Mayday Mayday- It's May 1 and the Hunewill Ranch is hopping!

It's May1 and summer is zooming up on the horizon!

 A rite of spring at the ranch is opening things up in Bridgeport. Irrigation water is starting to come and being spread over the meadows. Warmer days melt the snow up high and start bringing it down to Twin Lakes, but the cold nights freeze things back up. We won’t have as much water as we had hoped for but the motto of the rancher is to make do and keep going. The water is turned on at the ranch and we have to see if there was any damage to pipes (even though they were drained) over the subzero winter.  Trees often blow over and lose branches so there is lots of grounds clean-up to do. And of course those same winds just blow debris everywhere- this year a metal water trough was blown about a mile from where we left it and across the Twin Lakes Road.   And of course this is also when lots of cabin maintenance takes place.  Jeff, Denise, Jennifer, and Leslie walk through cabins and see what needs painting or repairing.  

The Hunewill Crew last Sunday branding calves. Most Western States have strict brand laws. However,  in the eastern U.S. that is not the case.

   So far we have roped, branded, marked, and vaccinated 260 calves this spring in Smith Valley getting them ready to go to Bridgeport.   It is springtime here in the Eastern Sierra and what that means for us at the Hunewill Ranch is that we are busy busy busy! It is a transition time for us of gearing up for the guest season in Bridgeport and moving cattle and horses from Smith Valley, Nevada to Bridgeport, California. This year because of the drought we moved our horses early than normal in April by trailer and did not have the horse drive. This was necessary due so we can let the grass grow in Smith Valley so the horses will have something to eat when they came back next fall. Don’t worry we will bring the horse drive back next year or we may have mutiny on our hands from the younger generation in our family.

  We will ship 118 cows and calves on Friday.  Today we got those cows and calves ready to ship by bringing them closer to the corrals and getting them brand inspected. The state brand inspector has to come and make it legal for them to cross the state line into California.  It was hot for May 1, it got up in the eighties and the cows did not want to move.  

  While Jeff and I moved this group of cattle, Blair and Leslie were sending cattle over to the Carson Valley on some leased pasture and then going to Yerington to meet the trucker and ship our heifers to Bridgeport.  Tomorrow it’s 6:00 am to horses to have the calves separated off their mothers and ready for the truck. 

 

Meet "Star", the curious Beefmaster heifer.

   

Of course there are a million other things we are doing right now, like getting things purchased for the gift shop, hiring our great staff for the summer, taking an inventory of supplies, communicating with Forest Service about our working outfitter permit, as well as our grazing permits, and of course communicating with all of our guests on the phone.  

 It is hard to believe another summer is almost upon us, but in several weeks we will have guests driving down our road to share our ranch experiences with us.