The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

The Cow With the Uterine Prolapse

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This happened a long time ago (well, just the beginning of the month but that seems SO long ago…).  But it did… and I haven’t put up this post because I was scared.  I didn’t know how you would take it. 

You see there are days that it all goes wrong on the ranch.  And we can’t turn away from it.  We have to jump in to whatever mess there is.  Even if it is a cow with a uterine prolapse.

Remember when I told you the story about that calf we tried to save when I was out on my morning run?  Well the day didn’t end there.  The momma heifer to that baby had some serious problems not long after.  When we went to check her again we found that her uterus had prolapsed.

The heifer had been on her back and pushing for such a long time that morning.  Between the pressure of the contractions and the pressure of her awkward situation, it was too much for her birth canal.  With everything being stretched and weak, it was unable to keep the uterus from also being pushed out.

Is any of this making sense?  I wish you could have been here to see her, because it would be a lot easier to show you than to just explain…  But I’ll keep going.

So we saw she was in trouble.  As much as we wished we could just do nothing and it would all go away, we knew it wouldn’t.  In fact this was an emergency situation that needed IMMEDIATE help.  To top it all off, Rancher Sr. was gone to watch Cowboy E at his wrestling tournament with all of the other help.  I was the only help The Rancher had…  And even though I am the best help he has ever had (hehe), this was more than what the two of us could do.

In fact, we wanted some professional help, like a vet.  But vets are busy some days and can’t come.  And a cow in this kind of a condition is not one to load up and take in.  This meant it was up to us to fix it!

Luckily we have a neighbor that was home and able to come help.  And as an added bonus, he had done this a few times so he knew a lot more than what we did.  Phew…

The cow was already down from other birthing complications but we still had to do a sort of nerve block.  This kept her from moving around or twitching her tail at us.  It also worked as a pain block because I don’t know how lovely it would be to have three people pushing your insides back in.

Once we knew she was blocked we elevated her back legs and rear so that gravity could help out.   And it also kept the uterus cleaner since it wasn’t on the ground any longer.

The next step was cleaning her uterus off.  Its only the nice thing to do when you put a uterus back inside.  Don’t worry, we had some heavy duty, yet gentle, disinfectant to do the job.  We didn’t want anything to end up growing in there.  We had to be careful to not get too rough as we worked.  There are several massive raisen looking things lining the uterus called cotyledons (here is a look if you want more of an anatomy lesson).  They are what provide the nutrients to the growing baby.  If one of these is badly cut or torn, the cow could hemorrhage and die.  So we tried to be careful…

That was all the easy part.  With all of the prepping and cleaning we were finally ready to shove (with love) the uterus back in.  Now image a bean bag the size of a large basketball being shoved into a hole the size of a grapefruit but weighs as much as a big bag of sugar.  And add a half a bag more.  That’s what we were doing.  You would think that it would just slip back in… but it doesn’t. 

My job was just to hold the uterus up.  Just to keep it there to make it easier for the other guys to shove in.  And they had the job of shoving, hard enough to gain ground but careful enough to not cause any damage.   Occaisonally we would switch around and I would get shove.  It was tough because as soon and I thought I was gaining ground and would pull my hand back to push again, everything that I had just pushed in with the last push would fall out.  And then sometimes the heifer would push against us (because ouch!) and we would lose more ground.

It took us about 45 minutes of pushing and holding and working to finally get everything back inside.  Ya know, where it belongs… (internal organs never do well outside the body).  Our final step was to sew her up so it wouldn’t all come falling out again.

The Rancher had the honor of doing this.  He had a sergical string that reminded me of a shoelace.  Just remember that we are working on a big cow and she needs more than a few little stitches to keep her insides inside.  Then he took a few hog rings (real technical, I know, but it works awesomely) and clamped them along the edge of the vulva.  He threaded the string through the rings and cinched it up tight like a duffle bag.  This would allow her to still pee and any discharge to go out, but not another prolapse.

With the work done, all that was left was to give her a shot to boost her immune system and let her go.

It seems so easy when I tell it to you, but I was so tired after it all.  Especially my forearms, from holding her heavy, heavy uterus.

It was a learning experience for us, not one that everyone needs to learn.  I highly recommend a vet to be the man in charge on this kind of a project.  Other things I learned that day- 1, how to fix a prolapse (obviously), 2, that a tractor is a great way to elevate a cows backside, and 3, definitely wear work clothes for that kind of a job.  And one other recommendation- make sure that your cow isn’t buy a busy road.  Just think what those travelers were imagining!

Because the pictures are a little graphic and not all of you will want to see it… click “read more” for the photos.

I don’t have any pictures of the shoving part.  My hands were kinda full…  But you can imagine how it must of went going from the last picture to the next picture.  It was almost like magic!

The Rancher’s Wife on Mandy’s Recipe Box

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Mandy's Recipe Box
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

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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!)

1 tsp onion 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!

 

Calving Down South in Locomotive

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Every operation has its own calving process and the crucial chunk of ours is in the location.  Locomotive is such an ideal place for our cows to calve because it only (ok, usually) gets little bits of snow.  The weather is mild enough that there is still good range feed (aka grass) and warmer temperatures that we don’t have to worry about losing calves to the cold. 

Being that it is out on the range, there are wide open spaces for the herd (channel your inner “Home on the Range” background music!).  They can be spread out to make sure that the right momma and babies get paired up together.  There are times when cows are bunched up too close that they try to claim another calf as their own.  We tag them when we can, but since cows can’t read, it only helps us.  I guess it doesn’t work like in the hospital when the momma and babies have matching bracelets!

Another plus of calving on the range is that it also helps to prevent sickness from spreading through all the calves.  When the calves are so spread out, they have less contact with each other.  When they have less contact, the germs don’t move from calf to calf so much.  Just think of a kindergarten class of kids that are always wiping their runny noses on their neighbor.  This is what we are avoiding!  Young calves have young immune systems.  And although they are building their immunity, especially through momma cow’s milk, we want to lesson their exposure as best we can.

Its a more of a hands off approach.  When I was very first involved in the process I was sure that we weren’t doing enough and we were doomed to fail…  But I was so wrong!  We have incredible calving percentages every year.  These are experienced momma’s that, with the right location, have babies without any problems.  And then once the calves hit the ground, they just get growing!

Don’t get me wrong, we don’t put ‘hem out on the range and forget about them.  We (read The Rancher and Rancher Sr.) ride through them nearly every day on the off-chance that there is something going hay-wire.  But we certainly don’t wear ourselves out as if we calved all 600+ at home!

Roundup of Other Ranches: Calving in Cold Weather

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We have had such a mild winter which is AWESOME for calving.  But that hasn’t been the case for everyone. 

My old neighbors in Montana have really been having a hard time this last weekend.  My dad was saying its the worst calving season they have had in 25 years.  A town nearby was dealing with a wind chill of -68 degrees at night.  That’s beyond brrr!  That’s cold enough to freeze a baby’s nose even before he has been born.  Not being able to keep all the babies and mommas out of the cold is like throwing money in the wind.

But my Montana friends aren’t the only ones dealing with the cold.  Its a normal part of winter calving.  Over the years we have all found things that help on those cold nights.  We have our go to hot boxes or shelf ready ear warmers. We’ve learned when we need to bring a calf in or when to leave it with momma.

But don’t just take my word for it.  Here are a few other ranchers that have been out fighting the cold.

 
1. Calving in the Cold on PincherCreekVoice.com
 
2. Baby Calves Will be Here Soon on KansasCattleRanch.blogspot.com
 
3. Ranch Snow Day: Calving Heifers on AgricultureProud.com
 
4. Calving Shed on BeefMatters.org
 
5. No Maternal Instinct on JustARanchWife.com
 
6. Warming Baby Calves on TalesOfAKansasFarmMom.blogspot.com

Suckling a Baby Calf

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A rancher takes on a lot of jobs on the ranch.  That includes being the on-call lactation consultant. 

There are a handful or reasons that calf has a hard time nursing.  Some problems come from the cow not realizing that they have a calf to care for (you would think with all of the work they did to get that baby here they would stick around for the rest!).  Others times momma just doesn’t want to let the calf suck and pushes him away (or kick and head butt).

But sometimes its the calf that is having issues.  It could be because he doesn’t have the energy to do it.  And then there are times the calf just doesn’t know what to do or where to go to get the milk.

This is when The Rancher comes to save the day!

Once again we head to the maternity pens and get the cow settled since she might be there for a bit.  Our approach to help the calf depends on who’s the weak link (obviously).  Just getting momma and baby in the pen together could be enough.  But when its not we will put the cow in the head catch and hobble her legs to make it easy for the calf to nurse (without the hard love kicks).

If it is the calf not knowing how or not having the energy to nurse it means that there is a little more work for The Rancher.  A good place to start is just pointing baby is the right direction and squirting a little milk in his mouth.  If he doesn’t take the cue to start nursing… then we just keep trying. 

One of The Rancher’s go-to strategies is to start the baby sucking on one of his fingers.  Once the calf is sucking hard, he will slip in the cow’s teet.  If he keeps sucking, we are good to go.  But sometimes baby just doesn’t get it.  And as the last resort we just milk the momma, bottle feed the baby and leave them in the maternity stall.  There are times that doing less and giving them space is all they need.  

Who new that The Rancher could be such a terrific lactation consultant?!

10 Lessons I Have Learned as a Rancher’s Wife

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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

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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.

Calving on the Ranch

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*Just a little note- I have picture of a few cows giving birth.  Its not too pretty.  These are definitely not my photo contest photos… You’ve been warned!
 

Watching a baby being born is such an incredible experience.  That includes watching a baby calf being born.  Its not too often that you get to see it.  With my luck I make it just as momma is done and licking baby off.  But the other day I managed it just right to see this little baldy calf being born!

After having my own babies, I am so impressed with the instincts that these first time heifers have.  There are no doctors or nurses or even husbands to help them through it all and (for the most part) they rock it!

We take a lot time to check the cows to make sure that things go right when they deliver their calves.  First time mommas have more problems than the seasoned cows, which is why we keep them close to home. 

Generally, we know that when a cow has left the herd and is acting a little antsy, it is probably in labor (that’s how I feel too…).  We know for sure that she is calving when we can see a water bubble and the feet sticking out.  At this point the calf should be born within the next hour or two and if its not, its time to jump in and help.

Seeing those feet coming out is a good indicator of how things are going.  If the toes are pointing up its good news.  If they’re not, it means that calf is coming backwards and you’ve got some work to do.  The cow might be at this stage for a while because she is working to push the shoulders and head through.  But once they do come, gravity helps out and the rest calf quickly comes.

A momma’s instincts kick in fast once that baby has hit the ground.  The cow is quick to get up to start licking and cleaning her new little baby.  The mom side of me thinks that those licks are part momma loves!  The calf’s instincts kick in fast too because as soon as it can, it will stand up and look to start nursing.  That first bit of milk (colostrum) is SUPER important because it contains nutrients and antibodies that will help give energy and a strong immunity.

If all of this has gone down without a hitch you can pat yourself on the back and leave them for a while.

But…

… things don’t always go the right way.  When we talk about calving there is always a lot of “if-s” and “should-s” and “generally-s” and “usually-s” because we plan on there being problems once in a while.  Murphy has a permanent residence here at the ranch…

The first thing to do (after we manage to get the mamma to the maternity pen) once we realize a cow needs help is to figure out exactly what is going on.  We face a whole variety of issues like one leg being stuck back, the head being turned the wrong way, the back feet or bum coming first, or the baby being too big for a first time heifer to have alone.  The figuring is the easy part.  Getting the calf in right position is the tricky part.  I mean, you have The Rancher pushing the calf in, grabbing that one leg to get it in just the right place all while momma is having contractions and pushing on the already stuck calf.  And there is only room for one hand to do the work.  Yep… kinda tricky!

When the calf is finally in the right position the cowboys put some chains around the legs and connect it to a sort of jack.  Its brilliantly name “The Calf Puller”… With some steady pulling the baby is able to come much easier.  And Ta Da!  A calf is born!

Congratulations, its a bull!

To see all of the many exciting pictures, click the “read more” link below!

 

 
 
 

 

 

Wintertime Horses

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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.

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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