Locomotive - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Live a LIfe of Passion

April 17, 2017 by Allison

Over the last few years since I bought my “fancy” camera and started to learn more about photography, I’ve had a few people ask me to do pictures for them. I’ve done family pictures for my best friend, engagements for my brother-in-law and his (now) sweet wife, and even graduation pictures for another brother-in-law. There are lots of others, but you get the picture (haha..)…

I love getting a chance to take pictures of families, couples and individuals and help capture their personality so that they can share and preserve them. Its not my niche (yet) but I am learning. I do have to admit, its a little weird to get to be in control of what’s happening in front of the camera instead of making photos out of what is happening around me. Does that make sense?

A few weeks ago I got a chance to kinda do both- a posed and directed photo session but still out on the range with the horses and cows. Could it get any cooler? I don’t think so. Our neighbor (about 30 miles down the road), Mackenzie, was selected to be a National Collegiate Beef Advocate with the American National Cattle Women organization and one of the first things she needed to do was to send in some photos of her working cattle or with horses or whatever she does as a ranching girl. She had a few snap shots, but they weren’t exactly what she wanted to put out there in a press release.

So that’s when she called me.

We went out on our range land and got to work (tough work, huh?). It was such a different experience for me because the purpose was for me to take pictures. I didn’t have to worry at all about being in the way or anything like that. It was a little refreshing actually… Do you think I can convince my cowboys out here to let me just have free rein? Probably not…

That’s ok. I’ll take what I can get.

Back to Mackenzie. In between photos we would visit and she told me a little bit about what she gets to do as an advocate. I don’t remember everything she said, but I definitely remember how her face would light up as she talked about what the opportunity meant to her. It didn’t take long to realize how proud she was of her life in agriculture and how rich her passion was for sharing it with people.

I don’t know who said it but somebody smart said, “Follow your passion, and success will follow you!” I have no doubt that whatever Mackenzie does with her passion, she will be successful. Passion can conquer fear, make you bold, and push you to take those leaps we might never have risked. I think all to often we get busy and bogged down with all of the must-do’s of life. We get so focused on the have-to’s, we don’t do the want-to’s and our passion for life slowly sizzles out. The excuses of not having the time or energy or money just get in the way. We become complacent, and stay right inside our comfort bubble and suddenly we don’t do anything exciting or adventurous. Nothing we do gets adrenaline flowing or our hearts pumping.

Who wants to live that kind of a life? A life with no passion?

So today, do something your WANT to do, especially if you don’t have time to. Let the list wait. Be crazy and creative. Go out on a limb. Fail terribly. But, call it a success because you tried. Let your passion drive you, if only for a moment!

Who knows how you will succeed!

Weekends at Locomotive

March 17, 2017 by Allison

One of my weekend highlights is always heading down to Locomotive. There is something about the wide open and empty range that soothes my soul. And maybe its just because I love getting away from the house work and cleaning, but I’m pretty sure its more than that.

Working down to Locomotive isn’t anything crazy exciting. We all pile in the gator and drive around checking the water and cows. We tag a few calves here and there and we make sure every baby has a mama. Until the snow melted, we took some time to dump a little hay around. Every once in a while we find a baby that has been abandoned, usually they were a twin, and we bring them home to the ranch with us. After we give everything a good once over, we load up and head home.

See? Nothing crazy. But I love it!

I love it when my kids get to spend time with their dad. What better way to learn how to be a rancher than to see their hero do it. They ak question, jump in to help, and soak it all in. Its a chance that they have to disconnect from the world that is happening around them. Even as little as they are, they can still get sucked into the tv and computer and what not. But when they are out on the range, they are in a whole different world of their own making. In seconds they can find adventure.

I love it that we can go somewhere and its almost like time stops. The rush and hustle of life just disappears. That is something precious when you are a mom that lives by a never ending to-do list that keeps you hopping from job to the next. Somehow, the list doesn’t matter out there.

I love it because we can just be ourselves. There is no judging that I didn’t put makeup on that day. In fact, if I did, it would only get covered with the layers of dust so no one would see it anyway! The cows don’t care what clothes you wear. They don’t care how rambunctious and rowdy the kids are. We can just rock it how we like to!

Everyone needs a place like Locomotive. Somewhere that they feel safe and at peace and totally confident. Somewhere that provides a little perspective when we get so consumed with what keeps us going from day to day. Somewhere that when we go home, we feel a little stronger and ready to take life on again.

In this crazy world, that can be hard to find.

Where is your “Locomotive”?

A Good Winter Day Sorting Cows

February 27, 2017 by Allison

Last week sorted cows in Locomotive. Scratch that… It was actually like SEVERAL weeks ago that we sorted. In fact, its been long enough ago that we sorted, that the snow has melted and we have mixed the cows back up. I had a twinge of hurt when they mixed up the cows again. Because I feel that we just did the work of getting them unmixed up… Oh the work we do…

That day of sorting had a lot of emotions running through it. There were those overwhelming feelings of just being totally exhausted from the added work with dealing with the snow. There was the tension of not knowing how the day was going to go, if it was going to go at all. Then there was the final relief and thankfulness of finally getting the work done.

You can imagine we slept well that night.

I’ll admit, I had my own doubts about how the day was going to go down. They had never had to sort all those cows there. They never had so much snow to work the cows in. I was afraid for the worst- cows not cooperating, horses slipping on the ice, and cowboys coming home hurt and discouraged.

That is always my fear. Because I have seen it.

When I was a little girl, I saw the hard days that my dad had. There was the day that he couldn’t take his own boots off because of the 4wheeler accident. There were the days that he came in exhausted from no sleep trying to keep calves alive in the cold. There were the days he couldn’t keep the equipment running to get the hay done before the storms rolled through.

But there is one day that comes to mind above all the rest as being hard for my ranching dad.

It had been a long winter. The calving was over and breeding season was in full swing. Doing the spring work in the still winter conditions was getting long and tiresome. Eventually there was a break and the thaw finally came. It only took a few days for things to change. The frost thawed, the ground dried and suddenly it was hard again.

He was bringing in a heifer to AI. He saddled up his horse and headed out as he did every time. Now let me tell you a little about his horse. She had a long, long ugly nose. And that was about the only bad thing about her. Ok, not really… everyone horse has her issues. But this girl was good. She could cut a cow as good as any other. Once she knew what cow she was bringing in, you just let her do the work. She could drop her back end and change directions in a second. If you didn’t hang on she would move right out from under you (and I know that from personal experience!). She loved the work and worked hard.

The heifer my dad and his partner were bringing in was a little feisty. No surprise and really, no big deal. And for my dad, it was even a little fun. Like most cowboys, he enjoyed the rush of the ride. But then the heifer cut back and Whitney, his horse, went to spin. And then she went down.

In those couple of days that the weather changed, my dad was busy. Are you surprised? He is a rancher, they are always busy. Busy enough that he hadn’t had a chance to take of the cleats on his horse.

When she turned back, those cleats dug into the ground, and she spun, but her leg didn’t. And it broke.

My dad knew instantly that it was bad. So bad. He was right.

He called the vet and he was able to come in and help Whitney. They were able to set and cast the broken leg. But she would never chase a cow again. It was devastating.

My dad says that every cowboy gets one good horse and one good dog. She was his.

Ya know, despite the great days we have on the ranch and in this life, there are some really hard days. We take risks. We work in sometimes dangerous conditions. We work with animals that can do a lot of damage. And when those bad days come we just have to take it in stride.

My dad couldn’t put his partner down that day. He just couldn’t lose her. She meant to much for him. So he decided to turn her into a brood mare. Now her babies are on the ranch, doing the same work their momma did.

Thankfully, our day sorting on the range had a good ending. A great ending. The work went well and the cowboys came home safe. Not everyday turns out so well and we are grateful for the good days. Its the good days that keep us going when we have those hard days.

Our Snow-Pocalypse

February 7, 2017 by Allison

Hello from the land of snow!

Can you finally see us out here? The snow is finally settling! If you add up the total inches accumulated, we have had like 71″ of snow. Is that not insane?! That is over 5 feet of snow! But don’t imagine that all fluffy 71″ are still standing like they just fell. Some of that snow was way heavy and packed everything down with it. We had a week of warmer weather that helped melt things down a little too. And we actually had a couple of inches of rain that dropped the level down even more.

We have been praying for the moisture for so long and we feel so blessed to finally have it. But in the dry spell that we have been having the last few years, we might have forgotten the not so awesome side of so much moisture.

Now, I want you to know I AM NOT COMPLAINING! Just simply explaining the challenges of having so much snow. Because there are challenges, friends. Besides the obvious road closures keeping us from going ANYWHERE, school snow days, and hours spent cleaning off my roof so it won’t fall in (I might have been stuck up there for a while…), the biggest challenge has been keeping the cows on the up and up.

I’ve told you before that we winter our cows down in Locomotive (some come home for the fall and until mid-February, but then they end up back down there…). Its a great place to have them for the winter because, generally, there is no snow. Or just a little bit of snow. That makes it better for calving, less sickness, and not having to feed them everyday. But when you have so much snow their bellies are dragging through the snow, they certainly can’t get to the feed underneath it.

So this winter, with the snow-pocalypse and all, we are having more work than ever!

When the storms first started coming through, we pushed the cows as far south as we could where the the storms had been less severe and there was more feed available. Ironically, it always happened to be on a Sunday that the guys from the association wanted to move them. You might not think that would be any worse than any other day of the week, but wrestling 3 kids alone in church is rough, friends. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, come visit next Sunday…

Back to the cows…

So even after getting the cows south, enough storms came that NOT feeding them wasn’t an option anymore. So then they had to bring them back up to where we could get to them with hay. And that was a lot of work.

First they had to find all the cows. And if you know cows, once a storm hits they just start moving- moving to find shelter or feed or whatever… But they just start moving and when there are hundreds and hundreds of acres for them to go, it takes a while to finally find them all. The Rancher didn’t complain too much at this. I mean, when you HAVE to go snowmobiling all day for your work, it can’t be all bad, right?

But after finding the cows, they had to get them up to the feed yard. That was definitely a challenge… Of course the cows were going to struggle moving through the snow and would fight you nearly every step of the way. I probably wouldn’t want to move my big pregnant self through so much snow for miles either. So the guys pulled out all the graters and tractors and … (I don’t even know what all equipment they had!) and they plowed a path to trail the cows back.

And now to have 1,100 cows are rounded up together, it takes a lot of hay and a lot of time to get them all fed. I’m pretty sure right now, all the guys do is push snow and feed cows. Feed cows here at home, drive to Locomotive, feed cows there, and if there is any time before dark, they push snow. Seriously, it is all they do.

And it is exhausting.

I think it wouldn’t be near so bad if we were all healthy, but we are not. Sickness has gone through the ranch, not to mention other issues (like being run over by a cow and lacerating your liver…). So while we are trying to heal and get healthy, we are using all our energy to keep the cows on the up and up.

I’m honestly a little worried about the guys. This is the time of year things are slow and they get to recuperate before calving and then branding and then turnout and then summer… But I don’t think anyone is feeling rested after these last few weeks! It could be a long few months ahead of us.

But we are still SO thankful for the snow!

Now we just pray for the energy to withstand it all… Did you know there is more snow in the forecast? Yay… (I might be crying inside….) !!

Thinking happy and warm thoughts,
The Rancher’s Wife…

I tried taking pictures of the horses in my back yard, but there was so much snow my camera couldn’t focus!

Taking hay down to the cows and unloading without a tractor…

Its snowy and beautiful even if its so much work!

The upside of so much snow!

Branding Chased out by the Thunderstorm

January 14, 2017 by Allison

Dare I share branding pictures? Soon enough I will be filled up with branding photos again, so I was half tempted to not but since they were already edited and ready to put up I decided to go for it. I’m not one to waste effort after all….
….
Click “Read More” for the rest of the story!

When I look at these photos I have lots of memories of this day. Like how…

1. The Rancher’s Sidekick begged us not to brand this day because he still had to go to school. He didn’t want to skip school that day to help, but he didn’t want to miss branding so his solution was to just ask us to brand a different day!

2. I took my new car out on the range for the first time. With my growing family and so many bags and car seats, my truck just didn’t cut it… Such a sad day…

3. The cowboys had a unique problem- there was grass. And apparently roping in the grass makes for rough catching because your rope gets caught on the grass long before it scoops up a pair of heels.

There were a few other thoughts that came to mind but the big memory was the thunder storm that followed. I bet nobody else remembers that the rain and thunder chased us out, but I do. I bet they wouldn’t even say that it chased us out. But I remember.

I remember those blasted rain clouds rolling in. They are the ones that pretty much spell thunderstorm and always head right for us. And that is when I run for cover, usually for my bed covers and under the pillows.

You see, friends… I don’t like thunderstorms. More specifically I don’t like thunder. I don’t like the spine tingling feeling you get when your can feel the thunder has much as you can hear it. The lightning I can handle so long as it is far, FAR away (which usually means I can’t hear the thunder… which is probably why its ok..). The Rancher laughs at me and how I freak out when a storm rolls in but it just happens.

I’m scared of thunderstorms.

I know cowgirls are supposed to be tough and resourceful and brave and can handle anything. And for the most part I would say that I am tough and brave, until it comes to the storms. Once upon a time there was a big storm as I was driving the few miles to get home. And as I pulled up to my parents driveway, my gutless bald-tire little car decided it couldn’t make it up the super slick driveway. I figured that since there was no way my car was going to make it up to the house anytime soon, I probably had two option: either sit in the car and wait for the rain to stop or just suck it up and run through the rain to the house. Not wanting to sit in the car and die a young death from the scary rain and thunder, I decided to run for it. I bravely slipped off my flip flops (I just knew that running in my flips flops would end badly), opened the door and jumped put. And just as I closed the door, there was a flash and a boom-crash and I ran the fastest 40 yd dash up to the house. It probably wasn’t that far to run but it felt like it…

And that, my friends, is why I hate thunderstorms…

I wish I liked them. In all reality I know I am safe and the likelihood of getting zapped is pretty slim. And they are the coolest light show ever, but instead of enjoying them my heart just beats fast and I close my eyes.

Don’t think any less of me because I’m not the bravest cowgirl all the time… Just applaud my honesty and enjoy a few pictures of branding that stormy day!

Come Gusting Wind and Ghastly Dust and Aching Strep, We Get the Job Done

May 17, 2016 by Allison

Have you ever been at a loss for words? Me either. I always have something to say. Ask The Rancher… I can talk his ear off. Like, he has learned to not even turn the radio on in the car because I will chatter enough to keep him busy. And I bounce around all over asking him about this and that and then I remember this one thing that I wanted to tell him and then… Well, you get the point.

Thus far, I haven’t really done that to you. I’ve been able to stay pretty well on point.

But I think the day has come that I have so many things to say that they are all going to just get all wrapped together in this post. There is just so many things that need mentioning. I promise they are relate because they all happened on this same day of branding. And I’ll do my best to tie them together but just be warned… It was just really full of ups and downs and sideways-ness…

Here we go-

Every year this day of branding is a big deal. All the other weekends of branding, we are branding with the association which means that not every calf coming in is ours. And there is ooodles of help. But the day that we brand on our private ground and all 300+ calves are ours. Friends… that is a lot. A LOT. At least for this girl.

So we call everyone and their dog, scratch that… everyone and their horse to come and help us. Normally we have big group, like 30 or more. And we had all those fine helpers lined up to come this year, until the rains came. And came and came and finally rained us out of our originally planned day (but we didn’t complain!). We postponed to the next week and ended up losing a lot of the help. But don’t worry, we managed… It was all a little slower than normal, but we made it.

There were parts to the day that were, well… miserable. Don’t get me wrong, I loved it all but it was still miserable. I mean, there is nothing nice about working on a hot, EXTREMELY windy and equally TERRIBLE dusty day when you have strep. The night before I started getting a sore and swollen throat and I knew it was strep. This was my third bout of strep in almost as many weeks so I knew how it went down. Seriously… It wasn’t enough that I was still recovering from giving birth and waking up multiple times in the night for said baby, I had to develop strep that would equally keep me from sleeping (it just isn’t as cute as my baby)…

Part of me contemplated heading to the doctor before heading south to brand, but I knew that just wouldn’t work. It would take too long to get in, checked out, a prescription filled and out to the range. With so few cowboys coming to help, they actually really needed me! So I pulled up my cowgirl pants and just dealt with it (and thank you tylenol and ibuprofen for making that possible!).

I did occasionally get a break when baby requested me or rather was saying it was time to eat. It was great for an excuse to rest my tired aching body, but I felt bad to leave the guys because that meant someone else had double duty giving shots too. And not meaning to toot my own horn, but I have gotten a pretty good system down to keep the shots flowing fast. So I just kept bouncing back and forth between the corral and the baby, going where ever I was needed most… although what I really wanted to do was go to sleep. On the bright side, I’m pretty sure I earned myself some substantial Rancher’s Wife Stripes!

Normally, this day of branding is one that I can quick jump on a horse and help gather. But being the momma bear that I am, I hate leaving my baby. Not wanting to be left behind, I convinced The Rancher to bring the gator down with us so I could load up all the babies, the dogs, my camera, my pal, The Montana girl, and the kitchen sink and still come help (I don’t know if I really convinced him to bring it or if they were already planning on it, but I’d like to think it as me…). And I was so grateful and had a fun, bright spot in the day getting out there. There fresh air was just as good for this girl as any medicine!

We gather the herd in and then sort all the mommas out, making its lots easier and faster to rope the calves. Its certainly noisier, but who needs their hearing? This few minutes of sorting is a highlight for the cowboys. Ya see, whoever is running the gate has the responsibility to risk life and limb to make sure that not a SINGLE calf gets through. If they do, they owe the whole group. What do they owe- I dunno… Some say beer, some say steak, some say a candy bar… I don’t think anyone has ever actually paid up, but the potential is always there for a good time. They can get away without paying up because a calf out means that those cowboys get a good chase and roping that is better than any beer, steak or candy bar! Unfortunately there weren’t any missed on the first round of sorting. But someone must have paid off the gate-man because there was a good handful for the roping come round two!

Oh, hey… Lets talk about that wind. So the day started off beautiful. Sunny, warm but not hot with a teensy breeze to keep the smoke from hanging around. But the rude weatherman forecasted gusting winds in the afternoon, about the only weather prediction they can ever get right (says The Rancher). As we were gathering in the second herd, true to the forecast those winds picked up and it was near impossible to see. Aside from not being able to see, like, anything, it made it super hard to keep your hat on. You might not think that’s a big deal, but all the sudden we find ourselves with a bunch of awkward, naked topped cowboys finding it hard to rope. It was really probably do to the wind, but I’m sure the thought of losing and being hatless just threw them off their groove.

Despite the extra juggling because of less help, having a sweet, hungry baby, terrible winds and dust, strep throat and everything else crazy going on, the work got done. We may have had a pound of dirt in our eyes and ears and I lost my voice for the nest 4 days, but as cowboys do we faced the work and got it done!

Click Read More below for dozens more photos!

More Branding….

June 9, 2015 by Allison

I lied… I told you a while ago that it was the last of the association branding…

Oooops!

Found some more! They are from the LONG weekend we had at Locomotive, so no wonder I lost them. I mean, there is so much to keep track of and I’m such a blonde that its totally possible that I would make a mistake and forget to post pictures.

So here you go!

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!

Camping out on the Range to Catching Horses

May 20, 2015 by Allison

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.

Fishing for Bales

April 29, 2015 by Allison

I realized my blogging/photography life has someone of a conundrum. When there isn’t a lot going on, I have post after post of feeding cows, the cute babies, and nothing terribly eye catching or exciting. But then we are busy as ever, I have HUNDREDS of photos to edit, tons of stories to tell and no time to sit down and tell them… So I am sitting down at the computer ready to tell you a story, pump out some photos and carving out some time for my blogging life.

This winter/spring has been different for us. Very different. First of all, we didn’t have winter… We had a flurry every so often but we never had the cold-for-days, snowed-in, stranded-for-days winter that we usually (ok, maybe not all that dramatic, but still… no winter). But it was also different for all of the cows calving at home. So many more to feed, keep an eye on, and tag. So many more cuties around!

We are experiencing a new “difference” lately. We are hauling down hay and feeding in Locomotive. With the lack of feed and the lack of rain, there just isn’t enough feed for what we need. The nutrition of our cows is super important so we trek down south with hay and get ’em what we need.

For a while we were taking down just a couple of bales at a time. But that was getting long and slow… So we figured we would load the semi and flat bed up and take a few loads out. It wasn’t all too irregular of an occurence- people haul hay all the time. Nothing to tell the blogging world about, right? That’s true, until it was time to unload.

You see, we don’t have a tractor down in Locomotive. Unloading hay minus a tractor means that we get to be creative. It didn’t occur to me that we were missing a KEY part of this job. Its not like they can dump themselves and we can’t really push them all off. So… What’s a rancher to do? How about fish them off?

The Rancher apparently knew EXACTLY what he was doing not bringing a tractor down. I never doubt that he knows what he is doing, but to me there were no clear solutions He always says I lack faith in him… I just tell him that I just wait to be dazzled by his brilliance! So he brought a big ol’ hook and rope to pull all the bales off. In reality it was pretty simple. The Ranch Boss was in the truck, pulling the bales off. The Rancher would do the fishing, hooking and catching the bale, and I was the go between running the hook from the bales on the ground to The Rancher. When we had so many pulled down that we couldn’t any more, we just pulled the semi up and went at it again. So easy! So much so that we did it again and I brought my camera to show you.

We get to be a little creative in this life. The Rancher lives for twine, duct tape, and his save-your-life drawer of nuts and bolts. Life tries to throw a kink in your plan, but we my guys around, we always have some new brilliant way to make it. Like fishing for bales!