The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

A Good Winter Day Sorting Cows

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Last week sorted cows in Locomotive.  Scratch that… It was actually like SEVERAL weeks ago that we sorted.  In fact, its been long enough ago that we sorted, that the snow has melted and we have mixed the cows back up.  I had a twinge of hurt when they mixed up the cows again.  Because I feel that we just did the work of getting them unmixed up… Oh the work we do…

That day of sorting had a lot of emotions running through it.  There were those overwhelming feelings of just being totally exhausted from the added work with dealing with the snow.  There was the tension of not knowing how the day was going to go, if it was going to go at all.  Then there was the final relief and thankfulness of finally getting the work done. 

You can imagine we slept well that night.

I’ll admit, I had my own doubts about how the day was going to go down.  They had never had to sort all those cows there.  They never had so much snow to work the cows in.  I was afraid for the worst- cows not cooperating, horses slipping on the ice, and cowboys coming home hurt and discouraged.

That is always my fear.  Because I have seen it.

When I was a little girl, I saw the hard days that my dad had.  There was the day that he couldn’t take his own boots off because of the 4wheeler accident.  There were the days that he came in exhausted from no sleep trying to keep calves alive in the cold.  There were the days he couldn’t keep the equipment running to get the hay done before the storms rolled through.

But there is one day that comes to mind above all the rest as being hard for my ranching dad.

It had been a long winter.  The calving was over and breeding season was in full swing.  Doing the spring work in the still winter conditions was getting long and tiresome.  Eventually there was a break and the thaw finally came.  It only took a few days for things to change.  The frost thawed, the ground dried and suddenly it was hard again.

He was bringing in a heifer to AI.  He saddled up his horse and headed out as he did every time.  Now let me tell you a little about his horse.  She had a long, long ugly nose.  And that was about the only bad thing about her.  Ok, not really… everyone horse has her issues.  But this girl was good.  She could cut a cow as good as any other.  Once she knew what cow she was bringing in, you just let her do the work.  She could drop her back end and change directions in a second.  If you didn’t hang on she would move right out from under you (and I know that from personal experience!).  She loved the work and worked hard.

 The heifer my dad and his partner were bringing in was a little feisty.  No surprise and really, no big deal.  And for my dad, it was even a little fun.  Like most cowboys, he enjoyed the rush of the ride.  But then the heifer cut back and Whitney, his horse, went to spin.  And then she went down.

In those couple of days that the weather changed, my dad was busy.  Are you surprised?  He is a rancher, they are always busy.  Busy enough that he hadn’t had a chance to take of the cleats on his horse.

When she turned back, those cleats dug into the ground, and she spun, but her leg didn’t.  And it broke.

My dad knew instantly that it was bad.  So bad.  He was right.

He called the vet and he was able to come in and help Whitney.  They were able to set and cast the broken leg.  But she would never chase a cow again.  It was devastating.  

My dad says that every cowboy gets one good horse and one good dog.  She was his.

Ya know, despite the great days we have on the ranch and in this life, there are some really hard days.  We take risks.  We work in sometimes dangerous conditions.  We work with animals that can do a lot of damage.  And when those bad days come we just have to take it in stride.

My dad couldn’t put his partner down that day.  He just couldn’t lose her.  She meant to much for him.  So he decided to turn her into a brood mare.  Now her babies are on the ranch, doing the same work their momma did. 

Thankfully, our day sorting on the range had a good ending.  A great ending.  The work went well and the cowboys came home safe.  Not everyday turns out so well and we are grateful for the good days.  Its the good days that keep us going when we have those hard days.
  

Monday Musing and Frosty Pictures

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Mondays are for musings.  You look back over the weekend or figure out what’s happening ahead in the week.  You plan. You schedule.  Sometimes you give yourself a pep talk.  But it all happens on Mondays. 

So here I am musing.

We went to Montana to visit my parents over the weekend.  It was refreshing and exhausting all at the same time.  My mom works for a small k-8 school and they had their ski day, so we trekked up there late Thursday night to join in the fun.  We had the whole spectrum of weather that day- icy rain, sleet, massive flakes, blue sky and fog.  There was a point we decided to bite the bullet and invest in some goggles for everyone and that was the turning point of the day.  Its amazing how much more fun skiing is when you can see and your eyes aren’t being pelted with ice!   

There were high school boys and girls basketball games going on while we were there so we spent Saturday night cheering on the Drummond Trojans.  It may have been the third game I have gone to watch since graduating 11 years ago.  It was like I never left but at the same time I felt so old.  There were kids playing ball that weren’t even in kindergarten when I was in high school!.  I only knew 2 of the kids on the boys team.  Yikes… I am getting old…  But at the same time, I still call my kindergarten teacher Mrs. Verlanic and my science teacher Mr. Schindler so I guess I don’t feel all too old.

Remember how I married a cowboy that doesn’t talk?  That made for a super long drive home.  It really was the fastest we have ever made the drive (we didn’t speed, just didn’t have to stop 12 times for the kids…) but it seemed so long.  He seriously said only a handful of words.  Anybody want to come hang out with me so I can have someone to talk to?

And to make the drive last even longer, my kids are to the stage that they ask the dreaded question- “are we there yet?”/”how long until we are there?!”/”how much longer?”  And I think that they eat more when we are in the car than the entire week before.  I can never pack enough treats.  I’m afraid its only going to get worse when my son becomes a teenager… Yikes!  

Its Valentines this week… Yay… Actually, for the first time in a long time I will actually get to see my valentine.  Really I should only say I SHOULD get to see my valentine.  We might sneak in a kiss or two between taking care of the kids and cows, but who needs February 14 to say I love you when there are 364 other days, right? I’m sure a batch of his favorite cookie dough and an early bed time will make for just the V-day he wants!   

So I posted last week about how we were buried to our eye balls with snow.  And then just like that the snow shut off and the sun came out and everything has started to melt!  Its not gone or even close to being gone by ANY means, but there is significantly less.  Its like Mother Nature is trying to discredit me.  I say its crazy and snowy and she brings out the sunshine.  If I said it was a beautiful-blue-sky-kinda-day, I’m sure we would get socked in with the fog for days…  So I’m going to post the last of my snowy pictures and hope that the temps stay up.  The heifer hill is slowly drying out to calve on so its helping The Rancher, right?

Speaking of calving… We had 1.  Soon enough we will be swamped with babies and I am so excited! Last year I was too busy swooning over my own new babe that I didn’t soak in the babies outside as much so this year I will have to make up for it.  But the fact that we are calving does mean my baby is almost a year old and I just can’t believe it.  I’m crying inside.  It just happens too fast!

Have I mused enough for you?  There is still plenty going on up here, but I will stop for your sakes.  I’ll just muse to myself…

Happy Monday!
The RW 

Our Snow-Pocalypse

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Hello from the land of snow!

Can you finally see us out here?  The snow is finally settling!  If you add up the total inches accumulated, we have had like 71″ of snow.  Is that not insane?!  That is over 5 feet of snow!  But don’t imagine that all fluffy 71″ are still standing like they just fell.  Some of that snow was way heavy and packed everything down with it.  We had a week of warmer weather that helped melt things down a little too.  And we actually had a couple of inches of rain that dropped the level down even more. 

We have been praying for the moisture for so long and we feel so blessed to finally have it.  But in the dry spell that we have been having the last few years, we might have forgotten the not so awesome side of so much moisture. 

Now, I want you to know I AM NOT COMPLAINING!  Just simply explaining the challenges of having so much snow.  Because there are challenges, friends.  Besides the obvious road closures keeping us from going ANYWHERE, school snow days, and hours spent cleaning off my roof so it won’t fall in (I might have been stuck up there for a while…), the biggest challenge has been keeping the cows on the up and up.

I’ve told you before that we winter our cows down in Locomotive (some come home for the fall and until mid-February, but then they end up back down there…).  Its a great place to have them for the winter because, generally, there is no snow.  Or just a little bit of snow.  That makes it better for calving, less sickness, and not having to feed them everyday.  But when you have so much snow their bellies are dragging through the snow, they certainly can’t get to the feed underneath it.

So this winter, with the snow-pocalypse and all, we are having more work than ever!

When the storms first started coming through, we pushed the cows as far south as we could where the the storms had been less severe and there was more feed available.  Ironically, it always happened to be on a Sunday that the guys from the association wanted to move them.  You might not think that would be any worse than any other day of the week, but wrestling 3 kids alone in church is rough, friends.  If you don’t know what I’m talking about, come visit next Sunday…

Back to the cows…

So even after getting the cows south, enough storms came that NOT feeding them wasn’t an option anymore.  So then they had to bring them back up to where we could get to them with hay.  And that was a lot of work.

First they had to find all the cows.  And if you know cows, once a storm hits they just start moving- moving to find shelter or feed or whatever… But they just start moving and when there are hundreds and hundreds of acres for them to go, it takes a while to finally find them all.  The Rancher didn’t complain too much at this.  I mean, when you HAVE to go snowmobiling all day for your work, it can’t be all bad, right? 

But after finding the cows, they had to get them up to the feed yard.  That was definitely a challenge…  Of course the cows were going to struggle moving through the snow and would fight you nearly every step of the way.  I probably wouldn’t want to move my big pregnant self through so much snow for miles either.  So the guys pulled out all the graters and tractors and … (I don’t even know what all equipment they had!) and they plowed a path to trail the cows back. 

And now to have 1,100 cows are rounded up together, it takes a lot of hay and a lot of time to get them all fed.  I’m pretty sure right now, all the guys do is push snow and feed cows.  Feed cows here at home, drive to Locomotive, feed cows there, and if there is any time before dark, they push snow.  Seriously, it is all they do. 

And it is exhausting.

I think it wouldn’t be near so bad if we were all healthy, but we are not.  Sickness has gone through the ranch, not to mention other issues (like being run over by a cow and lacerating your liver…).   So while we are trying to heal and get healthy, we are using all our energy to keep the cows on the up and up. 

I’m honestly a little worried about the guys.  This is the time of year things are slow and they get to recuperate before calving and then branding and then turnout and then summer… But I don’t think anyone is feeling rested after these last few weeks!  It could be a long few months ahead of us.

But we are still SO thankful for the snow! 

Now we just pray for the energy to withstand it all… Did you know there is more snow in the forecast?  Yay… (I might be crying inside….) !!

Thinking happy and warm thoughts,
 The Rancher’s Wife…

I tried taking pictures of the horses in my back yard, but there was so much snow my camera couldn’t focus!

Taking hay down to the cows and unloading without a tractor…

Its snowy and beautiful even if its so much work!

The upside of so much snow!

Oh ya… We sold the calves!

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Seasons on the ranch go by so fast.  One minute we are calving and trying to keep babies warm and alive and then before you know it, we are selling them.  And then you sell them, and you forget to put it on your blog to say “HAPPY DAY!”.  It may not seem like a big day, but those few hours on that frosty November morning are what we work for all year long.

So I am taking the opportunity now to celebrate selling and shipping calves.  Hooray!  It was such a s muddy, messy day because it had been raining and raining.  The downside to the rain and subsequent mud- sloshing and sliding around it poop and goop up to your eyeballs!  The upside- probably a few extra wet and dirty pounds on the calves!

Shipping cows isn’t all that hard, but sort of time consuming.  When you have hundreds of calve to weigh, you can see how that will take some time.  Let me walk you how that day goes…

First, it starts before that day.  A week or so before, we sort the steers from the heifers and pull out any of the sick, lame, or small calves (hopefully not too many of these!).  Up to this point we just keep them together to feed them.  While we are sorting the heifers, we pull off the ones that we want to keep for replacements somewhere around 100 depending on the year.

So on shipping morning, we start with the steers. We bring the herd into the corral and move them back to the scales.  We weigh them 10 at a time to get an average weight.  Can you imagine if we had to weigh them one by one?  We would be there all day.  After we weigh all the steers we look at the herd average and see what that compares to what we contracted them at.  Obviously, we want to hit the weight we contracted at because too light means a smaller check.  Too big usually isn’t a problem. 

After the steers are done, we do the same with all the heifers.

Once everything is weighed, counted to the number we contracted at (we have more calves than what we contract…), and the broker is happy with what we have, we load them up.  It takes someone with a masters degree in math to figure out the loading.  Not really, but it does take some time to figure out how many calves at what weight can fit in each section depending on which truck they are loading.  Glad that’s not my job.  Once all five (or sometimes six!) trucks are loaded they head out.

And then we stand there and listen to the silence. 
And then heave a sigh of relief for having the calves gone.
And then shout HOORAY!
And then we check the mail…

Then we go back to work because the job is never done.  Every year we have the same day of shipping calves with the same guys, the same routine, and then same cinnamon rolls.  And its a great day.  The day we work all year for and the day that lets us keep working for the next year.

Happy (belated) Sale Day, friends!

Feeding Frosty Cows

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Did you read the title and let your eyes roll back because its another post about feeding cows?  It is that time of year, ya know…  But don’t worry.  I knew you would be tired of the same (awesome) ramblings of feeding hungry cows with my crazy crew.

So I did a little something different.  For your benefit and mine.

Since I had The Rancher corner, I though I would take the opportunity to do a little Q&A with him.  Its good for you because its something new for you to read.  And you get to know him a little better, and everyone wants to know The Rancher a little better.  The upside for me, is that I have an intentional conversation with an adult.  Being the CEO of this ranch house full of little people can be lacking with adult conversation.  Oh, that’s starting to show?  Oops!

So for the next few hours, in between me jumping out of the tractor to open and close gates and cut the wrap off of the bales, and juggling the baby and big sister, I asked him some stimulating questions.

Here goes…

About that Super Bowl…
Me:  So what do you think about the Super Bowl coming up?  It’s this Sunday, right?(I’m super up to date with what’s happening in the world right now…HA!)

Him:  Well… (long pause)… Since I’m so into football… It should be good.  But you know me… I’m really just in it for the commercials and food.  And the commercials haven’t been that good lately, so I’m really just there for the food.

Me:  Right… So what food should we have?

Him:  I dunno.  Something good.  (This is the conversation we have every day when I ask him what he wants for dinner.  He’s so much help…)

“We feed cows…”
Me:  So tell me about feeding cows.

Him:  We feed cows.

Me: … Yes… I know that.  How much?  How much have you already fed this year?  How long will this feed last?

Him:  Well, we have fed at least that stack… We figure that we have enough hay to feed 20 bales of hay for 40 days.

Me: Oh… That’s not enough, is it?

Him:  Nope.  Having to feed cows in Locomotive has thrown a wrench in things this year.

Me:  So we feed 5 bales to the cows on the pivot pasture, 6 to the cows at the feed yard, 1 to the bulls, and 1 to the horses, old cows, and whatever is in the corral by the barn… and 5 to Locomotive.  So… I guess we need to buy more hay…

Him:  Yep…

Ranch faves
Me: So, what is your favorite thing to do on the ranch?

Him:  I dunno…(its his favorite phrase…)

Me:  Well, what is your least favorite thing to do?

Him:  Feed cows.

Me: Oh. (Hmmm, do you not like it because that is like all you are doing right now?)  So what is your next least favorite thing to do?

Him:  Fix fence.

Me:  Oh. (That one actually surprised me… I thought he liked it more.)  And then what is your next least favorite thing?

Him:  Changing water.

Me:  What’s the next?

Him:  Checking water.

Me:  You don’t like the things that you have to do over and over again, do you?  You wouldn’t make a good mom.  That’s kinda all I do.   So what’s your next least favorite thing?

Him:  I dunno… I guess I like all the rest just fine.  But it all depends on the day.

Me:  Yes, moving cows when the sun is shining and the cows are moving good is a way better day than a blizzard when you are working cows through the chute.

Him: (Nod… Silence… conversation… OVER)

Baby driver
Me:  He (the baby) is in his favorite place- at the steering wheel.  That makes you the coolest dad for letting him be there.

Him:  Yep… (he’s big on words…)

Me:  Aren’t you glad we have him?

Him:  Yep.  I guess we will keep him.

Me: Are you ready for the next one?

Him: (silence… stink eye…)  NOPE. (silence… conversation over…)

You can see that riding with The Rancher is GREAT conversation.  To his credit, he is sick (currently fevering and sleeping on the couch) and since talking when he is feeling great gives limited conversation, I really should expect less when he is feeling crappy.  But even sick, he’s still great, don’t ya think?!

Until next time, Friends!

Priorities

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Preg checking.  It isn’t glamorous, it isn’t picturesque but it certainly is exciting and entertaining.  Not the actual preg checking itself… that is somewhat boring and redundant.  We make the day entertaining and exciting any way we can, which most often includes some kind of razzing about somebody everybody.

On this fine fall day, we were working the cattle we run on the forest ground.  It is a considerably smaller herd of cows than the group we do out to Black Pine.  Don’t get me wrong, with three different ranches pooling cows together, there was still a lot to do, but we were able to slow things down a bit.

And slowing things down for a bit was kinda nice. I’m sure that the guy that got put on the fence a few times didn’t think it was a take-it-easy kind of preg checking day. Or the guy that was doing the preg checking…  There’s nothing nice or easy going IN the OUT end of a cow! 

Every rancher will tell that there is more work to be done than there are hours of the day.  Even if the cows are settled and the haying is done and the water looks good, there is fence that could use fixing and equipment could do with servicing.  There comes a point that you have to decide just how hard you want to push yourself.  You could work a neck break pace and get a lot of work done, but that leads straight to burnout and once you hit burnout you hate your job.  And where this is more than a job, its a lifestyle, we can’t afford to reach the burnout stage.

So what do you do to avoid burnout?  I don’t know that we have totally found the answer to this question.  Unfortunately there are those days and weeks that you have no choice but to push hard.  But even though we don’t have the complete solution, I will tell you that there is one thing we always keep in mind and that is our priorities.

There are a lot of things that are important to our family and our ranch.  Obviously, as far as the ranch goes, the cows have gotta be happy.  Its hard to swallow that hundreds of other girls get my cowboy’s attention over me, until you take into consideration that they are cows.  Then its all good.  Beyond the ranch, our priorities are God, family, and community because without God we are nothing, with out family none of it is worth it, and its all so much better with good friends and neighbors.

Our priorities have to be family priorities with a common goal because on the long days where my husband is nearly non existent and I am being both mom and dad, it can get overwhelming.  If I didn’t have the ranch’s success as one of my priorities I’m pretty positive in would be a real cranky wife being put second.  And knowing The Rancher’s priorities include taking care of his family helps me to know that he is doing everything he can to make it back home as fast as he can.

So on this day of preg checking, we certainly had getting the work done as our top priority.  But enjoying our time working together with our family and friends was a close second.  And because it was, it was a fun day even if it was spent at the back end of a cow.   
        

It Looks Like we are Working, But we Call it a Vacation

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We preg checked the buffalo again.  Not because we had to, which is usually why we go preg checking, but because we want to.  Are we weird because we want to do more preg checking?  I know we are… We are one of those families that enjoy working, so instead of taking a real vacation, we go to my brother’s place to do more work.
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Click “Read More” for the rest of the story!

Actually, we didn’t go for the work.  I went for the family.  I guess if preg checking crazy buffalo is what I have to do to hang out with my family, then I guess that’s worth it.  Because I think that my family is pretty awesome.

Let me walk you through that day a little bit…

Yep… there was buffalo.  They are ugly and majestic, all at the same time.  They are so powerful and terrifying and awe inspiring.  In all honesty, I think they are pretty cool but I am so glad that I’m not the one running the place.

 Here is my nephew, with pretty sweet hair.  He is so funny because although he lives in Washington, he was born in Alabama and he can’t seem to get that thin Alabama blood out of his system.  No matter how many northwestern winters he makes it through or how many layers he puts on, the boy can’t stay warm out there.  But the cold doesn’t matte when his dad gives him a job to do.  He toughs it out anyway!

And then there is The Rancher’s Sidekick, that is there for the fun and the snacks.  Good thing the company and work is fun.  Funny story about this boy and the licorice…  He saw a guy walk over to the fence, dug around in his coat pocket, and pulled out a piece.  The guy offered The Rancher’s Sidekick a licorice and he took that as an open invitation to crawl up the fence and have as many pieces of licorice as he wanted.  And you guessed it, over the day, my boy ate up the whole package!  

Working out in the middle of nowhere may be inconvenient at times, but the view is always worth it.

My other nephew… I can’t believe how fast this boy is growing. I’m not old enough to be an aunt of a teenager, or soon to be.  If he had to choose his job for the day, it would be watching the little ones instead of working the stinky buffalo.  He has such a big heart and can’t help but love my babies and I love him for it.

My cool oldest brother.  When I was teeny tiny, he would go out of his way to hang out with me.  He was the cool brother that would help me saddle up to go ride or swing by the house to give me a ride in the wheel barrow.  Then when I went to college he still would make the effort to hang out with me.   He would drive hours to pick me up so I could spend the weekend out on the ranch with him.  In fact, that’s how ended up meeting The Rancher.  He did an internship with my brother and I fell in love with him.  Yep, my brother’s pretty cool.

The Rancher doing the easy job for once.  And by that I simply mean that he was doing someone else’s cattle (buffalo) and had no stake in game.  Its almost relieving to not be the boss every once ina while.

My beautiful neices.  They’re cool.  They’re smart.  And they are TOTALLY off limits to any boys that want to take them out.  For at least 20 years or so. 

This is the set up.  They put panels around everywhere because buffalo are crazy.  Super crazy so we make sure that our backs are covered…

Apparently The Ranch Princess doesn’t know how to take a serious picture.  But that’s ok.  Every bit of this picture is her personality and I love it!

Nobody is immune to this cutey.  Everyone needs a minute to snuggle a sweet, chubby baby like The Cowboy Kid.

The Rancher took the opportunity to sharpen up his preg checking skills since he had someone to teach him along the way.  Buffalo are actually a little easier to check because their back end is narrower and not so deep.  But it all translates just fine to cow anatomy terms.

My brother open us the gate so I could catch a picture without the chute in the way.  And while, I was taking the picture and looking through the lens and NOT paying attention to what was happening around me, The Rancher came around and scared me.  Scared me so bad I screamed and jumped a mile high.  Sure the buffalo wasn’t coming after me, but somebody or something was!  I still haven’t got him back for that… Hmm… Any ideas?

The little ones…  They work the buffalo once a year to cull out the old, sick ones, get the preg checking done, vaccinate everything and then wean out the babies.

My sweet baby loves to be outside.  He came home from the hospital a little cranky, but taking him outside always calmed him.  Even in the cold now, he loves to be out and never fusses with what’s happening around him. 

The buffalo were stinky and crazy and my fingers were so cold I couldn’t feel them, but the food was great and the people are my favorite so all-in-all, I could call it a great day.  

Christmas Sledding, Mackay Style

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Its winter here.  Full blown winter.  It has been cold.  Not as cold as some places, but there is a point that cold is just cold.  But its not just the cold that has us knee deep in winter, its the snow.  SO MUCH SNOW!  Like, now that it has settled and been rained on, we are down to about 2 feet.

Yep.  Full blown winter.
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Click “Read More” for the rest of the story!

But that’s mostly ok because we really need the moisture and this is the slow time of year anyway.  So except for the super, SUPER cold days, we are loving winter.  The Rancher takes every chance to go coyote and bunny hunting, snowmobiling, and the kids and I pull out the tubes and sleds every chance we get.  We have had snowball fights and built snowmen.  We have made snow forts and even had a herd of snow angels until they were snowed on again.

Its been lots of fun.  Most of the time I’m too busy being the mom immersed in the fun to take a step back to take any pictures (which I need to do for posterity’s sake) but I do have some awesome stories and pictures from sledding over Christmas break while we were in Montana with the cousins.

Even though the temperatures were hovering just about zero (when you were OUT of the wind) we thought we would pull out the sleds and four wheeler and have a go.  Because it had been so cold, the snow was really fine and powdery, even though it was nearing a foot deep. That meant snow was flying everywhere!  Spraying in our faces, going down coats and shirts.  So cold!  Most of the littles only lasted a few minutes outside, and I don’t blame them.  At the end there was only a handful of the big kids and then the even bigger kids, aka- the parents!  

And that’s when one of my brother’s had the idea to build a jump.  He’s an engineer so of course he figured out the math to make it a pretty awesome jump.  He figured the perfect spot on the downhill side, coming off the corner so that we would have the most momentum swinging around as we hit the jump.  After just a few runs I had to grab the camera to settle in to catch it all.  But that might have gotten me in a little trouble when the mom’s looked at just exactly what we were doing!

Have a look!

The super fine powder was everywhere when they would fly through the snow.  And I’ll admit, I got a little excited with it being backlit…

These kids would FLY through the air when they hit the jump!  Their feet would be above their heads as they sailed above the fence.  It was a pretty crazy site.

When I took a turn on the tube, my sister grabbed the camera and caught a few of me and my brother.  We went as hard and as fast as we could and didn’t come off.  But to save ourselves we had to let go so we didn’t run into the parked car at the bottom of the hill!

You can’t really tell, but this is my brother and his son.  They were riding side by side, but about this time, my brother ended up on top of his boy and then….

… they landed the jump like this!  It sorta looks like a bomb went off here…  So cool!

 I still stand by what I’ve said so many times in the past, ranchers are boys that just couldn’t stop playing… Now they have bigger toys and even more fun! 

Branding Chased out by the Thunderstorm

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Dare I share branding pictures? Soon enough I will be filled up with branding photos again, so I was half tempted to not but since they were already edited and ready to put up I decided to go for it.  I’m not one to waste effort after all….
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When I look at these photos I have lots of memories of this day. Like how…

1.  The Rancher’s Sidekick begged us not to brand this day because he still had to go to school.  He didn’t want to skip school that day to help, but he didn’t want to miss branding so his solution was to just ask us to brand a different day!

2. I took my new car out on the range for the first time.  With my growing family and so many bags and car seats, my truck just didn’t cut it… Such a sad day…

3. The cowboys had a unique problem- there was grass.  And apparently roping in the grass makes for rough catching because your rope gets caught on the grass long before it scoops up a pair of heels.

There were a few other thoughts that came to mind but the big memory was the thunder storm that followed.  I bet nobody else remembers that the rain and thunder chased us out, but I do.  I bet they wouldn’t even say that it chased us out.  But I remember.

I remember those blasted rain clouds rolling in.  They are the ones that pretty much spell thunderstorm and always head right for us.  And that is when I run for cover, usually for my bed covers and under the pillows.

You see, friends… I don’t like thunderstorms.  More specifically I don’t like thunder.  I don’t like the spine tingling feeling you get when your can feel the thunder has much as you can hear it. The lightning I can handle so long as it is far, FAR away (which usually means I can’t hear the thunder… which is probably why its ok..).  The Rancher laughs at me and how I freak out when a storm rolls in but it just happens.

I’m scared of thunderstorms.

I know cowgirls are supposed to be tough and resourceful and brave and can handle anything.  And for the most part I would say that I am tough and brave, until it comes to the storms.  Once upon a time there was a big storm as I was driving the few miles to get home. And as I pulled up to my parents driveway, my gutless bald-tire little car decided it couldn’t make it up the super slick driveway.  I figured that since there was no way my car was going to make it up to the house anytime soon, I probably had two option: either sit in the car and wait for the rain to stop or just suck it up and run through the rain to the house.  Not wanting to sit in the car and die a young death from the scary rain and thunder, I decided to run for it.  I bravely slipped off my flip flops (I just knew that running in my flips flops would end badly), opened the door and jumped put.  And just as I closed the door, there was a flash and a boom-crash and I ran the fastest 40 yd dash up to the house.  It probably wasn’t that far to run but it felt like it…

And that, my friends, is why I hate thunderstorms…

I wish I liked them.  In all reality I know I am safe and the likelihood of getting zapped is pretty slim. And they are the coolest light show ever, but instead of enjoying them my heart just beats fast and I close my eyes.

Don’t think any less of me because I’m not the bravest cowgirl all the time…  Just applaud my honesty and enjoy a few pictures of branding that stormy day!     

Growing a Kid Crop, Growing a Calf Crop

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2016 will go down as a big year for The Rancher’s Sidekick. It’s amazing how fast kids can learn and grow and change.  This boy went from baby to a boy overnight.  I know, that’s not how it actually happens , but when you are the momma you just can’t let your oldest grow up.  But then one day you wake up and he is going to school and totally ok without you.  And then he comes home from school and he can read and write and likes girls and he just isn’t the same kid you sent out the door.  
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Obviously school wasn’t the only place he was growing up on me but at home and on the ranch too.  Can I just say how amazing it is to finally have a kid that can help out around the house?!  My kids have doing chores and helping since they were little (in our house everyone helps in the home and on the ranch as soon as they can walk… not really, but young… I believe in teaching my kids how to work).  But The Rancher’s Sidekick can actually really help now.  Like do a job on his own.  And not like the I’m-doing-my-chores-but-mom-really-does-all-the-work-because-I’m-too-little-to-do-a-good-job kind of on his own. 

Can you tell I’m pumped?

This may be as freeing as potty training!

Ok, I may be dramatizing things a bit, but it’s so nice to have him growing up and able to have a little responsibility and him handling it so well. Proud momma here.

And then there’s the growth he’s had on the ranch.  There’s a reason I call him the sidekick because he goes everywhere with his dad.  In fact, this last summer, he would wake up early to make sure that he wouldn’t get left behind.  There were very few day that he didn’t go about to work with The Rancher and stay out there all day.  And he wasn’t just a tag along but actually helped get the work done.  I couldn’t believe the stories he would come home telling about his adventures throughout the day.  In fact, I would sit there, eyebrows raised at The Rancher, when I would hear about how he had pushed the cows all alone out on the range.  It seems just like yesterday I would have to go with him if he wanted to ride and now all of the sudden he isn’t just riding by himself but pushing his own herd of cows!  Of course, The Rancher would smile and beam with pride at his growing boy and slowly my heart would slow down and I could see that our boy really was growing up and he is becoming someone I am so proud of. 

Now, it complete transparency, he is still a typical little boy that is currently in big trouble for not listening to his momma.  And he absolutely drive me crazy with all the boy noises, farting, burping, and how he torments his sister.  But, as we are all a work in progress, I can’t help but be so pleased with his progress. 

Ya know, on the ranch we are all about growth- we’ve gotta get out calf crop BIG.  We select genetics to grow big calves and to have cows that milk well to grow big calves. We have genetics to have calves that grow big out on the range and desert and genetics to have low birthweight calves that will gain fast.  We supplement our cattle with protein and mineral to help with nutrition to grow big calves…. Its all about growing big calves!  At home we are worried about growth too, but less about physical growth and more about what kind of people our kid crop is becoming.  We want to see them grow into hard working, responsible, caring, and committed people.  We want them to grow into people that

So far, I think we are doing pretty ok!

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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