Branding is used for identifying ownership of cattle. Every ranch has a unique design, usually incorporating the initials of the owner or initial of the ranch. Grieb Ranch brand is a backwards G with an arrow underneath.

Grieb Ranch Brand

Fall calves were recently gathered at Grieb Ranch and driven to the branding area. In addition to branding the young cattle receive vaccinations and ear tags plus get looked over for any health issues. All procedures are done efficiently with the cattle’s best interests in mind.

Connie’s kitchen served as the stage for branding, ear tagging and vaccination prep.

Branding is a social affair with cowboy friends showing up early and staying late. Many hands make the work light. Local cowboys help each other out by lending their assistance and knowledge at each other’s branding events. So of course there is food to enjoy after all the work is done. This year the big hit was a Fruit Pizza presented by Jessica Willems.

Fruit Pizza created by Jessica Willems with fruit rearrangement by little L. Brandings require everyone to lend a helping hand, even a 16 month old boy.

Recipe for:   Fruit Pizza

From the Kitchen of: Jessica Willems 

Servings: 16

Ingredients:

Crust

• 1 package(18 ounces) refrigerated sugar cookie dough, softened

Crust Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degree F. Shape dough into ball.  Place dough in center of round stone or pizza pan. Using lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough to 12-inche circle, about ¼ inch think.
2. Bake 18-20 minutes or until light golden brown.
3. Cool 10 minutes.

Topping

• 1 container of cream cheese frosting
• 2 pints fresh strawberries, stemmed and sliced
• 1 batch of red and green grapes
• 1 small can mandarin oranges or 3 “cuties” peeled
• 1 pint blueberries

Topping Directions

1. Spread mixture evenly onto top of cookie.
2. Starting at the outer edge of the pizza edge place strawberry halves, next a row of red grapes, a row of mandarin orange slices, next blueberries, then a row of green grapes and in the center a design made with strawberry halves.
3. Cut dessert with pizza cutter.

Equipment needed

• Pizza pan or cookie sheet
• Roller
• Paring knives
• Spatula
• Medium bowl
• Cutting board

Grieb Ranch appreciates all helping hands at the branding from 1 year to 91 years.

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Papa Carl, on his beloved tractor, cleans up debris after a storm.

Connie pauses to reflect on how God might want us to apply David’s prayer from 1 Chronicles 29:14, “Everything we have has come from you, and we give you only what you first gave us.”(NLT)

Water and mud everywhere! The waterline to the trough had to be blown out for fresh water to fill the trough again.

We’re gathering cattle while many little streams run down our hillsides.

Paraphrase from Our Daily Bread-Sept. 8

The Willems now have a babbling brook running behind their home. Connie says it’s lovely music to fall asleep to.

. . . And He answered. Rain has been coming regularly since November; sometimes nice and steady but most recently the faucets have been on full blast! 60-70 mph winds were a part of the last storm and trees fell all over our neighboring Arroyo Grande areas.

Grieb Ranch is thankful for the rain, but it has made for some interesting times, fun adventures, hardships, and damages. Here is a picture tour of the most recent storm happenings.

It’s Fun For The Kids

Rain and sun have turned the hillsides green. In between storms we simply enjoy the scenery and have some fun. These kids got stuck in the mud while helping to fix a downed fence.

Rain or shine though there is work to be done. Here little L shows he is able to get down and dirty like the rest of the crew.

What no riding because of the mud? Well then practicing on Charlie Horse at Grandma’s is the next best thing!

It’s Hard on the Animals

Yes all that rain came down the hillsides and gathered like a pool in the horse pens. The horses waded around in the muddy mess for a little while. Grieb Ranch is waiting for the corrals to dry out so we can safely work our Fall calves.

A cow got stuck in this bog. It took several hours to get her out. She is doing just fine now.

It’s Hard on the Equipment

High winds ripped through the Arroyo Grande area toppling trees and taking out power. This shelter blew over. Now it needs to be fixed.

Mud and equipment really don’t mix. The combo takes a toll on the farm equipment.

We prayed for rain and He answered. He will also see us through the hardships that may come in life. We are thankful and we always rejoice.

What is cuter than baby calves, puppies and grandsons?  Out on the ranch chores still need to be done rain or shine. Chores are even more fun with kids and puppies helping out.

Grieb Ranch is training a new dog “Ace” to help herd the cattle and other animals. Connie has been hand-raising this puppy and now this new pup has stock dog commands to learn.

Some of the many commands we give our stock dogs are:

“Get around” – Used to send dog to the left to stop or direct the livestock (cattle, sheep or goats and sometimes chickens or ducks) from going that direction. This command can be used from horseback, Kubota or while on foot.

“Way around”– Used to send dog to the right then same as above.

“Sit” – Command for the dog to sit.

“Down” – puts on the brakes for the dog.

Then a “Down Hold” –  keeps the herded animals where they are.

“Walk-on” – Asks the dogs to follow and take the herd to a specific destination.

“Back” – Dog needs to be working close to the animals in the herd.

“Heel” – The dog has to get behind command giver.

“Load-up” – Command used to get dogs in vehicles.

“Run”– Sometimes when driving the RTV, the dogs slow to stop or play in front of the vehicle. It can be difficult to use the brakes, so the command “Run” gets the dogs to take off.

“Stay” – Used when the dogs are in a vehicle or pen and they are not to unload or leave their pen.

“That’ll Do” – Command used to let the dogs know they are finished with the task and to leave the herd animals.

“Look Back” – Used if the herd splits to send the dog to get the rest.

“Out” –  Used when we are working in a corral and we do not need the dog’s help.

As it was mentioned in part 2, to train a stock dog the owner/trainer must be calm, confident and consistent. The rules and commands must be clear and insistent.  If you have the right dog and put in the effort you will end up with a dog worth its  weight in gold. A well-trained working cow dog is especially useful when gathering cattle off the steep hills of Grieb Ranch.

Wow!  Life on the Grieb Ranch is busy as ever.  We have gone from dust and tall dry thistles to hills of green that we are thankful!   The thistles are an amazing late feed.  Thistle heads are full of tiny seeds that the horses and cattle seem to like.  To me, Connie, thistles are “wicked” and the sharp points break off under my skin and hurt.  We are busy putting in a new water trough to replace the rusted out one.  The bulls are now turned out with the cows.  Fixing fences happens almost daily because of the bulls playing (fighting) and ripping them up. We are at the end of our calving season-one cow to calve yet.  Oh!  We are raising the runt puppy of a litter of puppies.  Her name is Ace and she loves to play train with the grandkids.

The Grieb Ranch wants to you to know that with love and thanks to all of you that have blessed us with many wonderful memories of 2016, for the joys of this Christmas Holiday Season, and the promise of your continued blessing of your friendship yet to come in 2017.

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM THE GRIEB RANCH-as we all remember what Luke 2:10-11 says “Do not be afraid! For behold I bring you good new of great joy that will be for all the people:  Today in the City of David a Savior has been born to you.  He is Christ the Lord!”

Easter brings to mind colored eggs . . . and that’s just what has been popping out at Grieb Ranch lately; a variety of colored eggs! Yet we’re still a few months from Easter.

So how does an egg get its natural color?

The short answer is genetics. Connie has been having fun crossing several different chicken breeds which is producing some really lovely egg colors.

Detailed information regarding egg color comes from Michigan State University Extension

All eggs start out white in color; those that are laid in shades other than white have pigments deposited on them as the eggs travel through the hen’s oviduct. The journey through the chicken’s oviduct takes approximately 26 hours.

The shell takes roughly 20 hour to be complete. Ameraucana birds have the pigment oocyanin deposited on the egg as it travels through the oviduct. This pigment permeates the egg shell resulting in the interior and exterior of the egg being the same blue color.

Chickens that lay brown tinted eggs deposit the pigment protoporphyrin on the eggs late in the process of forming the shell. The pigment therefore does not penetrate the interior of the egg, but tints only the surface of the egg, which is why brown eggs are white on the interior.

In the case of an Olive Egger, a brown pigment overlays a blue egg shell resulting in a green egg. The darker the brown pigment the more olive color of the resulting egg.

Are green eggs better than white? Are brown eggs good?

There is no difference in edibility, health, or nutrition with different-colored egg shells. The real difference in eggs taste comes from the hen’s environment and diet.

My Pet Chicken has this to add about backyard chicken eggs:

The colorful eggs from your backyard hens WILL have much more nutrition, because eggs produced by hens raised on pasture are much healthier, indeed (and they taste much better, too).

Keep in mind that commercially produced “free range” eggs may have been laid by hens who have never seen a blade of grass, the sun or the sky. “Pasture-raised” is something different, and much healthier.

Eggs laid by hens raised on pasture have less fat and cholesterol, and more healthy vitamin A, vitamin E, beta carotene and omega-3s. You can read all about the nutritional differences between factory farmed eggs and real, eggs to get an idea of what all those people who have to eat those icky grocery store eggs are missing!

So keep this in mind the next time you are at the grocery store and brown eggs are packaged in the egg cartons. They are just the same as the white ones. Also if you get the chance to eat a real farm-raised egg, savor the experience.

Shh…It’s a Surprise!

What Mara Was Thinking

Proposal July 31, 2016

Saturday night my sister Jessica and brother-in-law Daniel told me that we needed to go up the hill in the morning to get some fire wood for a BBQ we were going to have on Sunday night.

Sunday morning before church Jessica, Macy my twin sister who was visiting us, the boys and I headed up to the hill to get what I thought was wood! While we were driving we saw a horse in the distance. Jessica thought that was weird and thought that we should go check it out..

It was saddled and tied to a tree. As Jessica and I were walking up the hill to where the horse was Jessica said we needed to be careful because someone could have a gun. I then became really scared and kinda followed her. When we were up there I then noticed another horse tied up to another tree. I was confused. Behind the tree I saw a person! I had no clue who it was I just noticed someone with a bun on top of their head. I thought it was an Indian stealing the horses so I tried yelling at them and then they would duck and disappear.

Macy then came walking up in the distance with Payson, I yelled down at her and told her it wasn’t safe and that she shouldn’t come up here with a little boy. Jessica said, “Look! There is a jar hanging from the tree I wonder what that is?” I then thought someone was living out there will these stolen horses. When I turned around, Levi was standing on top of the hill! I couldn’t believe it! Levi got on one knee and asked me to marry him! I said, “YES!” My sister Kala then popped out of the tree where she was sneakily taking photos of our engagement!  

Levi came out for a visit at Grieb Ranch this Summer. He then decided it would be a fitting location for a proposal and planned the whole event. Four of the five Van Essen sisters took part in the proposal and now all have it as a shared memory. What a great start for the young couple.

Photos: Mara’s sister Kala

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Oh, the lazy days of summer are just not to be had when one’s livelihood is ranching. Summer days at the Grieb Ranch are FULL and busy.

Ag Adventure Camp

The summer started with Grieb Ranch people, horses and other animals serving at two delightful weeks of Ag Adventure Camp. 50 girls the first week and over 30 boys the second week had a great time exploring God’s creation through agriculture. The “cowgirls” and “cowboys” rode every day and four of the five horses were Grieb ranch horses. Mr. T, Bob, Joe and High Five were all enjoyed by the campers who learned how to get on, send the horses forward, turn, how to get off and a few enjoyed a little trotting. Smiles broadened the kid’s faces every day. For more pictures check out the Apela Foundation Facebook page.

Ranch Activities

Back at the ranch life continues with the gathering and weaning of calves to help reduce the need for so much water in the drought.

Soon Ethan will be off to the Santa Barbara County Fair. Where he will be showing and selling a Beef Replacement Heifer.

Grieb Family Reunion

Next on the Summer Calendar is the Grieb Family Reunion July 23rd. If any Grieb family members out there need more information please email us at: griebranch@gmail.com

“May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us— yes, establish the work of our hands.” Psalm 90:17
– The mission verse for Apela Foundation