The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

Roundup of Other Ranches: A Few Calving Stories Across the Country

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You might think that calving can get a little boring.  We do the same thing every day for about two months.  Check cows… check cows.. check cows… We see a new baby born, but hopefully they all follow the same process.  And that happens every year.  Sounds a little monotnous, right?

I’m here to tell you, folks, that it doesn’t get that way!  Every morning I call The Rancher (because he usually doesn’t call me or stop by the house after checking cows) and ask about any new babies or if anything exciting is happening.  We never get tired of seeing the little babies racing across the pasture or mommas giving a bath (I wonder how many licks it takes to get a calf clean… do you think its as many as it takes to get to the center of a tootsie pop?!).

I especially never get tired of the calving stories.  There are always stories of an overprotective momma that wants to eat you for lunch.  When you hear about a grown man running for the fence, you know its a good story.  Maybe I like to hear them because I can relate or I am just proud of what we (the whole herd of ranchers) do to be beef producers.

I’ve been following long with a few other ranch blogs that have had some great stories and pictures from calving over the years.  Being the thoughtful and generous person I am, I thought I would share them with you too!  Some are great documentaries of cows birthing, something is pretty hard to capture in its entirety because lets be honest, who really wants to have that interrupted with on watchers and photos?  And a few are stories of getting creative when you are dealing with coyotes, cranky mommas, and cold calves!

1. Running of the Panels on JustARanchWife.com
2. Coyotes & Calving on Beef Matters
3. The Balling in the Basement on ConfessionsofaFarmWife.com
4. A baby is born! on KansasCattleRanch.blogspot.com
5. Calving 2010 on ClodhopperFarm.blogspot.com
6. Calving with Gwen Shepperson in Wyoming on TheSouthDakotaCowgirl.com 

Happy 1 Month Birthday, 7!

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Babies grow so fast!  Its amazing the changes that can happen in only one month!  A baby calf is born and can hardly stand and then just a few weeks later you see them racing around the field.  I’m glad that my babies don’t grow up so fast!

I had to find #7 and wish him a happy 1 month birthday.  He was the the first baby  born on the ranch this year.  Because he was the first, he has a special place in our hearts.  We couldn’t let his birthday pass by with out a shout out!

And we wanted to show you just how much he has changed.  Ok, I know, these aren’t great pictures to see the changes but he really has grown a LOT!  I think he didn’t want to listen when I told him to say cheese.  I’m just happy that we have a picture of his face. I guess he’s like kids- too grown up and embarrassed for momma to have a picture to document the day. Or not willing (able?) to hold still long enough to get a good one!

And I won’t have many opportunities for pictures because we have taken him and his momma out to the range in Locomotive.  He’s all grown up and off to new adventures!  Maybe at branding time I will have a chance to give him a little pat…

Our Ranching Start at Locomotive

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Over the last several weeks I have been looking through some of Grandma’s history books.  She has piles of them with all sorts of family stories.  There is even a Holbrook history (who knew?!).  I’ve been reading through them to get a sense of the ranch’s beginning.  Ranching really is in the Eliason blood!

It really all began at Locomotive Springs, clear back in 1885 when he railroad was new. There was a railroad tycoon that realized that there was good land to be had after the construction of the railroad. He bought up thousands of acres, put some cows out, and created the Bar M Cattle Ranch.  Being busy with the railroad business, he turned his ranch business over to his son.  In turn, his son hired up foreman to do the daily work (probably because he was no cattleman himself!).  This is where our story starts.

August Eliason, The Rancher’s great-great grandpa, had left home young looking for some work to live on.  Somehow (the books don’t really say) he wound up working for Bar M as a foreman (we figure somewhere in his late teens).  He would run with the cows from east of Kelton, Utah (5 miles east) to at least Holbrook, Idaho.

Being a business man and NOT a cattleman, the Bar M owner ran the ranch with little cow sense.  When it came to the grass on range he would have the cowboys graze the range hard.  That left little feed for the winter.  Since they didn’t buy or put up any hay in the summer, this meant that during the winter it was hard eating for the cows.

In 1889, the blizzard of a lifetime came through.  When cows get a hard storm they just start walking, the wind pushes them along until something stops them or they are exhausted. With nothing to stop the Bar M cattle, they walked for miles and miles.  The snow covered what little feed that was there, leaving the thousands (like 45,000) of cattle to die.  There wasn’t a lot the cowboys could do- they wouldn’t survive the storm looking for the herd.  All they could do was wait.

Once they were able to get out to the cows they realized that their losses were huge, like astronomical.  I read in some places say that they lost all but 10,000 cows but another said only 800 were found.  Either way, more than 30,000 died!  They said you could walk for miles walking only on the dead cows.  I can’t image what that must have been like to experience!  I hate when we lose one, I can’t fathom THOUSANDS!

At this point the Bar M just threw in the towel, dissolved the ranch and left everyone to fend for themselves, the cowboys and the cows.  Grandpa August and a few cousins saw an opportunity to be had and decided to strike out on their own.  They gathered up what unbranded cattle they could find and headed north into Idaho.  Having already run the cows that way, they knew where to find good feed and water to set up as their ranch headquarters.  They still would summer the cows in the Curlew Valley and then every fall they would head back to Locomotive to winter the cows.

Over the years they built up a few small shacks for cowboys to stay in through the winter.  Cowboys would stay a few weeks at a time to feed and watch over the cows and then head home for a rest.  We don’t do that anymore, but those old shacks are still around.  I try to envision what it must have been like in those.  No electricity, no running water, and nobody for miles.  Incredible! 

And it’s cool to think that the cows we have now are from some of the original cows that survived that blizzard.  I guess even the cows have little bit of heritage to them!  

On our last trip to Locomotive to check, we took the long way home to go past what Grandpa August started with.  We don’t own that piece anymore so we couldn’t go right up to it, but is was awesome to see it all in context, knowing how it all got started.

The Cow With the Uterine Prolapse

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This happened a long time ago (well, just the beginning of the month but that seems SO long ago…).  But it did… and I haven’t put up this post because I was scared.  I didn’t know how you would take it. 

You see there are days that it all goes wrong on the ranch.  And we can’t turn away from it.  We have to jump in to whatever mess there is.  Even if it is a cow with a uterine prolapse.

Remember when I told you the story about that calf we tried to save when I was out on my morning run?  Well the day didn’t end there.  The momma heifer to that baby had some serious problems not long after.  When we went to check her again we found that her uterus had prolapsed.

The heifer had been on her back and pushing for such a long time that morning.  Between the pressure of the contractions and the pressure of her awkward situation, it was too much for her birth canal.  With everything being stretched and weak, it was unable to keep the uterus from also being pushed out.

Is any of this making sense?  I wish you could have been here to see her, because it would be a lot easier to show you than to just explain…  But I’ll keep going.

So we saw she was in trouble.  As much as we wished we could just do nothing and it would all go away, we knew it wouldn’t.  In fact this was an emergency situation that needed IMMEDIATE help.  To top it all off, Rancher Sr. was gone to watch Cowboy E at his wrestling tournament with all of the other help.  I was the only help The Rancher had…  And even though I am the best help he has ever had (hehe), this was more than what the two of us could do.

In fact, we wanted some professional help, like a vet.  But vets are busy some days and can’t come.  And a cow in this kind of a condition is not one to load up and take in.  This meant it was up to us to fix it!

Luckily we have a neighbor that was home and able to come help.  And as an added bonus, he had done this a few times so he knew a lot more than what we did.  Phew…

The cow was already down from other birthing complications but we still had to do a sort of nerve block.  This kept her from moving around or twitching her tail at us.  It also worked as a pain block because I don’t know how lovely it would be to have three people pushing your insides back in.

Once we knew she was blocked we elevated her back legs and rear so that gravity could help out.   And it also kept the uterus cleaner since it wasn’t on the ground any longer.

The next step was cleaning her uterus off.  Its only the nice thing to do when you put a uterus back inside.  Don’t worry, we had some heavy duty, yet gentle, disinfectant to do the job.  We didn’t want anything to end up growing in there.  We had to be careful to not get too rough as we worked.  There are several massive raisen looking things lining the uterus called cotyledons (here is a look if you want more of an anatomy lesson).  They are what provide the nutrients to the growing baby.  If one of these is badly cut or torn, the cow could hemorrhage and die.  So we tried to be careful…

That was all the easy part.  With all of the prepping and cleaning we were finally ready to shove (with love) the uterus back in.  Now image a bean bag the size of a large basketball being shoved into a hole the size of a grapefruit but weighs as much as a big bag of sugar.  And add a half a bag more.  That’s what we were doing.  You would think that it would just slip back in… but it doesn’t. 

My job was just to hold the uterus up.  Just to keep it there to make it easier for the other guys to shove in.  And they had the job of shoving, hard enough to gain ground but careful enough to not cause any damage.   Occaisonally we would switch around and I would get shove.  It was tough because as soon and I thought I was gaining ground and would pull my hand back to push again, everything that I had just pushed in with the last push would fall out.  And then sometimes the heifer would push against us (because ouch!) and we would lose more ground.

It took us about 45 minutes of pushing and holding and working to finally get everything back inside.  Ya know, where it belongs… (internal organs never do well outside the body).  Our final step was to sew her up so it wouldn’t all come falling out again.

The Rancher had the honor of doing this.  He had a sergical string that reminded me of a shoelace.  Just remember that we are working on a big cow and she needs more than a few little stitches to keep her insides inside.  Then he took a few hog rings (real technical, I know, but it works awesomely) and clamped them along the edge of the vulva.  He threaded the string through the rings and cinched it up tight like a duffle bag.  This would allow her to still pee and any discharge to go out, but not another prolapse.

With the work done, all that was left was to give her a shot to boost her immune system and let her go.

It seems so easy when I tell it to you, but I was so tired after it all.  Especially my forearms, from holding her heavy, heavy uterus.

It was a learning experience for us, not one that everyone needs to learn.  I highly recommend a vet to be the man in charge on this kind of a project.  Other things I learned that day- 1, how to fix a prolapse (obviously), 2, that a tractor is a great way to elevate a cows backside, and 3, definitely wear work clothes for that kind of a job.  And one other recommendation- make sure that your cow isn’t buy a busy road.  Just think what those travelers were imagining!

Because the pictures are a little graphic and not all of you will want to see it… click “read more” for the photos.

I don’t have any pictures of the shoving part.  My hands were kinda full…  But you can imagine how it must of went going from the last picture to the next picture.  It was almost like magic!

The Rancher’s Wife on Mandy’s Recipe Box

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Mandy's Recipe Box
I’ve really been working hard at this blogging thing lately.  And sometimes it hurts my head.  The people that rock at this are amazing because they are creative thinkers, graphic designers, crafters, researchers, photographers, and awesome multi-taskers because they are mothers and wives too!

One of my very dear friends has an incredible food blog called Mandy’s Recipe Box.  She lives out here in the booneyswith me and is a farmer’s wife herself!  She has been my go to girl to learn some of the ins and outs of the blog-o-sphere. 

She has invited me to her weekly link up parties where tons of bloggers put up some of their favorite posts on her site.  Its a great way to meet other bloggers and share your own content.  Last week one of my posts was featured as a favorite.  Yahoo!

If you get a chance, go check out Mandy and her stellar recipes.  You won’t be sorry! 

Beef Fajitas with The Rancher’s Wife

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As folks that raise beef, we eat beef.  We love beef- every tender, juicy bite of it!

Lately I have been craving fajitas.  Beef with a little Mexican twist is always a favorite for our family.  The Rancher especially loves Mexican food, but it has to be good.  I mean he lived in Mexico for two years (you should ask him about it)so he knows the real stuff!  So when he says I did good, that means I really did good!

I wish I could share our DELISCIOUS fajitas with you, but alas… I can’t.  So how about instead I share the recipe and all the fun I had making them (because it was so fun!).

This might take some room, so click on to read the whole fajita story and recipe!

Lets start with the spices.  I don’t want to say its all in the spices, but it just isn’t quite fajitas with out them!  Get a little bit of onion flakes and paprika.  Add that with some cumin and garlic powder.  Then bring on the hotness with the cayenne pepper, chill powder and the red pepper flakes.  Give it a little salt and sugar and you have a tantalizing concoction that will bring you fajita heavenliness!

With the spices ready to rock and roll, mix in the olive oil.

Pour a little bit more than half of you marinade on the beef.  Slather it around and let it sit (in the refrigerator of course!).  You could just cook it up now but the longer you let it sit, the better the flava!

But this is a good time to get your veggies ready.

Pull out the peppers and onions and get to choppin’.  I go with a variety of colors because it is oh, so pretty!  And the combination of their sweet and spiciness is awesome.

Some days I go with just a straight white onion but today I was feeling the red onion too.

Check out all of that color!  Even the pictures look good enough to eat!

Next step- mix way!  Get that marinade on all those peppers and onions.  Go, go, go!  Some days I even use my hands (shhh, don’t tell!)I even rinse the bowl out a little to get every last bit of it!  Put it in the refrigerator to marinate while we keep going.

When your ready, lets get the steaks cooking.  I wish I had one of those fancy-shmancy grill pans… but I don’t.  So I just pulled out my favorite cast iron skillet.  And if you didn’t want to do that, you could put ’em on the grill outside.  Whatever you do, cook the beef!

But not too long- you want it nice and pink in the middle.  Remember that as hot as it is, it will keep cooking a tiny bit after you pull them off.

Bring out the peppers and onions for some cookin’!  Since I cooked my steaks in the skillet,  I poured my veggies in the same skillet to keep that savory juice left from the meat.

Don’t over cook them, because then you have smushy mess.  We are going for crunchiness!

While their cooking, head back over to the steaks and cut them into thin slices.  Yep… cut, cut, cut!  Can you smell it yet?  Oh, hold on!  You’re almost there!

Once the veggies are awesomely cooked, throw the meat back in the skillet to keep it all nice and hot.  Its a great way to serve it up too!  And not to mention, there is one less dish to do  (I’ll admit that I will avoid one more dish to wash at ALL costs!).

Now we’re ready for the best part- eating them!  Grab your tortillas (extra yummy if they are fried in a little oil) and your favorite fixings!  We go for pico de gallo, mexican cheese (The Rancher LOVES oaxaca cheese!) and a little freshly squeezed lime juice.  How ever you do it, pile ’em high and enjoy!

 

Beef Fajitas

Beef Steak (flank and skirt steak are the most popular, today I used sirloin because that’s what I had!)

1 tsp onion flakes

 

 

 

 

1/2 tsp ground cumin
2-3 Tbsp olive oil
1 red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
1 yellow bell pepper
1 onion (or 1/2 white onion, 1/2 red onion)
Tortillas
Cheese
Pico de Gallo
Limes
Sour cream
… and whatever other favorite fixings you want!
Mix together the chill powder, salt, paprika, sugar, onion flakes, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and cumin.  Add olive oil and stir.  Pour 2/3 of mixture on the beef in a prepared dish.  Coat both sides of steak, then cover and return to the refrigerator to marinate. Slice the peppers and onion and pour the remaining marinade over the veggies, coating well.  Cover and return to the refrigerator to marinate.
Heat a skillet over medium high heat, add some oil and cook steaks 4-5 minutes, turning after 2 minutes (for medium rare).  Remove the steak to the cutting board.  Let the beef cool a few minutes and then cut into thin slices.
Heat the same skillet to medium high heat and add the veggies, cooking only a few minutes.  They should be hot but still crispy.  Turn off heat and add sliced beef to the skillet.
Serve it hot on tortillas with your favorite fixin’s!

I think that we made enough, lets invite a few cowboys over!

 

Calving Down South in Locomotive

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Every operation has its own calving process and the crucial chunk of ours is in the location.  Locomotive is such an ideal place for our cows to calve because it only (ok, usually) gets little bits of snow.  The weather is mild enough that there is still good range feed (aka grass) and warmer temperatures that we don’t have to worry about losing calves to the cold. 

Being that it is out on the range, there are wide open spaces for the herd (channel your inner “Home on the Range” background music!).  They can be spread out to make sure that the right momma and babies get paired up together.  There are times when cows are bunched up too close that they try to claim another calf as their own.  We tag them when we can, but since cows can’t read, it only helps us.  I guess it doesn’t work like in the hospital when the momma and babies have matching bracelets!

Another plus of calving on the range is that it also helps to prevent sickness from spreading through all the calves.  When the calves are so spread out, they have less contact with each other.  When they have less contact, the germs don’t move from calf to calf so much.  Just think of a kindergarten class of kids that are always wiping their runny noses on their neighbor.  This is what we are avoiding!  Young calves have young immune systems.  And although they are building their immunity, especially through momma cow’s milk, we want to lesson their exposure as best we can.

Its a more of a hands off approach.  When I was very first involved in the process I was sure that we weren’t doing enough and we were doomed to fail…  But I was so wrong!  We have incredible calving percentages every year.  These are experienced momma’s that, with the right location, have babies without any problems.  And then once the calves hit the ground, they just get growing!

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t put ‘hem out on the range and forget about them.  We (read The Rancher and Rancher Sr.) ride through them nearly every day on the off-chance that there is something going hay-wire.  But we certainly don’t wear ourselves out as if we calved all 600+ at home!

Roundup of Other Ranches: Calving in Cold Weather

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We have had such a mild winter which is AWESOME for calving.  But that hasn’t been the case for everyone. 

My old neighbors in Montana have really been having a hard time this last weekend.  My dad was saying its the worst calving season they have had in 25 years.  A town nearby was dealing with a wind chill of -68 degrees at night.  That’s beyond brrr!  That’s cold enough to freeze a baby’s nose even before he has been born.  Not being able to keep all the babies and mommas out of the cold is like throwing money in the wind.

But my Montana friends aren’t the only ones dealing with the cold.  Its a normal part of winter calving.  Over the years we have all found things that help on those cold nights.  We have our go to hot boxes or shelf ready ear warmers. We’ve learned when we need to bring a calf in or when to leave it with momma.

But don’t just take my word for it.  Here are a few other ranchers that have been out fighting the cold.

 
1. Calving in the Cold on PincherCreekVoice.com
 
2. Baby Calves Will be Here Soon on KansasCattleRanch.blogspot.com
 
3. Ranch Snow Day: Calving Heifers on AgricultureProud.com
 
4. Calving Shed on BeefMatters.org
 
5. No Maternal Instinct on JustARanchWife.com
 
6. Warming Baby Calves on TalesOfAKansasFarmMom.blogspot.com

Suckling a Baby Calf

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A rancher takes on a lot of jobs on the ranch.  That includes being the on-call lactation consultant. 

There are a handful or reasons that calf has a hard time nursing.  Some problems come from the cow not realizing that they have a calf to care for (you would think with all of the work they did to get that baby here they would stick around for the rest!).  Others times momma just doesn’t want to let the calf suck and pushes him away (or kick and head butt).

But sometimes its the calf that is having issues.  It could be because he doesn’t have the energy to do it.  And then there are times the calf just doesn’t know what to do or where to go to get the milk.

This is when The Rancher comes to save the day!

Once again we head to the maternity pens and get the cow settled since she might be there for a bit.  Our approach to help the calf depends on who’s the weak link (obviously).  Just getting momma and baby in the pen together could be enough.  But when its not we will put the cow in the head catch and hobble her legs to make it easy for the calf to nurse (without the hard love kicks).

If it is the calf not knowing how or not having the energy to nurse it means that there is a little more work for The Rancher.  A good place to start is just pointing baby is the right direction and squirting a little milk in his mouth.  If he doesn’t take the cue to start nursing… then we just keep trying. 

One of The Rancher’s go-to strategies is to start the baby sucking on one of his fingers.  Once the calf is sucking hard, he will slip in the cow’s teet.  If he keeps sucking, we are good to go.  But sometimes baby just doesn’t get it.  And as the last resort we just milk the momma, bottle feed the baby and leave them in the maternity stall.  There are times that doing less and giving them space is all they need.  

Who new that The Rancher could be such a terrific lactation consultant?!

10 Lessons I Have Learned as a Rancher’s Wife

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There are a lot of things that I have learned while I have been a rancher’s wife.  Some have been from my own experiences and some have been from fellow ranch wives.  I guess the most important thing I have learned is to just live it and love it!  Here are a few other tips I have figured out along the way…

1.  You must always consult the cowboys when you are picking your due date (like you can really decide what day you are going to give birth, right?!).  You should never have babies during calving, branding, spring turnout, haying, fall gather, weaning, or preg checking seasons.

2.  Once you do find an acceptable time to have a baby (or you have come to some compromise to manage having a baby in the midst of the chaos) expect to hear 9 months’ worth of cow pregnancy related jokes.  I wish I had a buck for every time I heard The Rancher tell me he was bringing the chains, just in case.

3.  Cowboys work much better on full bellies.  It is in your own best interest to learn how to feed the masses.  It should include meat and potatoes.  Always.

4.  There are days that The Rancher has to leave the ranch for some project, but is absolutely sure that he will be back in time for lunch.  I still send him with the lunchbox.  Fate has it that when I DO send a lunch they will be home on time for lunch.  But when I don’t, everything goes wrong and it turns out to be a long and hungry day.

5.  During the busy season (which could be ANY day), your Friday night date might just be a tractor ride or a ride through the cows.  And he does appreciate that you are there for more than getting the gate for him.

6.  Never do something once that you don’t want to be asked to do again.  That advice was given by my mother and mother-in-law- one that didn’t want to be the one to milk the cow (even though she grew up on a dairy) and one that didn’t want run the swather.  Both brilliant women!
7.  When you go out with the cowboys, be sure to load your horse in the trailer last.  That means you will unload first, giving you enough time to be on and ready so that you don’t get left behind.
8.  If ever you get yelled at while you are out helping, it is a sign of real love, not the lack of.  He is yelling at you to save your life, so don’t take the time to make him say it in a nicer or way or to say please.   Just do what he says.


9.  The faithful ranch dog is more than just a dog, and therefore is entitled to privileges, including riding in your car, coming in your house (both happen no matter what condition he is in), and having a place to sit with the rest of the family on the already squished 4-wheeler.  And just face the fact that he will be in at least one family picture (you just don’t have to put that up one on the wall).

10.  Always keep one cowboy around the ranch because destiny will have it that when your best helper is 3, the cows, horses, bulls, or chickens will get out.  It’s likely that with them all being gone they have taken all of the 4-wheelers too and all you have left to chase them in with is the riding lawn mower.

BONUS(because I love you!)
Remember that a rancher is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ALL year.  That includes nights, because that’s when you get a call from the state police that you have cows on the freeway.  Or the boss calls for help because the calves are on their way into town at midnight.  It also includes Sundays (the one day a week you try to slow down), because it seems that the range water always goes out just after church.  It includes special days, like when you have just had a new baby.  Sometimes the boss calls to haul spuds that day.  And it certainly includes the days and nights of freezing temperatures when the rest of the world heads in.  Just be sure to be ready with something hot for when they come back to the house!

There are so many more I could share, and I will someday.  Life is never dull as a rancher’s wife.  It’s our job to just take what comes our way and work with it.  I love the lessons I learn from being The Rancher’s Wife!
 

About Me

Hello! I'm Allison, The Rancher's Wife! There's nothing I love more than being out on the ranch with my husband and kids. Join me for a look at what goes on here at the ranch and the life being a rancher's wife!

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