The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

Tagging Calves With The Rancher

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When our calves are about a day old, we head out to tag them.  Our process is pretty simple- tag the left ear if it’s a heifer, right if it’s a bull.  The Rancher just told me, “Just remember HEFT and BRIGHT and you’ll always have it right.”  Wow…  The tag number matches the cow’s number so that we can keep the pairs straight.  I wish cows could read so they would know which baby was theirs…
Every ranch has their own thing when it comes to tagging.  On the ranch that I grew up on we had the sire (the bull) number and the cow number on the tag with the calf’s number.  There were different colored tags depending on the breed of calf.  It made it quick and easy to know just who that calf was.  There are lots of other ways ranchers use their tags to mark their cattle.
When we tag bulls, we also castrate them.  We use an elastrator to do the job.  Sounds high tech, right?  It’s not.  It just stretches the rubber band like elastic (they actually look like a green cheerio) so that we can get it over the scrotum.  You hear all sorts of names for the elastics- bands, cheerios, and my favorite… goonie whoppers!  The younger a calf is when it is castrated, the better they will handle and recover from the stress.  For the most part, using the elastrator is stress free because it slowly pinches off the blood supply to the testes. 
Going out to tag is a one man job, but if you have two it’s certainly easier (and brining kids along just makes it extra exciting).  One guy drives the 4 wheeler and the other grabs the calf.  When I go out with The Rancher, it’s my job to catch the calf.  The Rancher brings over the supplies and gets to work.  He checks the gender, tags, and castrates the bulls.  That’s it. 
If The Rancher’s Sidekick comes, he usually has his rope and in the time it takes to tag the calf, he’s got him tied up.  It’s had to convince him that he doesn’t have to rope EVERY calf…  The Ranch Princess hangs out on the 4 wheeler trying to get it to go… I’m pretty sure that she has figured all but the gas out.  We might have to start turning it off when we stop.  Who knows where she would drive!
Tagging only takes a few minutes for us on the ranch, but they are moments well spent.  The Rancher gets his calves marked, the kids have their fun, and I feel like a helpful rancher wife again!

 

How to Fertility and Disease Test Bulls

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We got to use our new silencer chute (hooray for a new chute!) for the first time last week.  We had 20 bulls to test and we did it in almost half the time that it took when we used the old one (I think The Rancher will keep it…).  It made testing bulls so much more exciting!  As if testing for STDs and fertility isn’t exciting enough!
 
There are regulations that cattle ranchers have to run by, mostly to prevent the spread of diseases through the herd and neighboring cows.  Before we can turn our herd bulls out with the cows, we have to test for trichomoniasis (trich)- a disease that will pass between cows and bulls as they breed.  This test is state regulated and has to be done by a vet.      
 
I feel bad for the bulls (just a little) because the test requires a few penile cells.  To get them they insert a small tube in the folds of the penis and wiggle it around to scrape off a few cells.  They are put into a solution to be sent off to be tested.  Each year we put tags in to show that the bulls have been trich tested and are good to go. 
 
These days, it is more of a precaution than an actual defense against the spread of trich. The vet was telling us that their clinic went out and tested 35,000 bulls and not one of them tested positive for trich.  We like to hear that!
 
Even if we didn’t test for trich, we would still bring the bulls in to test for fertility.  No one makes us do it, but we choose to test as part of our herd management.  When we know that there is a bull shooting blanks, we will pull him.  If he can’t perform he is costing us, mostly for the cows that don’t get bred (which won’t have a calf to sell). 
 
The vet starts with quick scrotal circumference measurement.  It also gives the vet a chance to palpate, or feel, for any deformities or hernias.  We’ve got to make sure that the family jewels are in good condition!
 
That’s the easy part…

In order to test fertility, we need a sperm count.  To get a sperm count, we need the bull’s semen.  To get the semen, we need the bull to ejaculate.  There’s two ways to go about it.  You can manually stimulate the bull by going inside the rectum and rubbing.  Or you can use an electrical pulsator in the rectum. 

We use the puslator, which by has been most commonly called the “Torpedo.”  Or The Rancher’s Sidekick called it a rocket (“Mom, what’s grandpa doing with that rocket?”).  You call it what you want…

Once the bull begins to ejaculate, the vet will catch about a tablespoon of semen.  He takes a few drops of the collected semen to put on a slide to be looked at under his microscope.  He can count the number of sperm and tell if there is enough to consider the bull to be fertile.  He can also see if there are any damaged or dysfunctional sperm.  Even if the pull is making sperm, damaged sperm still won’t do the job.  Once we get the all clear we send the bull on his way and start again with the next.

Not everyone will do fertility testing, just assuming that the young bulls are fertile and will pull them as they get older.  We’re mighty glad we don’t cull bulls that way… We found a three year old bull that didn’t pass his fertility test.  When this happens, we will generally do a second test a few weeks later.  The first test could have just been a rusty load or he really could be infertile.

Thanks to the Bear River Animal hospital for coming out and giving us another exciting lesson on the bull end of cattle reproduction!
 

 

 
 

Our Ranching Start at Locomotive

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Cow With the Uterine Prolapse

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beef Fajitas with The Rancher’s Wife

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Beef Fajitas

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

1 tsp onion flakes

 

 

 

 

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

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

 

I Hate When Death Wins

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This isn’t the post I had intended to share with you today, but I just had to write this (maybe you’ll get a double dose of The Rancher’s Wife today!). 

I hate death.  And I hate that even though as hard as we try, we lose sometimes.  I think I take it personally because it means that I wasn’t enough.  Today I had to face that reality again.   

The temperatures are warming up enough (or I am sick of being inside) that I decided to go for a run this morning.  It was just an ordinary run- I thought I was dying but still going.  I was jamming to my iPod and picking up speed as I headed down the last hill.  This is where it all changed.

I noticed there was a heifer in the already-calved-pen that was stuck on her back.  If a cow gets on her back and her feet uphill she can’t get up alone (sometimes I think I feel like that…). If she is left like that long she could die.  Needless to say, when I got up to her, I called The Rancher to come fix it (because he can fix anything!).  His response was to do it myself… um… no.  I can’t really do a job that takes the two of us.  At this point I noticed that she was calving and so we had even more reason to hurry.

After The Rancher’s speedy arrival (that seemed to take hours) we pushed and pulled and grunted and finally got her un-upside down. Then we realized that she couldn’t stand.  When cows have been trying to have a baby for a longer time than usual, the pressure can make it so that they can’t get up.  This was actually ok because it meant that we could pull the calf right there.

 The nose of the baby was sticking out and we could tell that he was struggling to breath. That calf needed help and every minute counted.  Which meant we didn’t have time for the calf puller or chains or even gloves.  We ended up using a bungee cord to wrap around the calves legs, the wench on our 4 wheeler to do the pulling and yours truly stuck her bare hands into the heifer to help during the tough spots.  It wasn’t the most conventional way of pulling a calf, but it worked.

Once we got the calf out, we went to work getting him breathing.  A lot of times just tickling the inside of their nose will make them sneeze and that’s enough to jump start them.  But that didn’t work…

We tried rubbing his back and chest, trying to wake him up a little more.  That didn’t help…

The Rancher got down to him and tried some mouth to nose breathing.  With every breath he would give, the calf’s heart would beat a little faster… for a while.  But eventually it wasn’t enough and his heart stopped.  He died even though we were there to help him.  He died while we were doing all we could.  He died while my hand was resting on his little chest, willing his heart to beat again.

There comes a point when see that you are going to lose.  And its at this point you put everything you have into it, denying the horror that is becoming reality.  You hope that your will and determination will cause something miraculous to happen so that you don’t have to face the truth.  The truth that calf has died.

This is one of those days that we don’t love on the ranch.  We are reminded that we have limits and that there are some things we just can’t fix.  And I hate that.  I really hate when death wins.

Calving on the Ranch

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*Just a little note- I have picture of a few cows giving birth.  Its not too pretty.  These are definitely not my photo contest photos… You’ve been warned!
 

Watching a baby being born is such an incredible experience.  That includes watching a baby calf being born.  Its not too often that you get to see it.  With my luck I make it just as momma is done and licking baby off.  But the other day I managed it just right to see this little baldy calf being born!

After having my own babies, I am so impressed with the instincts that these first time heifers have.  There are no doctors or nurses or even husbands to help them through it all and (for the most part) they rock it!

We take a lot time to check the cows to make sure that things go right when they deliver their calves.  First time mommas have more problems than the seasoned cows, which is why we keep them close to home. 

Generally, we know that when a cow has left the herd and is acting a little antsy, it is probably in labor (that’s how I feel too…).  We know for sure that she is calving when we can see a water bubble and the feet sticking out.  At this point the calf should be born within the next hour or two and if its not, its time to jump in and help.

Seeing those feet coming out is a good indicator of how things are going.  If the toes are pointing up its good news.  If they’re not, it means that calf is coming backwards and you’ve got some work to do.  The cow might be at this stage for a while because she is working to push the shoulders and head through.  But once they do come, gravity helps out and the rest calf quickly comes.

A momma’s instincts kick in fast once that baby has hit the ground.  The cow is quick to get up to start licking and cleaning her new little baby.  The mom side of me thinks that those licks are part momma loves!  The calf’s instincts kick in fast too because as soon as it can, it will stand up and look to start nursing.  That first bit of milk (colostrum) is SUPER important because it contains nutrients and antibodies that will help give energy and a strong immunity.

If all of this has gone down without a hitch you can pat yourself on the back and leave them for a while.

But…

… things don’t always go the right way.  When we talk about calving there is always a lot of “if-s” and “should-s” and “generally-s” and “usually-s” because we plan on there being problems once in a while.  Murphy has a permanent residence here at the ranch…

The first thing to do (after we manage to get the mamma to the maternity pen) once we realize a cow needs help is to figure out exactly what is going on.  We face a whole variety of issues like one leg being stuck back, the head being turned the wrong way, the back feet or bum coming first, or the baby being too big for a first time heifer to have alone.  The figuring is the easy part.  Getting the calf in right position is the tricky part.  I mean, you have The Rancher pushing the calf in, grabbing that one leg to get it in just the right place all while momma is having contractions and pushing on the already stuck calf.  And there is only room for one hand to do the work.  Yep… kinda tricky!

When the calf is finally in the right position the cowboys put some chains around the legs and connect it to a sort of jack.  Its brilliantly name “The Calf Puller”… With some steady pulling the baby is able to come much easier.  And Ta Da!  A calf is born!

Congratulations, its a bull!

To see all of the many exciting pictures, click the “read more” link below!

 

 
 
 

 

 

Spring in January

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You must have been praying for some snow with us because the weatherman is calling for a sever winter storm with 12″ of snow in the valleys and 2-3 feet in the mountains!  Yahoo!

Of course it is coming just as we are about to start calving… so I guess now we pray that the calves will keep warm.  Oh, the life of a rancher!

With all of the storms heading our way, its hard to believe that less than a month ago our lawns were bare.  Our Christmas snow had melted with a few of warm and sunny days.  It felt like spring!

The Rancher has really had some spring fever and has been sprucing up the ranch.  He has been doing some intense cleaning in the shop and sheds- he even found the back wall of one!  They have done some corral repairs and he has even trimmed up the trees.

I don’t know how professional pruners take care of the trees, but I would feel safe guessing that they don’t use a tractor and a chainsaw like these ranch boys!  But I guess when that’s what life gives ya, you go with what you got!

Pavlov’s Cow at Feeding Time

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Once upon a time there was a great psychologist named Pavlov and he had a dog.  He trained his dear pooch to drool whenever he would ring a bell.  At the beginning of his experiment, Pavlov would ring the bell each time he set out the dog’s food. Soon enough the dog learned that when the bell rang he would get food and of course would drool profusely when the food arrived.  Eventually the dog would start drooling just when he heard the bell, even before he would see the food.

We have cows much like this dog.  Ok… no… not really. They don’t drool and there is no experiment happening on the ranch.  But over time they have learned that when the feed truck drives through the gate it means feeding time.  Its cool to see our cows come running when ever the feed truck goes through the gate!

Lets go sledding!

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Have I mentioned that I LOVE living on a ranch?  I love all of the things that the ranch brings and today I am loving having a 4 wheeler and fields of snow to pull my kids on their sleds.  I know that are so many great places to raise kids, but this is the best place for me to raise MY kids!

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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