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Saturday, January 25, 2014 – Daily News 5A Agriculture farm & ranch The 1976 Christmas letter Tehama, Butte, Lassen county cattle rancher Elwin Roney, 93 years old, died Jan. 22 at his ranch home. Funeral services will be 9 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 28 at the Pine Creek Cemetery. *** People are talking about the 2013-14 drought, and Linda asked me about what I had written in the 1976 Christmas letter. For 55 years I have written about people, events and what our family was doing in the annual letter. In 1976 it was 6 pages, mimeographed, small type, and in 2013 it was 19 pages, professionally printed, and large type with colored pictures. 1976 -"Highlights of the year have been the drought, low prices for cattle compared to our operating expenses. Kendra graduated from 8th grade, Linda was Sr. winner of the local Make It Yourself with Wool Contest, and it still isn't raining. January – The cows on the range were bothered by coyotes. Bill Glines was checking his cows in Tuscan Springs, and came upon 4 big coyotes that were circling a cow and new-born calf. He didn't have a gun with him; told us, so we shot at them, but calf was dead. Another new calf had its hind leg missing at the hock. We finally put it to sleep when it got too heavy for 3 legs. Bill and I notice the cows chase the dogs, if they jump off the pickup on the feeding strip this winter. We bought a couple Jensen bulls and the girls bought a bull from Lem Earnest at Red Bluff Bull Sale. Went to the horse sale with Wes and Jacqueline Leininger; didn't buy any. Jan 27th, the Cone Ranch and Andreini's had started their sprinklers and flood irrigation of crops. February – It snowed from Milford to Sparks, and nearly the whole time we were at the Nugget Bull sale. Patty & Jerry Stephens, Jacqueline & Wesley, Bill & I enjoyed Rowan & Martin and especially LeRoy Van Dyke at the Nugget. Got home from the sale and the creeks in the bull pasture were dry, so we turned the bulls out with the cows. It's not Christmas yet and we are over half calved out. On the 11thBill started the water on the alfalfa. Oh yes, while we were gone Mother put an add in the paper for 3 days: 1st cutting alfafa and permanent pasture hay, $40 a ton. Her phone didn't stop ringing. Had 97 calls about that "cheap" hay. It had so many fox-tails it wasn't a bargain. But people were out of feed and glad to get it for their animals. I missed 4-H fun Night with the flu, but Bill was there helping Tony Lourence and Tony Mendonca cook the beans and meat, while the girls worked in the booths our club spon- Barton Courtesy photo With so much snow on March 2, 1976 the trees were alive with robins around our house. I have never seen that many robins again. sored. On the 2nd of March it started snowing at 6 a.m. and snowed till 4 p.m. We got about 4" of snow here, but out west they had about a foot. The schools all closed. It was a welcome storm because it gave us moisture for the cows on the range, and Salt Creek finally ran under highway 99E for first time this year. With so much snow on the ground the trees were alive with robins around our house. Took ten fat cows to Shasta Auction and they averaged 1433 lbs. The price was 2cents off that day, but we still av. 27.75 cents a lb on them. It's been 2 years, and still no word on our missing horses, Okie and Scottie, or the saddles, or the truck that was stolen. April 2nd Leland Davis helped Bill haul 24 more cows to Shasta Auction. Price was up to 31.50, but Bill's diary doesn't mention the average weight. Things were getting desperate on the range with only a few pot-holes of water left, when it started to rain as the girls were getting ready for Jr. Cow Palace. It rained 1.65" while they were loading the tack on the truck. Kendra's steer Barberino weighed 1135 lbs, and sold for 48 cents a lb. Linda's steer Horshack weighed 1115 lbs and sold for 49 cents. The 25th we made our first trip to the mts to put up water gaps. The grass was just starting, but we were short of water on the range here. Bill and I didn't take long to gather because the cows were ready to leave. Note:1976 was before we had vaccines except black leg, which was commonly given. The 40-50 degrees at night and 60-85 degrees in daytime caused pneumonia in the calves. Tried something new and it really works. Corynebacterium Pasteurella Antiserum, Bovine origin. Its produced from the blood of cattle which have received repeated injections of Pasteurella multicida, corynebacterium spp, and virus fluids of red nose, BVD and PI-3. This fall when we came out of the mts we had a 2 year old with quick pneumonia…..tongue out and just gasping, flat out. Bill gave her 100 cc of this. We went to lunch and came back to haul her off. Instead she had gotten up, moved, and no longer panting. Complete recovery. Saved the calves too. To prevent pneumonia in the calves when we shipped to the mts, Bill gave each one 20 cc, and had only 1 to doctor up there. We kept Kendra out of school to help when we vacc. the cows for red-water and dusted for flies, plus all the calves. It was a good crew with Abner McKenzie, Leland Davis and Ray Hobbs. May – 4-H Fair and Linda's steer Muhammed Ali, a cross-bred was well named. He kicked and fought everyone. On 2nd we shipped to Eagle Lake. The trucks unloaded at the airplane landing strip using Elwin & Wally Roney's large trailer as a chute. After we got the cattle to the lakeshore, the girls and I came to RB for another week of school, while Bill checked to see that all were paired the next day. On the 5th Bill and I shipped the Willard Creek and Susan River cattle, and moved in for another year. Turned on the water and started the gas refrigerator. Bill started mowing the oat hay on the 7th, much earlier than normal. Kendra went on an overnight back-pack trip into Antelope Creek canyon with the 8th grade. They didn't allow horses, so I didn't volunteer to chaperon. Bill had only a half crop of oat hay, but did better on the summer fallowed land. Attended Marie Lourence funeral. Tony and Marie were our neighbors in Susanville each summer, till they sold their sheep and no longer came up. Kendra bought a new saddle with her savings account. She was so proud of it, she used it on the Mallery cattle drive. She was chasing cows off a meadow, got in a bog hole, and got her new saddle all muddy. Bill and the girls rode and checked cows at Susan River. Good thing they did, because one calf had a face full of porcupine quills. Over the 3 day Memorial Day weekend, they put 47 of Satica's cows in the corral, where we have only a 25 cow permit. No won- RUNNINGS ROOFING 530 529-2700 314 Washington St, Red Bluff, CA All makes and models. We perform dealer recommened 30K, 60K, 90K Members Welcome SERVICES AT LOWER PRICES Smog Check $ starting at www.TehamaCountyRealEstate.com der the feed was getting Linda gave the invocashort along Willard tion at the Farm-City Week Banquet. The last Creek. September- Linda was rain we have had here sewing, but Kendra this fall, came the day helped Bill, Wilson and we shipped. 9 tenths Fred Mallery separate inch. Kept the girls out and vaccinate all the of school to help Bill and Ray Hobbs. heifers for BruKendra helped cellosis. Bill vaccinate, and I helped on while Linda the Mallery catand I got them tle drive. I in the chute. helped clerk at We warbexed, the Tehama gave a shot for Angus Sale. Lepto and VibThe bulls averrio, and since age just under its so dry we $1,000, which gave the cows a is good considshot of Vitamin ering the feed A &D, too. and market sitJean Abner McKenuation. I was zie helped Bill surprised at the and me sepanumber of new rate the calvy 2 names and faces that have come year olds off, and drive along in the last 10 years the rest to the flat by Salt since we have gone com- Creek. On the 20th we mercial. (and Hereford.) started feeding hay to October – Bill was the cows. Then Bill riding with Arlo Stroing. started farming and They found another cow everything was planted & calf of ours in a fir by Dec. 10th. And still thicket above Stevens no rain. The north wind Ranch. So the girls and I blows, and then the temdid all the separating of perature goes into the steer calves and their 70s in Dec. What little mothers, so they would grass that did sprout has be in the front field for gone back into the rocks, shipping the next day. and everything is a bleak John Southard bought grey-brown. The wind the steers for 40 cents, was 40 mph, but Bill's and they averaged 532 crew had Thanksgiving lb. He took all but 3 vacation, so we number calves, and the day we branded and eartagged shipped the market was the replacement heifers. The wind eased up, and 37 cents. November 1st, Bill we marked and branded cut the alfalfa again. the older new calves. Surely that would make The bulls had been it rain. Always did busier than we thought. December – Dad before, but not this time. Got 8 ton, even though (Lyman Willard) says he hadn't irrigated after that he remembers a year the last cutting. Election dryer than this year, here Day…Stan Statham in RB. In 1936, it didn't won. Ray Johnson beat rain all fall until the day Sen. Collier. Hayakawa after Christmas, then the beat Sen. Tunney. Carter northwind blew and it beat Ford. Prop. 14 was cold. On my birthdefeated. Hottest on day, Jan. 10, 1937 it record for Red Bluff on snowed 17 inches here at 11/3 89'F. Kendra and I the place east of RB. helped Bill Warbex the Officially it was 15 inchreplacement heifers for es in town. Then it was lice and grubs. This fall cold, and the first grass Linda has been interest- didn't grow till March. ed in MotoCross racing, Dad and a sheep-herder since Kevin Borror has used a burro to carry hay been riding in them. Bill to the various lambing put up the water gap in sheds at the headquarSalt Creek at the mouth ters. That was a rough of the canyon. It would year, no feed and no be the only water avail- money in the middle of able for the cows when the Depression. they came out of the Jean Barton can be mountains. First time reached at since 1971 that Bill had to put the water gap up. jbarton2013@gmail.com. + 29958 $ 25 certificate (MOST CARS & PICK-UPS) 527-9841 • 195 S. Main St. ANDY HOUGHTON Insurance Agency Sheet Metal Roofing Residential Commercial • Composition • Shingle • Single Ply Membrane "No Job Too Steep" " No Job Too Flat" Serving Tehama County No Money 530-527-5789 530-209-5367 CA. LIC#829089 Down! 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