The Perry Ranch has kept range land Jedidiah Hewlett very busy this summer. He’s almost done with his time at the ranch, but he is working hard until the end.
This week we got the one field raked, baled, and stacked. We also received three semi-truckloads of oat hay and bedding. We decided to wait on the next field to let the alfalfa get a little taller. We started up the small pivot and shut off the big one, so we hardly have any irrigating to do. We had to order a new engine for one of the side-roll sprinklers because the old one quit working. That should be arriving next week.
On Thursday, we were privileged to have Mrs. Martha Mintz from the John Deere Furrow. She came out to interview us about the internship program and feature it in the magazine. While she was out at the ranch, we gathered and sorted the cattle on the home place. Then we ran the calves through the chute and gave them their weaning shots, a dose of wormer, and a nose flap. The nose flaps are a low stress and effective method of weaning the calves off the cows. On Friday, I did odd jobs in the morning and worked on finances in the afternoon. Mrs. Perry introduced me to Quick Books, a computer program for keeping track of financial transactions by categories. After we were done with the Quick Books, we transferred the numbers to the monthly cash flow.
I rounded out the week with a horse shoeing lesson from Jeff. I actually got to help put a set of hind shoes on the horse we were working on. Shoeing a horse is really an art; one 
which requires practice. I did pretty well for my first time, but it was a little tricky.
I finally got the time to put the tailgate back on the pickup after I straightened it with a little hydraulic pressure (the skid steer). I also got to go to the Johnson County Rodeo on Saturday afternoon. Next week promises more fun haying and shipping cows. It’s hard to believe that next week will be the end of my internship, but it is true!
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