The Rancher's Wife - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Rancher’s Wife Living in the Middle of Nowhere

March 23, 2014 by Allison

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!

Taking on Texas

March 21, 2014 by Allison

Its crazy to believe that it was only a week ago that we were living it up in San Antonio. The Rancher and I managed to leave the kids with grandma and took on a little vacation (oh ya, we went to a wedding too!). Texas is a great place for a couple of ranchers to visit because our boots and buckles totally fit in. We could have been taken for locals… until you listened to us talk of course!

Before we got too busy with the hair and nail prep for the wedding we played tourist for a bit!

Like to the Alamo! Which everybody and their dog was there too. Maybe we shouldn’t have gone during spring break… It was a good hangout for the preacher man too. I didn’t hear what he was saying, but he was pretty fired up!

There were some beautiful places around the grounds at the Alamo. I wish I could have taken some it home to be at my house. A little pink amidst the brown would be awesome!

My new sister-in-law said that we had to go to Rudy’s BBQ for lunch. Apparently its famous throughout Texas. With all of the hype I was expecting something huge and somewhat of a nice restaurant. But its not… its a hole in the wall. And in Texas that means that it is the real stuff. I’ll admit that it was stinking good! This from a bunch of country folk that love their BBQ! I highly recommend it!

The Rancher found the Rose Palace, the home for George Strait’s Team Roping Classic. He was supposed to be picking me up but got distracted when he saw so many horse trailers passing by. Ya, he totally ditched the idea of coming to get me. Eventually he came back (he knows what is good for him), but he started explaining really fast why he was late. He didn’t forget about the roping… We had to go back and check it out before we got on the plane. I guess its better than going to the roping instead of the wedding…

Walking through the city was so fun for this country girl. I don’t want to live there, but there are so many fun and interesting things to see. I love the shops, the architecture, the people, the landscaping… ALL OF IT! Maybe its because we don’t see so much of that around here, like a stoplight. We don’t have those in our town of 90 people. Or tall buildings or cool fire escapes. Its all so exciting!

DIY Frame & Barbed Wire Inspiration Station: Repurposed Ranch Stuff

March 12, 2014 by Allison

I love DIY projects. I’m a crafter, big time. And lately I have an incredible desire to do it with old ranch stuff to make some new home decor. I mean, we are ranch people- why not decorate with a little bit of it too!

I’ve had a big old frame sitting in the house for a long time. I’ve been trying to figure out just what to do with it. And last week it hit me- make a little inspiration station to go in The Ranch Princess’s room (her one wall looked like it needed a little something).

The Rancher has been spending a lot of time in the shop lately doing some organized and fixing stuff. I really don’t get into the shop stuff- if I’m going to clean it should be the house and I know nothing about mechanics. But I go to the shop with him because he has a plethera of tools and old ranch stuff that I can use for projects! And it is awesome that the mess doesn’t happen in my house (yay!).

So back to this little inspiration station. I just wanted something that we could put up pictures or kid art but I still wanted it to have a little flare to it. So I grabbed the frame and got to work on it.

I started with repainting the frame. It needed a face lift. Its amazing what a few coats of spray paint can do!

Once it dried, I did something a little crazy. I found some old barbed wire (because if I would have used some new or currently being used stuff I would have been in trouble…) to string across it. Originally I had planned to used chicken wire, but I saw some barbed wire laying around and totally changed my mind. I figured it would be awesome to slip on to but it also gave it little out-on-the-ranch feel.

Using the old barbed wire was a good choice to use because it had already been stretched once, making the job of straightening it out a LOT easier.

Unless you are going for a bit of randomness (which it totally cool) quick measure where you want your barbed wire to be.

I found a staple gun in the depths of shop and used that to attach the barbed wire. I took a hammer to them just to make doubly sure that it was secure. The last thing I need in this house is to have some barbed wire fall off and the kids find it. It spells disaster upside and backwards! If I didn’t have a staple gun I would totally give a hot glue gun a try. Seriously, I feel like I can do ANYTHING with a hot glue gun!

After getting the barbed wire attached I took it in the house to add a little fluff (you won’t find any flowers or rafia in the shop…) I had grabbed a horse shoe from the barn (and I patted the calves!) that would be a perfect flare. Then to give it a bit of a girly touch I glued some flowers and rafia on it.

And done! Seriously so cute, so fast and so easy!

In case you want to make it, here is my little “recipe”.

DIY Frame & Barbed Wire Inspiration Station

Supplies:
Frame (obviously)
Paint
Barbed wire (and grab yourself some gloves to work with the barbed wire, you don’t need to get poked!)
Wire cutters
Staple gun and staples (or a hot glue gun)
Fluff to decorate!

Hang it on your wall, set it on shelf or a dresser. Even hang it in your kitchen to put notes or messages on. Ooo, you could put recipes on it! The options are endless! Leave a comment with how you used your barbed wire inspiration station!

The Rancher’s Wife on Mandy’s Recipe Box

March 11, 2014 by Allison

I’ve really been working hard at this blogging thing lately. And sometimes it hurts my head. The people that rock at this are amazing because they are creative thinkers, graphic designers, crafters, researchers, photographers, and awesome multi-taskers because they are mothers and wives too!

One of my very dear friends has an incredible food blog called Mandy’s Recipe Box. She lives out here in the booneyswith me and is a farmer’s wife herself! She has been my go to girl to learn some of the ins and outs of the blog-o-sphere.

She has invited me to her weekly link up parties where tons of bloggers put up some of their favorite posts on her site. Its a great way to meet other bloggers and share your own content. Last week one of my posts was featured as a favorite. Yahoo!

If you get a chance, go check out Mandy and her stellar recipes. You won’t be sorry!

Beef Fajitas with The Rancher’s Wife

March 9, 2014 by Allison

As folks that raise beef, we eat beef. We love beef- every tender, juicy bite of it!

Lately I have been craving fajitas. Beef with a little Mexican twist is always a favorite for our family. The Rancher especially loves Mexican food, but it has to be good. I mean he lived in Mexico for two years (you should ask him about it)so he knows the real stuff! So when he says I did good, that means I really did good!

I wish I could share our DELISCIOUS fajitas with you, but alas… I can’t. So how about instead I share the recipe and all the fun I had making them (because it was so fun!).

This might take some room, so click on to read the whole fajita story and recipe!

Lets start with the spices. I don’t want to say its all in the spices, but it just isn’t quite fajitas with out them! Get a little bit of onion flakes and paprika. Add that with some cumin and garlic powder. Then bring on the hotness with the cayenne pepper, chill powder and the red pepper flakes. Give it a little salt and sugar and you have a tantalizing concoction that will bring you fajita heavenliness!

With the spices ready to rock and roll, mix in the olive oil.

Pour a little bit more than half of you marinade on the beef. Slather it around and let it sit (in the refrigerator of course!). You could just cook it up now but the longer you let it sit, the better the flava!

But this is a good time to get your veggies ready.

Pull out the peppers and onions and get to choppin’. I go with a variety of colors because it is oh, so pretty! And the combination of their sweet and spiciness is awesome.

Some days I go with just a straight white onion but today I was feeling the red onion too.

Check out all of that color! Even the pictures look good enough to eat!

Next step- mix way! Get that marinade on all those peppers and onions. Go, go, go! Some days I even use my hands (shhh, don’t tell!)I even rinse the bowl out a little to get every last bit of it! Put it in the refrigerator to marinate while we keep going.

When your ready, lets get the steaks cooking. I wish I had one of those fancy-shmancy grill pans… but I don’t. So I just pulled out my favorite cast iron skillet. And if you didn’t want to do that, you could put ’em on the grill outside. Whatever you do, cook the beef!

But not too long- you want it nice and pink in the middle. Remember that as hot as it is, it will keep cooking a tiny bit after you pull them off.

Bring out the peppers and onions for some cookin’! Since I cooked my steaks in the skillet, I poured my veggies in the same skillet to keep that savory juice left from the meat.

Don’t over cook them, because then you have smushy mess. We are going for crunchiness!

While their cooking, head back over to the steaks and cut them into thin slices. Yep… cut, cut, cut! Can you smell it yet? Oh, hold on! You’re almost there!

Once the veggies are awesomely cooked, throw the meat back in the skillet to keep it all nice and hot. Its a great way to serve it up too! And not to mention, there is one less dish to do (I’ll admit that I will avoid one more dish to wash at ALL costs!).

Now we’re ready for the best part- eating them! Grab your tortillas (extra yummy if they are fried in a little oil) and your favorite fixings! We go for pico de gallo, mexican cheese (The Rancher LOVES oaxaca cheese!) and a little freshly squeezed lime juice. How ever you do it, pile ’em high and enjoy!

Beef Fajitas

Beef Steak (flank and skirt steak are the most popular, today I used sirloin because that’s what I had!)

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp paprika

1 tsp white sugar

1 tsp onion flakes

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes

1/2 tsp ground cumin

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1 red bell pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 yellow bell pepper

1 onion (or 1/2 white onion, 1/2 red onion)

Tortillas

Cheese

Pico de Gallo

Limes

Sour cream

… and whatever other favorite fixings you want!

Mix together the chill powder, salt, paprika, sugar, onion flakes, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, crushed red pepper flakes, and cumin. Add olive oil and stir. Pour 2/3 of mixture on the beef in a prepared dish. Coat both sides of steak, then cover and return to the refrigerator to marinate. Slice the peppers and onion and pour the remaining marinade over the veggies, coating well. Cover and return to the refrigerator to marinate.

Heat a skillet over medium high heat, add some oil and cook steaks 4-5 minutes, turning after 2 minutes (for medium rare). Remove the steak to the cutting board. Let the beef cool a few minutes and then cut into thin slices.

Heat the same skillet to medium high heat and add the veggies, cooking only a few minutes. They should be hot but still crispy. Turn off heat and add sliced beef to the skillet.

Serve it hot on tortillas with your favorite fixin’s!

I think that we made enough, lets invite a few cowboys over!

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.

Wintertime Horses

February 25, 2014 by Allison

Every few days The Rancher takes a bale of hay out to the horses. The last few times that he has gone to feed he has a slight issue… the horses have been getting out! He pops the gate open, drives the tractor into the pasture and then once he has cleared the gate out they go.

But being the ever vigilant ranch wife I’ve been there to the rescue. I mean, you can’t really miss eight horses running down the road. I feel guilty admitting this, but I do love to see them run. Its like back in the day when bands of horses would run wild, free… and crazy. Ya they were crazy, but still beautiful!

It really only took a minute to get the horses back to their pasture on those few days they were out roaming. Giving a good cowgirl whoop and holler is just the trick to get those horses to turn back. Do you think it would work to get my kids to come back like that?

One fine morning we had the privilege of helping The Rancher feed the horses and we must have been good luck. Not a single horse ran out! They must have known that I wanted a few photos. I love a winter shot of the horses in the snow. Their long, thick winter coat is its own kind of beautiful.

Favorite Super Bowl Ads Representing Ag

February 10, 2014 by Allison

I love football but I’m not a huge Super Bowl fan… There, I’ve admitted it out loud. I really am more of a college sports fan so I don’t really even have a favorite pro team. And since motherhood began my attention to sports has REALLY dwindled.

Even though I’m not a fan, that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy a good Super Bowl party with the treats and commercials. It seems I only get the highlights when we rewind to rematch the amazing plays (thank you TIVO) but this year I hardly got to see even the commercials. Ya, you probably guessed I was busy wrangling my crazy kids. And making football cookies with The Rancher’s Sidekick… But of what I did get to see, I loved how many had roots in agriculture.

This was probably my favorite!

There was an ad I was watching for but it didn’t air in out here (it only went to 20 cities). What is so fun about it was that it about being a ranch mom and featured a real ranch mom that I follow! Fun to see someone representing the rancher’s wife club and doing it so well.

And the Winner is…

February 7, 2014 by Allison

Kirsten! Congratulations to Kirsten for winning the drawing for the 2014 Cowboy Calendar. Maybe this year I won’t make a calendar on an impulse at the last minute and have it ready and available when the year actually BEGINS! And who knows, maybe you can help me with the final product!