Allison - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Fruits of Our Christmas Tree Hunt

December 15, 2013 by Allison

Every hunt has its tale, which I have already shared as I began Norma’s Story. But what I didn’t share are the photos from our tree hunt. Pictures of The Rancher’s Sidekick and his grandpa cutting down a tree together (same tree, just 3 feet apart, and one using a saw and the other a small branch…) are just too fun not to share!

This year we had an extra treat. When we began to load up in the trucks, a herd (hazards of being The Rancher’s Wife- everything comes in herds…) of turkeys came gobbling through. The Rancher’s Sidekick jumped at the chance to feed them.

Norma’s Story: The Prologue

December 15, 2013 by Allison

The Holidays are filled with traditions, especially family traditions. It’s those little things that make the season more than a generic celebration, but rather a time to cherish.

Nearly 10 years ago my parents began a tradition that, at the time, didn’t seem to be much more than what it appeared to be on the surface. But over time it has become one of those special things we love and cherish. Without it, our Christmas season isn’t quite the same.

Ours is a Black Friday tradition, but not like you might imagine. We do come home exhausted from our hunt, but not a hunt for gifts… but for Christmas trees!

Ya, it’s not wild crazy tradition. In fact, lots of families do it. For the most part it would be an ordinary go-get-your-tree adventure. We gear up in our snow clothes (which get shed halfway up the mountain because we are so stinking hot from the hike) and search for that perfect tree. In our circumstance, we look for 7 Christmas trees, or close to that number. One for us, one for mom and dad, one for this brother and that brother… one for The Rancher’s Sidekick’s room even. In fact these trees end up all over the country, shipped in mineral feed sacks making the trip quite nice.

So you get the idea… we get Christmas trees, one for everybody and their cowdog.

What makes this so special is who we get our trees from.

We find our trees from Norma… Sweet Norma. At first we started to go to her mountain ranch because she has such beautiful trees, but now we go to be with her. Sweet Norma is one of those women that just eeks love.

Our adventure with Sweet Norma is predictable and generally goes something like this. We get out of the truck ready to be on the receiving end of the tightest, most loving hug, followed a good look up and down to see how we are. After the hugs go around we load back into the trucks and she directs us to the best spot to find that special tree. Once there she starts the trek up the mountainside, leading the way but slowly makes her way to the back to ensure that everyone is doing fine and visiting all along the way.

Oh, by the way, did I mention that she is in her mid-eighties?

Can you believe that this woman, that has every right to just point to the mountain and say, “Have at it,” walks us around as we indecisively choose our trees, never thinking of herself. Instead of being frustrated with us taking up her day or wasting her energies to show us around her ranch, she is tickled to spend even the smallest minute with us.

So we choose our trees, snap a picture or two for momma’s sake, and we make our way back to the ranch yard. Now that you are beginning to understand Sweet Norma you might guess that she won’t just let us drop her off and leave. Your right. She won’t let us leave without first coming in for a hot cup of hot cocoa. We’ll sip our drinks and visit for a bit until we need to hit the road. Sweet Norma walks us out and giving us all a tight, parting hug and kiss.

As far as the eye can see we leave with just a load of Christmas trees, but we leave with so much more than that. Sweet Norma fills our souls with humble, unbiased country love.

There’s a lot we can learn from a woman like her. This is the beginning of Norma’s Story.

The Stream of Life

December 13, 2013 by Allison

Holbrook is in the deseret… really. Its dry and every time the wind blow our mountains and hills change. It is so different from the river plain that I grew up in. The ranch we had was crossed with little rivers and streams- some to play in and some to fish in and all to make it so beautiful.

There are a few little streams in our valley and they all are their own sort of beautiful. When The Rancher was building his fence they were right by a little creek that feeds out of the reservoir. They had to cross it twice so I don’t think they were in a mood to admire it, but I sure was! And now during the winter it really has its own kind of pretty with the dry cattails and crusted wheat, the bits of snow and ice, and the slow moving water. It just nourishes my soul.

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

December 10, 2013 by Allison

A fellow rancher from the Curlew Valley decided that it was finally time redo the fence that we share. For some time they have had trouble with his cows sneaking in with ours and I think he got tired of us calling him to take them back to his side. So on one a cool November day they loaded up their hammers and nails and got to work.

Fencing isn’t my favorite chore- I’m sure it was the hot summers. But The Rancher likes it. Its one of things that you can really do well. There’s not anything much prettier than a new, tight, straight fence.

After building so many fences it is second nature to these cowboys. Without talking they know how far apart to space out the posts, where to put in a brace and all the parts and pieces to make it work. They get right to it and go until the work is done … or dark.

There was more fence to build than daylight this time, so they went back out to finish the work just last week. I don’t have any pictures of them working that day because it was cold and snowy. My warm slippers begged me to stay home!

Back to Sun Valley

December 9, 2013 by Allison

In October I posted about my spontaneous participation in the district Farm Bureau discussion meet. This last week was the state discussion meet in Sun Valley so The Rancher and I took off a few days to play with other Young Farmer & Ranchers.

The closer we drove to Sun Valley the more exciting this got for me. I’m passionate about ranching. I’m passionate about having a family ranch. I’m really passionate about sharing our family ranching story. Ya, you know that already… Any way, this discussion meet was right up my ally- an opportunity to talk about issues we face in our agriculture community.

The meet went really well, in fact I had several of the judges and folks from the audience tell me how well I did or that they liked my style. After the high I was on last year I am already to do it again!

These are the questions we discussed. I would love to hear if you have any thoughts on them!

1. How should Farm Bureau engage farmer/rancher members, representing all types and kinds of operations (i.e. conventional, organic, large, small and niche markets), to work together to better promote a more positive image of agriculture?

2. How do we encourage young farmers and ranchers to continue to be involved in Farm Bureau? How can young producers lead even if they don’t hold elected positions on boards?

3. What are the best practices for youth working on farms and ranches to ensure their safety and provide them learning opportunities in the area of agriculture production?

4. US agriculture is one of the major industries for the American economy. What can farmers do to stimulate more economic growth?

5. How can Young Farmers & Ranchers work with elected and appointed officials to eliminate unnecessary or excessive regulations placed upon agriculture while ensuring that new regulations are justified based on their costs and anticipated benefits?

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

December 7, 2013 by Allison

My holiday spirit has taken over my rancher’s wife spirit because I am praying for snow. You might wonder what- wanting snow has go do with being a good ranch wife… so I’ll tell you.

Actually its rather simple- when it snows it covers the feed. If the animals can’t find feed they get hungry. Therefore, we have to start feeding hay, something The Rancher really doesn’t like to do.

So I’m being a little naughty and hoping for more snow. Let the winter fun begin!

Cowboy Calendar

December 5, 2013 by Allison

I think that I have gotten myself way in over my head, but let’s face it… that’s how I roll. I just jump in and go with my motto “Fake it ’til you make it!” My latest jump is to make a calendar using my Rancher’s Wife photos.

Every year I look for a calendar that is more than a fat advertisement. I want something worth hanging on my wall. With so many fun pictures about the ranch I figured I ought to make one myself. So I did. And I think it turned out pretty good. Here are a few pictures and if you want to see more, check this out. If it fancies you, let me know and I can send one your way. I don’t know cost yet but I’m going for not very much.

Lessons Learned From Ranching

December 5, 2013 by Allison

My parents always said that raising a family on a ranch made it easy to teach life lessons. There were lessons of hard work, responsibility and then the fruit of ones labors. Of course it also made it easy to talk about the birds and the bees.

But not all of the lessons to learn from the ranch are easy. For the first time I was on the mom end of one of those hard lessons. My son’s puppy was ran over and it was my unfortunate opportunity to tell him and explain that he wouldn’t be coming home. It took a while to set in and when it did he would tell me that he didn’t want him dead or that now he needed a new puppy.

It’s been a lesson for me to learn as much as The Rancher’s Sidekick. It was so hard for me that they won’t be able play together. It was hard that he didn’t understand. And of course we all struggled with the loss of a little friend.

Happy Thanksgiving From The Rancher’s Wife

November 29, 2013 by Allison

This really is one of my favorite times of year. I’m not entirely sure why but there is something about the chill in the air, the anticipation of this holiday season and celebrating with friends and family. It comes after the push of the fall work- weaning, sorting, hauling, selling, vaccinating, preg checking… (did I miss anything?!). There is also the farming to do and some fencing and then the winter prep. But all of this is coming as a result of a good calf crop and a blessed harvest.

Isn’t it wonderful how inspired the first Thanksgiving-ers (I made that up) were to set a day aside to give thanks for their blessings after the harvest season. Actually that really is how the story goes; the pilgrims had been devastated with sickness and starvation as they reached America. They may not have made it had a few Native Americans put aside any differences and taught them skills to survive the new land. It was after their first corn harvest that their leader declared that they all share in a celebration of fasting and thanksgiving.

There have been other distinguishable times in our country’s history that leaders proclaimed it a time of fasting and thanksgiving, primarily after or in the midst of great trials. In fact it was during the Civil War that President Lincoln officially declared Thanksgiving a national holiday.

I love looking into the history of this holiday, to see what was intended for this holiday. It was quite religious, so much so that they fasted rather than feasted. I hope that I, personally, haven’t strayed from its heritage. No, I didn’t fast but I hope that my thanksgiving was honorable. Of course we are able to add our own traditions to help it be more meaningful for each of us, but are we still celebrating and cherishing our blessings as we should?

So after another great year of blessings, a healthy family, a good harvest, and a home full of love and happiness, I want to give thanks to family, to the legacy we live, and mostly to a loving Father in Heaven.

Done With the Preg Checking

November 27, 2013 by Allison

I wish I had a dollar for every time The Rancher says, “Well everything is done for a while until we have to do the ______.” Like he says that we are done moving cows except for the bunch that needs moving in a week. Or the bailing is done, but there is the field that was just cut that will need bailed in a few days. I appreciate that he is trying to make me feel good that things are slowing down but I have learned better.

Lately we have heard the preg checking is done. Yes, for the forest cows. But then there was the weekend of preg checking the BLM cows. And then the strays that come in need checked. And the other bunch of strays. And the other other bunch. And now it was time the first calf heifers that had been out to pasture near Blackfoot for the fall.

The Rancher called me in one fine afternoon, asking for some help to get the heifers pregged up that night because the weatherman was calling for snow. For some reason they didn’t want to work cows in the yucky cold and wind. I always come running when The Rancher asks for help, mostly because I don’t want him to think he can do anything with out me (ok really I just love to help and I don’t want him to stop asking). Usually I end up giving shots at the front but this time I got to run the back. And I did a great job, if I do say so myself. It didn’t leave much time for pictures but I snapped a few before the night was over.

I think that we are really done with the preg checking. Unless some other ornery cows come from who knows where… But until then, we are done!

With the time change dusk came upon us and the moon lit the way. I zoomed in to get a picture and this is what we got. It wasn’t really this dark, but it turned out kinda fun.