Allison - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Calves Have Shipped- RELIEF

November 8, 2017 by Allison

Guess what, Friends? The calves are SHIPPED! You can’t deny that THAT day is one, if not the very best days on the ranch. The year’s work has finally paid off and you can see the results of your labors. You don’t have the stressful responsibility of keeping the calves healthy and alive. Things just turn calm and slow and I love it!

You would think that the slow down and relief would be mostly for The Rancher, but I too am relieved for when the calves on are gone.

I’ll you why…

Because without fail, EVERY year, there are calves out. And not only are they getting out, but they get out when there are no ranchers around to put them back in. We have been back to the ranch several years now and I don’t think that there is a single weaning season that we have gone through without a few calves sneaking out.

In some regards, I’ll take any chance to earn some Rancher’s Wife Stripes and have The Rancher owe me for dropping everything and helping out. But dropping everything just isn’t a convenient thing when you are a busy mom. Plus, the stress of putting the calf in the wrong place or just NOT getting a calf in at all makes me wonder if the Rancher’s Wife Stripes are even worth it!

This year was no different, of course. You would think that I would have learned by now to not schedule anything on the days that the guys are gone. That way I would be ready for the break out and have the time to put the sneaky buggers back in. But I haven’t.

Just a few weeks ago, I had a project that needed done and I had a tiny window of time between getting kids’ homework done and getting dinner going. I’m outside, minding my own business, trying to keep The Cowboy Kid off of the busy road in front of our house, and getting some work done when I see a handful of calves walking through my garden! Lucky for them, I had pulled everything out of there that I was planning to use. If the peas had still been growing, those calves would have been in big trouble…

So I scoop up my baby and we start them back to the pasture. The trouble with putting calves back in, especially around the ranch yard is that you never know where they are going to go and what is going to pop and get them. We have chased in circles around the homes or through the equipment sheds. The dogs have come to help only to chase them in the wrong direction. This time they actually head back to the field ok, but just as we were getting to the gate, the chickens jumped out.

This presented a problem in a couple of ways. One, it meant that the chickens were out, probably my least favorite critter to get back in. Second, it sent my already flighty and skiddish calves busting through the gate. They were hung up on it and in it and scurrying around it and I was sure we were going to have a wreck. When all was said and done, the gate was the only one worse for wear. There is a big ol’ bow in it and it doesn’t swing exactly right…. But The Rancher can deal with that. I did put his calves in, after all.

2017 Calf Crop from The Idaho Ranchers Wife

2017 Calf Crop from The Idaho Rancher's Wife

2017 Calf Crop from The Idaho Ranchers Wife

That wasn’t the only day that the calves put a kink in my day. The week before we shipped calves was pretty packed for me. Which means that nearly every moment is scheduled and that I only have spare minutes to clean up the baby’s spilled milk, not put The Rancher’s calves away.

That day I had planned to get yard work done- the lawn mowed and leaves cleaned up, the flower beds cleaned up and bulbs planted. I’m cruising around the yard, thinking I was totally on top of the day, when I spot a calf out across the road. Then another. And then a whole pile of others… I’m pretty sure I rolled my eyes and cursed The Rancher under my breath but I parked my mower and jumped on the 4 wheeler to get the calves. I was pleasantly surprised to see that it only took a couple of minutes to get them back in. No catastrophes! I closed the gate and headed back to work. It wasn’t but a few minutes when I saw another handful of calves. I went through the same routine of rolling my eyes, really cursing The Rancher, getting the calves in, and heading back to work. Even before I got back on the mower, I could see a few more calves out and I knew that wherever they were crawling out from wouldn’t wait until the guys were home to fix it.

Being the great ranch wife that I am (HA!) and for my own sanities sake, I headed to the shop for tools, wire, and staples. After driving the fence the kids and I found a calf sized hole that the escapees had been breaching all morning and got to work. I would love to say that I just snapped out a beautifully fixed fence but that wasn’t the case. When the calves had broken the fence, they had broken a pole and loosened the wires. I’m sure The Rancher would have just replaced the pole altogether, but that was beyond what I was willing to do. A little patch job was going to have to be good enough. After about 5 trips of getting the right stuff, we had finally finished our crude attempt at fixing the fence. I knew it would hold but it certainly wasn’t the prettiest job… But it was done and the calves were in.

At least until my next busy day!

You can see how I am just as relieved as the guys that the calves are gone! Maybe this momma can get a little bit of work done around here… Probably not, but we are gonna give it a try!

He’s got this supervising thing down- sitting down on the job with a cinnamon roll in hand!

The last bunch headed to load in the semi!

If this picture had sound, you would here a lot of “HUP! HUP! HUP!” from this little cowboy!

5 semi’s loaded down with steers and heifers headed to their knew home.

The Reality Is…

November 2, 2017 by Allison

… Its November…

GASP!!

I can’t believe that not only is summer gone, like LONG GONE, but Fall is on its way out. And so much has happened in that time. The good news is, I FINALLY (mostly, or almost mostly) have the new look for the blog up and running. The reality is that I am NOT web designer and so what I thought would be a quick and easy change was anything but… There is still a handful of surprises I have up my sleeve but I have enough done that I might sleep at night and NOT stress over it all.

I don’t have the time or the head space to give you a complete update on everything that has happened between now and then. But here is the highlights reel of the summer.

The kids and I made a trip to Montana- a much needed break and chance for renewal before a long and crazy summer. The highlight of that week had to be the basketball camp that The Rancher’s Sidekick got to be a part of. I have to admit that I was swelling with pride because I went to that same camp since I was a girl in second grade and it was my high school basketball coach that put on the camp!

My Montana skies!

Between The Rancher and I, we had FIVE different family reunions scheduled throughout the summer. No, we didn’t make them all, and that’s ok. We still had lots of time to reconnect with family, especially those that we don’t have the opportunity to see often. Highlights included fishing, water slides, bon fires (and consequently FIRE TREATS!), and late night games. Low-lights include being stuck at the mechanics for SEVEN hours, stomach bug while camping, and never enough time for it all.

My sister planned an EPIC road trip for herself and I was privileged enough to kick it off with her. The Cowboy Kid (my littlest) and I braved a plane to California, two full days of driving to Arizona (where we surprised our brother) and a flight back home in just a few days. Once again never enough time, but still so much fun. I have a whole new appreciation of how much I love where we live. One, because it isn’t swarming with people and two, because it isn’t a desolate, dreary, bleak, sterile desert. I mean, we live in a desert, but at least we have cedar trees and sage brush growing!

Road trippin’… (we really had fun despite these crazy faces!)

Even though it was summer, there was so much work to be done on the ranch. We rolled from crazy winter to busy calving to hectic branding to a quick turnout to rushed spring field work. This was our first spring with the new pivots (Christmas in May!!) and there was a heavy learning curve and lots of kinks to work out. I wish I could have had a dollar for every time The Rancher said, “We shouldn’t have to touch the cows until…” or “The field work should be down now…” because I swear Karma would kick in and we would inevitably have something come up that we STILL didn’t have a chance to catch our breath. Maybe we will after the calves are all gone? The reality is, catching our breath is pretty unlikely because we just don’t know how to slow down!

Getting the pivots up and running

A little spring farming!

Out on the range to check water with The Rancher

Of course we had our hands full of rodeos and roping all along the summer. The Rancher’s Sidekick even took a chance to ride into the arena and do a little sorting like the big boys. I don’t know how well he did, but it didn’t matter when you saw the smile he had on his face. All I could do was pray that he didn’t fall off and all he could do was beam with pride!

No summer would be complete without a little fire action. Unfortunately a lot of the action we had was on our private and BLM rangeland in Locomotive. And of course Mother Nature has no regard to Holidays or family time so Fourth of July fireworks had a whole new meaning and the dust was a little thicker with smoke at the Annual Stone Rodeo.

When we actually managed to be home and NOT working, we poured sidewalks and laid sod! I had been saving my pennies for a good long time and it was all worth it to a new sprinkler system, established grass and sidewalks instead of mud! It might actually be worth dusting now that we don’t live in a giant dirt bowl… HA! The reality is that even though I don’t have as much dust, I still don’t have any more time to clean!

The summer closed out with fairs, concerts (can you say bucket list!) and a wedding (Cowboy Pete tied the knot! More on that later, for sure!!)! Being on the County Fair Board is exhausting but always worthwhile. From ropings to horse races to hog washes, we did it all! Probably one of the highlights of my summer and the best way to end it was to go to a Home Free concert! The music was awesome, my date was the best and having a TERRIFIC babysitter was the icing on the cake!

Home Free date night!

We are full swing into school and fall work and back into some sort of routine. We eat, sleep, work, play and pray. The reality is, I don’t ever feel caught up and I never feel like I am doing good enough at any of it. But as a good friend recently told me, we are too blessed to be stressed.

Until next time, Friends!

Changes Going on Over Here

June 5, 2017 by Allison

I love blogging. I LOVE it! And I also hate it… Because as much as I love writing and telling stories and my photography… I hate sitting at the computer. And it is always pulling my chain. The days between posts can slip by so fast and then I feel guilty and terrible and frustrated at not being consistent and organized enough to keep things going.

But I keep doing it because I LOVE IT!

We have had this conversation before…

Usually my absence on here is due to the busy rancher’s-wife-and-little-cowboy-momma life I lead but for the next few weeks you won’t here from me for a good reason instead of my slacking.

Are you confused? Or maybe just wondering what the heck I am talking about… I’ll tell you what I’m talking about. For the last several months I’ve had big plans in the works. Actually I have been dreaming of big things for even longer and now I am pulling the trigger.

I am giving my blog a facelift! Its not that I don’t love how things look now, its just that I want to add more. I want to incorporate so much more for you and for me. Knowing me, it is actually going to go quite slow to get everything where and how I want it. But in the next few weeks you will see the beginning and I’m so excited for it.

So… you won’t hear from me for a few weeks and even though that isn’t uncommon for me, it is on purpose!

The Curlew Cattle Association: A History of Belonging

June 3, 2017 by Allison

A few months ago I was asked to write a story for the Line Rider, a magazine published by the Idaho Cattle Association. The story they asked me to write was a little closer to home than most of my other stories. They asked me to write about our history with the association we run our cattle in. Since it wasn’t my family that I was writing about but rather my husband’s, I had to do a little research. It was interesting and exciting and inspiring. It ended up becoming somewhat special to me that I could write about my husband’s family and share their story. And I wasn’t the only one that felt this way.

Over the last few months, I have had several of the cowboys and ranchers that we work with mention the story. I’m not sure why, but I was really surprised with how much they all loved it! Maybe I’m still a little surprised when people (besides my momma and my husband… they are obligated to cheer for me) think that what I write is something worth reading.

Because of all their applause, I thought I would share it with you!

Ranching can be a tough and demanding lifestyle but with people working around us facing the same challenges and striving for the same goals, we find a collective strength. In fact, it is through the practice of leaning on each other that several ranches in the Curlew Valley have found success amidst the struggles of ranching on the range. Their association of working together began as their ranches were founded. It was long ago that August Eliason learned that the demands of range were easier to manage has he harnessed his efforts with those around him and still to this day, his descendents continue to follow his practices of working together.

August Eliason came to America from Sweden with his family as a young boy at the age of 9. At the age of 14, he decided to go out on his and found a job working for the Bar M Ranch, hiring on as the ranch foreman.

The Bar M Ranch began after the construction of the trans-continental railroad through Utah. A wealthy railroad baron from San Francisco had seen the boom of cattle empires in the west and he wanted part of it. He saw an opportunity to buy up the available land left from building the railroad and purchased the land from Connor Springs to Kelton, Utah, approximately 365,000 acres. Soon after, they bought their first 2,500 cows and they were in the cattle business. They continued to acquire land and cattle as they bought out other operations, bringing their numbers up to a herd of 45,000 cows running throughout northern Utah and southern Idaho. Unfortunately, the owner of the ranch and his managers had no experience managing a cattle herd. Their lack of knowledge ultimately set the ranch for failure.

As the foreman of the ranch, August was responsible for grazing the cattle throughout the Curlew Valley. Through managing so many cattle over so many miles, August developed a great talent for overseeing the cattle and land. The cattle grazed the range for feed year round, often overgrazing it. The operation never purchased or put up any additional hay, and the cattle were left to forage on what little feed was available during the winter months. This mismanagement proved detrimental for the ranch.

In 1888, the blizzard of a lifetime came through. Heavy snowfall and extreme winds caused the cattle to stray as they followed their instincts and walked with the wind in attempts to stay warm. With nothing to stop the wandering Bar M cattle, they walked for miles and miles. With such terrible storms, August and the other cow hands knew there was nothing they could do. They knew they would never survive searching for the cattle in the storm over the snow covered range. All they could do was wait and see what the outcome of the storm would bring.

Eventually they found that from the combination of exhaustion from the walking and the lack of feed because it was buried beneath the snow, the majority of the cattle had died. Accounts recall that there were so many dead cattle across the land that you could walk for miles stepping only from one cow to the next. When spring came, they found 35,000 dead cattle wearing the Bar M brand. The numbers of surviving cattle are somewhat unknown, anywhere from 10,000 to only 800.

The Bar M Ranch never recouped from the devastating winter and was disbanded shortly after. The cowboys were left to fend for themselves. But what was the end of the Bar M Ranch was the beginning of several grazing organizations in the area, such as the Curlew Valley Horse and Cattle Association and the Black Pine grazing group.

It was rumored that August and his two brothers-in-law, Andrew Anderson and Ed Showell, gathered up any unclaimed and unbranded cattle to start up their own herds. They continued to winter the cattle in Locomotive and graze north through the Curlew Valley, similar to how the Bar M Ranch managed their cattle. It was hard work but with their experience on the range, their desire to succeed and their strength by working together, they facilitated their own beginning.

At the time, ranches from all over northern Utah and southern Idaho would turn their cattle out on the public rangeland. There were no boundaries, no regulations and no expectations grazing on the open range. All the animals roamed free, fending for themselves where ever it may be. Because of the water and good feed, most cattle would migrate south to Locomotive Springs. At the end of the grazing season, everyone would work together to gather in the cattle to sort and take to their home ranches.

In addition to running on the public lands, August and the others also homesteaded land in Idaho. They were successful on their homestead land in Stone, Idaho on what was called the North String. There he set up headquarters for his ranch and his family. August had 6 children, including his two sons, Bert and Chester, who took over the ranch at his untimely death when they were teenage boys.

Even though they were young, the boys were able to successfully run the operation for their mother with the help of their uncles, Andrew and Ed, keeping both the ranch and the family alive. The time came that they decided to buy the ranch and their partnership began. It took time, but they were able to add cattle to their herd and land to their operation.

The Curlew ranchers recognized what an asset Locomotive was for cattle, although most of the area was deeded up to homesteads. But over time, the flies and sickness of the wetlands caused most homesteaders to sell out, an opportunity Bert, Chester, Andrew, and Ed jumped on. In addition to wintering the cattle in Locomotive, they decided to hay the land as well. Once a year, they worked together to carry out the very labor intensive job of mowing, raking, pitching and stacking the hay.

Over the next several years, many things would happen that would bring more organization and need for the association. In 1934, the Taylor Grazing Act was set in place to regulate the use of public lands. Throughout the country, drought and poor management of the land had caused severe losses that devastated the farming and ranching industry. In Idaho and Utah, cattle and sheep ranchers would graze an unrestricted number of animals that overwhelmed the rangeland. With the Grazing Act, those ranches already running animals had to apply for permits. With the homestead land in Stone and Locomotive, the men were granted permits to continue running their cattle on the public lands of Black Pine of Idaho and Wild Cat/Cedar Hill of Utah.

Every season had its challenges, but Bert and Chester managed to find success. A large part of their success was working hard, but an even larger part was working smart. With their operation being divided over so much land, it required a lot of time and labor to manage it all. The men would spend days on the range haying and moving or tending cattle. By working together, it made it easier to ensure that everything was be done and looked after, without having to hire additional men.

Shortly after the depression Chester had the chance of a lifetime. Dave Dilly was ready to sell the piece of land that Chester had wanted all of his life- the Rockhouse Ranch, famously named for the house made of rocks that provided protection from the Indians in the 1860s and later used as northern headquarters of the old Bar M Ranch. Living just a few miles away in Stone had given him plenty of opportunities to see its potential.

Dave Dilly, Chester’s uncle, first offered the Rockhouse Ranch to Bert but with Bert declining the piece, it was Chester’s for the taking. He sold his home, land, and half of the company property to Bert and moved his family and his half of the cattle 14 miles north to their new ranch in Holbrook, Idaho. Starting his own operation had been a longtime dream and he was excited for the opportunity. He continued to run things alongside the others in Stone and to run his cattle on his portion of the rangeland permits.

Running separate, but parallel operations was very profitable for the two brothers. They were both able to grow their operations and later pass them on to their own families. Bert had two sons, De and Bert Jr., which in the end inherited his cattle and land. De stayed on the homestead in Stone while Bert Jr. began a new operation in Snowville, Utah. With his portion of the permits he continued to work alongside his brother, until De sold his operation. Bert Jr. ‘s operation, known now as the Eliason Ranch, was owned by his son Dave Eliason, who just recently turned things over to the next generation- his son, Shane.

Dave enjoys the same benefits of running cattle in the association that his grandpa did. Dave says, “The greatest benefit is that we can share the labor without having to hire extra men. We all have large enough herds that we couldn’t do it alone.”

The Rockhouse Ranch, now known as Eliason Livestock, is managed by Ken Eliason, the third generation to run cattle in Holbrook. His father, Don, was just a boy when Chester began ranching in Holbrook. In his time, he watched the ranch develop from a small operation to a thriving family business. With the goal in mind of keeping it a thriving family business, Ken’s oldest son, Brayden has returned to eventually take over the ranch someday.

While time and innovation has changed how things are run from day to day, Ken and Dave still employ the same operational practices that the original Curlew cowboys did. They still winter the cattle in Locomotive with the Anderson and Showell operations. They work together to wean, brand, move cattle, preg check cows, and check water.

Working together with so many different operations can be challenging but these men have made it work. While they have seen similar groups fall apart by disagreements, they have found a way to keep things beneficial to all. Ken says that the best thing about the association, and how they have continued working together for so long is because of the trust. “You know that you can trust that they will be there to get the work done and that they will do a good job. You can trust that they have your back.”

Running together in the association has proved to be a successful practice for everyone in the Curlew Valley. They enjoy the same benefits that the old cowboys did- the autonomy to run their operations but still have the man power to get the work done. But the benefits go beyond the obvious. Each man in the association a niche- his strengths that the whole group can rely on. It may be the equipment and skills that he has or the “in” for a good deal on salt block. Some have their finger on the pulse of what is happening in the cattle industry across the country and some have the relationships and contacts for more support and information.

Helen Keller once said, “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” The ranchers of the Curlew Valley have been the embodiment of that phrase for so many years. Alone, one ranch could never have accomplished what has been done. They would have succumbed to the hard reality of homesteading and the fatigue of the rough range. But together they have advanced the industry, produced cattle, improved the land, raised families and strengthened communities. With the help and support of one another they will continue to do so much.

Following the Roads Across the Range

May 26, 2017 by Allison

90% of the time I head out on the range to brand, I drive out myself after the crew of cowboys has left. I don’t believe in waking babies if I can help it. Well rested babies are happy babies and happy babies make for happy mommas. And everyone knows that if momma aint happy, nobody is happy. So to make this momma happy, we go branding but AFTER the babies wake up. You get it…

But as I was saying, I get the privilege of finding my way all on my own. I get to follow the over simplified yet confusing directions to try and find hundreds of cows corralled in the some remote area of the range. I’m actually getting pretty good at finding my way around, but that is only from trial and error from the last few years.

Sometimes I think that my husband forgets that my knowledge of the area (read hundreds of miles and thousands of acres) isn’t the same as his. He tells me directions that would be totally relevant to someone that has lived here for decades and knows everyone. Like when he tells me to turn left at the Taylor Lane. Of course there is no road officially named Taylor Lane but there is a road that Charlie Taylor has property along so of course, that is Taylor Lane. Too bad I didn’t know that. Fortunately, The Rancher told me that across from the road are several, very large hay sheds. Unfortunately, there are hay sheds all along the road like that. I could go on, but I think you get the point.

I swear that some of the roads that I get to drive across the range aren’t “roads” at all but are more like goat trails. They are rough and bumpy and winding and seem to take you nowhere. Eventually you see the cloud of dust from the cows after you have bruised your sacrum from bouncing along the goat trail and you let out a partial sigh of relief. I say only partial because you still have to finish driving the nearly debilitating road to get where you are going and if you breathe too deeply, you feel it in your sacrum…

If the roads aren’t yucky and bumpy, they are probably washed out with craters that are waiting to take out the underside of your truck. Or they are slick and muddy with a special kind of gooey stickiness that has the potential of stopping you in your tracks. I once was explicitly following The Rancher’s instructions that nearly stranded me in the middle of the range’s biggest mud pit. He had forgotten that there was a small road that followed the fence line before his road that followed the fence so when he said take the first road to the right just after the fence it got me into big trouble. My “road just after the fence” was a small road that took me to the end of a bunch of wheel lines and was subsequently a nightmare to drive down.

You are probably laughing at me and thinking, why didn’t I recognize that I was heading down the wrong road? Here is my defense- the road was good when I got started, much better than many of the roads I had driven on before. And secondly, I could see the cows and they were absolutely, straight ahead of me. It was nearly infuriating how I knew it was going badly but I could see where I needed to be. But by good luck and my rancher’s wife skills, I made it alive. Barely…

Despite the roads criss-crossing the range, they all take me where I want to go. And there is probably a lesson to be learned in there. In life, we all have a destination in mind and the road to where we want to go isn’t always easy. It can be frustrating how slow and painful and painfully slow the going may be, but there is so much to learn along the way. And if we don’t learn anything along the way, at least we got a great laugh at how terrible things can get!

Pausing for Perspective

May 24, 2017 by Allison

I love my life. I really do. Its amazing how much joy and satisfaction I find in what we do. I get to watch my kids learn and grow and fail and succeed. They get to watch their dad work and see what it means to have responsibilities and carry them out. It is exhausting and amazing and inspiring… and exhausting.

I love our life but it is exhausting. Most of the time when life gets busy and exhausting, you pause, give yourself some space, do something new to recharge yourself, and then jump back in.

We don’t do that.

Not that we don’t believe it taking a break, but its kinda difficult. With cows, irrigating, haying, feeding, checking water, and all the other things on the never ending check list, we don’t have the time to just up and leave. Not to mention the fact that we live in the middle of nowhere and going anywhere requires plenty of travel time.

But that’s ok.

We may to be able to be world travelers or we might not have the opportunities to visit exotic places. Its all ok, because we have an entire world to explore in our back yard. We have horses and 4wheelers and mountains and trails. We really have everything we need.

What we do, everyday, is what we love. Yes, we get tired of the daily grind, but that is when we load up in the gator and go for a ride. And we take a moment to refocus on what our priorities are and then we get back to it.

I’m in desperate need for such a pause. I am feeling the weight of the work that needs to be done on our home, for our community, in the fields… There is always more work to be done than there is time and energy. Think I can talk The Rancher into taking me on a romantic motorcycle ride tonight?

For the Love of Branding

May 8, 2017 by Allison

I have literally thousands of pictures of branding this spring. THOUSANDS! 5 different days of branding and taking so many pictures of busy cowboys (I might have less if they stopped and posed, but I take what I can get…) has made for so many photos to go through and edit.

I’m certainly not running out of photos, but I feel like I am running out of rocking stories to tell you. Its not that cool things didn’t happen, but I’m just afraid that those details of the day might bore you. Especially since we do about the same thing every year- we gather the herd, sort out the cows, brand the calves, eat lunch and start over.

It really is an exciting day that the crew looks forward to every year. I’d say its their drug of choice that they are going through some seriously withdrawals of roping and riding after a long winter. They take off across the range, adrenaline flowing, and they can’t get enough of it. They rope all day long until they are so sore they can’t keep going. Then they wake up and do it again.

The photos are going to keep coming and hopefully the stories come too! But sometimes, the photos speak for themselves. As they say, “A photo is worth a thousand words!”

Going Nuts Over Branding

April 28, 2017 by Allison

With all of my years of ranching and branding there is something that I have never done. Ok, there are plenty of ranchy-branding things that I haven’t done… But there is one that I took pride in not doing until just a few weeks ago. I don’t know if I should be proud for what I did, but I did it.

Here is what I did- I ate a nut. Not like a nut nut, but like a calf nut. A lemon peppered, battered, deep fried calf testicle.

Gross, I know.

Like I said, I don’t know if I’m proud of myself for doing it, but I did.

My brother-in-law, Cowboy Pete, had some buddies that thought it would be a great idea to fry up some nuts and have a party about it. So all day long, we were collecting nuts as we were branding. He even had his mom bring a tupperware with water that he had in the cooler with the vaccines to keep the nuts clean and cool. He went to some pretty extensive lengths to make sure that everything would be just right for their dinner that night.

So Cowboy Pete gets home, pulls out the nuts and made up his own little recipe for some gourmet fried nuts. All day he kept telling me that he was going to bring them over for me to try and I just laughed him off, so sure that he wasn’t going to do it and even if he did cook some, he wouldn’t bring them over.

But he did.

He comes over with his buddies and his plate of fried testicles and wafted them in front of my face as if its tantalizing aroma would be something I couldn’t resist. He grinned from ear to ear as he was trying to convince me just how good it was and that I HAD to try them.

I waffled back and forth on what I should do. Because really, one bite wouldn’t kill me. And if it was nasty, I could just spit it out. But I didn’t want to give in to him and justify his claim that his deep fried calf testes were good.

Just then, my husband reached over grabbed one and took a bite. I was super surprised because no one had been goading him to eat one and he JUST DID IT! And he liked it! Or at least I think he did. He at least didn’t spit it out, although he didn’t have another bite so maybe he didn’t like it so much.

After that, I knew I had to do it. If I didn’t, I would be the weak one. The one that wasn’t brave enough to even eat a little nut. So I took a bite.

I still shudder to think about what I did. I stooped to eating genitalia… Gross. Except, it was good. Or at least not bad. They seasoned them enough that it just tasted like a lemon pepper beef nugget (like chicken nugget, but beef… get it?).

Now I have done it all. And I will likely never do it again. Cowboy Pete did say that no self respecting ranch blogger couldn’t call themselves legit without trying a nut at least once. I tried it once, now I’m legit and have great credibility with my people, right?

Let me know if you want Cowboy Pete’s Deep Fried Calf Nut recipe ;).

Growing Some Thick Skin

April 26, 2017 by Allison

One of my favorite rancher wives once told me that she chooses NOT to work beside her husband a lot of times because she doesn’t have thick enough skin. Its not that her husband is grouchy and it isn’t ever her husband that is the problem, but to keep things happy in all corners, she just stays out of it.

From her words of wisdom and my own experiences over the last few years, I have learned two things. First, if I can’t handle what the cowboys say, I’d better stay out of the work. And second, I if I’m determined to work with them, I better grow some thick skin to be able to handle it all.

You know me… although the best way to go would be to go with the first little lesson I learned, I’m taking the harder way and following the second.

There are a few reasons a person might need some thicker skin when working with the cowboys, especially if its your husband. At home, he calls you honey and sweetheart and any other pet name I might not want to know. But those lovy names are totally forgotten once the two of you are out the door to work. All of the sudden, he sounds a little cold or distant and pretty soon, you begin to wonder if you did something wrong. Really, what has happened is that he has his rancher hat on and that is all that is on his mind. Don’t worry, he will warm back up to you when the work is done!

Now, unfortunately, ranch work can be noisy. Really, REALLY noisy. Loud tractors or pumps, noisy, bellaring cows and so much more. Hearing anybody talking to you over any of this noise is nearly impossible. So the easiest solution to this problem is just to talk louder than the noise. Most commonly known as YELLING. Yep, I just admitted it, my husband yells at me. At least that is what I used to think. That quick, “CLOSE THE GATE!” without any tender love or affection can cut a wife right to the heart if she doesn’t have some thick skin to protect her. But once ya learn that he is yelling TO you, not AT you, its not so bad. In reality, anything he might be yelling to you is probably to help you do your job better or to keep you safe. Just read it as his way of saying “I love you.”

Eventually, any ranch wife that decides to help the guys get the work done, is going to make a mistake. Its hard to admit, but we wives aren’t perfect. We try hard to be perfect because there are some pretty intense expectations of the level of work that needs to be done and inevitably we might miss the mark. And without any warning or intention, some words might slip out of somebody’s mouth and somebody’s feelings are hurt. I’ve been there thinking, “I am here helping you get YOUR work done and I am doing MY BEST and you are mad at me?!”

But in all honesty, I had made a mistake.

And I hate to admit it.

But in admitting my mistake, it actually made things better.

I’m sure that there are a lot of other wives out there that have their own stories and lessons they have learned about how to make it working with their husbands on the ranch. But ultimately, if you’re going to work with the guys, you gotta handle whatever they might say. Some of it they mean, some of it they don’t. But some thick skin can go a long way to keep things happy at home.

Because really, it can’t get more true than the t-shirt that says, “Sorry for what I said when we were working cattle!”

Live a LIfe of Passion

April 17, 2017 by Allison

Over the last few years since I bought my “fancy” camera and started to learn more about photography, I’ve had a few people ask me to do pictures for them. I’ve done family pictures for my best friend, engagements for my brother-in-law and his (now) sweet wife, and even graduation pictures for another brother-in-law. There are lots of others, but you get the picture (haha..)…

I love getting a chance to take pictures of families, couples and individuals and help capture their personality so that they can share and preserve them. Its not my niche (yet) but I am learning. I do have to admit, its a little weird to get to be in control of what’s happening in front of the camera instead of making photos out of what is happening around me. Does that make sense?

A few weeks ago I got a chance to kinda do both- a posed and directed photo session but still out on the range with the horses and cows. Could it get any cooler? I don’t think so. Our neighbor (about 30 miles down the road), Mackenzie, was selected to be a National Collegiate Beef Advocate with the American National Cattle Women organization and one of the first things she needed to do was to send in some photos of her working cattle or with horses or whatever she does as a ranching girl. She had a few snap shots, but they weren’t exactly what she wanted to put out there in a press release.

So that’s when she called me.

We went out on our range land and got to work (tough work, huh?). It was such a different experience for me because the purpose was for me to take pictures. I didn’t have to worry at all about being in the way or anything like that. It was a little refreshing actually… Do you think I can convince my cowboys out here to let me just have free rein? Probably not…

That’s ok. I’ll take what I can get.

Back to Mackenzie. In between photos we would visit and she told me a little bit about what she gets to do as an advocate. I don’t remember everything she said, but I definitely remember how her face would light up as she talked about what the opportunity meant to her. It didn’t take long to realize how proud she was of her life in agriculture and how rich her passion was for sharing it with people.

I don’t know who said it but somebody smart said, “Follow your passion, and success will follow you!” I have no doubt that whatever Mackenzie does with her passion, she will be successful. Passion can conquer fear, make you bold, and push you to take those leaps we might never have risked. I think all to often we get busy and bogged down with all of the must-do’s of life. We get so focused on the have-to’s, we don’t do the want-to’s and our passion for life slowly sizzles out. The excuses of not having the time or energy or money just get in the way. We become complacent, and stay right inside our comfort bubble and suddenly we don’t do anything exciting or adventurous. Nothing we do gets adrenaline flowing or our hearts pumping.

Who wants to live that kind of a life? A life with no passion?

So today, do something your WANT to do, especially if you don’t have time to. Let the list wait. Be crazy and creative. Go out on a limb. Fail terribly. But, call it a success because you tried. Let your passion drive you, if only for a moment!

Who knows how you will succeed!