Thirsty cows!!

We had a close call this week with our cattle on the Kerr Ranch that we lease from the city of Roswell. The man that lives on that place called Wednesday night to tell us that the cows were out of water. He had noticed that they were hanging around his house for a while, and when he investigated found them with nothing to drink. When we called the city to see what was going on, they said that they were having issues with a reservoir and had turned off all the pumps. It had been over a week. Up until now, they have been really good to let us know about even the smallest of water issues, so Kim wasn’t too worried when he hadn’t been down there to check the water in several days. The city assured us they would get water back in the troughs ASAP. When Kim and the guests went down there to drive the cattle back to the water, he found them in drastically poor condition and looking over the fence longing to go somewhere else to find water. But thankfully all the cows were accounted for, alive and provided plenty of water to drink. The next morning Kim took a load of feed to them to hopefully give them a boost to overcome the slump they were in. He found them in much better shape and again all accounted for. Just a reminder not to take too much for granted. At least it has been cool and not the heat of the summer!

Coyote at the house

One morning earlier this week Patricia looked out the bedroom window and there was a coyote standing on the other side of the yard fence next to the stock tank looking at the house and the cats! They are getting thick! Hence our drastically decreased sheep numbers in comparison to just a few years ago!

We were mentioned in "Southwest meetingsg + events" publication

When I picked up the mail yesterday, there was a “Southwest meetings + events” publication with a couple paragraph on Burnt Well in the “Hey Dude” article, written by Christine Bailey, beginning on page 33. Here’s what was said,

‘Most of the ranches in the Southwest are small and accommodate groups of four to 30. Burnt Well Guest Ranch, which can host up to 10 guests at a time, is a working cattle and sheep ranch on more than 15,000 acres an hour outside of Roswell, New Mexico.

“It’s unique but strenuous,” says Patricia Chesser, who owns Burnt Well with her husband Kim. Most of their guests are looking for this type of ranching experience and Burnt Well delivers. In addition to ranch activities like horseback riding and cattle branding, Burnt Well offers several week-long cattle drives each year. On the drive, guests spend three to four days on horseback as they herd cattle 20 to 30 miles from one range to another.’

Cold days then warm days!

We had yet another snow earlier this week, giving us a total snow fall this winter of over 2 feet! That’s a lot for us! It was quickly followed by warm sunny days, so it didn’t stay around for long.

Kim took 19 yearling heifers to the sale on Monday after leaving them on hay fields, down near Carlsbad, for the winter. He quickly brought them home after these days started warming up and the alfalfa started growing, which can bloat the cattle overnight and be deadly! We did lose one before we could get them off, but got the rest home, sorted out the ones we wanted to keep for replacement cows and sold the remainder for a good price. He also bought 5 bred cows to replace some dry cows he sold a few weeks ago.

Waking up after a gray winter

Well, here at Burnt Well we’ve had our third sunny day in a row!! A very welcome sight after our gray, cold, wet winter, which is very uncharacteristic for New Mexico winters. The warmer days are making us ready to dive back into the completion of the ‘casita’ project, which entails finishing out the inside from plumbing, electrical, to insulation, etc. We are eagerly anticipating the beautiful desert wildflowers that this unusually wet winter should provide, which are a rare treat for us to enjoy! And we are gearing up for our spring guests and the two big spring cattle drives, the Bonney Drive, which has filled up, and the Kerr Drive, which still has some availability.