LNL Ranch

Ok second post in one day!!! I know right.

This is I hope inspirational.

For the last several months Fran and I have been dealing with the fight of my life. I’m going to spare you all of the boring details but the readers digest version is I’ve been very sick. I’m not really sure for how long as I think it snuck up on me. It was certainly exacerbated by Covid in early February. I barely got through the rodeo and was finally able to get into the doctor. Long story short after multiple tests and several weeks the cardiologist told me I was at severe risk of sudden cardiac death.

I knew I couldn’t have heard that correctly and asked him to repeat it, he did! Fran, in an effort to clarify asked if we were looking at a possible heart attack and he told her no, you can recover from a heart attack, he won’t.

There was a part of me that wanted to whip his ass right where he sat for speaking to her that way, I didn’t have the strength.

We huddled together and gained enough strength to decide what needed to be done to succeed and what was required if it was too late. She has been the source of my strength for many years now and we prepared for both outcomes.

Fran called the kids, family and friends and let them know. I couldn’t talk to anyone. I insisted this stay off of face space because I didn’t want to spend any time with the negativity that comes with sympathy. I wanted to remain positive and looking toward the future.

My daughter, Rachel, moved her wedding up from November in case the worst came true. Anyone who truly knows me knows not to bet against me or count me out, but the diagnosis is serious and she felt more comfortable moving it up. It was a great day!!

Ok for the inspiring part. I’ve been on medication for a couple of months and I’m feeling better than I have in a long time. I’m still not out of the woods but I believe I will be 100% soon without a pacemaker. I may have to take medication for the rest of my life, which I will gladly do. I don’t want to ever have a doctor talk to Fran that way again. Especially considering this is something I may have contributed to or could have prevented.

I’m feeling very well and on my way back!!!!!

For those of you who have supported Fran when she felt weak, she’s never really been weak, I am eternally grateful. I’ve been comforted over the last few months knowing that she will be taken care of no matter what happens.

I probably won’t be posting anymore, certainly not regularly, because I really don’t like Facebook. I understand that it allows some good but it’s the bad that truly bothers me. That being said you can’t argue the reach it has, now you know the reason for this post.

Thank you for reading it. Thank you for your prayers, they have been received. Thank you for your friendship and your interest in my family, it is felt.
Shane

Hello face space, or as Art Garfunkel once wrote, “hello darkness my old friend”, it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. I actually have a good reason, I don’t spend any time here. More on that in a second post. Yes I know, nothing for ever and then two in one day. Who can follow this craziness???

This morning I snapped a picture of our cattle I call “The Fatties”. I know it’s not politically correct but they’re just so pretty and it is meant as a term of endearment. Still not happy with me?? Ok, I meant it in a loving short way.

Still not happy? Stop reading here, you will not appreciate the rest of this.

The two black steers were born on the 50 acres next door to the LNL Ranch and the red one came from a sale barn when he was very young, he was 280 pounds when he arrived. All three were weaned, castrated and grown right here on the LNL Ranch by our family. They have never had a needle stuck in the for anything including vaccinations. They have always been healthy and growing naturally and now weigh 1100 pounds each. They have been on full ration of grain for 60 days and will continue until July 13. They have always enjoyed free range grass and hay their entire lives. In short they have had great lives as cows. We have raised them with care, love a reverence. It has been an honor to get these guys to their intended purpose and our pleasure to offer them to you freezer.

The processor date is July 13 and they will be ready the end of July for delivery. Call or message me for details. They won’t last long so please don’t wait, what I have coming behind these is several months out.

Thank you all,
Shane

Today I write the final chapter in the saga of Olé Baldy. We loaded him and is final companion and took him to the processor. It was not without a bit of excitement but all and all he loaded with the insistence of Fran’s blue dog Darby. He still wanted to hook me and never took his eye off me.

He weighed 1071 in the end with a hang weight of 638. I would have liked for him to be a bit heavier but the appointment was made a month earlier and his buddy was plenty fat enough so they had to go together. I couldn’t imagine that crazy steer in the pen by himself for another couple of weeks. He probably would have lost weight just to spite me!!

In the end it was an honor for us to raise him and his brothers. He provided some great material for stories and it has been a pleasure for me to share them. All things have their time and it was his time to move to the next phase in his purpose for life.

The LNL Ranch produces farm to table beef in a natural, responsible and humanitarian way, no antibiotics, hormones or dirt lots but this steer isn’t for sale. He is going in our family’s freezer. We have reverence for all of our steer and respect the commitment they have for the service to our food supply. Olé Baldy was extra special and we appreciate him!

Fran framed this picture so he will always be with me!!

Two of his ribeye steaks are going to Scott Bradley.... maybe Brenda will eat one... or not???

Here’s to Olé Baldy!!!!

I have a steer at the processor right now that a customer can’t take delivery on. His hang weight is 665 #. Black angus raised on our ranch no hormones or antibiotics of any kind. Raise on grass pasture and grain fed.

If you’re interested please message me or call 281-910-3804
Thank you Shane

So today is a very special day for Fran and I. We have 8 grandchildren that are AMAZING one and all but today I want to express my pride in our oldest Katelyn.

She graduated collage this year with an engineering/physics degree and starts her new job in aerospace on Monday. I told her that I was going to tell everyone I come into contact with that I have a granddaughter that is a rocket scientist. She said grandpa I’m working on missiles not rockets. I still think it’s cute she thinks I know anyone that knows the difference!!! LOL.

Today Fran and I helped her father, brothers and stepmother move her into her apartment. This is a day I’ve waited for her entire life. I wouldn’t have missed it for anything in the world!!!! This is the easiest person I’ve ever helped move....... she did pick a 2nd floor apartment but that was the hardest part.

When she needs to move again to another apartment or across the country I’m available!!!!!

Busy day today. Granddaughter number three is horse nuts. She has been working chores and saving her money for a fancy yellow horse for several years. She finally found one that passed the grandpa test and bought her. Grammi and I went to Dallas, my favorite place, ugh, and picked up her and her dad, drove to Northeast Texas and picked the horse up. Brought her back to the ranch. We had a slow start but finally got it going. Here is Jaela and Tilly on the LNL Ranch. I think she’ll do!!

For you city folk, this is a picture of five prime sirloin and Olé Baldy. I’m starting to think he may not like me. He was eating dinner with his buddies until I walked to the fence. He stopped immediately and stared me down!!

Olé Baldy, the saga continues!

So Shane Jr., and our families, worked on getting our scale to fit in the the new heavy duty alley so we could weigh steers this weekend. We had to lay some concrete blocks down nice a level to set the scale on and then stretch the platform out longer to accommodate the length of the panels. The girls and boys picked up sticks and mowed. By the time it was all done everyone was heated to near boil and we didn’t care what steers weighed. We decided early morning would be better.

We wanted to get the weight on the light steers in the big pasture with the horses as we as all the fatties. We’ve been working on breaking them to come to a feed bucket for the last few weeks and they will now come running for the red bucket........but when we moved the bunk feeder to the pen to catch them they needed to think about that!!

Just about the time it looked like we were going to get them in we captured the attention of the horses who were grazing in the far North corner of their pasture. They are like a bunch of Democrats, never let a good crisis go to waste and no matter how fat they are they will stand at the feed bunk and eat someone else’s feed. Meg and Lizzie came a running like a scene from a old western. Penning the light weight steers wasn’t happening today.

That’s ok we have plenty of time to work on them the won’t be ready until 2021 anyway. The fatties on feed weren’t going to be a problem this morning because our new heavy duty panels and gates work well and we have already used the scale, we just made it better.
Easy Peasy.......right???? Sure????

The steers came around the pasture and down the lane into successively smaller lots until they passed the heavy duty pens at a dead run lead by Olé Baldy. Shane Jr opened the gate to the pen and close off the lane. We turned the steers back and pushed a bit, didn’t take much cause Olé Baldy is still running and is mad. He had forgotten, since last week, that our panels are heavy duty and he went from front to back testing the manufacturer’s welds along his way.

They all moved up into the small squeeze pen except for roper who was tired of the quick step they had been in and Shane Jr. Closed the gate on the rest of them, including Olé Baldy.

We opened the slide gate and started moving them toward the scale. We have never gotten Olé Baldy weighed, as most of you are already aware, but he is right there in size with Roper which makes him one of the first two out of this set to be ready for processing.....I’m gonna miss him when he is frozen!!

The first steer calmly walked down the alley and stood on the scale no problem. It was the one we call 820 because that’s what he weighed when we bought him. The scale went back and forth like my bathroom scale does when I get on it just before it say one at a time please!! It stopped on 966. He’s gained 146 pounds since he’s been here, kind of disappointing but he did spend a couple of weeks alone and he didn’t eat well and then it has been hot. The heat stress is affecting them all.

Three more steers walked down the alley, stepped on the scale, stood quietly and exited through the chute side gate and back into there pasture. Olé Baldy was next!!!! Did I mention our panels are heavy duty?

Shane Jr. opened the slide gate and he shot through and jumped on the scale and slammed the rear gate of the chute and was trying to sling the gate open with his head. Slinging from side to side, slobbering and slinging that too. I’m hanging on to the handle to the gate for dear life and I’m motivated to keep him in cause I’m out and I don’t need him out too!!! The scale is bouncing around like a small boat on a big wave when he stands on his back legs and jumps for the top of the panel. Right then is when I think about I had a choice of panels that were five foot or six foot tall. Five foot were cheaper, we bought six foot. If we would have bought five foot Olé Baldy would have been OUT with me and not weighed! Makes me shake like a dog passing peach seeds just to think about it!!!

Olé Baldy came down a took a deep breath and was still for one second. The scale stopped bouncing and settled on 927, SUCCESS!!! I turned him lose, he went through the chute and out the side gate and hit high lonesome by the second step. All I saw was tail and wide sirloin leaving!!!

Roper walked on the scale no problem and weighed in at 1037. Winner, Winner he is the big boy of this set.

Kimmie was doing the recording of the numbers and after confirmation I realized the trouble, Olé Baldy gets the last laugh. Turns out every steer in the pen weighs more than him............. Oh no if it all stays the same he will be the last one to be ready for the processor. Crap!!!!

Well I guess there will be more stories about Olé Baldy to come. I’m gonna miss him when he’s frozen. I may just save him for my freezer!!!!

Good morning from the LNL Ranch. I have been blessed with my life, my family and this Ranch. Mornings and coffee are always better here.

Driving to work on Friday morning my phone rings and it’s my buddy Scott Bradley asking me if I’m going to see Ole’ Baldy. Sadly I was not but I told him I would see him this weekend and I was going to weigh him but he doesn’t know it yet!!!

Shane Jr and I worked on the scale yesterday and have it in place so it’s fixing to get real at the LNL Ranch when Fran gets up.

This picture is for you Scott.

I have an update on “Ole’ Baldy”. I’m reminded of the song from Best little wh******se in Texas. The line in the song is Texas!! Has a wh******se in it!! Well “Ole’Baldy” has an ear tag in him!! Oh yes he does! He is now number 20. You may remember from my previous post that he and his brother didn’t want ear tags a couple of weeks ago and we didn’t have enough cattle pen to make them take um. That is no more!! The steer that wore my rope for a bit is now 19!! Ear tags in all of the cattle on the LNL ranch. Because that’s what Cowmen do!!

Shane Jr. and I went and picked up some heavy duty panels and a couple of heavy duty gates and put it together yesterday afternoon.

Yes we did this all during the pandemic and the governor ordering us to hide under our beds, wring our hands and panic until this is over. The real problem was it was HOT and Shane Jr. near worked me to death!!

We woke up this morning and put the corral back together around the new pen and gathered them up!

Oh my!! “Ole’ Baldy grabbed high lonesome gear and headed just the way we wanted him to and before you could say shoo cow they were all in our new cattle pen!! Did I mention they are heavy duty? Wel they are but “Ole’ Baldy” didn’t read the instructional information and decided to try it out.

I was reminded of my high school ag teacher again. Mr. Johnson would check your welds with a 3 lb hammer, he bent my hay feeder all up and I had fix all the welds that broke in order to get a passing grade.

Well I was looking for some of these welds to pop like buttons on a fat mans shirt but they held and “Ole’ Baldy” is now #20.

But wait, was it that easy?.......NOPE!!

He went down the alley, we closed gates behind him. He had one steer in front of him and I opened the gates on the chute and let him go and “Ole’ Baldy loaded in the alley stall right behind the chute and we were ready. I opened the back gate to the chute and was holding the head gate and he walked in like no big deal, I closed the back gate and got nervous and closed the head gate without a head in it. Well now he’s in the chute but I don’t have his head caught. He’s looking at me like I’m stupid and I’m thinking I’m out here you’re in there how is it you think I’m stupid? Then I think I’m arguing with a steer, I’m glad no one is here to see this.

I open the head gate to get him the step up one step and he launched out of the chute breaking off a horn on the way out. When he went by it felt like prop wash from a Cessna 182, and he was gone. You guessed it, no ear tag!!

Shane Jr. and I went out and moved him back through the corrals and penned him agian easy peasy!!! We finished pushing the other cattle through the chute and tagged #19 aka roper and pushed “Olé Baldy back up in the alley, with two of his closest friends and closed the slide gates behind them. When he got to the front he just stood so very calm and peaceful you could almost imagine him in your back yard.

I told Shane Jr. I believe I can ear tag him right where he stands. I put the tagging pliers up to his ear and in my mind I could see him jumping up and destroying our new heavy duty panels but he tilted his head a little and slipped his ear in position and I tagged him #20, by God!! That’s what Cowmen do!!

I sprayed his broken horn with some blood stop and let him out the side gate of the chute and he found high lonesome gear agin and found the spot in the pasture that as as far away from me as possible and stayed there. For a moment I thought we had bonded right there amongst the heavy duty cattle panels..... I guess not!!

We won a little and he won a little and now you know why I have no picture of “Olé Baldy” in a head gate with his new tag. I think I’m gonna miss him when he’s frozen.