Cowboy Nature - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

5 Lessons in Cowboy Jargon

April 14, 2014 by Allison

If there was one word to describe April it would be branding. Every weekend (and a couple of days in between) we spend out on the range branding. We have our cows out with other ranches, so naturally we have more than just our herd to brand. I mean it’s not too neighborly to not help our rancher friends! With so many cowboys around, it’s easy to get lost in the cowboy jargon. Usually I would say to just smile and nod your head but out here you can’t always fake it! So here are a 5 words and phrases from the Cowboy Jargon Dictionary (… there is no such thing… I totally just made that up…).

1. A cowboy’s outfit: No this isn’t in reference to his clothing choice of the day. A cowboy does have some… different clothing choices but that’s because they choose function over fashion. But when one cowboy compliments another cowboy’s outfit, he’s talking about his truck and trailer. Can you imagine cowboys sitting around talking about clothes? Me either, but it doesn’t take ANY stretch of imagination to see them talking trucks. Isn’t that written in their DNA?

2. The green broke horse: Let’s just start by saying there is nothing “broken” on a green broke horse. It isn’t “broken” like it doesn’t work. And it’s not really green, unless it was just rolling in the manure… A green broke horse is a horse in training. This means it is inexperienced, or more like unexperienced. Usually these are young horses with high energy and are a little ignorant to what they are doing. Just think of your favorite T-ball team- a lot of energy but most of it is spent playing in the dirt. Eventually they come around to learn the game and pull their weight. And if they don’t, we trade them off the roster.

3. Heading… or heeling… you choose!: Most often you hear these words together in reference to falling in love. You know- head over heels? But I’m not talking about that, although a branding would be a great place to pick up a cowboy! When you are talking heading and healing with cowboys they are talking about roping. There’s two ends on a calf to rope- the head (hence “heading”) or the back feet or heels (yep you got it, “heeling”). I guess you could rope the front feet, but you really don’t have much control even though they are caught.

4. Roping a dogie: (doh-gee) Don’t get caught thinking we are talking about The Rancher’s dog. We are referring to the bovine species, not canine. Put simply, a dogie is a calf without a momma. I’m not sure how dogie ever got to be part of the Cowboy Jargon Dictionary, other than some cowboy long, LONG ago just started calling his motherless calves dogie. These calves can make branding a little tricky when you have several ranches worth of cattle together. Without knowing who the momma cow belongs to, we can only guess who the calf goes with. Nobody wants to be the guy that put the wrong brand on the wrong calf!

5. “Drag ‘em to the fire”: Those are your instructions once you’ve caught your calf. The cowboys drag the calf to the fire, where we have the branding irons set up, hot and ready to leave their mark. A real fire in the middle of a corral with calves, cowboys, and horses sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. It is if you’re not careful! But how else do we get branding irons hot? There are electric irons put there, but there aren’t a lot of electrical outlets amongst the sage brush! But don’t imagine a big bon fire or even an open fire on the ground. Back in the day they would dig a hole in the ground and light up the fire. These days we have a not-so-fancy branding box with a burner (like the burner on a gas stove) to keep the irons hot. Still plenty hot (I recommend watching your step) but not as likely to reach out a burn a cowboy!

I’d say the last bit of cowboy jargon you need to know is the call to “rustle up some grub,” but I’m pretty sure that you know what that means! Now that you have some awesome cowboy vocab, you will be ready to get to work and definitely earn your dinner!

10 Reasons Why I Choose to Raise my Family on the Ranch

April 6, 2014 by Allison

Growing up on a ranch, I knew that it was the way I wanted to raise my family. It helps to shape grow a person in so many. The opportunities for life lessons are never ending. And, I know I always say this, but the space is pretty amazing.

No it’s not the only good way to raise a family- there are so many good people that weren’t raised that way. But this is how I chose to raise my family. Here’s why…

1. Everyday we work- we have to. The cows need feeding, which most often requires us moving them to different pastures. Fences, building, and equipment need upkeep and they won’t fix themselves. Bummer… But my kids know how important work is. Already my kids are learning to help and work, to do the best we can and to finish a job we start. More importantly my kids learn to work because they get to go out to work with their dad. Every day they have the best example they need to see a man working.

2. All around us we see the circle of life. Every year there is new life that brings excitement and hope. But not all new life lasts. Death is a hard thing that we face. Cows, calves, horses, dogs… It’s hard, but it’s a part of life. We celebrate life and learn to move on after death.

3. I don’t know if there is a more natural way to talk about the birds and the bees than actually having first hand on the ranch. All sorts of question come up about why do we keep the bulls away from the cows, where do those babies come from, or what is that cow doing. Yes my kids see it happening and yes we talk about it. But that is because it is so easy on the ranch.

4. What better playground do they need than a big ol’ ranch?! There are fences to climb up, tires to go through, chickens to chase, calves to rope and dirt to dig. Really the list could go on and on… Because there is so much for kids to do on a ranch- no two days are the same and there are no dull days!

5. With so much around them, ranch kids learn to be creative. A stick isn’t just a stick! It can build a fence, it can be sword, a gun or a cane. When my little boy watches what’s happening out on the ranch he gets creative and recreates it with his own little equipment. I never would have thought marbles would be poop for the manure spreader! Instead of just building towers from blocks, we make stacks of bales! Imagination is always at work out here.

6. As kids grow on the ranch, they are given their own responsibilities. It my be feeding the family dog or collecting the eggs or even feeding their own 4h animals. But they know it is their job. Yes we will help, but it is their responsibility to make sure it is done. They are responsible for closing the gate when they go through, keeping gas in the 4wheeler and putting their tack away. With responsibility also comes accountability. And then consequences. Some are good- feeding up your steer makes for a food day at the fair. But not locking the gate means the cows get out. Responsibility, accountability, and consequences- all lessons learned on the ranch.

7. We would like to think that days on the ranch are always happy and cheery, but they’re not. Yes we have awesome days of success. There is that day when you catch your first calf and you feel like you could rope the moon! But then there are days when you get bucked of, lose a glove, and tear your favorite pair of jeans. Frustration and disappointment are just as much a part of ranch life. But with it we learn how to deal with it.

8. I love opportunities we have to work together as a family. We pull out the horses and go to the arena. We all gather to the garden to gather in our harvest. We all squeeze in the tractor to feed the cows. Family is important to me and I won’t let anything, not even the ranch work, get in the way. Instead, we just make ranch time family time!

9. Life on the ranch does so much to help with learning in school. Ranch kids learn everything from learning counting and colors to map reading and geography. There are science lessons as the crops grow with water and sun, and grow more with a little fertilizer. The learning never stops- math, science, geography, history, reading… do it all, daily!

10. My kids have learned where their food comes from and the cost for it. We don’t grow everything we eat (so thankful for grocery stores!) but my ranch kids know that milk comes from a cow, not made in the back of the store. And more importantly they know the cost of their food. Not necessarily in money, but certainly in the time and effort it takes to have.

Yep, the ranch is the place for me to raise my kids. A place to learn, live, and love while every day is an adventure. Especially when it is the day you need to teach the 12 year old how to drive the stick shift feed truck…

10 Lessons I Have Learned as a Rancher’s Wife

March 2, 2014 by Allison

There are a lot of things that I have learned while I have been a rancher’s wife. Some have been from my own experiences and some have been from fellow ranch wives. I guess the most important thing I have learned is to just live it and love it! Here are a few other tips I have figured out along the way…

1. You must always consult the cowboys when you are picking your due date (like you can really decide what day you are going to give birth, right?!). You should never have babies during calving, branding, spring turnout, haying, fall gather, weaning, or preg checking seasons.

2. Once you do find an acceptable time to have a baby (or you have come to some compromise to manage having a baby in the midst of the chaos) expect to hear 9 months’ worth of cow pregnancy related jokes. I wish I had a buck for every time I heard The Rancher tell me he was bringing the chains, just in case.

3. Cowboys work much better on full bellies. It is in your own best interest to learn how to feed the masses. It should include meat and potatoes. Always.

4. There are days that The Rancher has to leave the ranch for some project, but is absolutely sure that he will be back in time for lunch. I still send him with the lunchbox. Fate has it that when I DO send a lunch they will be home on time for lunch. But when I don’t, everything goes wrong and it turns out to be a long and hungry day.

5. During the busy season (which could be ANY day), your Friday night date might just be a tractor ride or a ride through the cows. And he does appreciate that you are there for more than getting the gate for him.

6. Never do something once that you don’t want to be asked to do again. That advice was given by my mother and mother-in-law- one that didn’t want to be the one to milk the cow (even though she grew up on a dairy) and one that didn’t want run the swather. Both brilliant women!

7. When you go out with the cowboys, be sure to load your horse in the trailer last. That means you will unload first, giving you enough time to be on and ready so that you don’t get left behind.

8. If ever you get yelled at while you are out helping, it is a sign of real love, not the lack of. He is yelling at you to save your life, so don’t take the time to make him say it in a nicer or way or to say please. Just do what he says.

9. The faithful ranch dog is more than just a dog, and therefore is entitled to privileges, including riding in your car, coming in your house (both happen no matter what condition he is in), and having a place to sit with the rest of the family on the already squished 4-wheeler. And just face the fact that he will be in at least one family picture (you just don’t have to put that up one on the wall).

10. Always keep one cowboy around the ranch because destiny will have it that when your best helper is 3, the cows, horses, bulls, or chickens will get out. It’s likely that with them all being gone they have taken all of the 4-wheelers too and all you have left to chase them in with is the riding lawn mower.

BONUS(because I love you!)
Remember that a rancher is on call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, ALL year. That includes nights, because that’s when you get a call from the state police that you have cows on the freeway. Or the boss calls for help because the calves are on their way into town at midnight. It also includes Sundays (the one day a week you try to slow down), because it seems that the range water always goes out just after church. It includes special days, like when you have just had a new baby. Sometimes the boss calls to haul spuds that day. And it certainly includes the days and nights of freezing temperatures when the rest of the world heads in. Just be sure to be ready with something hot for when they come back to the house!

There are so many more I could share, and I will someday. Life is never dull as a rancher’s wife. It’s our job to just take what comes our way and work with it. I love the lessons I learn from being The Rancher’s Wife!

I Hate When Death Wins

February 28, 2014 by Allison

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.

Praying for Moisture

February 3, 2014 by Allison

Drought. What a yucky word, right? Images of the dust-bowl-days quickly come to mind when I hear that word. Its dusty, dirty, and dry (any other D words to go with all of that?). Maybe we should expect dryness when we live in the desert, but the lack of rain that we have had lately has just been mind blowing.

When we moved to the family ranch (nearly 2 years ago) we were coming from the Snake River valley which was lush and green. We moved to a place so barren and dry that not even the wild flowers were growing… it didn’t go over so well with this girl (thankfully I found some this last summer). But more than missing the green and wild flowers, we struggled for the good feed for our cattle.

For nearly two years now we have earnestly been praying for the rain (or snow) and lately we haven’t been alone in those prayers. When I heard how nearly the entire west was praying for the drought to end I was surprised. But then I heard that groups like Farm Bureau and BEEF Magazine were asking for prayers I was humbled. Even the big guns are turning to the even bigger guns.

Its been a great experience to be a part of this HUGE ranching/farming community moving together to our knees so that we can have the means to continue to live this life we love. Will you join with us?

The Crew Part 2

January 3, 2014 by Allison

(He, he… the title rhymes!)

Do you want to know what was so cool about our family cattle drive last week? Well, yes the winter temperatures did make it a “cool” outing. What else made it especially cool was that we had all of The Rancher’s brothers.

There are five- that’s a lot of cowboys for one momma to handle. Thankfully she is still alive and sane.

We are always privileged to work with Cowboy Pete and Cowboy E while they still live on the ranch, and once again they graced us with their cowboy presence.

With it being Christmas brother #2 and his sweet wife were around to move cows with us. Wouldn’t it be fun to call them Bonnie and Clyde? Except that they are good kids so the name doesn’t fit. So instead lets call them The Cowpoke and The Montana Girl. Right now they are absent Eliason cowboys because they are becoming educated cow-folk.

And completing the cowboy brotherhood was brother #3. Last week we welcomed home The Buckaroo from his church mission to Kansas. In true cowboy fashion he was moving cows the day after he got home!

So already this is fun to move cows with all the brothers but something else cool was that there were four generations of cowboys out there from The Ranch Boss to The Rancher’s Sidekick. Its not too often that four generations get to work together!

The Rancher, a DIY-er

November 19, 2013 by Allison

I love DIY projects, LOVE them. The Rancher does too, maybe not the ones I enlist him to do, but he des non the less. He likes the manly ones that come with bigger or more dangerous tools. I mean what is a welder if not a really hyped up glue gun, right? 🙂

But seriously, isn’t that really a integral part of being a rancher. These cowboy need to be able switch between whatever jobs the day calls for- truck driver, irrigator, welder, tractor operator, horse trainer, nurse maid… You get the idea, they gotta do it all. They are DIY-ers.

This is the feed truck with arms to lift the bails. Do you see how my creative husband has fanagled it to lift the troughs? I find funny, but boy it is works darn good.

Here is real picture of The “DYI” Rancher. Pretty cool. Finding your own way to get the job done, or being a DIY-er, is part of being a rancher.

Tools of the Trade

November 1, 2013 by Allison

Part of being a cowboy, especially a cowboy in the middle of nowhere, means having a wide array of tools. Some of them are intended to be used on the ranch, some are not for the ranch but they actually are quite useful and some are homemade- ghetto-rigged from twine and a branch (because some times that is all they have).

Of course a favorite of any rancher is the hot shot. Efficiency is important when running through hundreds of cows and a little zap in quite motivating. Therefore, EVERYONE has one.

When we preg check cows a useful, but out of place tool is bleach. Like go-to-a-salon type bleach. They mix it up and paint a splotch according to their expected calving date. Bleaching their hair is a good way to mark them because it will last until February/March when they start dropping babies.

Tools are an important part of our work… but it’s funny to see what is the favorite or what homemade tool come up with.

Cowboy Kings

October 6, 2013 by Allison

Following The Rancher around has had some fun perks that I had never considered. Probably the most rewarding one has been the opportunity to get to know some of these other cowboys. The nature of the cowboy is to be hard working, rough and tough but looking at these men a little closer I have been able to see another side.

There is the tender side that I see- when they are helping a sick calf, a quick but gentle pat and word to their tired horses, and then when they take a minute to hug and talk to my babies.

These men are very humble, something I have learned with taking their pictures. They always say things like, “I’ll break your camera” or “Find someone better looking to take a picture of.” This is just one way they are humble. They aren’t looking for any fame or glory when they do something, even if it is cool. They just ride because they love it.

They also have a silly side, and not always alcohol induced. They will sing as they ride down the road. They tease back and forth constantly. One of my favorites is to hear their hilarious stories of days in the past.

There is so much to these men, living and working out here in this rough country. These men rule this land like kings, The Cowboy Kings. Riding because it is their fortune, working because its their legacy, and loving it all because it is their destiny.