The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

The Reality Is…

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… Its November…

GASP!!

I can’t believe that not only is summer gone, like LONG GONE, but Fall is on its way out.  And so much has happened in that time.  The good news is, I FINALLY (mostly, or almost mostly) have the new look for the blog up and running.  The reality is that I am NOT web designer and so what I thought would be a quick and easy change was anything but…  There is still a handful of surprises I have up my sleeve but I have enough done that I might sleep at night and NOT stress over it all.

I don’t have the time or the head space to give you a complete update on everything that has happened between now and then.  But here is the highlights reel of the summer.

The kids and I made a trip to Montana- a much needed break and chance for renewal before a long and crazy summer.  The highlight of that week had to be the basketball camp that The Rancher’s Sidekick got to be a part of.  I have to admit that I was swelling with pride because I went to that same camp since I was a girl in second grade and it was my high school basketball coach that put on the camp!

My Montana skies!

Between The Rancher and I, we had FIVE different family reunions scheduled throughout the summer.  No, we didn’t make them all, and that’s ok.  We still had lots of time to reconnect with family, especially those that we don’t have the opportunity to see often.  Highlights included fishing, water slides, bon fires (and consequently FIRE TREATS!), and late night games.  Low-lights include being stuck at the mechanics for SEVEN hours, stomach bug while camping, and never enough time for it all.

My sister planned an EPIC road trip for herself and I was privileged enough to kick it off with her.  The Cowboy Kid (my littlest) and I braved a plane to California, two full days of driving to Arizona (where we surprised our brother) and a flight back home in just a few days.  Once again never enough time, but still so much fun.  I have a whole new appreciation of how much I love where we live.  One, because it isn’t swarming with people and two, because it isn’t a desolate, dreary, bleak, sterile desert.  I mean, we live in a desert, but at least we have cedar trees and sage brush growing!

Road trippin’… (we really had fun despite these crazy faces!)

Even though it was summer, there was so much work to be done on the ranch.  We rolled from crazy winter to busy calving to hectic branding to a quick turnout to rushed spring field work.  This was our first spring with the new pivots (Christmas in May!!) and there was a heavy learning curve and lots of kinks to work out.  I wish I could have had a dollar for every time The Rancher said,  “We shouldn’t have to touch the cows until…” or “The field work should be down now…” because I swear Karma would kick in and we would inevitably have something come up that we STILL didn’t have a chance to catch our breath. Maybe we will after the calves are all gone?  The reality is, catching our breath is pretty unlikely because we just don’t know how to slow down!

Getting the pivots up and running

A little spring farming!

Out on the range to check water with The Rancher

Of course we had our hands full of rodeos and roping all along the summer.  The Rancher’s Sidekick even took a chance to ride into the arena and do a little sorting like the big boys.  I don’t know how well he did, but it didn’t matter when you saw the smile he had on his face.  All I could do was pray that he didn’t fall off and all he could do was beam with pride!

No summer would be complete without a little fire action.  Unfortunately a lot of the action we had was on our private and BLM rangeland in Locomotive.  And of course Mother Nature has no regard to Holidays or family time so Fourth of July fireworks had a whole new meaning and the dust was a little thicker with smoke at the Annual Stone Rodeo.

When we actually managed to be home and NOT working, we poured sidewalks and laid sod!  I had been saving my pennies for a good long time and it was all worth it to a new sprinkler system, established grass and sidewalks instead of mud!  It might actually be worth dusting now that we don’t live in a giant dirt bowl… HA!  The reality is that even though I don’t have as much dust, I still don’t have any more time to clean!

The summer closed out with fairs, concerts (can you say bucket list!) and a wedding (Cowboy Pete tied the knot! More on that later, for sure!!)!  Being on the County Fair Board is exhausting but always worthwhile.  From ropings to horse races to hog washes, we did it all!  Probably one of the highlights of my summer and the best way to end it was to go to a Home Free concert!  The music was awesome, my date was the best and having a TERRIFIC babysitter was the icing on the cake!

Home Free date night!

We are full swing into school and fall work and back into some sort of routine.  We eat, sleep, work, play and pray.  The reality is, I don’t ever feel caught up and I never feel like I am doing good enough at any of it.  But as a good friend recently told me, we are too blessed to be stressed.

Until next time, Friends!

Branding Chased out by the Thunderstorm

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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….
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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!     

Revisiting 2015

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Our New Year’s Eve was pretty uneventful.  We had an early dinner, watched a movie and just relaxed at home, which in reality was the best way to end our crazy, stressful, busy 2015.  With the new year well under way, I’ve finally taken a minute to look back over the last year and realize that it was a HUGE year for us.  And before you contest my observation (because I didn’t blog hardly anything that eventful and if it didn’t happen on the blog, it didn’t really happen, right?!), I’m gonna list it all out for you!

Lets just start at the top, shall we?

We started the first of last year with a bang, literally, as we began demolishing the old ranch house to build our new home.  When the walls came crashing down we knew we had committed ourselves to this adventure!  Although it was oddly satisfying to take a sledge hammer to the old house, it did get tiresome and the work seemed long but after 3 months we got it down!

In January we realized that there was nowhere near enough feed to calve out all of cows in Locomotive so we kept back an additional 250 cows at the ranch.  Luckily we had an easy winter that helped things go more smoothly, but calving was a lot more intense.  And because there was such little feed in Locomotive, we ended up hauling a lot of hay down south, putting a lot of extra miles on the feed truck.

When we weren’t busy on the ranch or demo-ing the old house, we were busy studying to be EMRs (aka first responders).  The Rancher and I took a class to test and certify to run on the ambulance in our little valley.  The long weeks and late nights of studying took me back to my college days and I was so glad when we tested and PASSED the beginning of May.  Don’t worry, if you get hurt out here in Holbrook and need assistance, you have a ready, willing, and terrified crew to put you back together!

The spring was its normal craziness of branding, turning out, and praying for rain.  Luckily, we were blessed on all fronts with a successful branding season, fast turnouts and a lot of rain!

The busyness of spring only got busier with summer as we were full swing into building a house, haying, hauling heifers to rodeos and ropings, and summer fun.  I worked on my bucket list and scratched off hiking Mount Timpanogous with my siblings (it might have been a few days before I could walk normal…).  Being the cool people that we are (and humble, I promise…)  we volunteered in our community at every chance we could!  A few highlights included our 4th of July where we cooked breakfast with Farm Bureau as the Young Farmer and Rancher’s chairman, had a fire truck in the parade to represent the Holbrook/Stone fire crew, cooked dinner with the Search and Rescue and put on a fire work show with the Malad fire department.  I planned and took (with help!) the 12-18 year old girls on a week long camp trip (that had its own ups and downs with beautiful sunny mornings and snowy afternoons!).  And we ended the summer with a week long of fair fun where I helped organize rodeos, a hypnotist show, vendor booths, and horse races all while doubling as EMS after a huge meth cookhouse was found (don’t worry, it hadn’t been running in years, but still scary to have in our little valley!).  And if that doesn’t sound like a crazy summer, lets add in a little morning sickness!  Let me just tell you that one of the highlights for our summer was NOT our garden…  I don’t know that I have ever neglected it so bad as this summer.

As the summer came to a close, we hit a new milestone when we sent The Rancher’s Sidekick to school for Kindergarten!  I didn’t cry, but the house certainly felt empty without him.  While we was at school, The Ranch Princess and I spent a lot of quality time at the new house painting… and painting… and painting…  Don’t ask me to come paint anything… I’m all painted out…

Even though we were solely focused on getting the house done in the fall, we took time to go on school field trips to the zoo and pumpkin walk and our annual family fishing trip.  Of course we had calves to wean, cows to preg check and fall pasture to be moved to.  And before we knew it, the calves were sold (so glad that we contracted in the spring!!)  We also learned that my dad’s cancer had returned but we are hopeful with a quick catch and aggressive treatment he will beat it again!  With appropriate timing, we gratefully moved into our new home the day before Thanksgiving.  In fact, we moved our crap in and then jumped in the truck to head to Montana for Thanksgiving all in the same day!

We closed the year out by watching The Rancher’s Sidekick first Christmas program, Christmas shopping, The Rancher breaking a few ribs, a week long trip to Tijuana and strep throat.  We were delighted to stay home for Christmas to celebrate the season and enjoy our new house!

Yep, looking back we had a crazy year, but I don’t think that I would have changed anything about it.  OK, I could have done without camping in snow in July or the morning sickness or The Rancher breaking a few ribs (I mean, did you have to do it right when we were finishing moving in?!) but we learned and lived and laughed so much!  I love and appreciate my family more this year than ever and truly look forward to the coming year.  In some regards I’m a little afraid, because I have learned that times can be tough.  But I have also learned that together we can get through it all!

More Branding….

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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!

A Midnight Bust

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I was looking back over the posts from last year.  Sort of reminiscing about what was happening this time last year and then just kept scrolling.  As I was going through, I realized that there are some stories that I never shared.  These are the stories that are worth telling.  You know that because they are the stories that I can still remember after so much time having past… 

I live by the theory of better late than never (you know that already for all of the times I’ve taken you back!).  Looking back this was a crazy, comical night but at the time it was frustrating, nerve racking and …  I guess any issue that begins after dark at the end of a long day is doomed to be a hair puller

We had just gotten out of the shower (I say we because we everyone had to go through my shower that night… Why do we have 2 bathroom when we only use mom’s?) when I heard the 4 wheeler buzzing around.  People usually don’t go for a moonlight ride so I knew something was up.  The Rancher slipped into something more fitting for the ranch then his jammies while I put the babies to bed.  Finally when I made it out to see what was happening (because The Rancher had been gone long enough for me to know that it was bad news- whatever it was) I learned that the most recent batch of weaned calves had escaped the corral and were heading in all sorts of directions.  They went up the highway, down the highway, to the shop, to the haystack and to the alfalfa… awesome… 

The Rancher and Rancher Sr. were buzzing around bringing in what calves they could find.  You see, finding black calves in the dark of a moonless night is tough to do.  You hear them before you ever see them and unless you have GREAT hearing you just might think you are getting around them but really you are heading straight out them.  When I first showed up I just waited for orders from the cowboys.  It was a long wait… So long I gave up waiting for their instruction and took it upon myself to guard the gate.  It didn’t take long for me to see that as many calves got brought in would wander out.  Not very productive… 

So I guarded the gate.  And it seemed to work.  The boys would whoop and holler and bring the calves and I would keep them from escaping.  Every so often there would be a handful that made their way to the gate and I was able to get them in (so proud of myself!  Earning so many rancher’s wife stripes!).  But the handfuls started getting bigger and more frequent and I began to realize that the blasted calves were hopping the fence and walking back to the gate.  I had been putting the same calves in over and over!  GREAT…  Rancher Sr. came in and as soon as I could I explained that we weren’t keeping them in… Making no progress.  So we got what calves we had and pushed them in the corral.  Finally safe.  Locked in.  j

We did this dance of getting the calves in the back pen, running to open the small man gate to the corral, pushing the calves to the gate avoiding the holes in the fence, and trying not to pee my pants every time they scare me as they come around the hay stack. 

Eventually the calves stopped coming and we figured we could call it a night.  All was left to do was lock the gates up good and PRAY that nothing spent the night in the alfalfa to bloat or on the road to get hit.  Come morning we found we were blessed to keep the calves in for the remainder of the night and the couple of strays that spent the night roaming didn’t die. 

Looking back on this Thursday night I remember what an exciting eventful fall night we shared when the calves had their midnight jail break.  You could almost say we had a romantic night with the only lights of the starry sky (and the few flashlights and 4 wheeler headlights) but I’m sure that’s not how The Rancher looks back on it.  A little anxiety and a lot of relief.  Maybe he won’t want to relive this Throwback Thursday memory!

 

Throw Back Thursday: Cattle Drive From May

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Remember that terrible cattle drive?  That one where there were more cows out in the fields than on the road… I wish I didn’t… That adventurous day was day one of two of our cattle drive.  I know what you are thinking (ok maybe you’re not thinking this…) that if day was so bad, day two must have been horendous and that is why I have to do a little “throw back Thursday” to catch you up on it.  
Nope, on all accounts.  Day two went as smooth as… it was GREAT!  Granted, we did have a good road to follow, fences on all sides, lots of cowboys, and a shorter drive.  But hey, it was good!  We will take it any way that we can!  
And lets say we learned a little from day one. The Rancher just started the day with a motor bike.  We called up The Buckaroo who brought along his sweetheart and a bull whip.  Both highly useful, just one more so than the other (just to be clear, his girl really is quite the cowgirl!)  And I opted to not try a photo shoot on the run.  I went with the 4 wheeler, kids and camera- its a lot less pressure!

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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