At the Ranch - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Family That Brands Together, Stays Together

May 16, 2016 by Allison

I’ve been feeling somewhat emotional about family this week. It could be leftover mushy feelings from Mother’s Day extra stirred up from all those post-partum hormones flowing through my veins and totally exaggerated from looking at all these photos of my favorite people.. but I dunno. Regardless of the why, I have a mega-sized dose of love for family and all I keep thinking is, “I love my life!”

Seriously, how often do families get days like these? How many times do you have a chance to take your kids to work? It happens pretty much daily around here. How often do you see three generations of men working together? Yep, every day. We are pretty lucky that even the brothers come around the ranch often. And when I say often I mean, like, weekly! I know guys that would give anything to be able to work with their dad and brothers like these boys get to. Of course, the fun doesn’t stop there- we have sisters-in-law that love this life too and that, my friends, is no easy feat. Honestly, its hard enough for brothers to marry wives that like each other, but then to find wives that love ranching and cowboying too?! Good work boys… Good work!

We all have varying jobs at what we do to help or entertain, but no one is sitting around. Some come packing the camera and some bring the cinnamon rolls (thanks to The Cattlewoman, for sure!). The kids are always elbow deep in the work (sometimes making more work for the rest of us, but at least they are out there wanting and willing to work!) Some live the dream life on the back of the horse and some do the dirty grunt work. Even if you think that you are just going to spectate, crazy things happen to get you moving.

Check this out. Quick story time- The Buckarette… This girl was 39 weeks pregnant on this fine day of branding (which is why there isn’t a SINGLE picture of her… hmmm…) She came out planning to just sit on the back of the truck and, ya know, just take it easy. Then she starts holding the calves back and helping sort out the already branded calves. Then she starts helping with shots (which is admirable in itself because that meant bending over and if you know pregnant ladies, that gets a little difficult when you are growing a human being in your middle!). And then she suddenly swings her way up on the horse to get out and rope! We teased her that she had better be careful where she dallied because her belly was a little close to the horn. She got up there, turned her horse to the calves and before you knew it, she was back dragging one in. She gets extra kuddos in my book because it had been a good long while since she had roped and she was as smooth as ever. Honestly, we should have had her out roping lots earlier because she caught every calf she swung at! She told us that she as only going to rope one, but once she got started, we couldn’t stop her. Ok, not really… but she did have her good handful of them.

Anyone can tell you, working as families can be rough. One person wants something done one way and someone another, and some crazy fight ensues. One person feels like they are doing all the work while the others get the benefits. One suddenly thinks they are the boss and the others stop working dead in their tracks. It can really happen… But I don’t think feelings like these have ever come up around here (I’m crossing my fingers that even though I am saying it out loud, nothing changes…). Sure we have our moments of frustration or disagreement but I have never seen an operation run so smoothly. Family comes first and with that, everyone works together towards a common goal that brings us together. At the end of the day, we are all apart of making Eliason Livestock successful and sustainable. More importantly we are apart of a family legacy, building from our heritage something for the future that we can all be proud of.

Revisiting 2015

January 5, 2016 by Allison

Our New Year’s Eve was pretty uneventful. We had an early dinner, watched a movie and just relaxed at home, which in reality was the best way to end our crazy, stressful, busy 2015. With the new year well under way, I’ve finally taken a minute to look back over the last year and realize that it was a HUGE year for us. And before you contest my observation (because I didn’t blog hardly anything that eventful and if it didn’t happen on the blog, it didn’t really happen, right?!), I’m gonna list it all out for you!

Lets just start at the top, shall we?

We started the first of last year with a bang, literally, as we began demolishing the old ranch house to build our new home. When the walls came crashing down we knew we had committed ourselves to this adventure! Although it was oddly satisfying to take a sledge hammer to the old house, it did get tiresome and the work seemed long but after 3 months we got it down!

In January we realized that there was nowhere near enough feed to calve out all of cows in Locomotive so we kept back an additional 250 cows at the ranch. Luckily we had an easy winter that helped things go more smoothly, but calving was a lot more intense. And because there was such little feed in Locomotive, we ended up hauling a lot of hay down south, putting a lot of extra miles on the feed truck.

When we weren’t busy on the ranch or demo-ing the old house, we were busy studying to be EMRs (aka first responders). The Rancher and I took a class to test and certify to run on the ambulance in our little valley. The long weeks and late nights of studying took me back to my college days and I was so glad when we tested and PASSED the beginning of May. Don’t worry, if you get hurt out here in Holbrook and need assistance, you have a ready, willing, and terrified crew to put you back together!

The spring was its normal craziness of branding, turning out, and praying for rain. Luckily, we were blessed on all fronts with a successful branding season, fast turnouts and a lot of rain!

The busyness of spring only got busier with summer as we were full swing into building a house, haying, hauling heifers to rodeos and ropings, and summer fun. I worked on my bucket list and scratched off hiking Mount Timpanogous with my siblings (it might have been a few days before I could walk normal…). Being the cool people that we are (and humble, I promise…) we volunteered in our community at every chance we could! A few highlights included our 4th of July where we cooked breakfast with Farm Bureau as the Young Farmer and Rancher’s chairman, had a fire truck in the parade to represent the Holbrook/Stone fire crew, cooked dinner with the Search and Rescue and put on a fire work show with the Malad fire department. I planned and took (with help!) the 12-18 year old girls on a week long camp trip (that had its own ups and downs with beautiful sunny mornings and snowy afternoons!). And we ended the summer with a week long of fair fun where I helped organize rodeos, a hypnotist show, vendor booths, and horse races all while doubling as EMS after a huge meth cookhouse was found (don’t worry, it hadn’t been running in years, but still scary to have in our little valley!). And if that doesn’t sound like a crazy summer, lets add in a little morning sickness! Let me just tell you that one of the highlights for our summer was NOT our garden… I don’t know that I have ever neglected it so bad as this summer.

As the summer came to a close, we hit a new milestone when we sent The Rancher’s Sidekick to school for Kindergarten! I didn’t cry, but the house certainly felt empty without him. While we was at school, The Ranch Princess and I spent a lot of quality time at the new house painting… and painting… and painting… Don’t ask me to come paint anything… I’m all painted out…

Even though we were solely focused on getting the house done in the fall, we took time to go on school field trips to the zoo and pumpkin walk and our annual family fishing trip. Of course we had calves to wean, cows to preg check and fall pasture to be moved to. And before we knew it, the calves were sold (so glad that we contracted in the spring!!) We also learned that my dad’s cancer had returned but we are hopeful with a quick catch and aggressive treatment he will beat it again! With appropriate timing, we gratefully moved into our new home the day before Thanksgiving. In fact, we moved our crap in and then jumped in the truck to head to Montana for Thanksgiving all in the same day!

We closed the year out by watching The Rancher’s Sidekick first Christmas program, Christmas shopping, The Rancher breaking a few ribs, a week long trip to Tijuana and strep throat. We were delighted to stay home for Christmas to celebrate the season and enjoy our new house!

Yep, looking back we had a crazy year, but I don’t think that I would have changed anything about it. OK, I could have done without camping in snow in July or the morning sickness or The Rancher breaking a few ribs (I mean, did you have to do it right when we were finishing moving in?!) but we learned and lived and laughed so much! I love and appreciate my family more this year than ever and truly look forward to the coming year. In some regards I’m a little afraid, because I have learned that times can be tough. But I have also learned that together we can get through it all!

Expanding the Herd

December 8, 2015 by Allison

With all the preg checking done with for the fall, we look to be having a great calf crop on its way. The heifers are set to begin dropping calves towards the end of February and the cows to start shortly after that. As always, March will be a busy month for us, but that’s ok… Springtime babies are so fun!

The cows won’t be the only ones to expand their herd in 2016. You guessed it- our little ranch family is expanding by one! As any good ranch wife would, I’m due to calve right with all the other cows the beginning of March. The Rancher has already said that it will work out great to check the cows and check me all at the same time. That comment only got him a swift kick in the pants!

We are delighted to have a another little cowBOY on the way, something that The Rancher’s Sidekick has known from the beginning. Before we even knew pink or blue he was telling everyone that he was going to have a new baby brother. The Ranch Princess is loving the prospect of a baby around the house and tells me everyday that my tummy is getting BIG. Thanks…. The Rancher is excited too, but I see it only through his comments of me being in good shape for calving or that he will be sure to bring the chains along the way to the hospital, just in case. And of course I am excited, and terrified all at the same time. What if The Rancher is in the middle of pulling a calf when I need to go? Who is going to do night calving while we are at the hospital? What if he gets stuck in Locomotive were I can’t call him? Ya know, normal pregnant wife concerns…. When I try to get some answers out of my cowboy, he just says that I don’t really need him anyway and it will all work out.

He is right, it will all work out… Somehow it will all workout…

2016 Cowboy Calendar

December 7, 2015 by Allison

Life has ben crazy but I still couldn’t NOT make a few calendars! After having a few years of calendar making under my belt it really didn’t take too much to put these together and I just love how they turned out.

And now after my yeas of wisdom, I have found a new printer where I have been able to SIGNIFICANTLY drop the prices! Now you can get a 2016 Cowboy Calendar for on $8.49. If you are interested, email, comment on this post or message me on Facebook and I will get your order in!

A Family Cattledrive

November 11, 2015 by Allison

Oh boy was this a crazy summer! With all the ropings, family events, community activities, and building a house we were running in every direction. To help things out, the cows decided they didn’t need much moving for the summer. For real… Between the field rotation we were on and the rains it seemed we hardly had to move the cows. The unfortunate thing about that was that I didn’t have many opportunities to ride with the guys or take any photos.

On the one chance I had to saddle up, the whole family got to tag along. We really weren’t even moving to new field, just pushing the cows to a different trough. So even though it wasn’t too much of a ride, it was perfectly short enough that we knew they would last and have a great time. We have my old horse from when I was a kid that The Rancher’s Sidekick has claimed. And the Ranch Princess bounced around between me, Rancher Sr., Cowboy E, and The Rancher. It might not have been much, but we made a few good memories.

10 Lessons Learned as a Rancher’s Wife… Part 2

October 3, 2015 by Allison

Last year I gave you a handful (ok 2 handfuls) of things that I’ve learned as my time as a rancher’s wife. Let me tell ya, that was not an all included list. There are so many gems out there. If people really only knew all the truths of making it married to a cowboy they would say we live such a bizarre life! So as weird as you may think I am, I have another 10 lessons I’ve learned.

There gonna be dirt. And manure. And mud. And dust and grit and weeds and anything else dirty you can think of. Ok so that isn’t too much of a stretch to imagine all that until you start to think of all the places this dirtiness goes. If it’s on your boots it’s on your floor. If it’s on your pants it’s on the couch. If it’s on your hands it’s on every blasted light switch, door handle, counter, key, or button you touch! So this is my advice: DON’T EVER CLEAN!! It’s all going to be messy all the time, so don’t worry about putting any effort to it… Ok that’s not how I roll. I do clean. The barn dirt and germs can stay in the barn but you have to pace yourself. Or hire a maid. I’d really love a maid…
Learn your 1st aid and always keep band aids on hand. It’s one if those Murphy proof things. If your prepared it’s not gonna happen, right?! Actually no… Cowboys think that they are either invincible and nothing will happen to them or they are can handle any type of wound or pain. And that leads to another lesson- know how to MAKE them stop and get real help. My rancher is pro at washing it in the ditch and calling it good. It’s only after I make him go to the doctor that he realizes that a pretty intense infection has set in and I was right.
You can hope for a set dinner time but don’t be heart broken when he’s late. In fact, that is more of the rule than the exception. Some machinery will brake down or a pipe will break or he might just forget what time dinner is on. That gives you two options- you either start eating without him or slap a smile on your face and wait. Its as simple as that.
Ranching and cowboying can be tough work but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun. They really are just little boys playing with bigger toys. Having to saddle the horse to go rope a bull or load up the motorbike to bring in a few strays might be their job but that doesn’t mean they don’t get any thrills out of it. You might think then, that since they play all day on horses and tractors and bikes that when they can really go play, they will head out to do something else. But likely not… With any free time they will head to some team roping or start working a new colt or take the bike up in the mountains. Some days its hard to know what is work and what is play! We just roll with it and jump in no matter what he’s doing.
There will be so many hats. So many!! And I’m not talking figuratively. Sure, there is that too- he is the vet, the mechanic, the feeder, the farmer, the business man, the irrigator, and the milker. But right now I mean to tell you that ranchers have so many hats. They buy a new swather and they give him a new hat. He gets a load of feed in an he given another couple of hats. The vet comes around and has a handful of hats to give away. But he still needs a good cowboy hat to the keep the sun off of him so every few months its time for a new one of those. And not to mention that that he needs felt hats and wool hats in the winter. And heaven forbid it when a new hat comes in, we throw an old one out. You’ll get some sort of response like, “But it has a lot of good life in it!” or “I just got it to fit me just right!”. It may be greasy, grimy, poopy, and sporting a nice sweat ring but it MUST stay. Just call him a hat collector and move on… (and sneak a few out to the garbage during spring cleaning!)
Just because you don’t get a paycheck from the ranch doesn’t mean you don’t get called into work. In fact, you are on call… 24/7… no weekends, holidays, or even birthdays off. You have to have a really good excuse like in the hospital having a baby or on the couch with a broken leg to get off the hook. You never know quite what to expect when it is time to drop everything and go help. It could be something quick like stand on the road to turn the cows or come help moves the trucks to the next field ready to farm. But it could be in the middle of the night because you have to help with the calving. Or it could be an all day thing and you are sent on a parts run. I guess that’s what you sign up for when you marry a rancher, but you could always try to guilt him into a nice foot rub at the end of your long day!
Have you ever seen a cowboy in a tux? I mean, aside from a wedding, where the groom was threatened within an inch of his life that if he didn’t where his tux on the MOST important day of his life his bride would throw out his favorite rope, slash the tires on his truck and smash his best cowboy hat. His formal attire looks a lot like his work attire except that its clean. He will still have his boots, belt and buckle, jeans and a good western shirt topped off by his favorite hat. If its super fancy he might throw on a tie, but you can guarantee that it won’t last the night. I’ve been told that I can get all fancied up and it will work for the two of us. Naturally, If I’m dressed up appropriately for whatever event we are at, he is too simply by association. Honestly, I stopped caring… So long as he is clean and doesn’t stink, jeans and boots suit me just fine!
You will find that no matter the experience you are trying to help him relate to, he will find a way to compare it to ranching. You want him to understand that you are trying to eat nutritiously and he starts talking about feed supplements and offers you a salt block. You are trying to help him understand that he has to move the furniture when he vacuums and he realizes its much like how he has to move the wheel lines to cut all the hay. The best is when it comes to having babies, nursing babies, and raising babies. He is the expert in this field since every year he helps hundreds of mothers and babies. I guess that means that he is trying to get it if he is making the effort to make the comparisons.
This next little lesson was a hard one to take… A rancher isn’t always that sympathetic. There is no room for weakness in cowboying. It doesn’t matter the reason you need a little pat on the back… If you want to be out with the guys you had better suck it up and tough it out. After enough days of trying to get a “thanks, honey” for the late nights checking cows, early mornings haying, painfully cold days calving, or sweltering afternoons of hot fencing I’ve just decided its not gonna happen. I guess when your job demands that you show up no matter the conditions, you just expect it out of everyone else. And wives are no exception… Darn it…
When its movie night, just go for the western. You will never go wrong with a little gun play, a few pretty ponies and the handsome cowboy saving the day. When in doubt go with John Wayne or Tom Selleck. Or if you have the time you could even go with Lonesome Dove (although I have to admit, I have only done that once… and I think that’s plenty). Fortunately, there is a plethera of great old westerns that will make your cowboy proud to ride and a little more manly at the end of the night.

Here’s one last bonus thought… Crap runs downhill, therefore stay upriver, upwind and out of the spray zone!

A New House

June 7, 2015 by Allison

Big things are happening, folks! BIG THINGS! I (and The Rancher of course) am building a new house! It has always been a dream to build my own home and this summer we are making it a reality. I’ve wanted to share my news with you for so long but I wanted to make sure it was really happening. I mean, how rough would it be to make that kind of announcement and then be devastated by reality?! Heartbreaking, I’m sure.

Like any house building project it’s been simple. No big things to mull over. No learning curve to overcome.

Ya right! It’s been crazy prep work that we’ve done over the last year. But honestly, the toughest decision has been the “where” of it all. A place that gives us a nice view, our own space and definitely on the same side of the old highway as where dad works (because yes, my kids have scooted their little bodies across the road by themselves!). We found a treasure of a place when The Rancher had the idea to build where another old, old, OLD house stood. It had trees, the view, the yard and most importantly, it’s in the right side of the road.

When we finally realized this was the summer to build it meant we had to get to work making a place for a house. The old house (commonly called The Broken House by my kids because it really was old and broken) hadn’t been used for more than storage in 30 years. I would say nobody lived in it, but that’s not entirely accurate- there was a a few happy families of rats and mice and all sorts of other yucky creepy creatures.

It had been our plan to keep and remodel a lot of the existing house but unfortunately we could see it just wasn’t sound. With my luck I would have put in my pretty new cabinets and shiny new appliances and they would all go crashing down if we left the old structure. So we had our work cut out for us. The whole house had to come down to the bare basement. My vote was to just take a match to it. Or push it all in with a bulldozer. All very fast and certainly effective. But being the smart man that he is, The Rancher wanted take it apart more carefully to save every thing that was good. We were able to save all the good lumber in the floor and walls along with the outside walls. We actually just lifted the roof off (ok, more truthfully, we made the roof cave in) and cut the outside walls down to use later. Where, I don’t know but there are done walls ready to make some kind of shed…

The demoition part of our project began at the first of January. I’ve never been so delighted and so satisfied to punch a whole in the wall. I’ve also never been sore like i was after swinging a sledge hammer like that for so many days! It took months to take down walls, clean it up and move on to the next room to do it all over again. But all the sudden the house was gone and we were digging for the foundation!

Ironically we had to put things on hold for a couple of weeks at the beginning of Msy. I say it’s ironic because there was too much rain that it slowed us to a stop. I NEVER would have thought we would have rain like that for so many days. It was so hard to not cuss the rain because we have needed it so badly for so long! I didn’t dare tell the man upstairs that his answer to our prayers came at an inconvenient time…

Eventually the storm clouds parted and my floor was laid! And then I blinked and the walls were up! It’s been incredible to watch it unfold right in front of me. I am so happy, so excited and so (happily) stressed.

And unfortunately that is why my little blog has been somewhat neglected. I’m just pulled in so many ways and throwing a house in the middle of it all didn’t help! But maybe I can appease myself by sharing it with you here. You want to hear about how a rancher’s wife puts a house up, right? I’m sure there are life lessons being learned that are worth someone reading about!

The old house… Taken as The Rancher took the porch roof off.

The upstairs completely gutted. At this point we took out the windows, the final studs and then began taking the outside walls down.

No windows or doors…

Goodbye old house!

We borrowed a track hoe from some great neighbors to do the work. And I have to say that being able to operate this is a serious talent!

The walls are going down!

A last look from the inside.

The roof fell in…

And no more house!

Footings- the first new construction!

Pouring the foundation walls…

The floor system in (and beautiful green EVERYWHERE!)

The first wall up.

The best little helpers… They have loved every bit of this!

More walls

Beautiful progress!

Eliason Branding 2015 Day 1

May 10, 2015 by Allison

This last week I had the scariest thing happen… I thought I lost my external hard drive! It stores all of my photos and if it was gone I was gonna be in big trouble. And heartbroken. Mostly heartbroken.

But I found it!! This means I can finally share the many MANY more pictures I have.

Today’s tale and pictures to post- our branding!

With having so many cows at home to calve, we had so many calves to brand here on the ranch. We made a weekend of it, inviting cowboys and cowgirls out to help. Day one consisted of all the calves on the ranch- two heifer groups and 3 cow groups. The nice about when we did these was that they had already been tagged, castrated and given one shot. We sailed through these calves! For most of the day I was giving shots on my own and I could barely keep up! It also meant that there wasn’t a lot of down time to take pictures. So not a lot of day one… Mostly a shot here and there between groups, set up, clean up… But stay tuned for day two!

Click the “read more” link below to view the complete post…

A Little Cattle Character

March 27, 2015 by Allison

I like cows… And I like them for more than eating. I actually think they are really funny to watch. They have their own funny quirks and personality. I may humanize them a bit, ok a LOT bit. But it keeps things interesting.

The Rancher probably thinks that I am crazy and he probably gets tired of my cow watching, but he just gets to deal with it. I’m sure that he gets sick of me taking the cow’s side when I say things like, “I wouldn’t want to run if I was 9 months pregnant!” as he is chasing cows. Or when he frustrated with a cow that just won’t hold still as they preg check her, I tell him I wouldn’t want someone’s arm up my huh-huh and would DEFINITELY squirm. I may even occasionally tell him he deserves some of the mean-mommy-attitude because he is messing with their babies and the inner momma bear just isn’t ok with it.

Having so many cows at home this winter has given me lots of subjects to watch. They turn into a bunch of obsessive old ladies when it come to feeding time. They have to be the first one to the hay and if another cow starts munching on the wrong flake they sure tell them. They get to head buttin’ and kickin’ and eventually push them right out. “You’re outta the herd!” You can hear them saying that, right?

The babies are their own kind of cute and fun when it comes to watching them. The first attempts at getting up are so wobbly and even funny! Is that mean of me? (I’m sure someone laughed at me when I first started walking, so its all ok…) It doesn’t take long for those babies to get strong and fast and they race across the fields. We’ll be out feeding and you see dozens of calves just take off running. Usually there is one old cow babysitting all those calves and she starts bellering (is that a word?) for them to come back… Darn kids…

I’m sure I give these critters more personality than they may have, but I love the bit of cattle character we see. With so many of the blasted things around, why not change it up a little?

Test Day on the Ranch

March 23, 2015 by Allison

Spring is in the air and we are doing spring things on the ranch. Field work, taking care of new babies, semen testing bulls…

Oh, what? Testing bulls isn’t part of you think of spring time? I know, I’ve been ruined… Its funny the ways that ranch life has influenced my thinking. But yes, when I think about testing bulls and going to bull sales, I feel like spring is in the air.

Testing bulls was as exciting as usual this year. We teased Rancher Sr. about his fun running the torpedo and I took a look or two in the microscope. This year we had Dr. Philip come out to do the testing. The fun about this is that he was actually The Rancher’s roommate from college. That means I get to learn a little dirt on my cowboy. I won’t tell you those things… they aren’t blog-o-sphere appropriate… Actually I’m sure that I would be dead if ever I mentioned those secrets from the Dr.

As weird as it may be, I love test day. I love the medical side of ranching just as much as the daily chores. There is so much that they are looking for when they test- how many swimmers there are in each squirt of semen and how many of those swimmers are good and viable. They measure the scrotal circumference and of course test for Trich.

What a wonderful spring day it was with the good folks from the Bear River Animal Hospital. We heard some great stories, learned some new things and got some important work done. Although, I guess it may be somewhat of an awkward day, at least for the man running the torpedo!