinarian. So on days like this, he’s in charge. And he’s teaching Eva and Domi the ropes.
They wear full arm length gloves and then slowly inset their hands into the cows’ rectum. YYYYYEEEEEOUCHHHHH!!! Once their entire arm is inside the animal, they feel through the rectal wall down on top of the uterus. In the earliest stages of pregnancy, they’re feeling for membrane fluid. By 30 days pregnant, the calf is the size of a pea. At 2 months it’s the size of a mouse. And at 3 months, the size of a rat. Between 3-7 months, it’s actually harder to feel the calf because the pelvis wall gets in the way. During that time frame, they will feel for arteries. Each check last less than a minute. Ok, now all us moms have been “preg checked” before… but it was done in a sterile doctor’s office with a slender probe… AND IT STILL SUCKED! But we have nothing to complain about when compared to a cow.
So once their exam is over, the bred cows (the ones who have had a baby) are turned back out to pasture. The bred heifers (the ones who haven’t had a baby and need to be watched while delivering) will stay at the home ranch. The “open” cows that didn’t get bred will be put into the Fall herd for one more chance. They will be marked with a white ear tag so Darrin knows they didn’t get pregnant the first go around. If they don’t get pregnant in the Fall they will be sold. Total gestation period is 9 1/2 months. So come Spring, we’ll start “calving out.” Stay tuned! I’ll bring you up close and personal with the delivery of a calf. And I’ll probably begin that story with… “This post is not for everyone!!”
BRANDING
October 22, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Most people sleep in on Sundays don’t they? I honestly wounld’t know since I married a rancher. Sunday is just another work day. And this Sunday, after being up all night with a little boy who just broke his arm, we all headed up bright and early to the branding in Graegle, California where Darrin calved out his fall pairs. Did that last sentence make sense to you? 15 years ago it wouldn’t have made sense to me either! “Calving out” refers to the cows (already had a baby) and heifers (never had a baby) giving birth. Think of it this way… I was a heifer when I had Eva and then I was cow when I had Dominic. These calves were born from July of this year until about 3 weeks ago (that’s the “fall pairs” I referred to).
Darrin roping
Cowboys roping
And in this day and age when I can type on a wirless keyboard, post to the internet from my couch and see who’s calling me just by looking at my TV… yes, branding is still necessary in the ranching world. It seems like it should be more hi tech to me too, but it’s not. Brands are the only sure way to tell which animal belongs to which rancher. And while fences separate pastures, cows have a huge knack for getting through those fences… not to mention the people who leave gates open. Darrin winters some of his cattle in the desert near Fallon (about 1 hour east of Reno). So half of his herd is released onto tens of thousands of acres in the middle of Nevada. Yes, you still need brands in 2012. So here we are in Graegle branding 500 head of calves (this is the second weekend in a row we’ve branded). The Damonte brand is an L-D. It 
stands for Louie Damonte. That’s my father-in-law. The guy who has worked his ass off his whole life to grow this operation. After the calves are gathered from the pasture, the branding starts with cowboys roping the calves. It’s like a chaotic team roping event at a rodeo. One guy tries to get his rope around the calves’ head. The second guy tries to rope the calves’ feet. Once that happens, another cowboy pulls the calf down onto it’s side. The ear is marked specific to the Damonte herd, vaccines are given, rubber bands are put around the “nuts” of the boy calves (called steers) and finally, our hot iron is branded into the right hip of the animal. Eva is learning the family business and doing a helluva job. Domi is usually out there, but Mom said, “ABSOLUTELY NOT UNTIL HIS ARM HEALS!!!”
domi
He’s still mad at me. Once all the calves are branded, the cowboys push them back into the pasture or God’s Country as we call it. They’ll stay in the pasture until the snow is so thick on the ground the cows can’t dig down to the natural grass. At that point, Darrin will truck them to warmer pastures in Paradise, California (near Chico) or out to the desert I mentioned before. Oh yes, my husband is also a trucker. More on that in a future post. So as you can see, a day in the life of a rancher is a week in the life of most men.
God’s Country, Graegle, CA
WEIGH DAY
October 13, 2012 By Leave a Comment
Living on a ranch is like herding cats EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE! There’s constant movement. Something is always broken. And the cows need
tending to several times a day. And today, they needed to be weighed. You think getting weights would be easy. It is for us. We simply step on a scale, wait for the magic number to appear, curse at the number and step off muttering “damn scale is still broken.”. Well with cows, everything is about averages. First, you have to round them up. Darrin makes the funniest noises when he does this. Kind of like a “ssshhhh” you might say to the kids in a movie theater, only with a quick “sssstttt” at the end. Once they are corraled, you hope and pr
ay they don’t get mad at having their face shoved up the ass of another and start trying to break the fences down. Hey, these fences have been here for a hundred years! I’m never convinced they’re going to stand up to 2,000 pounds of angry cows pushing against them. And then you separate about 10 cows onto a huge scale where they are supposed to stand quietly and not move. Well since that’s never going to happen, Darrin waits for an average weight and jots it down. He weighs the cattle because he sold them at a certain weight. Well that might have been a week ago. And since cows eat constantly, they’re constantly putting on weight. So on shipping day, Darrin will either charge the buyer more money for the added weight the cows have gained or he’ll not ship as many cows. Plus, trucks h
ave a weight limit and can only haul so many cows before they are overweight. So he has to be able to tell the buyer how many trucks to bring to the ranch. In this industry, the weather and weights make or break you. But you know what makes or breaks me? Knowing there’s something cool going on at the ranch that I can take pictures of to show all of you AND having my Sorrels in the car with me so I can take those pictures and not ruin my heels! 
I swear my life is schizophrenic. On this one single day, I’m stomping around cow shit, breathing in tiny manure particles and 2 hours later, I’m interviewing Ann Romney. Oh if she only knew where I had just been!
IN THE DARK… AGAIN
October 12, 2012 By Leave a Comment
It rained last night which means we lost our power AGAIN!!!! Living on a ranch means living with millions of birds. Literally! Starling, or bats with beaks as we call them, call our ranch home because they eat the cow feed. It’s like a free buffet that never goes away. And since they eat like 1,000 times their body weight a day in our cow feed… that means they shit at least that much. And some of that poop ends up on the transmitter or transponder or whatever that box is called that allows electricity to get from the pole to my coffee maker. And when it rains the water hits the line sparking the bird shit and… Kablooey!! No coffee. No alarm clocks. No lights in the shower. Yes those are my kids taking a shower by lantern light.
