Blog - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

Weekend Adventures in Locomotive Part II

March 28, 2018 by Allison

**If you missed out on Part I of our adventures, find them {HERE}**

While we were out to Locomotive to work, we were also there to get a little vacay in. That meant sleeping in and a good long breakfast. Doesn’t camping call for a hot breakfast of pancakes, eggs, and bacon? Once the dishes were cleaned up and we had donned our work clothes, we all packed into the gator and took off to check the cows.

We run the cattle in a few different herds on our personal rangeland in Locomotive. One herd is what will graze on the Forest Service ground during the summer and then other will join the BLM association cattle in May. The last herd we watch on the range is our first-calf heifers that have calved at home and have been taken to the range as their calves have gotten older.

Checking the cattle is pretty straightforward. We check the calves to make sure that they look healthy and that they are thriving. We watch to make sure that they get up and moving, that they nurse well, that they aren’t sick with scours, drooping ears, coughing or anything else that looks out of the ordinary. We keep an eye on the mommas too, to make sure that they are healthy to take care of their babies. Obviously, we make sure that if they are calving, that there aren’t any complications like the wrong foot or a nose coming first or that they haven’t prolapsed or retained their placenta. The last important thing we pay attention to is to make sure that the cow’s udder is in good condition. If the udder is engorged and her teets are big, her calf will have a hard time getting their mouth on and being able to suck. If the calf can’t suck, then they won’t get the nutrition they need and they will get sick. As we drive around we try to get a look at every calf and cow.

Friday was a big day of driving through the herd. We gave everyone a once over and then tagged a few of the newer ones. Overall, everything looked great! Along the way, we did see a few things that peaked our interest.

Just as we finished going through the BLM herd, we noticed a cow off on her own. We buzzed over to her and saw that she did have a little baby there with her. The Rancher jumped off the gator and caught the new baby to put in a tag and castrate it. Everything looked good, but then he noticed the calf had just one ear! We could see that he had been born with both ears, but somehow he had lost it. It hadn’t been cold enough for him to have lost it to frostbite so the only other likely cause was that something had chewed it off. After The Rancher tagged him, he jumped up and took off after his momma, showing that he really was doing fine. He will just have to go by One-Eared-Tom (compliments of our kids) the rest of his life…

Before we moved on to the next herd, we had a little work to do, like… to gather up the back hoe and trailer that had been abandoned by the road after our late-night-stuck-in-the-mud-saga. Along the way, The Rancher stopped at a water trough and moved dirt around and in the trough to fix the leaks. It only took a few minutes, but those minutes were nice to be in the warm back hoe.

After making it back to the corrals we decided to take a lunch break. A girl can only handle frozen toes for so long and hungry babies never make good passengers.

With thawed out extremities and full bellies, we loaded back into the gator and took off to the next herd. We bounced around the range, seeing nothing but good. The calves were running and bucking while the mommas were busy filling their bellies and keeping their noses to the ground. Of course, when everything always seems to be looking good, there is always something that has to put a kink in things.

What we found was a momma with a big, BIG udder and teeny, tiny calf. That combination means that we needed to step in and make it so that this baby could nurse. We started the pair headed towards the corrals and slowly but surely made our way. I have to tell ya, watching this momma with her big bag swaying from side to side and getting rubbed raw… oh it just made me hurt…

On our way to the corrals, we had to go through a gate and as always, I was the lucky gate girl (hazards of riding shotgun). After opening the gate, I took a step back to help her head out through the gate, except she didn’t appreciate that. I lose no pride in admitting that this old girl had me on the fence when I took one step to push her through.

Getting her to the corral was only the beginning of the battle with this bad-word cow. How do you set up an alley and chute and herd a cow into the alley and chute when she won’t let you step foot into the pen she is in? I’m not gonna lie, the corral itself didn’t give me a lot of confidence of safety because I’m pretty sure it’s as old as the dinosaurs and could come crashing down the first hit of an angry momma cow (ok, not really, but they are old and shaky and I didn’t trust ‘em!). The Rancher and I played a fun game of distract-the-angry-cow-while-the-other-one-risks-their-life-to-get-everything-else-ready. After everything was good to go, we had the next hurdle of actually getting the cow into the chute.

I don’t know that I have seen a cow with such a stubborn streak and rubber sides. We poked and prodded and coaxed and anything else we could think of to get that cow to step into the chute. We could get her almost there and maybe even a step in, but then she would hunker down and quit on us. And then she would change tactics on us and blow right through the chute and we would have to start all over again.

And again.

There may have come a point that we were the perfect demonstration on the definition of insanity- trying the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.

The Rancher deemed this old cow nylon deficient and rounded up a few ropes to try plan B. While it would have been much easier to milk out the cow and help the calf nurse in standing in the chute, we were perfectly fine roping that cow and tying her down to get the job done. We got a rope on her neck and a rope on a hind leg, tied them to the fence and just like that we were in business, milking business to be specific.

In these moments I try to channel all of my granddaughter-of-a-dairyman talent and hope that my little hands can hold out long enough to get some milking done. This had to be one of the more challenging milk out sessions we have had because she was so engorged and that it was hard to gain any momentum to our milking. Good heck, where was a lactation consultant when we needed one?!

Eventually we milked her out enough that the calf could suck without help. We collected a lot of the milk and put into the bottle to give to the calf so that we knew she had full tummy before we let them go. Whether or not this would be a permanent help or not, time could only tell.

Our time out on the range is never dull! From the baby to this momma, there is always something happening that brings a smile to our faces and keeps us coming back. There are challenges and setbacks but most often there is progress and satisfaction.

Stay tuned for Part III of our weekend adventures in Locomotive!

Weekend Adventures in Locomotive: Part I

March 24, 2018 by Allison

** We had a fun filled weekend with loads of stories. In order to share them all, I’m going to post them in a three part series. Keep an eye on the blog to get the whole story!

When you can’t take vacation because work on the ranch is true crazy, you find a way to take a working vacation. For us, something like that looks like a weekend in Locomotive to camp out while keeping an eye on the cows. Work on vacation, sounds like win to me!

In past years, the only time that we have camped out with the cows in Locomotive is when they needed extra looking out for. Those times are rare and only happen when it’s so cold and so snowy that we have gathered in the herd to feed and watch the calves through the cold nights. I always felt bad admitting it, but I loved it when we would head down and camp with the cows. I didn’t want to hope or wish that we have some time down there camping because that would be wishing for the cold, lots of snow or poor calving and I couldn’t wish that upon The Rancher.

But this year, somehow, someone saw the light and realized that things do have to be so bad down there for us to go camp out for a few days!

Our story of weekend adventures camping in Locomotive starts on the trip down. Adventure lies not only in the destination but in the journey too, right? In this instance, it’s a resounding YES. Let me set the scene so you can fully grasp the exhausting-ness of this night.

We had already spent the day at the Carter Cattle Co. bull sale in Pinegree, Idaho. And while we hurried to eat some lunch, buy our bulls, settle up, load up, do a little PR with the different ranchers and bankers and such, it was a long day. I had intended to have done some packing and prep work in the camp trailer the day before but that just hadn’t worked out. That meant as soon as we got home we had to scurry to get everything ready. When I say we, I mean me, of course, because The Rancher had chores to do outside as well as to hook up to the camp trailer, load up the gator, and hook that to the camp trailer.

Can you imagine the long list of things that we needed to check off before we could head out? And of course we had to get it all done NOW because we had to stop to get propane at the truck stop before it was too late.

Now, let’s add to the frenzy of getting ready, the kids hyped up for the adventurous weekend ahead of them. They were so pumped and jazzed about the whole thing that they were just bouncing off the walls and begging to take the most random things in the camp trailer (all while forgetting the important things, like underwear and socks…). There came a point they were just too much and I kicked them out to go find their bikes (… still trying to decide if that was a good mom moment or not). To top off the chaos and tension you could feel from all the excitement and stress, the baby was running a fever and all he wanted was to be held. To be more specific, he just wanted his dad to hold him.

I’ll admit that is was stressful getting ready to go- packing bags for everyone, packing food, getting enough bedding, grabbing towels and cooking supplies… and, of course, I forgot stuff. I do every time I go somewhere, I swear… (Ask my sister-in-law, she is always shipping me something after I have been to visit their family!)

But we got on the road.

Finally.

The sun was setting and it was dark before we even got 10 miles down the road. Not biggie, we thought. Sure it will make things a little more challenging, but we could handle it. We made it to the truck stop, figuring it would only take a few minutes to top the tanks off and get back on the road. But we were wrong… so wrong… It seemed everything we tried to do went wrong or took more time that it should have.

As we pull to the back of the station we saw a truck and flatbed trailer parked in the middle of the truck parking lot. There was enough room to move around him, but not enough room to move around easily. Of course he was right in front of the propane tanks, making it especially hard for us to get where we needed to go. With his mad truck driver skills, The Rancher managed to sneak us in to get filled up. After three trips into the store to get everything right, we were filled up and ready to go, except for the truck in the way. He had bottlenecked everything and there was a line of semi’s we had to wait to get where they needed to be before we were finally able to make our wait out.

So now we are stressed, sick, excited, and anxious, with lingering feelings of frustration but on our way.

Phew.

Then I realized I forgot the hot dogs and the roasting sticks. Curses. (I had plenty of food packed so we didn’t starve, we just didn’t get to have our roast out… bummer)

The trip was uneventful as we pulled our haul down the squishy, gravel road to our corrals in Locomotive. We were getting close to our turn off and I was thinking that things were all settling down when something on the road looked off. It was just after the cattle guard and I couldn’t quite tell what it was until eyes started shining back at us.

Cows! Black cows, all over the road, lingering and meandering SLOWLY in the middle of the dark night. The Rancher hit the brakes and I silently prayed that the bump wouldn’t be too bad and that we could keep going. Ya, I didn’t even think we would manage to avoid smashing into a cow. You can imagine how a truck towing a 30(ish) foot camp trailer and another 16 foot trailer with a gator on it would be hard to stop or maneuver through cows dotted across the road. By the grace of heaven, a loud horn and good trailer brakes, The Rancher got us stopped and the cows scooted off the road.

Curses! Heart racing, breath holding curses! And then, phew… We refer to those moments as butt-pucker-moments, if ya know what I mean!

I’m starting to think that getting to where we are going can’t happen soon enough but I know that in reality, the hard part was still ahead of us. We had no idea what the road to the corrals was like. It could be fine, but it could also be laden with slimy, greasy, squishy mud and that we would have to park it for the night somewhere else.

We turned off the road and I held my breath to find that the road was surprisingly ok. Not great, but not enough to stop us from going on. We made it through the first gates just fine and continued down the road until the road started to look more like one huge puddle than a road. The Rancher figured that driving along side of the road instead of on it would be a better option at this point and we began off- roading. It really was a good idea because there weren’t any puddles or greasy mud and the grass helped us have a little traction as we made our way across the range.

Our progress was slow but steady and then suddenly The Rancher said, “Uh, oh…” and gunned it. It didn’t take a genius to recognize that we were about to be in trouble. And just like that we sank. When I say sank, I mean sank clear up to our axles. We sank so deep we didn’t even attempt to get out. We sank so deep that when The Rancher stepped down out of the truck there was no down part of it.

Curses… again …

I started convincing myself that we would be fine to camp out here for the night and just deal with it in the morning. I was figuring that my attitude was a good-take-things-as-they-were type of attitude but in retrospect, I was probably just ready to be done with the night. The Rancher, the great problem solver that he is, jumped into action and made up a plan.

To our benefit, and ultimate salvation, the backhoe was at the corrals and we had the gator hooked on to the back of the camp trailer. So The Rancher could jump in the gator, drive up to the back hoe, drive it back down, and finally pull us out of the mud hole that swallowed us. With this being the only real plan we had, he took off down the road leaving the kids and I in the truck waiting. Now, being the God-fearing, religious woman that I am, I didn’t let this moment escape without gathering my babies close and offering up a prayer that everything would work out to our benefit.

It seemed to take FOR-EV-ER (channel your inner “Sandlot” as you read that) but soon enough we saw the lights of the back hoe approach. Yahoo! He made it.

But now, to get pulled out.

I was dreading this moment because I would either have to be in the back hoe yanking on the trailer to pull it out or in the truck feathering it just right as I attempted to steer the truck out of the mud and avoid getting deeper in trouble all while in the dark when I couldn’t see anything except from the lights of the back hoe.

Yikes…

My lot landed in the truck (which was honestly my preference of the two undesirable choices…). My only instructions were to wait until I could feel the jerk of the back hoe and then give it just enough to drive out, without spinning my wheels deeper in the mud. I put the truck in reverse and waited for the jerk. As it came, I began to let off the clutch and slowly push on the gas. To my immediate relief and total surprise, we were moving! I had figured there would be some finagling to get out, but before we knew it, we were out!

The Rancher looked at me and said, “It should NOT have been that easy!” We will take it! And by it, I totally mean the blessings of answered prayers. We loaded back into the truck and made our way to the corrals, following the tracks the back hoe had left as The Rancher made his way back to us earlier.

The rest of the night seemed ordinary after so many other high emotional moments. We made it to the corrals, got cozy in the camp trailer, and managed to warm up some dinner (leftovers never tasted so good!). The beds seemed a little cozier and sleep came quickly after such an eventful night and we were ready for an exciting day come morning.

Fall in Less Than 50… um 500… um 660

March 15, 2018 by Allison

This post has been a long time coming. One because its about fall of 2017… which was a long time ago. I mean it feels like it was just yesterday-ish… ok maybe more like last week, but certainly not MONTHS and most definitely not LAST YEAR. But it was… You may be thinking, “Allison… let it go! It was so long ago, don’t take us back. Move on!” But guess what? I’m the one with the password to be writing here and I love the photos from last fall so… boom… I’m posting.

Its also a long time coming because, man, it has taken me so long to get it all together and edited and play mom… but here it is.

I say that, and it sounds like this is going to be super fancy or exciting or crazy. And its not. I mean its nice and a fun look at our fall in its nearly comprehensiveness, but its not life changing or anything. Just a look at our crazy, beautiful life (in the fall, of course!).

The fall work officially kicks off when the cattle come in from the summer range in Cow Hollow to the fall range in the Bowis fields. Just before their hit the final destination, they take a pit stop at the Stocker Corrals (not stalker… even though sometimes I write that instead… sounds creepy in steady of beefy, livestocky…) to sort off any bulls or any cattle that don’t belong with the herd. Mom life keeps me from getting head out with the crew to gather first thing in the morning, but my posse and I meet up with everyone at the corrals and get our fill in the rest of the day. This is the same place that went to last year and got lost along the way. Surprised? Anyone?

Once the cattle are moved to fall range, we get to the “fall work”. We start by weaning off the calves and brining them home. We have 3 main groups that we have to wean. Each group has a day of gathering, sorting the calves off, and sorting calves between the different ranches. After having the calves home a few days, we run the calves through the chute to vaccinate, retag, and do a wellness look over them. Then we start all over with the next group. Eventually we kick all the calves out in the alfalfa field to eat down our 3rd crop.

October is prime preg-checking time. With so many cows that we run with, it take several days to get it all done. Of course, the work is sweetened with load of candy, donuts, and great range dinners. I think these guys like the long days working together and teasing the man that happens to make a mistake. The inside jokes and stories can keep ’em laughing all day long. Of course, its all kept a little interesting with the feisty, ornery cows that have been penned up for a few days.

We always do a little trucking in the fall too and I’m pretty sure that the whole reason we keep doing it is for the view. OK, not really. But getting a scenic drive up Logan Canyon as the colors are at their peak would be reason enough for me! I always try to get at least one run with The Rancher up there to take in the colors as well as snap some photos of the cowboy life in canyon.

Fall work ends with a bang when we ship the calves. This is more than the culmination of the season but of the YEAR! We work day after day throughout the year for this one day that we finally get our paycheck. We need to keep all the calves alive, healthy, and heavy to have a profitable year. 2017 didn’t disappoint with its ups and downs but we lived, learned, and earned enough to make it to another year.

Calves on the Ground

February 28, 2018 by Allison

Calving 2018 is well under way here at Eliason Livestock! The few weeks before we start calving, I get all sorts of excited and just long for those cute, cuddly babies to be born. There is just something so exciting about new babies! Everything from their wispy tails to their soft noses to their wobbly legs screams “SNUGGLE ME!”

Of course their mommas are sitting behind them, snorting up a storm saying, “Get back before I eat you alive!”

Its not really like that. Too often at least. And in some regards, we like it when mommas are protective. Its their instincts teaching them how to mother and protect their calves. Them being a little feisty is better than them ignoring their calves completely!

For the longest time, we thought that we would be calving in the most ideal weather. January couldn’t’ have been more perfect- warm (ish… for Idaho at least), no wind, no rain or snow… But good things never last, especially when it comes to weather. Within a week of our first calf hitting the ground, we’ve had storms roll in, temperatures hit the single digits, and the wind blowing like it was going out of style.

So what do we do for the cold?

The Rancher takes a lot of time to prepare the pen that the heifers calve in. The pen itself is on a large hill which is so great for naturally protecting mommas and babies from the wind. On top of that, the guys push the dirt and poop around to make hills for additional wind breaks. Right up against the breaks and in a few other places throughout the pen, they put out straw for a dry warm place to snuggle down into. Then to top it all off, we have a few calf sheds that are a perfect nursery to keep the calves warm and dry.

So long as it is dry, we can do a darn good job at keeping the calves warm. We only really have to worry about them getting cold in the first few hours after birth. Naturally, those babies are wet when they come out. So naturally, they are going to get cold. Of course, their mommas help them get warm as they clean them up. A belly of warm milk goes a long way too, to getting warm from the inside out.

Once in a while, those things just aren’t enough to keep a baby warm. So we go in and scoop that baby up to bring it into the warmer. Its amazing how just a few hours in the warmer can perk a calf right up!

Calving in the winter is hard but we hope for the best and plan for the worst. Instead of waiting for the bad to happen, we try to be prepared and proactive to give our calves the best chance possible. And then we watch and hope and pray that we can make up the difference when it just isn’t enough.

REAL Taco a.k.a. Carne Asada

February 19, 2018 by Allison

Tomorrow is Tuesday, so dinner calls for TACOS! Taco Tuesday is something my family can always get behind. It satisfies my husbands Mexican craving and it is such an easy meal to adapt for the kiddos. This recipe has a lot of names- Street Tacos, Carne Asada, Steak tacos, Taco bus tacos, but at our house there is only one name I need to say and everyone knows what I am talking about- REAL Tacos.

The Rancher lived in Mexico, near Tijuana, for a couple of years and fell in love with ALL Mexican food and all the things that makes Mexican food so good. Things like freshly squeezed lime juice, avocado, pico de gallo, and cilantro. These are some of the critical things that make these tacos REAL tacos. But the kicker is the beef. A flank steak, thinly sliced and marinated with lime juice, cilantro, and jalapeno with a little seasoning, flame grilled for just a few minutes on each side and it is SO GOOD! Its so good that you don’t even have to have it on a Tuesday.

Just a few tips when you make this delish dish. I have seen some grocery stores that carry a cut of meat called carne asada that is made just for sort a thing. It is thinly sliced and ready for the marinade. But you could also grab a flank steak and do the cutting yourself. If this is the case, when I say thin, I mean super thin. Like 1/8″ thin. Between the thin slices and the great grain, you have tender bites perfect for a taco! It will be a little easier to cut thin if it is a little frozen and if you start in the center of your steak and cut towards the ends.

When it comes time to grill your carne asada, you are going to want a hot grill. The idea is that you are only going to grill it for a few minutes on each side so you want a good sear on the outside without losing the juices in the middle. Salting the meat, even just a little, will help keep the juices from dripping out as it cooks. Let the meat rest for a few minutes and then cut it up across the grain for the best tacos your Tuesday has ever seen!

Carne Asada

The best tacos your Tuesday will ever see! These tacos start as thinly sliced steak marinated in spices, cilantro, freshly squeezed lime juice, and jalapeno, grilled hot and end up as taco perfection!

Ingredients

1/4 Cup olive oil
2 limes, juiced
1/2 Cup cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno, diced
1-1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1 lb flank or skirt steak

Instructions

Cut steak into 1/8" thin slices and place in glass baking dish. In a separate bowl. mix together all other ingredients. Pour over steak and make sure that all sides are well coated. Let marinate for at least 30 minutes.
Heat grill up to high heat. Place steak on the grill and cook for 2-3 minutes on each side. Remove from the grill, wrap in tinfoil and let rest 10 minutes. Cut into thin slices against the grain.
Serve tacos on your favorite tortillas- corn, white, or homemade! Top with pico de gallo, sour cream, avocado, cilantro, lime juice, queso or your favorite taco Tuesday fixins!

French Dip Sandwiches

February 6, 2018 by Allison

**Before you start reading this…. I need to say something up front. I am no food photographer. HAHA… If the pictures don’t look too appetizing, I apologize. But I do make a promise that every recipe is delicious, easy and family friendly!

Dinner time can be a fight, yes? It can be hard come up with something easy and fast and something that everyone likes. When we find something we like we hang on to it for dear life.

Over the last few years our little family has collected a good handful of beef recipes that we come back to time and time again. One of the first recipes that I loved as a new wife and head chef in my home was these French Dip Sandwiches. It was easy, it called for ingredients I already had on hand, and it was so GOOD. It was something that worked well for just me and The Rancher but it was also a great option to feed a crowd. And it works for feeding the little people in my life too. If they aren’t interested in a sandwich, the roast makes for a great supper.

This is a pretty ideal recipe when you need something to through in the crock pot early in the day and you want it ready for dinner when you come home. Come time to eat, all you will have to do is slice up the roast, load up your buns (ha…ha…) and pour a little broth in a bowl. Then dinner is on.

We dress up this sandwich in all different ways. I like it with some fancy cheese when I can but The Rancher just puts on good ol’ American cheese (we affectionately call it “slimey cheese”). Sometimes we cook up some onions and peppers and add them to the mix. Most times The Rancher puts a little steak sauce on with it. And every time, we have the yummiest sandwiches ever!

Just a few tips when it comes to making these French Dip Sandwiches.

-Toasting the buns will help keep your sandwich from getting too soggy.

-If you want the cheese melted, pile it on your meat and put ONLY the meat and cheese in the microwave. This will keep the bun from getting soggy.

-To change up your sandwich, add peppers, onions, cheese, or mushrooms.

French Dip Sandwiches

A simple recipe for a delicious and easy dinner that the whole family will love. A beef roast sandwich dipped in savory broth that will hit the spot every time!

Ingredients

3 pound chuck roast
1 1/2 cups water
1/3 cup soil sauce
1 tbsp onion flakes
1 tsp italian seasonings
1/8 tsp garlic powder
3-4 peppercorns
6 buns

Instructions

Place the roast in the crock pot. Salt and pepper the roast. Mix together the water, soy sauce, onion flakes, Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and peppercorns. Pour over the roast. Cover and cook the roast 7-8 hours on low. When getting ready to serve, ladle off the fat from the broth. Remove the beef and cut into thin slices. To serve, fill buns with roast beef and serve with broth for dipping.

Notes

*Toast the buns to keep the bread from getting too soggy.

*Add cheese, cooked onions or peppers to spice things up.

Running Cows on the Range for You

January 31, 2018 by Allison

Our ranch couldn’t operate without running on public lands. We would love to run our cows totally on private land but that just isn’t doable right now. Don’t get me wrong, the range land that we graze on is really, REALLY great. Our cows come home fat and healthy. But it would be nice to not have someone to dictate where and when we can run our cows.

Remember the days when we didn’t have to answer to anybody about our cows out on the range? Ya me neither… Mostly because I haven’t been around this operation very long. But also because even if I had been around here my whole life, the range has been regulated for longer than I was alive.

When the first cows were grazing out on this range, nobody owned it. It was just leftover land from when the railroad had been built. Cattlemen would take their cows to Curlew Valley to graze through the summer months and then head south to Locomotive springs to winter. It ended up being a conglomeration of all sorts of cattle and brands, which may seem crazy but it worked out well. Between all of the cowboys there was always enough help to get all of the work done- water kept up, the cattle checked, and all the ground covered. In the spring they would help brand each other’s cattle and in the fall they would all gather in and wean the calves.

Over time and from experience, they established good patterns of grazing, making sure that they wouldn’t over graze the land and have something available when it was time to come back. They let the seasons and weather dictate how and where the cattle would be, flowing with range and its needs.

These days we still run our cattle the same, just with a LOT more direction from the higher ups. We still run in an association, with most of the original brands that we began with so many years ago. We still help move cattle, brand, wean, and check water just like they did in the past. But now we are on somebody else’s schedule. They tell when to turn out, how long we can stay, and where we go next. The dates are rigid and there is no flexibility to work with what the range is giving.

I really have mixed feelings about this. I think it is smart to have organization to it. We want to ensure that the range is healthy for our cattle to feed on so it is important to make sure that we don’t have too many cattle or spend too much time in one area. But at the same time, having someone from behind a desk telling us what we can and can’t do, especially when they don’t understand cattle or the work it takes to run them, is frustrating.

The job gets even harder when there are special interest group trying to keep you from your range land. There are all sorts of reasons that they don’t want us on the public lands. They think that we are harming the land. They figure it needs to be left for the public to use for recreation. They want it preserved for wild life. Or some just don’t want it used at all for any purposes.

Right now, we aren’t in a position where we are being troubled by anyone directly, but we aren’t excused from the fight to get cattle off of public lands either.

I’m the kind of girl that is all about being efficient with what we have. I’m pretty sure that it’s in my genes. I hate to see things go to waste when there is so much value to be had. But I also don’t want to use it all up at once. That’s being wasteful too. There’s that sweet middle ground that should keep from wasting by keeping things from totally unused but also keeping it from being over used and ruined.

But how can we apply that to the range?

It’s all a balancing act, friends. Its working to keep too many cattle off too little ground with too little feed for too long. But it is also having cattle out there to disturb the ground to help new seeds to grow, to cultivate the ground, to carry seeds in their poop and fertilize them to grow. Its having cows out there to eat the grasses and keep the fuels down so fires don’t devastate the range. Using it for cows keeps it as usable, profitable range land and not the next development area for a new subdivision.

Balance. That’s how we do it.

A few years ago, I saw a book that was talking about public lands and it was obviously against ranchers using it for their cattle. In fact, there was a caption in big bold letters that said something to the point of “keep ranchers from turning your land into a feed lot!” And right next to it was a picture of an area that had been overgrazed (most likely it was right next to the water trough, right?!).

It was a little like a punch to the gut.

Is this what people really think ranchers do? Do they assume that we use public range land to feed our cattle so that we can make some money by fattening our cattle while we ruin someone else’s land? I just wanted to shake someone, anyone, EVERYONE and say, “WE DO THIS FOR YOU!”

We run and raise cattle for people to eat. It’s plain and simple. Yes it is our jobs and we are trying to make money doing it (enough to survive at least… ha… ha…). But at the heart of it all, we care about making a good, affordable product for families to put on the table using the resources available.

For years and years, nothing has changed how ranchers use the range. But what has changed, is the public’s perception of how and why use the land. Their land. The bigger picture is that we use their land to raise cattle to feed their families. And we have before it was really anyone’s land. The cattle were there long before any interest groups even existed, let alone had an agenda.

We are going to keep running cattle out on the rangeland for as long as we are able. We are going to keep using that land to keep our cows healthy and we are going to keep using our cows to keep the land healthy. And in the end, you, that eat our beef, will stay healthy too.

Why a Rancher Goes to College

January 24, 2018 by Allison

We just got done with an awesome weekend with the whole family. Nothing big. Just some good food, some game time, and our favorite people. Three of The Rancher’s brothers are in college right now and coming home to the ranch is their quick breath of fresh air and their means for rejuvenation before the next week of school. I totally get the need to take a break and come up for air after so many deadlines nagging at you over and over again. Over the weekend we heard all sorts of “I gotta study for this big test…” or “I have this huge assignment coming up…” and it almost sorta, kinda took me back to the days that The Rancher and I were in school.

I had two different college experiences in the quest for my degree. The first was when I was single and living my own dream and all that was on my schedule was a little bit of school, a little bit of work, a little bit of homework, and a lot of sports games. That was my life. Oh, and trying to get into nursing school… Then I got married, moved and started a new university experience. I didn’t have an apartment of girls that I had to share the bathroom space with anymore, but I had a man that needed real food, that I had to negotiate who got the car with and that I was building a life and sharing a dream with.

It was awesome.

It was hard.

The Rancher is not a sit-down-read-the-text-book-to-learn kind of kid. There might have even been some classes that he didn’t even open his book up, let alone learn from it. He is hands on, learn as you go, trial and error kind of learning guy. He learns fast and can see so quickly how to get from A to B. But sitting in a classroom just drained the life out of him.

There were a lot of times that I heard people say, “Why is he going to school if he is just going back to the ranch? He isn’t even going to use his degree anyway. Its just a piece of paper.” And when I hear those words, my blood starts to boil.

Yes, my husband was very VERY lucky that he had a job waiting for him the day he finished college. The job he had dreamed of having his whole life. He didn’t have to do scores of applications and interviews. He was qualified for the job by his experience long before ever finishing his degree. But that doesn’t mean that his college experience wasn’t a valuable asset for him as he returned to the ranch.

Here’s why.

When a grad walks away from college, we like to think it was only worthwhile if they got a job in their field or if they are able to make money using the skills and knowledge that they gained. If not then their experience was a total waste. In The Rancher’s case, it would seem that he already knew everything he would need to know to cowboy, so what was the sense in spending all that time and money on math classes and literature classes that he would never use anyway? And of course everything they would teach him in his ag classes were things that he should already know or he wouldn’t need to use. Right? It was just as wasteful as someone that went to a trade school or did an apprenticeship but changed course after getting done. Its wasted money and time if the girl that went to beauty school doesn’t open up a salon the week after she is certified or if the boy that went for diesel mechanics doesn’t end up working on trucks. Right?

Wrong!

I get that getting degrees and certificates and those kind of things cost money. I also get that we feel that there needs to be a return on that investment that is deemed worth such an investment. But the future potential income ISN’T the only returns from going to college.

There are so many life skills learned while going to college from the little things of doing laundry to learning how to problem solve from some crazy math (I will NEVER forgot the ah-ha moment I had mid-math class when I figured out the most complex problem… Never…) . Not to mention learning how to meet deadlines and pushing through to the end when you don’t want to.

You also gain an amazing network of friends and professionals in your area of study. They are the people you can work with, lean on and learn from. They push you to be better, help pick you up when you fall, and encourage you to try again. These people are so invaluable!

Taking time to step back from the ranch to learn from other people, their experiences and knowledge widens what can be a narrow view. You learn different ways, other ways, possibly better ways to work in the same industry.
If you ask The Rancher, a boy that spent all of his growing up time on the ranch, he will immediately tell you that he uses things that he learned from his classes. Especially his ag classes. Could he still ranch and cowboy without what he learned? Probably. Is he better at doing what he loves because of it? Absolutely.

The Rancher pushed through school because we both felt it was important to him. Not just for the things he learned, but for him to accomplish something that was hard, something that he thought he wasn’t made to do. We also thought it was important for the day that he may ever have to look for a job. Our dream was always to come back to the ranch, but what if that didn’t happen? What if it took years for that? What if at some point he had to look for other work? Having a degree made him marketable. It was a safety net that we needed for our family.

I am a big proponent of getting an education, ANY education you can. Because it is there that people gain valuable experience and confidence, gain life skills, net work, and find what they do and don’t want to do with their lives. You might think that this is an expensive cost to learn what they don’t want, but gaining an education is priceless. No matter what you are learning. It can be simply that you don’t ever want to be the prescribing rations of feed supplements. It could be that you learn how interested you are in genetics.

Not everyone is made for college or trade school or an apprenticeship. But everyone is made for learning. There is a whole world out there waiting to teach us is only we are ready to learn. So don’t ever think that because you or someone you know wants to cowboy or be a rancher that they don’t need to go to college or that they shouldn’t waste their time on college. Because it isn’t wasted time. Its invested time. Support them and their want to learn, their want to do something hard. They are probably going to complain or even regret it while in the thick of it all. But when it is all over, they will tell you it was worth it!

Cows on the Move

January 17, 2018 by Allison

All the cows are home. Well, all the cows that are coming home at home. I’m like a momma hen with all chicks tucked under her wings. Ha! No… I don’t feel the need to have them all close under wing and my watchful eye. They are probably going to get out and make for more work for me. Hey honey, lets get them kicked back out ASAP, ok!

We brought the last of the girls home a week ago. On our anniversary, in fact. What better way could we have spent our anniversary than chasing cows?! They actually moved super well, which was kinda surprising. Remember a few years ago when it was kinda a disaster? I was busy reading stories to The Ranch Princess when The Rancher walked in and said my favorite words, “Are ya busy? Can you come help?” Even if I am busy, YES, of course I am going to help!

My job was simple- wait and turn the cattle onto the road and then follow in the truck and trailer. I was more than willing for that job because it was a very cold very foggy and rainy day.

You may be surprised to see the guys heading out on 4 wheelers when I mentioned that we had the truck and trailer. This is how we cowboys in Holbrook roll.. Haha! Actually, the debate of taking horses or 4 wheelers or motorcycles can get pretty hot between the brothers. All in good fun of course! Right? I guess a lot of that has to do with perspective. The Rancher, whose every day job is to get the work done, is all about efficiency. If there is a lot of cows to move or gather over a lot of ground, he may pull out the motorbike. Then there is the opinion that what’s the point in moving cows if you don’t ride a horse… That’s half of the greatness of ranching- work that REQUIRES you to ride a horse. Which is pretty much the best kind of work. Because it isn’t work. It’s play. Both opinions have valid points…

I’ll admit, that while I love any chance to get on a horse, there are those times that 4wheelers are just more convenient. Especially when that may be the only way that I can come along. A whole other OTHER perspective on this intense debate.

I cornered The Rancher and had him spell it out for me on how he decides if he loads up the horses or the 4wheelers.

The guys like to take horses as often as possible. They can get anywhere a cow goes, especially those rangy places. It means that we can rope and doctor anything we see, rather than having to come back to take care of it later. And of course, it satisfies a cowboy’s soul to sit up in the saddle in harmony with his horse.

So when do we take 4wheelers? We usually pull them out when its a quick push down the road and it would take almost as much time to get the horses in and saddled as it would to move the cows. (ok, it doesn’t really take that long to get the horses out, but you get the idea…) But you can see how it might not be worth getting them ready for just a little jaunt down the road.

It seems that the times The Rancher rides the 4 wheeler or motorbike the most is when there is a lot of territory to cover and not a lot of man power. I see this mostly the days where they are bringing the cows in off the range than just trailing them down the road. Or if he is out checking the herd during calving season.

A few years ago we had a really hard winter. Really hard. Acutally, we have had several hard winters over the last few years. But the year I’m thinking of was hard in the midst of calving. It was so important for us to be able to get around the cattle quickly so that if there were any calves that needed help, mostly helping get warm, we could get to them before it was too late. We didn’t hardly lose a calf to the cold and I think the biggest deal was getting around fast.

Where do you stand on this issue? Because it is super important… I know some guys that at more on the rancher end than the cowboy end and they do 4wheelers only. I know another guy that likes to use horses because they will do less damage to grasses and feed. And I even know another ranch that they don’t use horses or 4wheelers… They walk. As much as they can they like to do it all on foot. They aren’t too horse savvy to use horses but they are also concerned on the impact of 4wheelers.

Do you have an opinion? I want to know what you do at your ranch! Because… I’m a curious creature, and even though we all do the same thing- ranching, we all do it differently. But however you do it, keep doing it. 4Wheelers or horses, it doesn’t really matter. What matters is that we all find our own BEST way to get the work done. Be your best and rock on!

Until next time!
The Rancher’s Wife

Trailing the Cows Home: If Only We Can Find the Gate…

January 12, 2018 by Allison

Its definitely winter here on the ranch. Not because it is cold and snowy, because it has actually been warm (relatively) and rainy. I’m saying its winter time on the ranch because the cows are here and The Rancher is officially feeding every morning. Slowly over the last 2 weeks we have trailed and hauled cows home, starting with the group up in Quaken Asp.

Quaken Asp is some of private ground in the mountains past our home where we pasture the cows in the fall. Its a favorite of our family’s- a place where we go up for a 4 wheeler rides, hunting, an evening drive… you name it, we do it up there. In fact, The Rancher proposed to me up there. Yep, I love it up there. When The Rancher announced that it was the day to bring the cows home from there, I immediately asked if I could come along too. I would say it was 50% me wanting to go for a ride, 30% that I needed get out of the house and do something, and a strong 20% that needed some quality time in a place that I loved.

Luckily for me, I managed to upgrade my ride from the gator, which I always plan to take because it lets me take all my little people and manage to take photos off the trail, to my horse! The Ranch Boss, my father-in-law, had shoulder surgery a few months ago and the thought of something going wrong and him coming off his horse was enough to make him call dibs on the gator. At first I thought that meant I was destined to stay home or to sit in the truck and wait. But, because I am his favorite daughter-in-law, The Ranch Boss volunteered to take my kids with him and I was free to saddle up and go.

Once we got up the mountain, it didn’t take long for us to realize that the cows were going to be difficult to bring home. We rode to the very edges and corners of the field and only gathered up a small portion of the herd. As cows do, they had managed to tear the fence down in a few places and meander far, FAR away. And not only they were few and far between, but they were also belligerent and stubborn and wouldn’t move. They would sit in the trees, head up the mountain, and no matter what we did, turn tail and run.

Ya wanna here just how stupid and ignorant and frustrating these cows were? Ok, it wasn’t the worst move we have ever done, but still frustrating.

There were four cows that I found in the bottoms, stopped in a groves of trees. Calling them trees is kinda pushing it… It was more like a bunch of overgrown bushes that left no room for a horse to move around but apparently enough for a cow to wiggle under. And there was no amount of whooping and whistling that was moving these cows. I tried coming at them from every direction and something worked because eventually they started moving (I guess I am scary… BOOM!) Of course they don’t take the easy way down and jump in with the rest of the herd but they decide to go further up the mountain, through even more brush. About this time The Rancher rides in and he followed them up and over while I kept looking for others in the rest of the brush.

Things were going pretty ok, but we could see handfuls of cows that still needed gathered in. The Rancher and Cowboy E headed out to gather in whatever they could find, while I grabbed those four cows and kept pushing them. I actually didn’t have to push all that much because they were moving plenty fast on their own. Unfortunately they kept going further and further up the mountain and away from the herd. I would get the leader stopped and headed back down just to see one take off another way. This happened over and over again. Where was a good ranch dog when I needed him?

We were headed in the same general direction as the herd and I knew that we would come out just fine, so I opted to stop fighting those old girls and just see where they were taking us. I knew that other cowboys were on the same side of the mountain as we were and that in reality, if I needed help, I could leave the cows and things would be ok. But, being the good cowgirl that I am (or at least pretend to be), I just kept going. One of the best pieces of advice I ever learned when I first trailed cows was to let them take the lead. They knew the range better than I did so it was likely that they knew the best way out. I was hoping that this little bit of advice wasn’t about to fail me. After moving for a long for a while, I start to see more and more cows. Apparently this group all had the same idea to head for the same corner of field, not realizing that they had passed up the better route of going through the bottoms. About that same time, I see Cowboy Pete push a few more cows in my direction and turn around to head for more so I figured I would just take this group and move on down. We started following the fence, assuming that it would take us to the road and out. But I started to look where the fence headed and all I see are corners.

Who builds a fence with 12 hundred corners in it?! Ok… I know that the where and how the fence goes depends on a lot of different things, but still… I mean, if I kept following the fence, where was I gonna end up. I didn’t bring my map of the range so… I called The Rancher instead. He informed me that occasionally they just take the fence down and make their own gate… Oh. Make my own gate. I can do that. I rode up ahead of the cows and took the wires down. Just then The Ranch Boss called me to explain that I needed to turn the cows around, that there is a gate at the corner already opened. Ya know, the gate that we had passed already. He said it was an easier ride out so, I turned those cows around. And went back to where we had started.

No gates to be found… I might have grumbled a little.

And then we turned around again and headed for the place I knew I could get out, make-shift gate I had torn down. And that is when I saw it. A gate. Hidden in a sort-of corner (as opposed to a nice square corner) that we had passed. Over and over again… These blasted cows, that have been on this mountain year after year, head straight for the gate that THEY want to go out, and then MISS it altogether! Gah! If I was a cursing woman, I would have used all sorts of obscenities but… I held my tongue. And those crazy girls redeemed themselves by sticking to trail for the rest of the ride home.

Mostly…

Until the next ride!

The Rancher’s Wife