The Rancher's Wife - The Idaho 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!

Praying for Moisture

February 3, 2014 by Allison

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

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

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

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

Celebrating 100 Posts!

January 30, 2014 by Allison

I know that this is a few posts late, but we still need to celebrate that The Rancher’s Wife has made it so far!

I am really loving doing this- sharing the ranch with you and helping people to see what is behind the BEEF industry. Please help me by throwing out any ideas for the blog (things you want to see or ways that I can improve the blog) and by sharing it with EVERYONE you know.

With this post I am going to give a calendar to some lucky Rancher’s Wife friend. I will do a drawing in 1 week (so the 6 of February) for the winner! To enter, please post a comment either about your favorite post so far or ways to improve the blog. Ready, set, GO!

Cooking With The Rancher’s Wife: Crème Brûlée

January 21, 2014 by Allison

* This post is very exciting and a sort of milestone for me. I guess for two reasons. I realized that this is my 100th post!! I can’t believe we have all lasted this long… And I guess we had better keep going because I have so much more in store! My other reasons for being excited about this post is because I am writing it on my surface in the truck on the way to the Ag expo and I FINALLY have figured how to connect it to the hot spot on my phone. Woot Woot! Hooray for technology!

Ok, now the real post may begin…

I love cooking, of all kinds. New recipes are such an adventure for me and there is such satisfaction from those tried and true favorites. I find it the highest compliment when The Rancher tells me that we should do “that one” again.

He puts up with my new adventures, but really he has those few favorites that are all I really need to make. Like chocolate chip cookies- they are the only kind of cookie I will ever need to make. And I have learned to only make banana cream pie at Thanksgiving. Every year I make the same chocolate delight dessert for his birthday.

I’m afraid that my creative cooking skills are being wasted away!

Until my sister comes to visit! She is even more adventurous and creative and daring with foods than I am. During her little Christmas visit we decided to make a few restaurant favorites- risotto and crème brûlée. The risotto was good, but a little too sagey… is that word? Ya know, too much sage…

But the crème brûlée was delicious! We had a bit of trial and error with that last step when the sugar is set a blaze. Of course the recipe calls for a hand torch to do the job and since I’m not a torch-in-the-kitchen chef we had to get creative. I did offer the ranch’s torch but that might have been overkill, let alone not so sanitary! After trying a few insufficient efforts I found the winner: the warbex ladle! If you hold it over the flame long enough it will get hot enough to turn the sugar into a crunchy caramel. Yum!

Are you familiar with the warbax ladle? In case your answer is no, a warbex ladle used to come with a de-wormer (warbex) and was used to measure and pour the de-wormer dose on the cows. Now that warbex is banned (it was dangerous for other critters that would come in contact with it) we need to find a way to put the ladles to good use. We’ve found that they are darn good soup ladles and apparently good for crème brûlée! Don’t worry, the ones in my kitchen have NOT been used outside…

I guess you never know what you will get whether it is a torch from the shop or an old de-womer ladle when you cook with The Rancher’s Wife.

A New Year

January 4, 2014 by Allison

Can you believe that 2014 has begun?!

I love new beginnings! Its so wonderful to start with a clean slate. I make mistakes (no one is surprised there) and although a new start doesn’t mean that past mistakes are gone, it does mean that you have the opportunity to rise above them.

Traditionally at the start of the new year we make resolutions. I’m big on that. Its like the ultimate year to-do list! And unlike most of my mom to-do lists, these kind of things can’t be undone, well some at least…

But this year I’m going for something a little different. I heard a quote recently that we are faced with the challenge to become. Become what, you may ask.

That is the beauty of it- you get to decide! So maybe this year I will focus a little more on what I want to become rather than just accomplishing new things. Life gives new avenues of adventure in the must unlikely places, places we may never have dreamt of. And while we may have a great list of things we hope to learn or habits to make, it might not accommodate the new road we are travelling.

Now, what is it I want to become? I’m not really sure… I guess I’m still trying to discover what that is but I can tell you it has to do with enjoying life on the ranch more and sharing it with more people.

I do know that I want to share it new ways with new people.

Any ideas?

Bring it on, 2014!

The Crew

January 1, 2014 by Allison

Most of the time when we move cows we are with our neighbors and other ranchers. But now that our cows are alone we get to do it just us. Just the family. And what is even better is that we love to do it as a family.

Every family has their own thing that they like to do. We like playing games and working together.

Merry Christmas from The Rancher’s Wife

December 24, 2013 by Allison

It is Christmas Eve today and all of the holiday celebrations are building to make a special Christmas morning. The Rancher’s Sidekick is really gearing up for Santa to come and The Rancher Princess is totally into the wrapping paper, so regardless of how prepared I am it is here.

We have enjoyed the lights and the glitz and all of the fun that comes with the season, but tonight we are going to change our focus. Tonight we want to take a few moments to talk about the significance of that day so long ago. A small baby was born, whose life completely changed the world.