Cowboy Nature - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Feeding Frosty Cows

February 1, 2017 by Allison

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

January 25, 2017 by Allison

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.

2017 Cowboy Calendar

December 3, 2016 by Allison

I don’t know what kind of terrific mood I was in this fall, but I was DETERMINED to get my calendar up and going way earlier this year. And I did! It was a good thing that I did since it took a while to get the proofing and shipping and what-not done.

But…

No more waiting! The calendars are here at my house waiting to send them to you!! If you are interested you can either email me directly at theidahorancherswife@gmail.com or you can find it on my etsy shop online HERE.

Here is a little taste of the photos featured in this year’s calendar!

Not Lost, But Certainly Not Sure Where we Are

September 19, 2016 by Allison

Hey, friends. Do you feel abandoned…. again? Summer just gets so darn busy (I think I’ve told you that the last 3 years!) that some things just have to go and since I can’t stand to go without clean underwear or cleaning my house it is, unfortunately, my blog that gets neglected. But lucky for you I still take lots of pictures and remember the good stories so I can still keep you caught up.

Like this one day that we were almost lost.

I say almost because I don’t want to ever admit I was lost, but if there ever was a day, it was this one.

Let me set the stage. It was a beautiful and lovely fall day when the guys were gathering the cattle from Cow Hollow (the summer range pasture) to take into Black Pine to wean the following week. It takes about three days to get everything gathered and moved to the corrals (not to mention the week that it takes for the lost stragglers to make it down!) where they can work them and we were on the last day. The herd goes right past another set of corrals that conveniently works great to stop and sort off any extra pairs that don’t belong or castrate any bulls or that sort of thing.

Normally the cowboys are on their own for an exciting sack lunch, but on this lucky day, one good ranch wife suggested we meet up at the corrals with the cowboys to grill some burgers. We jumped on that idea, because the cowboys were tired of eating sandwiches, we were tired of making sandwiches and we were really tired of seeing some of those sandwiches come back home. Ya know, we ranch wives end up in a terrible conundrum- we have to make sure that we make send enough food and enough sandwiches to keep the cowboys full and happy. But at the same time, too many sandwiches are a bad thing. They come home all warm and soggy and no one wants a leftover sticky, soggy sandwich so they end up in the garbage. So you can see why we jumped on the burger idea.

We, The Montana Girl, The Cattlewoman, and I, loaded up in the truck with 4 babies, a load of buns, patties, and sheet cake and headed out to find the boys. I had never been to the corrals we were headed to but The Rancher had given me some sketchy directions where we headed. I knew the general area we were looking for hope that the landmarks I did know were enough to help us get. Luckily, Rancher Sr. gave his sweet heart even better directions than I had, so I just opted to leave the navigating to her.

Our instructions were pretty simple- after the road goes straight, take the only road headed to the right shortly before the road goes under the freeway. Pretty simple, right? We thought so. We got to the straight part of the road and started looking for a road that headed off to the right. And we found one, but it looked more like a goat trail, so we figured it didn’t count. We kept going and saw ourselves another road and this was a real road. It had to be a real road because it actually had a road sign. And we were sure we should take it because the sign said “Cow Hollow” and that’s where the cows were coming from. So we took it.

We knew that once we got on the road, all we had to do was drive a half mile and then take the fork to the right and we would see the corrals. Well, we didn’t see the corrals…. buuuut we could see some cows so we kept going. We got to the cows and they weren’t ours and our cowboys were NOWHERE to be found. So what’s a girl to do in such a situation?

Just keep driving, of course. I have to tell you at this point we just kept laughing (laughing seemed a better option than crying) because we knew that something was up. Either we didn’t follow what seemed to be simple directions or our directions were bad. And to make our situation seem worse, we were out of cell phone service so we couldn’t even call anyone to let us know where to go or what to do! Typical, right?

So we kept driving. And driving. We figured they had to be this way because they were bringing cows from Cow Hollow… and the road we were on was Cow Hollow so logically we were headed in the right direction, right? So we kept driving. Through one gate… and then another. The farther up the road we got, the more we laughed and slowly conceded that we didn’t really know where we were going. But despite our dire circumstances there was a bright spot in it all- we had the cake and chocolate cake makes anything better!

We were steadfastly watching our phones and Tada- finally we got service! The Rancher picked up and just laughed when I explained our exciting predicament. We were way, WAY off! So we found the least scary place to turn around at (because there aren’t too many places for a U-turn out in the hills) and headed back to the road. It turns out that it was really simple to get there, we just hadn’t gone far enough down the road to take the right right! All we needed was for someone to have said, turn JUST BEFORE the highway, or AT the turn. Nevertheless, we made it.

Now if there is a lesson in all this, its this: a man should know to give detailed directions to his wife. Sure the directions we were given were accurate and simple, but without the details we had to fill in the blanks ourselves and that didn’t turn out good! But we know that DETAILS just aren’t a part of a man’s brain so the reality is that detailed directions will never happen. Which means the real lesson in all this is that every ranch wife needs to know EVERY inch of land, EVERY road, EVERY corral… EVERY blasted sage brush so that when they say “meet me here,” you actually know where to go and don’t take an hour long scenic route.

Despite the craziness and somewhat stressfulness, it was a lot of fun. Not any fun I want to repeat anytime soon, but we certainly made some memories.

The Last of the Association Branding

May 28, 2015 by Allison

How about a little different post? Still lots of pictures but instead of a wind up with some sort of an interesting story, lets do a commentary. A running commentary to let you know what I was seeing when I took each picture.

Ready?

Riding in the herd…

Brothers… The little brother was pestering the older brother, the older brother took down the younger brother and commenced the Chinese torcher tap. Nothing but true love there!

The Ranch Boss just had his 87th birthday and refuses to stop. He may slow a little, but he is determined to never quit.

I just thought this blaze was funny… Like, bummer birth mark or something…

You find cowboy style and personality everywhere. Some cowboys go simple and some like bling everywhere, even by their horses slobbery mouth.

When I got up close I realized that he had his name on his spurs- AWESOME! And he has some cool red top boots peeking out. That’s like cowboy lingerie, right there!

Horses on the range- its a beautiful site.

There isn’t a better place for kids to be than out in the middle of nowhere branding.

The Rancher’s Sidekick always has to be in the middle of it all. At the point in the day he had proclaimed it his job to stand on the leg so it wouldn’t move. Don’t know that we needed it but I’m glad that he found a job he could rock.

The saddle- a cowboy spends many long hours in this seat… It better be just to his liking!

Just a boy giving shots, but once again… its a great place for a growing boy to be.

Dragging calves in…

Sure glad he has a cap on that… Sometimes people get unintentional vaccinations

Thank goodness for back pockets because when your hands get full there is always a place to hang your tagger and your clips.

We always load up toy for the kids. In fact I think there ends up being a whole sand pile worth of toys out there!

And then sometimes they end up hauling more than just dirt. The Rancher’s Sidekick started gathering up discarded nuts and taking them to the dogs. I’m glad that was all he was doing with them…

The Rancher’s uncle… I’ve known him for quite a while and he has ALWAYS had the mustache. The length of the handle bars has varied over the years but it is truly his signature!

I know he wasn’t really posing, but I tease that everyone is so used to striking a pose for me that it is just second nature to stand picture ready!

How many boys does it take get a calf down? Lots… and still the calf will give ’em a run for their money!

It got dusty… no surprise. And it looked cool.

Gathering the herd in for the after lunch branding. Taking a pit stop at the watering hole…

Rancher Sr. doing what he does best. He has become such a great friend. I love having him for a father-in-law.

When you ride next to me you are going to have your picture taken. And I love them even if you aren’t looking at the camera!

Cowboys make beautiful photographs… I love my job!

Cows scattered across the range- this is why we bring so many cowboys. And this was only one small corner of our beautiful world. I love having wide open spaces for an office!

Boys in the dirt… need I say more?

We could see a storm moving over the mountains and it was a stunning backdrop.

Love the dramatics of the sky. Having a non dusty windy day was incredible!

A look at the scene from herd side…

One of my favorite cowboys.

Every week there are a few new faces around to help and enjoy the cowboy lifestyle.

A different perspective… But appropriately, looking up to a cowboy

Cute. I love cute calves! Especially the baldy calves.

Drug by the heels. If only he knew what was going to happen to him.

Sisters make the best friends.

Her parents had better be ready for this beauty to grow up. Check out those eyes!

A little saddle bling with your brand on it can never be a bad thing.

Just taking a minute to visit with a friend. Kids and horses were meant to be together.

Any guesses what this coffee can is for? Oh, just to gather nuts in… Calf nuts…

Should we be concerned that there are no adults in this picture?

J4… When the ropers bring in a calf they shout out what brand to put on it- Rocking-A, AE, J4 , Bar over the hip, K+… and many more

When you pester the big boys they just might decide to hog tie you. While I was taking this picture I could hear them saying (in more colorful language) that they unfortunately didn’t have enough rope to finish the job on this growing boy… It was his lucky day, that’s for sure!

Chaps- a functional and fashionable part of the cowboy wardrobe…

Checking out the herd…

This girl will show you how its done!

Following the rope back to the cowboy- my cowboy in this shot…

Looking for the unbranded babies…

A little war paint for a tough day of work!

Feeding as a Family

February 18, 2015 by Allison

Feeding- the pass time of winter. If there is one thing you can guarantee we will be doing this time of year it is putting the hay out. The tedious redundancy gets to The Rancher. He just feels like it eats up his time, doing the same thing over and over. Hmmm… He wouldn’t make a good house wife (I’m pretty sure I have said that one before). Having to cook and clean up after people over and over… I’d love it if feeding only took two hours of my whole day.

Despite the fact that feed isn’t The Rancher’s favorite ranch chore, it may be one of mine. Lately Rancher Sr. has been gone on the weekends quite a bit while he supports Cowboy E in his last season of wrestling. That means that The Rancher either gets to feed on his own or I jump into help. I LOVE any opportunity to prove to my cowboy that he needs me, so of course I head out to help him. Really its more than that- I love to get out on the ranch, love to drive through the cows to see how they are doing, and I love the photography moments I get. But more than that I love being able to take the kids out with us and work together as a family.

Living and working on the ranch is so much more than a job to us. There is no separation between home life and work. Sometimes that has its problems, but there are way more blessings that come that makes it worth it. The best take home of all this for this ranch momma is the memories we are making every day. I love looking into the tractor seeing The Ranch Princess jabbering to her daddy. I see her getting excited at the cows, the horses, and the few baby calves. I can just hear her saying, at the top of her lungs, “Look daddy! COWS!!” (actually its more like wook daddy, tows… so cute!) While we drive between fields The Rancher’s Sidekick has picked up battling thumbs in an intense game of thumb war. I’m pretty sure that he is cheating more and more each time, so maybe we should stop with that one… He pals around with me on the 4 wheeler as we cut bale strings, begging to drive. Even stomping the mice as they come out of the bales has become a fun memory!

Sure life on the ranch can be redudant. Every year has the same seasons of calves, seasons of changing sprinklers, seasons of moving cows and seasons of working cows. But the best part about life on the ranch is that we get to do it as a family and spice up the redudant moments by making memories. We feed cows and enrich our souls. That’s what we did today!

The Buffalo-Working-Crew

December 22, 2014 by Allison

I’m finally getting around to telling you a little more of working the buffalo from my trip to Lemhi. The crew The Lemhi Rancher assembled was all sorts of random. A sister and her crazy kids, a brother and his family, a few hands from the ranch and then the office crew.

The owner of the ranch has several businesses under his hat, which means he has a variety of guys that work for him. The office guys come in really handy on the days when they run short on ranch hands.

Most ranches are only run with a few guys. Sure there is always work to be done, but for the most part, the day to day things can be taken care of without a big crew. But then there are a few days that you just can’t do it alone. On our operation, we turn to our neighbors and friends and in return we help them. We realize how valuable the ranchers are that we work with and grateful we are that they are willing to step in. In a way they become invested in our operation, hoping that the work that they do for us isn’t in vain. Because of their hard work, we are happy to turn around and help them whenever they need. And its become a real blessing working so closely with neighbors. They aren’t competitors down the road but are family of the industry.

At Lemhi, it isn’t quite the same. The cowboys don’t go into the office to help do the accounting or paper work. But working together on the ranch helps them have a better understanding of the role each of them play in the big pictures. Working buffalo might not be their strength, but every bit of help is welcomed. We take the buffalo-working crew however they come, with grateful hearts.

Why Ranchers Don’t Need a Personal Trainer

November 12, 2014 by Allison

I just got done spending a few days helping The Rancher fence. Mostly by accident. Like, my kids took off trekking down the busy road to find their dad and I followed after in my sweats. And of course once I got there I got put to work. And boy was it work, actually more of a workout. I tease The Rancher from time to time that he had better get doing some exercises before he has to move his buckle down a notch. But in reality, his daily living is enough of a workout that he doesn’t need to exercise.

Well, I take that back. As an exervise science major I believe that everyone needs to exercise, everyday. But hanging out with a rancher provides enough core building, heart racing, strength training exercises that you won’t have to hit the gym at the end of the day.

For example, take the job of tamping- using a narrow, 15 pound bar to pound and pack the dirt around a fence post. And since nothing done on the ranch is slow, you do it fast, as fast as you can. You squeeze your core tight as it will go to stabilize your shoulders as they slowly begin to burn from lifting the bar over and over again.

Moving hand lines. In the days when I was a pipe mover I always considered it to be my morning exercise routine. Squatting with an extra 50+ pounds stretching out 15 feet off each side is a great for a little balance work, especially while the water is still running up and down the pipe.

Roping… oh boy roping… I’ve learned this last year what a great workout this is. Keeping your elbow, swinging at just the right rhythm and then still having the strength to throw is so much harder than what it looks. In fact, I have yet to even remotely come close to figuring this out… But I have gotten sore, super sore.

And then there are all of the sledge hammers. Big, little, tall, short- they all have one thing in common. They are all heavy. So heavy that you don’t slam them down as much as swing them up and then just let them fall on whatever it is you are hitting. While they are doing whatever damage you need, they are building some beautiful core, shoulder, and even back muscles.

I really could keep going on… ranching is a physical job. So much so that even with my intense morning workouts, I still get sore after a long day with The Rancher. If ever you were looking for a change in your exercise routine, come spend the day with a rancher!

Checking Out the Calf Crop

October 14, 2014 by Allison

Every time we look out towards the fields we see the beautiful green speckled with the black of the calves. Its a beautiful sight… Actually, the contrast of the beautiful green with the black really is pretty. But there is a different beauty. The beauty of a year’s hard work. The beauty of the rain that has blessed this valley with the feed we desperately need. The beauty of the healthy calves eating and energetically running through the field. Truly, a beautiful sight.

Throughout the week, we will take several trips through the calves- checking the feed, the mineral and salt, and the overall health. Its a little routine, but at the same time its a fun little drive we take as a family. We spend a good part of the time yelling at the dogs to not chase the calves (who invites the dogs anyway?). That usually follows with them trying to jump on the 4 wheeler, where there is NO room for any extras. Just picture the Beverly Hillbillies… Now that the calves are really beginning to settle in, they have become quite curious. They’ll follow us around or chase the dogs, but as soon as we make a sudden move they take off to the other end of the pasture, just to turn back around. Any typical curious child, right?

These calves have really taken to the mineral and salt that we have been putting out. We are doing everything we can to supplement their feed so that we can get them all the nutrients they need for healthy growing. That means that on a lot of our family drives through the calves we are also loaded down with bags and bags of mineral. How is the picture you are creating in your mind? No, no one has fallen off…yet… But do go so far as to imagine that dumping the mineral in the troughs is a highlight for the kids because it is SUPER fun to play in!

This is the time of year we take a little pride in the hard work we have put throughout the year to raise this calf crop. A little drive through the calves has such a sweet smell of satisfaction!

Integrity in the Middle of Nowhere

October 9, 2014 by Allison

I realized something new this fall. Outside from all of the awesomeness that comes with the riding and gathering on such beautiful fall days there is an incredible bond between the ranching men in this valley. On one particular morning it was evident what kind of men we are privileged to work with.

All of our cows are run with other ranches, several ranches which means that there is plenty of man power when it is time to work them. But one large bunch (all the bunches are large when you run nearly 800 cows!) we have only runs with one other ranch. Most years we have plenty of extra help but this year we felt pretty lucky to not have a disaster with as few guys as we had. Kids grow up and go to school and others really grow up and go on missions. Some get other jobs. Before we know it we are spread far and thin between, but still getting the job done.

When we got to the corrals where we were sorting I noticed that there were a lot more trucks and trailers and cowboys than what we had left. Cool. Some help. But really, I was sure that they were only there to get their few calves that end up in our group. Strays happen because that saying of the grass being greener on the other side is really true! So we sort out the strays. And no one really leaves. We start weaning the big group of cows and everyone jumps in. Even as a big storm came in and soaked everyone that didn’t bring a rain coat (me… plus a few others) they all stuck around.

After a while I decided that their time and effort was really a demonstration of their character. They work until the work is done. They help their neighbor simply because they know they need help. They don’t expect to be paid and would never hold it over our head. And because of their willingness to help we turn around and help them whenever we can. When they say they are coming we know it will happen because these men stay true to their word.

What incredible character, right? I aspire to keep that kind of legacy alive in the ranch we run, in the family I raise and in the person I strive to become.