The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

Camping out on the Range to Catching Horses

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We brand nearly every weekend of April, and sometimes that even runs into May.  With so many cattle spread so far across the range it takes several different days to gather up the cattle to get the work done.  The weekend we did so many calves at the ranch and then again at our private ground in Locomotive we still had the association branding to do the following day (Saturday).  Instead of driving back and forth so much we decided to just camp out.

We were full of adventurous expectations of shooting guns, riding bikes, and other exciting stuff (ok… so I can’t remember all of the ideas we had but I know they were awesome!) but after two full days of branding we were pooped out.  That really meant all we had energy for was to sit and do nothing.  Everyone was pretty ok with that… Except there was one thing we all HAD to do.  Because although we were camping and roughing it, we did have one admit request of The Cattlewoman- we had to shower!  I don’t blame her for not wanting a bunch of stinky cowboys and cowgirls in her trailer so we obliged.  And with so many to shower that pretty well filled our day.  We showered.  We ate.  We slept.  We talked.  It was great fun!

There was a teensy bit of excitement when some of the guys thought they should go hunting for the big rat in old shack.  Doesn’t shooting at a rat in a dark shack in the dark of the night sound exciting to you.  Mind you that the shack would have fallen down at any time if they hit it in just the right spot… Boys…

The following morning we woke to a wonderful surprise- no wind!  That might not sound like such a big deal, but we had been hammered with the wind for days.  For just a moment we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunrise without any wind.

The Rancher Princess and I followed The Rancher out to catch horses for the days work.  The horses weren’t really cooperating… they ran and ran and RAN!  Not the way The Rancher wanted to start his day but it made for a fun little photo shoot for me.

Eliason Branding 2015 Day 2

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I love rainy days!  For so many reasons… Of course because we need the rain- we need the rain SO badly.  But I love the rain because then we slow down a bit and I have time to go through the HUNDREDS of pictures that are calling to me.  So… without any further time… here are some long overdue pictures.  Pictures from our second day of branding.

There’s a funny story that goes along with this day…

Since we were branding out on the range and camping out that night we had a lot to take out and a lot of rigs hauling it all.  We all eventually make it and get to starting.  The early comers had already started gathering the cattle in so the late arrivers started pulling out the equipments.  We think, “everything looks good…”  We have half the cows we usually have to do, all day to do them, and lots of good help.  This should be a great day!

The herd comes in, the cows go back out and we get the fire started.  The Rancher and Rancher Sr. start pulling out all the stuff that they carry around and need for each calf.  They sharpen their knives, I fill their syringes, they grab their taggers and tags… No tags!  We had no tags!  (actually we had like 22, maybe- but still not enough!)  Kinda an important part of the day! 

We just kinda twiddled our thumbs about it and got started anyway.  But uh… no tags, fellas!  Eventually we decided that we would tag all that we could and kick them back out to the mommas.  Then we branded, vaccinated, castrated, marked- did EVERYTHING except the tags, to the rest of the calves.  We held them all until had more tags, which only happened because The Ranch Boss had graciously volunteered to drive home to grab tags to save the day!

The cowboys didn’t mind too much that we had a kink in our day.  It meant that we weren’t pushing too hard, which gave them a chance to do a little extra fun roping.  They pulled out their fancy big loops once in a while and headed and heeled a satisfying amount.  We got the work done, ate some good grub and marked another day down in the books!

 Click “read more” below to see more photos!

Eliason Branding 2015 Day 1

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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…

Becoming a Real Cowgirl

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Ever since I married my cowboy I have wanted to rope.  I grew up riding and working cattle, but we never got into roping.  We were more on the cutting end of the cowboying.  In fact, I still get cranky when I see a cowboy miss a good cut or turn because he was looking for a better shot to throw his rope.  However, I do want to be a real cowgirl and learn to rope.

Over the last couple of years I’ve taken a swing or two with a rope at a dummy- some really intesnse cowgirl stuff.  But more recently my husband and his brothers have taken it upon themselves to finally get this roping thing down.  They have taken me out on some of their less intense branding days, where there wasn’t too much to get down that I could either slow down or get in the way.  Actually that’s not true… I know not to try roping on the busy crazy days because I want to get home before dark or we run out of fire!

It was all good and fun but I wasn’t really figuring it out…  Until just a few weeks ago!

I was honestly ready to give up and say that I just didn’t have it in me to be a roper.  But The Rancher brought me along to one more branding.  He gave me the experienced horse that would take his time (maybe he is slightly lazy…), put on my brand new saddle and I strapped on my new spurs.  I had everything I needed to rock this branding.  Oh wait- I didn’t have a rope!

We show up to our good friends where we were roping.  There were 160 calves to brand and we were ready to get going.  The Rancher just grabbed some old rope out of the trailer and we headed out.  And I was terrible.  I couldn’t hardly even keep my coils straight, couldn’t swing the rope to save my life, and missed every calf I tried for.  For as many times I threw that rope I should have caught one by accident, even snagged one as it walked over my loop… but I didn’t.

I was ready to turn in and promote myself to the ground crew when one of the cowboys rode up to me, took my rope and traded it for his.  He said there was no way in … that I could catch with that thing!  He rode off and I figured I oughtta give it one more go, just to humor him.  And guess what happened- I caught!

The very first loop I threw caught a calf!  I just about forgot to dally because I was so surprised and so elated.  I got my horse turned to the fire and drug my first calf in, get congrats and hoorays from everyone along the way- you would have thought I had just won the lottery for as excited as we were!  They slid off my rope and I was out for another calf.  I had to try again to make sure it wasn’t just luck, although I was sure that my friend must have rubbed a bit of luck on it.  But as I kept going at it I kept catching.  It was like I was really figuring it out!  There was one time I had my arm up just right, rolling my wrist just right, and threw my rope just right.  The rope landed right in front of those back feet just like it was supposed to.  I was so excited that I totally forgot to pull my slack and actually catch the calf before he stepped back out…

I went home that day floating on clouds.  I wasn’t a perfect roper or the best roper, but that day I finally became a roper.  Now that I have my own saddle (because one day The Rancher said, “We need to get you your own saddle” and no good cowgirl says no to that!) some sweet new spurs and my own new rope (full of calf catching luck) I am on my way to being a real cowgirl.

*** I don’t have any picture roping that day, but I do have a few from a few weeks later taken by my sister in law, The Montana Girl.***

Association Branding- Day 1

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We ad our first glorious day of branding our BLM cows with the association over the weekend.  It was pleasantly a typical day with no surprises.  The wind blew, the food was great, we all returned home covered in dust and we got a lot of branding done. 

In between giving calves shots (because that is my specialty) I had some time to take some other awesome shots!  (I guess I really am specializing in one thing!)  There were some fun moments for me to capture- like a pair of pants that just didn’t last the day and are beyond repair!  Of course my little boy always has his rope in hand ready to attempt to rope a calf. 

I even had a new memory to capture…  There were a few boys with a grocery sack they passed back in forth throughout the day as they were collecting all of the testicles.  Why?  I dunno… Maybe to give to their dog or cook up for themselves.  But I wonder if they kept them…  Cowboy E kindly fried up a rocky mountain oyster for them.  They weren’t impressed with the taste… AT ALL!  In fact I think one boy said that it was absolutely awful. 

Then there were the classic moments to capture…  I always find a face or two grimacing at the stink of the singed hair or carefully placed quick the calf just gave.  The cowboys always turn out to be photogenic and ready for a photo shoot.

Brandings have to be some of my favorite ranch life moments to take.  There are the cows, the calves, the horses, the cowboys, the newbies, the oldies, the cooks…  So much to enjoy.  And now that I’ve rambled enough you really can enjoy!

Team Branding at Bancroft

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Our weekends have been busy- like something every weekend. Family reunions, parties, and of course, team brandings. One of The Rancher’s favorite team brandings is at small town Bancroft, Idaho. 
Being in such a remote area with nothing around it but farms and ranches, you can see why he likes it. Only the real cowboys come out, and even though it’s competitive roping, those cowboys make it a good time. 
I might have mentioned before that I’m working in my roping. I want to be a REAL cowgirl, so I figure I better get this roping thing down. The Rancher thought that this would be a great time to give it a try. “I’ll put her right in your loop, babe. It’ll be easy!”  Ya… I said no… I got a little stage fright. I better practice up a little more before I put some money down. And if your gonna lose (which I most likely would) you better look good doing it, and I’m pretty sure I would have just looked like a fool!  Turns out it was a good choice to not rope because a big ol’ storm came through with some crazy wind. I could just see me roping myself with that kind of wind…  
But next year… I’ll get all practiced up and next year I’ll do it!  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

A Day at the Blackfoot Team Penning & Branding

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I already told you how our day ended when we took the heifers to the team penning and branding, and as promised I have pictures of the day.  I have to tell you that I LOVED having my new camera!  Its amazing to be able to stop a rope mid-air or to get the dirt flying.  Mmmm…

When I was telling a friend what we on the summer weekends he couldn’t believe that when we have time off to play, all we do is sort and brand heifers.  Yep, we love being cowboys so much that its pretty much all we do!

Now if you’re wondering what a team penning and branding is, I’ll tell you.  The first event is the team sort.  They throw out 10 heifers (numbered 0-9) and the cowboys are given a number for the first heifer that they sort out first.  Once they find her, they find the rest in the sequence until the time runs out.

The penning is really similar.  Instead of finding the heifers in a sequence they have to find 3 heifers, all with the same number.  Then they push them to the other end where a pen is set up (hence the reason it is called penning…).

And the late (and probably my favorite to watch) is the team branding.  The teams have 4 heifers to head, heel, and brand (with pancake mix, of course).  There are 4 guys to a team, 2 to rope and 2 to do the branding.  They switch in the middle, so that everyone gets a turn to rope…  It wouldn’t be fair if they didn’t, now would it!

I’ll admit that sometimes it can get a little long, but there are some dang good horses that can make an awesome cut.  There are a few little bloopers along the way that always make it exciting.  They did a youth penning team that was so fun to watch.  These kids are on the way too be some stinking’ good cowboys (sadly I had my camera put away at this point…).  Then we end the day with some dang good ropers!  That certainly includes my cowboy, The Rancher… he got 2nd place!  Enough winnings to pay for supper, what more could a wife ask for!

A Roundup- Ranches Branding From Montana to Kansas (and some in between)

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We aren’t the only ones busy branding this time of year.  And I’m not the only one blogging about it (although with my number of posts over the last few weeks you might think I own the corner on it!).  Its always fun for me to see how others ranches do it and the pictures that they put up.  And I love reading the histories of branding that they write.  Do you check them out?

Its ok if you don’t, because I grabbed a healthy handful of the ones I found lately.  You should read them!

Some of these have great photos, others have great descriptions of how they brand.  Two are posts from people that don’t normally brand, and its interesting to hear their take on it all!

Many Irons in the Fire

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Having 760 cows means that we have to find places for all of them, which means that we have groups spread out on the range.  Some of them are on our own private ground but a good majority of them run with other ranches on the Association rangeland.  And that means that when we go branding we have EVERYONE’s cattle to brand!

The upside to this is that we have plenty of help to brand our calves, but that comes with the price of going out every weekend to brand (but that’s a price we are so happy to pay).  It takes a LOT of time to get so many calves branded! 

The group that we run with has 7 different brands in the fire!  With so many different operations running together, we want to make sure that we get it right on branding day.  The ropers are limited to the ranch owners or other cowboy they designate.  The ropers have to be good at finding a mothered up pairs and recognizing which brand it will need.  Talk about pressure!

Not only do we need to make sure we get the right brand on the right calf, but each operation has its own vaccines and marks to do.  Each ranch sets up their branding station and is responsible for doing their own ground work.  If you want a job done right, I guess you do it yourself, right?  Actually there are a lot of the men that have run together for YEARs and YEARS that would do a fine job of doing work on each others cattle.  But for the sake of not confusing the help, we don’t do too much crossover.

Since we are trying to get as many done as possible we don’t use the Nord forks.  The time a roper would be tied up is time that he could be roping, which is precious.  So they drag in their calf, the ground crew pounces and mugs the calf.  They slide the rope off to send the roper back to rope and then they get to work.

When you write it out and explain it, it sounds crazy and a lot of work.  But after doing it for so long, its amazing how you just know what to do! 

 

 

Almost as Good as a Photo Shoot

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I love taking pictures on the ranch- that’s why I have this blog.  And branding time is one of my FAVORITE times to take pictures.  The gathering, roping, riding, and fun times together are just too awesome to not capture.  In fact, last weekend I took like 1,400 pictures!  Its almost like having my own cowboy photo shoot!

A lot of the pictures were duplicates (which have been deleted…) because I set my camera to burst mode to make sure that I don’t miss a thing.  And some don’t turn out, so its not like I have 1,400 picture to share.  But I do have a lot!  You’ve been warned, there are a lot of photos here… (like more than a hundred…)

 
Click “Read More” for the rest of the pictures!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
 
 

 

 

 

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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