The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

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! 

 

 

Days of Branding: Castrating Bulls to Steers

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Branding day really is a big day for some of these calves, especially the bulls.  The poor fellas especially have a big change…  I kinda feel bad for them- glad I’m not destined to be a steer.

You might not think it, but castrating is an important part of our operation of producing the best beef possible.  How are a pair of cahonees related to a yummy hamburger?  I’m glad you asked!  I’ll tell you!

Testosterone is produced in the testes (duh, I know… have to start somewhere).  And although testosterone helps calves grow fast, this is at the cost of a lot of energy.  I don ‘t just mean a lot of energy to help them grow (we are totally for growing) but I mean a lot of energy to first develop testes and then produce the testosterone.  In a castrated calf, more energy is put towards more marbling fat- the fat that gives meat its flavor and tenderness.

Besides castrating to make a better product, we also castrate for management sake.  With testosterone comes aggression (again, duh… I know…) and aggressive cattle make for more work.  On a ranch there is ALWAYS something to be done and anything we can do to ease our load is so worth it.  Its also make sure that as the calves develop that they don’t get overly zealous in starting the next generation of calves- we don’t want babies pregnant with babies!

We castrate in two ways.  Actually “we” only castrate in one way, then those boys do another…  The first is using an elastrator.  I mentioned this when we talked about tagging.  There is a stretchy ring that we stretch around the testes that will eventually cut them off.  This works best for young calves that haven’t developed as much.  The other method is surgically cutting them- a little more intense (I’m not a wimp, I promise…). 

Castrating is stressful for a calf, and stressful times can cause calves to get sick or lose weight.  They will bounce back a lot better when they are younger and pick up on that weight gain faster.  There have been studies that found that in the end, a calf that is castrated younger will be heavier when it is harvested versus a calf that was castrated at weaning time.  Who knew!

Maybe this is more than what you wanted to know, but its a few fun facts about ranch life and what we do to make the best product we can!

PS- We had to document this first time of castrating- talk about getting in there with two hands!  Way to go girl!

Days of Branding: Marking the calves

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Part of our branding routine includes, marking our calves.  Running our cattle with so many others means we need easy ways to identify which is ours.  We use tags, but sometimes tags fall out.  And we use brands, but we can only see them when we are up close. So we have ‘nother other (in the words of The Rancher’s Sidekick) way to identify them.

The first is marking the ears.  Calves naturally have a really full ear that can be easily seen.  This makes for a great place to mark.  Some notch out the ears, some do a split.  We trim down the ear making for pointy, less full ears.

I have to tell you something… I’m not a fan of marking the ears.  They look like a bat or something… But I do like how easy it is to pick up a pair of binoculars and spot those pointy little ears!

The second marking we make is a waddle.  A neck waddle.  I’m sure that we call it a waddle because is waddles to-and-fro…  To make a waddle, we cut a flap of skin back off of the neck.  When it heals what we have left is a wiggling bit of skin hanging from the neck.  We only waddle the heifers since we will keep them as replacement heifers down the road while we sell the steers.  No reason to waddle a calf that won’t need it!

Once again, NOT a fan of the extra wiggling, unattached waddle… but it makes it SUPER easy to identify our cattle!

Its important that these marks are done right.  We don’t want too big of a slice taken from the ears or too big of a cut on the neck.  We want as little stress on the calves as possible (because they have ALREADY had stress).  So we let The Rancher and Rancher Sr. do it for the most part.  Its a good job for them…

 

Days of Branding: How we do it

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You really should come spend a day branding with us.  You could almost pick any weekend and we would be going out.  Most days we brand the association cattle.  We have 7 ranches worth of cattle together on the range, which means a lot calves!  But more about branding with the association another day.

The day that you want to brand with us is when we do our cattle on the Peterson Place.  We have about 350 cows to sort through and brand.  We start in the morning gathering the cattle from the north. This year we did it in the rain, and what started out as a refreshing little shower turned into a soaker (be glad I didn’t tell you to come until AFTER the rainy year). 

We sort the cows out (but we leave a few… the babies are happier with a momma around) and then start to work.  Actually this year, we had to wait a while before we could start- blame the rain! 

But eventually we got to work.  The ropers rope (obviously) and drag the calves to the “fire” where the ground crew is set up.  The calves are caught and held with Nord Forks.  Don’t know what they are?  (neither did I until I started branding with The Rancher). The are a handy tool that is staked into the ground and has a fork like head catch.  It slips on the calf’s neck and catches at the base of the head.

The forks make for an easy way to hold the calves while we mark, castrate, vaccinate, tag, and brand the calves.  Its a lot to do, so we need some one to run the shots, guys to do the castrating, others to brand and the top dogs mark and tag.  Once we hit our groove we just roll on through them.  Before we know it, the calves are branded and the dinner bells is a-ringin’!

 

 

And then we start over.

We gather in the bunch from the south.  Then sort (and no waiting!), rope, drag… you know how it goes!

The Idaho Rancher’s Wife- 1 Year Old!

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Do you know what today is?  It the 1st birthday of The Idaho Rancher’s Wife!  This really is kind of a big deal for me.  At first this idea of a blog was almost a joke.  As a rancher’s wife I get to do some crazy things it seems and I needed SOMEWHERE to tell these stories.  And then it just took off from there. 

There has been a lot of learning in this last year.  I have learned that I LOVE writing (at least blog writing).  I love, love, LOVE photography.  If you look back over the last year you can see how my picture taking skills are growing.  Hooray!  But mostly over the last year I have learned how much I love sharing our life on the ranch.  There are so many that don’t have a connection to the Ag world, and I can be that connection.  I love it!

So I have gathered together a dozen of my favorite posts over the last year.  Some are my favorites because of the cool pictures that turned out.  A few are favorites because of the time that was spent with my family on the ranch.  Some are my favorites because they are your favorites.  Then there are the ones that I learned a lot from- the ranching part and the story telling part.  And then there are just the down right funny or awesome ranch experiences everyone needs to hear!

I’ll admit there are days that I think that I can’t do this.  You would be surprised how much time this takes- not that I’m complaining, I love every bit of it.  But I want it all to be awesome for you!  To that end I have been doing a lot of learning on how to blog, photography, writing, graphic design… so much! 

I have to thank those that help along the way!  My dear friend Mandy, from Mandy’s Recipe Box has done so much, especially to encourage me through the tough stuff.  My cousin, Lindsay Hart with Hart to Hart Photography, has helped me so much with the graphic design, even when she was moving and 8 months pregnant.  And then there are a few blogs that are my go to for learning how to be awesome at blogging Something Swanky, Living Well, Spending Less, and Kevin & Amanda.

So here is to another year (or ten)!

A Herd of (cute) Baldy Calves

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Our herd consists of mostly black cows.  That’s not really as surprise since we run black angus cows.  But every once in a while I wish we could have a red one or a nice gray.  Just to change things up a little, ya know?  Its really not likely to happen unless we strait out buy one.  Its just not in our gene pool.

Something that we do have thought, are some darn cute baldy face calves!  So we can’t have a little extra color in the herd, but at least we get a little white face here and there.  Not to long ago we bred our heifers to some hereford bulls (they are red with a white face).  It seemed like we didn’t get a single baldy calf out of those batch of babies.  Maybe the genes just needed to flow down a few generations before they started to show because these days we have a nice little herd of baldy faced calves.

We weren’t cross breeding just for the looks, if you can believe that.  There is something awesome that happens when you cross breed. Heterosis.   Instead of getting what you would think is an average performance of both breeds, you end up getting increased performance.  The strengths of both breeds come out!

And in this case we get an extra bit of awesome in the cute calves.  I’m not sure why, but don’t you think they have an extra bit of cuteness to them?  (Should we count how many times I said “cute” in this post?!)

5 March Highlights We Missed

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I can’t believe that its April.  March just started, how can it be over?!  The saddest part about this month flying by so fast is that there was so much I wanted to share that I didn’t.  So here are 5 ranch highlights we missed!

1.  We got a new silencer chute!  This chute is so quiet, so smooth, and so much safer.  No one will get conked on the head or hands pinched.  We won’t be bruising shoulders on the calves that we are selling.  We won’t choke down the cows and they won’t come crawling through.  Ya, we are really excited!  Its like Christmas for these cowboys!

 

2.  With spring upon us, we are gearing up for planting.  I batted my eyes just right and convinced The Rancher to take us with him to by the new seed.  Getting seed is pretty uneventful really, (unless you are a little boy and then its awesome!) but it was a great way to have a day on the town.  It was still a ranch day on the town, not like a fun-shopping-at-the-mall day on the town.  But I think I would rather hit up CAL Ranch than the mall anyway… So on top of getting the seed, we grabbed a few parts, terrorized a few tractor stores and had a shopping spree at the vet clinic.  Still not terribly exciting, but I got a cool picture I wanted to share!

3.  We bought a new little mare!  The Rancher’s Sidekick has started to call my old horse his.  I find myself horseless… So we bought me a new one.  She ten and hasn’t hardly been ridden… but she is gentle.  I don’t think she even knows how to buck.  The Rancher commented that she has no gas, no steering and no manners, but other than that its all good.  Slowly we are learning things and I’m excited!  We’ll see what summer brings!

4.  While we were in Leadore for the bull sale, we spent some time at the ranch that my brother runs.  Its fun to go back there because that’s where The Rancher and I met.  And where we worked when we were first married.  We jumped in the new side-by-side and took a spin around the ranch, guided by my nieces (ages 9 and 7…).  And by guided I mean they gave us the low down on EVERYTHING on the ranch.  Gotta love cute little ranch girls!

5.  Our neighbor needed help branding and of course, being the good neighbors we are, we jumped in to help.  There weren’t too many calves to do, so at the end of the day I took a chance to rope!  I got on The Rancher’s trusty mare and roped myself a few calves.  I’m a real cowgirl now!  One of the calves I roped was already branded… but it still counts as a catch, right?  I have a whole new appreciation for ropers- its so much harder to do than it looks!

There are still hundreds of pictures and stories to go along that I haven’t shared.  Maybe we will have a slow day (ya right!) and we can do a throwback day!  Until then, this will have to suffice!

Sweet and Sour Meatballs

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Every once in a while I get caught in a cooking rut, cooking the same thing over and over.  At this point I find one our tried-and-true favorites that I know will satisfy my rancher.  I hit this point this weekend and pulled out an old favorite- Sweet and Sour Meatballs!

 

Funny thing about meatballs at our house… When we were first married, The Rancher just told me not to bother making them- “I don’t like them,” he said.  Then we visited my parents in Montana and had some meatballs and he loved them!  Guess what honey, that’s how I make them…  Now I have all green lights with the meatballs!

 

What I love about a meatball is that you can make it so many ways, add whatever you like, take out whatever you don’t and every time it’s delicious!  They are fast to make and really don’t require a big clean up… I make dinners depending on what I am willing to clean up some days…

 

But the meatballs…

 

I thought I would try something a little new and threw in some bacon and cheese to give it new flavor.  It’s like a bacon cheeseburger rolled into a meatball!  I have to admit, they turned out AWESOME!  Definitely worth sharing!

 

So grab all the meatball ingredients: ground beef, onion, bacon, cheese, egg, toast bits, Worcestershire, salt, salt, pepper, milk, and red pepper flakes.  We only mix up once, so you just as well have it all pulled out! 

Start with the bacon, toast, and onion.  I go for a chunkier meatball, so I don’t worry about getting it all so finely chopped up.  But you do what you want!  I just toast a few slices of bread and chop them up rather than buying breadcrumbs.  It’s my way of making good use of the ends that nobody wants to eat!

Once these are diced, you’re ready to throw it all in together.  Yep all of it!

 

And stir, stir, stir!  If you’re brave you can even mix with your hands.  Unless you’re not into the meat squishing through your fingers…

 

I added my cheese a little at a time so it didn’t end up in one big pile that didn’t get mixed around.  We are going for a little cheese in each meatball!

When everything has been evenly mixed, its time to roll them into meatballs.  I go for a golf ball size, but they all vary.  I have big cowboys and little cowboys, so it all works out!  Place them in a 9×13 baking dish, spacing about 1” apart. 

 

Now with the meatballs ready, it’s time to make a little sauce!  Grab all your ingredients again, pour tem in and mix!  I added a little pineapple juice to liven up the “sweet” part of the sweet and sour.  Yummy!

After it’s all mixed up, pour over those meatballs! 

 

I sprinkled a little parsley on top for just a bit of extra flavor.

Cover it up and throw those babies in the oven!

Let ‘em cook for 20-25 minutes at 400 degrees.  You know their ready when the house is smelled with a tantalizing aroma that you can’t hardly stand! 

Oh… and when they aren’t pink in the middle (that’s probably a better rule to follow!)

 

Next step- EAT!  And share… We had friends over to dinner and was perfect to fill those boys up!

 

 

If you’re ready for a new dinner to spice up your menu, you’ll want to try these Sweet and Sour Meatballs!  I promise, they won’t disappoint!

 

Sweet and Sour Meatball Recipe
1 lb ground beef
1/2 lb bacon
1/4 cup cheese, shredded
1/2 cup toast, chopped into small pieces
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 small red onion, finely chopped
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 tap salt
1 egg
1 dash red pepper flakes

 

Sweet and Sour Sauce
¾ cup water

½ cup vinegar

½ cup ketchup
¼ cup pineapple juice
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp soy sauce

 

Prepare bacon, cheese, toast, and onion.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
In a bowl, combine ground beef, bacon, cheese, toast crumbs, Worcestershire, onion, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, and egg using hands (or a wooden spoon) until well mixed.
Shape into 20 meatballs and place 1” apart in a 9×13 baking dish. 
Mix sauce ingredients together and stir until combined.  Pour over the meatballs.
Cover and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the center is no longer pink. 
Enjoy!

 

To the Leadore Angus Ranch Bull Sale

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At this time of year, the ranchers around here have bulls on the brain.  There is a lot of prep work to be done before we turn the bulls out for another summer. 
I have to throw this out there that I am so glad I’m not a cow (for a lot of reasons) because if someone was planning my next pregnancy this close to having my last baby (or if I was about to have a baby) I think I would give them a zap with the hot shot.
Good thing the cows don’t feel this way, because we are getting things geared up out here.  One bull will cover (breed) about 25 cows, which means we need about 35 bulls.  Choosing and buying new bulls can be pretty intense.  The bulls we choose will factor in the end product we have- a good finished steer or a good replacement heifer.
The Rancher, the kids and I loaded up in the truck the other day and headed out to Leadore, Idaho (which happens to be where we met, fell in love, and lived when we were first married!) to find a bull at the Leadore Angus Ranch bull sale.
Before the auction ever starts they give the ranchers time to really look through the bulls.  They give out as much information on the bull as possible to help buyers find what they want.  In their sale magazine they have the parents of each bull, the bull’s individual performance (which is his birth weight, weaning weight, yearling weight, ect.) and then a list of the expected progeny difference (how they think the calves from this bull will perform).
It’s a lot to take in.  In fact, I don’t even know what it all means!  I guess that’s why I brought The Rancher…  He was looking for a good bull for first time heifers.  What he looks for in that jumble of numbers is a bull that will have a low birth weight (it makes calving easier for first time heifers), a high weaning weight (it means they gain weight well), and high milk production (for the heifers we will keep to be mommas later on).   PS, did you know that milking traits are paternal, not maternal? Another important bit of info to look at was the CED, calving ease direct.  It directly identifies which bulls will lead to easier calving. 
Picking out a bull by the numbers is just the first part.  Since we are looking to market our calves for meat, we want to produce cuts that have high marbling and a large rib eye (the spot where all of your steaks come out of) surface area.  So the next page of numbers we looked at was the results from an ultrasound which gave the bull’s muscle and fat measurements.
After narrowing down the bulls we liked based on the progeny potential and the meat quality potential, it was time to actually go see the bulls.  We look for a really fleshy bull, something with a wide backside and a long, deep body.  Something that would grow a lot of good meat!  We also check out their condition and how well they will make it out on the range.  Some of the areas our cattle will go can be pretty intense, so we need a bull that will keep up and get the job done.
The real fun is when the auction gets started.  There is all of the bustle of the people, the constant rambling of the auctioneer (I know its not rambling, that’s what it sounds like), the cattle moving in and out, and the ring man taking bids.  There is a sort of tension in the air from the buyers trying to bid at just the right time against their competition, the men working the sale trying to get it just right, and the owners trying to have everything just right for a good sale day.  I really meant it when I say the auction is the fun part!  I love it all!
It was a little more stressful for The Rancher because he was busy trying to get in on those few bulls he really liked without paying a fortune!  His patience won out and got him a really nice heifer bull at a good price.  All in all, it was another good day for The Rancher and posse!
 
 
 

The Rancher’s Wife Living in the Middle of Nowhere

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To have the amount of land we need to run the ranch, we live in the middle of nowhere (TMNW). The Rancher would say we GET to, that it’s a privilege.  We have the space to ride and play.  We can have as big of lawn as we want (or the lawn mower can handle).  There aren’t too many neighbors to worry about being quiet for.  We get to live life how we choose to!  I can agree with him now that I have learned a few tricks to living away from civilization, some that are definitely worth sharing!

1.  Get a freezer.  Or maybe two… You will curse yourself every time you run out of food, every time you make an extra trip for more food, and every time you try to cram your groceries in the little freezer space above your refrigerator.  Yep… get a BIG freezer.

2.  Since you bought a freezer, you have room to buy extra groceries… so do it!  Load up on your favorite frozen fruits, veggies, chicken nuggets and of course BEEF!  I even have butter and cheese in there!  And just to be on the safe side, grab a few frozen pizzas for the days that dinner just doesn’t work out.   Stick it all in and enjoy it later. 

3.  Every visit to town warrants a trip to the grocery store.  Even if you think there isn’t stuff you need, go.  I always end up grabbing a couple of gallons of milk.  My family can never have enough milk!  In fact, I get so much that I freeze some to ensure that we don’t run out.

4.  Living far away from a gas station makes you realize how precious fuel is.  In an ideal world you would have your own gas tank at home to fill up at.  But if you can’t manage that, always leave town with a full tank of gas.  Running out of gas in TMNW is SUPER frustrating and there is nobody to blame but yourself.

5.  It’s sad to say, but since there are less trips to town (because it takes up way too much of the day just to get anywhere) you don’t always have fresh stuff.  Either learn to live with that or learn to grow a garden.  I suggest the latter because there isn’t much more satisfying than a good green salad from the backyard!

6.  Those man car skills really are not just for men.  Learning how to change a tire, check the oil, airing up tires, and using jumper cables is something that every person living in TMNW should know.  Cowboy Charming (instead of Prince Charming, right?) is a LONG way away and really doesn’t have time (or even want to) to come save the day. 

7.  You will spend lots of time in the car… LOTS.  Make sure you have a car that will be able to go the distance (especially if you didn’t learn those mechanicing skills we already talked about…).  Just accept already that putting more than 15,000 miles on the odometer in a year is normal.

8.  And if your car is getting that many miles, so are your kids.  There have been a lot of late nights spent on the road.  Teach the kids to sleep in the car.  Take pillows and blankets, at least one for every person… or maybe two.  Heck, take all you have in the house and borrow from the neighbors if you’ve got to!  The extra work is worth it!  And since the babies will be falling asleep always take pjs so they can just got straight to bed once you hit home. 

9.  Take out doesn’t exist in TMNW.  Nor does delivery.  Sorry, you GET to have a home cooked meal every night.  I highly recommend meal planning, left overs, and guilt trips to get someone else (hubby, anyone?) to make dinner.  If all else fails, get out the frozen pizza- that’s why you have a freezer, remember!

10.  We don’t have a time to make lots of trips to town, nor do really want to.  So with each trip, make it worth it!  Hit up the grocery store, the bank, the hardware store, the post office, CAL Ranches, and the local Good Will.  Or maybe just Walmart… they’re supposed to have it all, right?

 
Living in TMNW can make life tough, but choosing to make it work makes it all worth it.  For us, getting to live where we have the space to do what we love is always worth it, even when I have more milk than I know what to do with!

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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