It’s probably not too hard to imagine that I am a rancher’s sister (and a rancher’s daughter, just to throw that out there). I grew up on a ranch and ALWAYS loved that lifestyle, so much that I always told my dad that I would marry a cowboy (doesn’t that sound so romantic?!). To clarify, that meant a rancher cowboy not a rodeo cowboy, although I found both in The Rancher.
Ok, side note over… I went to visit my brother, let’s call him The Lemhi Rancher (yep, you guessed it, he lives in Lemhi!). We were having a family gathering so the kids and I loaded up the covered wagon (aka the Tahoe), kissed The Rancher goodbye and hit the road. The Rancher had to sit this one out because they turning the cows out onto the spring range. Can I get a woot (that the cows are out, not that I went without The Rancher)?
Even though we live on our own ranch and see the horses, cows, 4-wheelers, and ect. daily we always have such a great time at The Lemhi Ranchers ranch. And he does have one thing that we don’t have… BUFFALO.
About 4 years ago the owner decided that he wanted to add buffalo to the ranch. Nope, they didn’t get rid of the cows… Now they have a cattle cow-calf operation and a buffalo cow-calf operation. As soon as The Lemhi Rancher gets done calving out the cows it is about time to calve out the buffalo. The nature of the buffalo (can you say wild?!) changes how they do it all, in fact calving is so hands off that all they can really do is keep a good watch and monitor what’s happening.
We always like to spin through the buffalo. This trip was a little different since they are in the middle of calving so there were tons of new babies jumping around. Most days I will tell you that I find the buffalo to be ugly but there are times that they a sort of rugged beauty and their power is quite awe-inspiring.
And in the barn they had a special treat for us- a baby buffalo! We walked out one night and helped The Lemhi Rancher feed the little guy.
So even though this isn’t something happening on our ranch, it’s still fun to share some other ranching fun!
