Welcome to the Ranch!

Lane is cauterizing the horn while Clayton hold its head and Jake stands ready with medicine.

It was a beautiful Scottish day at Cross Creek Cattle  Company.  The overcast sky and the cool day was highlighted with constant drizzle that dampened your hair, clothing, etc.  This of course made everything feel even colder.

My immediate family stood in the barn with my father discussing the day’s plans.  Sorting, de-horning, branding, vaccinating, and castrating were the items on the agenda.  We divided up the jobs and got to work.

We are all experienced cowboys having worked cattle for most of our lives.  Even my eight-year old son is competent in many areas of cattle work.  My dad is the most experienced of us all.  He worked side-by-side with his grandfather since he could walk.  Isn’t funny how cyclical life can be?  Here my dad was working alongside his grandchildren.

This particular kind of cattle work is not for the faint at heart.  You are going to see blood.  You are going to smell the scent of burning flesh.  It is one of the most unpleasant parts of living on a working ranch.

Daddy is branding. Clay is holding the vaccines waiting for his turn to work.

It is easier than in the past.  We have squeeze chutes that hold the calf still while you work on them.  You do not have to rope, tackle, and throw the calf.  We have electric branding irons and a cauterizing instrument.  We do not have to keep a fire going with metal brands sitting in the fire until they have red-hot tips.

We do give two vaccinations.  Each calf receives an 8-Way Blackleg and IBR4 vaccine.  The first prevents a fatal disease called Blackleg.  The most susceptible calves are ones thriving with great weight gain by eating nutritious grass.  A certain spore in the ground causes this disease and it is completely preventable with the vaccine.  The latter prevents the Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) disease.  It is a transmittable disease via contact.  We have never had any of our cattle with this illness, but there are other herds nearby.  Occasionally we find a stray cow in our herd from a neighbor’s pasture.  Both vaccines are ones that we deem necessary to prevent for the health of our herd.

We brand the cows we intend to keep.  Believe it or not, but there are still cattle rustlers.  People steal cattle and usually take them directly to the sale.  A brand is one sure way to prove that a cow belongs to you.  You have to register your brand with the state.  Our brand is a C with a squiggly line beneath it.  The C stands for the alliteration in the name of our ranch.  The line symbolizes the creeks that cross the ranch.

We de-horn for safety purposes.  Our cattle are docile and easy-going.  Regardless of the naturally good disposition, it is always safer to work around cows without sharp-tipped horns.  There are several ways to remove horns.  If you act when the calf is very young, you can scoop out the horns.  You can pay for a veterinarian to perform cosmetic surgery in a sense to remove the horns.  You can also remove the tips.  The horns will not continue to grow so the cow will have blunt nubs.  We chose the do the latter this time.  It is important to cauterize the bleeding because a cow can lose a lot of blood if you do not act.

It was a successful day.  We worked together as a team.  Nobody got hurt.  The cattle are doing fine.  Cross Creek Cattle Company is literally a family-owned and operated ranch.  We are teaching the next generation so that high quality cattle and grass fed beef can continue for generations to come.

Andrew DeHaven

John Wayne starred in a movie titled, “Cowboys,” in which a group of young boys become men.  They did not grow much older on the trail, but they did come of age.  By being entrusted with responsibility, each boy developed a great work ethic.  Each boy returned home a different person as the trials of life shaped them into men.

I personally think that our society is full of overgrown boys.  Men-sized boys who are more interested in self-gratification and the here and now without the vision to see into their future.  I see this problem not only with males, but with females as well.  Few seem to look long-term.  We, as a society, seem very short-sighted.

I also think that this problem permeates all areas of life.  Parents seem to wait expectantly for the time when their children finally leave home.  They are tired of having to provide for them, clean up their mistakes, etc.  I do not think that our society places enough emphasis on how important ones job as a parent is.  In fact we seem to demean anyone who makes financial sacrifices as they dedicate their lives to their family.  How many times have you heard or said yourself, “Oh, I am just a mom (dad).”

Isaac DeHaven

We are a little old-fashioned at Cross Creek Cattle Company.  And, that is just fine with us.  We purposely spend a lot of time together as a family.  Not just our immediate family, but our extended family as well.  We invest our time, talents, and energy to operate a cattle and horse ranch in the 21st century.  It is not for the money.  Ranches do not make the money they once did.  We do it for the love of it.  We love working together to accomplish something.  We love having a common purpose.  We love the work ethic it takes to run the ranch.  It surely does not run itself.

As a mom, I want my four sons and daughter to grow up with a vision.  To grow into their adult bodies, wise beyond their years.  I want them to experience life and learn from it.  I want them to know responsibility.  I want them to be prepared to be able to survive on their own.  I look forward to the day when they leave of their own accord to make their own mark on the world, as men and women in the true sense of the word.

Therefore, it is no accident that when we worked cows this morning that all of our kids were there.  Jake helped Lane sort the calves.  Clayton and I worked different gates.  Kyla watched the “babies” Isaac and Andrew in the barn where they still felt part of the action.

When I deemed it perfectly safe, I allowed the two boys to come into the round pen and stand on the catwalk adjacent to the chute.  We needed to load calves to take to the sale.  Each boy had a cow working stick like everyone else.  Isaac could barely see the calves over the protective wooden wall of the chute, but he smiled as he yelled, “Get on outta here cows!  Yah!”

His smile said everything.  He felt a part of the team.  He helped load the cows.  He cannot wait until we have to work together again.  Even Andrew, who just sat on the catwalk holding a stick, said, “Yah, cow!  Yah, cow!”  At three years and nineteen months of age, my little boys are becoming cowboys, who will one day become men.

A Family Coming Together For the Ranch

My husband, Lane, is the ranch manager for Cross Creek Cattle Company.  Last week he hurt his left leg badly.  I took him to the emergency clinic to get a x-ray.  We were pleasantly surprised when the doctor told him that his fibula was not broken.  We were very thankful too.

He did in fact bruise the bone.  His leg stays swollen.  It is extremely painful, and bearing any weight on the leg is difficult.  Subsequently, Lane has been trying to hobble around the house and the ranch trying to do his job.  The cattle cannot wait to be rotated to another pasture.  The horses want to be fed and watered.  They also require hay, which means moving them with a tractor.

The problem with this is that the clutch is on the left.  It is also hard to push, but Lane is smarter than the tractor.  He figured out how to make his hay bale deliveries in spite of his bum leg.  He simply swings his leg over and pushes in the clutch with his right foot.  It is almost like he is driving the tractor backwards.  Weird, but true.  He also found out that you must stop on a FLAT surface.

He is slowly beginning to do more and more everyday.  At first, my children and I completely picked up his slack.  Luckily we home-school so this was not a problem.  The kids took turns feeding and working with the horses.  They also check on the grass fed weanlings, making sure they have plenty of hay, and feeding them alfalfa pellets.  If you ever wondered how gentle our calves are, we send our eight-year old son in to feed them pellets of dehydrated grass.  He is never afraid even though the calves are almost as tall as he is.

We are pulling together to make sure the job gets done here on the ranch.  This is a family owned and operated ranch.  Cross Creek Cattle Company is a place that is near and dear to all of our hearts.  We do not mind doing more than usual.  It is a pleasure to have an opportunity like this to help and pick up the slack as the ranch manager heals from his injury.  It also reveals how much he does around the ranch.  With all that said, we all pray that he will fully recover soon.

On Saturday, October 11th, the Holliday family of Cross Creek Cattle Company hosted a trail ride for the Grimes County Jr. Deputy Sherriff Mounted Posse.  Mr. and Mrs. Holliday as well as Lane, Kyla, and Jake DeHaven worked very hard to blaze and clean up trails.  Lane had also tried to shred all the pastures.

The amount of rainfall we have received lately made it impossible to get all the shredding done.  Every time Lane tried to shred, the water would begin rising out of the soil under the weight of the tractor tires.  The last thing we want is for our pastures to be full of ruts.  Therefore not much shredding occurred.

At one point Lane pulled a log out of a pathway only to be instructed to put it back.  It turns out that my dad, Kenton Holliday, had spent a bit of time carefully trimming off any branches.  He intended the log to stay in order to make the trail more challenging and interesting for the riders.

The day before the trail ride and meeting the weather was nice.  It was sunny and cool.  We were hoping that the weather would hold and make a perfect day for horseback riding.  I made brownies and rice krispie treats for dessert. The Hollidays purchased drinks and provided cakes.  The day of the event we went over early to help set-up.

Later we arrived at the barn to saddle up and ride the horses through the creeks to the cabin.  Our plan was to wait there for the trail ride to begin.  Just as the last saddle was being tightened up on the fourth horse, it started to rain.  Soon after, our phone rang and the trail ride had been canceled.  However, we were still having a meeting of the Posse at the cabin.

I promise you that nobody was more disappointed than the Hollidays and the DeHavens.  We had worked so hard and were really looking forward to people enjoying our ranch.  We have creeks, trails, pastures, woods, logs in the paths, and more.  It really is the perfect place to ride your horse.

About 30 people showed up for the meeting.  I felt this was a pretty good turn-out especially considering there was rain and no ride.  The Imhoff ranch donated food, which we enjoyed after the meeting.  Despite the weather, the Posse had a good get-together.  Now we are trying to find a date to re-schedule the trail ride.

Cross Creek Cattle Company is in the process of weaning 10 calves right now.  My mom surprised me by visiting the ranch.  Her house is very close to the barn where we separate the calves from the mama cows.  She got to enjoy the endless ballads that the calves sang to their mamas and the mamas sang to their calves.  Needless to say, she did not sleep very well the first night of weaning.

It has been a couple of days now and the serenade has stopped.  The mama cows have left their calves and rejoined the herd grazing in the bottom.  The calves are adjusting to their new no-dairy diet.

Weaning time is a stressful time for both the cow and her calf.  At Cross Creek Cattle Company we try to eliminate as much stress as possible.  A stout pipe fence with cattle panel welded to it separate the calves from the cows.  The cows can see, smell, and speak to one another.  The calves just cannot nurse.

The calves are enjoying eating grass, which they have done for months.  They just are not supplementing their diets with milk anymore.  To help maintain their body condition during this time of adjustment, we feed them a very small daily ration of alfalfa pellets.  Alfalfa is very high in protein grass.  We start the calves on a small ration and slowly build up their daily allowance of the dehydrated grass to prevent bloat.  Cows can bloat on alfalfa because it is so rich.

The calves also have their own mixture of kelp meal, stock salt, and diatomaceous earth.  We continue to allow them to freely partake of this mineral supplement and natural de-wormer.  It is self-limiting.  They can only take what their body needs.  Of course, we supply the calves with fresh clean water and hay.

Soon we will be able to return these calves back to the herd.  Their mothers will welcome them back as adolescents; however, they will not be allowed to nurse.  The cows’ milk supply will have dried up.  There will always be one calf in the bunch who tries to resume nursing, but it is quickly kicked away.  Calves will be calves.

Weaning time means that we decide how the calves are going to work for us.  We will determine if we have any show heifers.  We will sell some to other ranchers.  We have some that we will keep to build up our herd.  Of course, we also have our grass fed beef business.  If you are interested in ordering delicious and nutritious grass fed beef, contact me at lndehaven@aol.com or call (936)870-5792.

We all know how important fresh drinking water is.  It is equally important to cows.  Cattle can smell water from miles away.  Typically they drink twice a day.  Each time a cow generally guzzles 12 gallons of water in one sitting.  We had one pasture on the ranch that had no supply of water.  Therefore when the cows were on this particular pasture, we had to open up a neighboring pasture for their water needs.

New water trough

As this was not an ideal situation, we carefully weighed our options.  One option was to dig a tank and wait for it to fill with rain water and run-off.  Since we are in a drought, this option was not suitable.  We did not want water next year; we needed it now.  Another option was to have a water well dug.  This option is the most expensive.  Having a water well installed costs about $6,000.00 depending on how far they have to dig to hit a good water table.  In addition you have to have electricity run to the pump.  All in all this was too expensive.  The last option was to lay water line from the nearby lake and install a pump to fill a water trough on the dry pasture.  Okay, sounds great, but how does one do that?

Well, you have to think like my husband, Lane, who is the ranch manager for Cross Creek Cattle Company.  He came up with the idea and thought all the steps through before purchasing the supplies.  If you have a similar problem on your ranch, you might want to really pay attention.

First he rented a trencher and used it to dig the water line from the lake to the desired spot for the water trough.  Unfortunately for Lane, the ground was like cement and even the trencher was put to the test digging through the hardened ground.  Then he decided where the pumping station was to be and laid the pipe from it in opposite directions.  One side going to the lake and the other to the trough.

The pumping station complete with solar battery charger.

Then Lane installed the pumping end into the lake.  First, he fitted a screen on the end of the pipe so that minnows, tadpoles, debris, etc. would be sucked up into the pump.  Then he extended the pipe about 15-20′ off of the shore and down deep onto the bottom.  He did not want anyone fishing, rowing, etc. breaking the tip of the pipe.  In addition he put a cinder block around the pipe end to help protect it even more.

Now he installed the round water trough in the most level place he could find.  Lane hooked up a faucet end that he will reinforce with bigger pipe and fill between the two pipes with sand.  This not only gives the pipe more strength, but the sand also acts as insulation when the temperature drops below freezing in the winter.

Lane then hooked the pump up to the battery, which is charged by solar energy.  He turned it on and looked for any leaks that might appear from the joints of the pipes.  Fortunately, there was none.  He filled in the trenches with dirt and packed them down with the tractor.  Meanwhile the pump is steadily sucking water out of the lake and filling the trough uphill and about 200′ away.

It did take some time for the water pump to build enough pressure to actually begin pumping the water.  But once it began, the water streamed through the pipes flawlessly.  Now the cattle will have plenty of fresh water on an otherwise dry pasture.  Ingenuity at its best right here on the ranch.  The supplies for this option cost relatively little.  The pump was $65.00.  The solar charger was $40.00.  The pipe and fittings were about $45.00.  The trough was $299.00.

Not only was this option the most inexpensive; it was the most practical option as well.  Lane did a great job.  I have to tell you, I was impressed with his ability.  I guess that it is a good thing when your husband never ceases to amaze you.

Andrew, Isaac, and Jake with Ladd.

Working on a ranch is an endless job.  There is always something that needs attention.  The cows need to be moved into the next pasture to graze.  The fences need to be walked to check for weaknesses.  Pastures need to be inspected for proper grass growth.  Tree limbs need to be cleared after a thunderstorm.  Ranching is good for people who cannot sit still.

However at Cross Creek Cattle Company, we consider ourselves greatly blessed to be able to live on our ranch and pursue our dream of raising delicious and healthy beef and/or award-winning show cattle.  Despite all the work that needs to be done, we make it a point to enjoy living here. We want our family to not only work side by side, but play side by side.

Lane and Isaac on Cheyenne

Just the other day we saddled up four horses and went riding for sheer pleasure.  Not only did this exercise the horses, but it also relaxed our family.  It was just fun!  We rode through the bottom by the creeks while we talked and joked on horseback.  The horses were having as much fun as my children.

From time to time we take off a Saturday morning or Friday afternoon and go fishing.  Not only do we catch fresh fish for dinner, but we are able to spend time together.  Taking hikes through the woods on hot summer days is enjoyable.  The tall trees form a canopy of shade to cool us off after a morning of standing in the sun digging post holes for a new fence.

Another way we love to spend our time occurs in the evenings when dinner has been eaten and we have cleaned up.  We enjoy sitting on our porch in our swing or chairs listening to the crickets and cicadas serenade us with their newest songs.  Sometimes we burn a small campfire in the fire ring.  We roast marshmallows and tell stories of our past and ones passed down through our family.  These are times I treasure not only as an adult and parent, but as memories from my childhood when we did the exact same things.

Regardless of where you live and work, remember to take the time to enjoy where you are.  Do things as a family that include work and play.  Doing this enables families to create enduring bonds that will help secure them together through thick and thin.  Our motto is “Work together, play together.”