Our Winter Coat - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Feeding Cows With The Rancher

February 15, 2014 by Allison

I love going out to feed the cows. Maybe that is because it gets me out of the house or it gives me a chance to play with my camera or maybe its just being back to my cowgirl element. Whatever it is, I love to be out feeding cows.

The Rancher… ah… not so much. He’s not a fan of those things that he has to do over and over, repeating it everyday (read that in a bored, droning voice). It always makes me laugh when he reminds me of how he doesn’t like those jobs. I am the queen of doing the same thing over and over- breakfast, dishes, lunch, dishes, snacks, dishes, dinner, dishes, clean, laundry… repeat. Its a good thing that I’m the house wife and he, well… isn’t.

But back to feeding cows, something The Rancher’s does everyday- that’s what we were talking about. We have a pretty handy system- I cut the net wrap on the bale, he rolls it out to the cows. Then repeat, about 8 times. We have the big group of cows, the bulls and the first time heifers.

I’ll admit that The Rancher has some pretty awesome tractor skills. He makes it look easy to pick up, drop, roll, nudge, or tip a bale. But I know different. I’m not completely inept with a tractor but I certainly couldn’t do it with such finesse.

Maternity Pen Prep- We’re Ready For Babies

February 13, 2014 by Allison

A little something you should know about The Rancher- if there is something that needs fixing he will do and when he does it, he fixes in a big way.

With calving just around the corner The Rancher is finding and fixing everything that needs updated. The major one has been the maternity pen.

Last year it was such a struggle to get the heifers in when you were alone, so that was high on the list to get fixed. He spent a few days in the shop making a new gate to replace some old panels (that, of course, we were there to “help” put up). They put in a few man-gates to make it easy to move from pen to pen. The last day they replaced a handful of poles and added some tin for a windbreak.

It makes me feel better that these new mamas have their own maternity bay- all fixed up and ready to go. Granted, we don’t really want to use it because that means there are problems… but still its nice having it there!

So lets have some babies! (don’t let The Rancher know I’m begging for the calves to start coming!)

Out to Feed

February 12, 2014 by Allison

The cows are heading to Locomotive. They are due to begin calving within a few weeks which means it is time to get them to the calving pasture.

Locomotive is such an ideal place for our cows. We hardly get snow there (or at least enough to matter) so it makes for a dry, warm place for babies to be born. NOT to mention that they are so spread out, that one momma doesn’t take another baby by mistake.

Ya, we really like calving out in Locomotive.

And since the cows are leaving, the kids and I have been taking a few mornings to go out and feed with The Rancher before we missed our chance. There were even a few days that he actually needed me to be the one to cut the net wrap! Oh, the things that make this rancher’s wife happy…

Once There Was a Snowman!

January 30, 2014 by Allison

There is a song that The Rancher’s Sidekick loves to sing about a snowman. A tall, TALL, TALL snowman. And then the sun came and it melted, SMALL, small, small…

We built a snowman a few weeks ago- a SUPER TALL snowman. Maybe it would have been better if we hadn’t started at the back of the house… There was a lot of snow to get to the front where we wanted our snowman to be. And maybe we would have rolled up less dog poop if we didn’t cover so much ground…

After a few attempts we decided we needed to recruit a little help. So we did what we do best and rounded up ourselves a couple of cowboys, The Buckaroo and Cowboy E, to come help us put the snowman together.

Even with the help the snowball was too heavy to lift. We needed a plan b… so The Rancher got thinking and found a board to roll the snowball up. It took a bit of momentum to get it rolling and once they were moving they couldn’t stop. At about half way the board started to give way and the harder they pushed the crazier things went! Pushing up was only half the battle… the other half was keeping it from rolling off the side. And then the other half (um… three halves…) was managing to move around the board while pushing he ball and NOT tripping the brother to the side of you.

I tried to help them push, but there ended up not being room for me, which was fine because then I could laugh! Oh… and take pictures.

I think that Cowboy E has the right approach- shove WHATEVER you can get your hands on, even if it is your brother.

Our snowman turned out awesome but even better we learned a few lessons from our adventure: don’t roll snowballs bigger than what you can lift, avoid the dog poop, and sometimes the only thing you can do to help is push the other brother from behind!

Back to Snowy Days?

January 29, 2014 by Allison

The weatherman says that snow is supposed to be heading our way. I’m sure that he is right because we are ready to start calving in the next week and it would be just our luck to go back to snow and cold just as the babies start dropping.

I have had to remind myself that it is still January with the days that we have been having. It feels like spring around here! In fact, The Rancher has been busy doing some spring cleaning around the ranch- trimming trees and fixing up corrals. If only his spring cleaning spirit wouldn’t leave him when he comes in the house…

We will have to wait and see what we get out of the next few days. Will it be more spring weather or are we going back to the snowy days?!

Christmas Lights on the Ranch

January 23, 2014 by Allison

Before the Christmas season is too far gone, I have one last photo to share with you.

Cowboys Pete and E were busy putting up lights on the fences, around trees, and along the house. Their decorating even made it into the corral along the barn. If only I could get a good picture of the cows standing under the lights like they do at night. Until then (which is most likely to be next year) we will have to enjoy this view of them!

More Than Just a Bale of Hay

January 16, 2014 by Allison

Feeding cattle can seem to be a simple thing. Just spread some hay out there and the cows will be good, right?

Nope. You have to realize what hay is- it is energy and nutrition. This is how our cows get all of those essential vitamins and minerals and the calories for energy. There are things that will affect the quality of nutrients in our hay, things like the soil it is grown in, the amount of water it gets while it grows, and lots of other stuff.

After we grow our hay we (or our friend, The Cenex Man) usually take forage samples and have the hay analyzed to determine its quality, especially the quality of the vitamins and minerals. This is like our baseline for what our cows are getting and then we can know where we need to supplement.

About a year ago we really kicked in the supplementing game and oh boy it has made a difference. Our cows are in great condition and bred up better than they have in a while.

The nutrition of our cows is HUGE because it directly influences our calf crop- a healthy momma is more likely to get bred on her first cycle, which means she will calve earlier in the season, giving our calves a longer time to nurse. Her milk will most likely have more nutrients to pass to her calf to help him be stronger and healthier.

Ya, nutrition is SUPER important! ‘Feeding’ is a lot more than what it used to be when you consider that it includes putting out mineral, salt, and liquid protein.

And lets not forget that it is a great chance for this momma (that gets cabin fever WAY too often) to get out of the house. I guess I have my own reasons that I support the extra nutrition we give the cows!

Cows Plus Snow

January 11, 2014 by Allison

Here are the last few pictures of our cattle drive home. They may all look the same, but I just love them all. And I just love having the snow- a little something different than our dreary old brown

The Cows Come Home

January 7, 2014 by Allison

There is a movie The Rancher’s Sidekick loves to watch that has a chattering woman that says having caffeinated coffee would make her talk until the cows come home. She continues to chatter about what does that even mean, where have the cows been… And even though its a silly show and a silly woman she’s right- what does that even mean?!

I have posted pictures of the beginning of our cattle trek, of the boys and girls that moved the cows and now I have some photos of our final destination. These cows are now home at the ranch, close by so we can feed them and enjoy lovely cattle filled views from our own window.

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!