Blog - The Idaho Rancher's Wife

A Ranch-kid’s Amusement Rides

February 4, 2014 by Allison

I avoid taking our kids to the tractor stores. I know that sounds harsh but I know that they will want to climb on EVERY tractor. I’m terrified that some day we will be taking home a lawn mower because we broke it from The Rancher’s Sidekick climbing all over it.

But there is a day that we wait for every January when there are tons of tractors that we can explore. ISU in Pocatello hosts an Ag Expo where businesses bring their products for farmers and ranches to check out. They also bring tractors, of all sizes. I honestly wonder how they get some of those BIG combines in- I have yet to the a door that they can fit in! This year The Rancher’s Sidekick even found some his size that weren’t lawn mowers!

Usually it is the same old stuff but its always worth going to see if they have anything new. And of course we all want to sit in the new tractors!

Even The Ranch Princess had to sit in the tractor. Nothing will stop her from being with the boys!

Ya, super big equipment…

I had to take this picture because we have pride in agriculture

Praying for Moisture

February 3, 2014 by Allison

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

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

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

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

A New Cow Dog… in the Making

February 1, 2014 by Allison

We were heartbroken about losing our puppy,, Cash. There were days that the first thing The Rancher’s Sidekick would ask is when would we get new puppy or tell me that he needed new puppy. It was so hard to explain that just because we wanted him, it didn’t mean it would happen.

One fine Wednesday, a small, furry puppy came running through my kitchen door and my kids started giggling and screeching! The Rancher surprised us with a new puppy for Christmas and we have been loving every minute with him.

The Ranch Princess especially loves this furball. She loved playing with him in the mud room on the cold, cold nights (like below zero- anything above that is something ranch dogs have to get used to). Now that he has to stay outside, she smashes her cute nose against the window to look for him. Once spotted she pats her tummy, with zeal, as if she is telling him to come.

Lately the puppy is really starting to show interest in chasing cows. Like today, when The Rancher was chasing a heifer in. He was all over that chase, but unfortunately he headed her in the wrong direction. So he’s not there yet… there are still a lot lessons to be learned. And I think the one on the top of the list is to LISTEN to the boss… hmm sounds like parenting.

We may have a long road ahead of us yet with him, but we are so stinking excited!

By the way, are there any guesses for this puppy’s name? Leave your guess in the comments and we’ll see who comes up with it!

Celebrating 100 Posts!

January 30, 2014 by Allison

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

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

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

Once There Was a Snowman!

January 30, 2014 by Allison

There is a song that The Rancher’s Sidekick loves to sing about a snowman. A tall, TALL, TALL snowman. And then the sun came and it melted, SMALL, small, small…

We built a snowman a few weeks ago- a SUPER TALL snowman. Maybe it would have been better if we hadn’t started at the back of the house… There was a lot of snow to get to the front where we wanted our snowman to be. And maybe we would have rolled up less dog poop if we didn’t cover so much ground…

After a few attempts we decided we needed to recruit a little help. So we did what we do best and rounded up ourselves a couple of cowboys, The Buckaroo and Cowboy E, to come help us put the snowman together.

Even with the help the snowball was too heavy to lift. We needed a plan b… so The Rancher got thinking and found a board to roll the snowball up. It took a bit of momentum to get it rolling and once they were moving they couldn’t stop. At about half way the board started to give way and the harder they pushed the crazier things went! Pushing up was only half the battle… the other half was keeping it from rolling off the side. And then the other half (um… three halves…) was managing to move around the board while pushing he ball and NOT tripping the brother to the side of you.

I tried to help them push, but there ended up not being room for me, which was fine because then I could laugh! Oh… and take pictures.

I think that Cowboy E has the right approach- shove WHATEVER you can get your hands on, even if it is your brother.

Our snowman turned out awesome but even better we learned a few lessons from our adventure: don’t roll snowballs bigger than what you can lift, avoid the dog poop, and sometimes the only thing you can do to help is push the other brother from behind!

Back to Snowy Days?

January 29, 2014 by Allison

The weatherman says that snow is supposed to be heading our way. I’m sure that he is right because we are ready to start calving in the next week and it would be just our luck to go back to snow and cold just as the babies start dropping.

I have had to remind myself that it is still January with the days that we have been having. It feels like spring around here! In fact, The Rancher has been busy doing some spring cleaning around the ranch- trimming trees and fixing up corrals. If only his spring cleaning spirit wouldn’t leave him when he comes in the house…

We will have to wait and see what we get out of the next few days. Will it be more spring weather or are we going back to the snowy days?!

Pavlov’s Cow at Feeding Time

January 25, 2014 by Allison

Once upon a time there was a great psychologist named Pavlov and he had a dog. He trained his dear pooch to drool whenever he would ring a bell. At the beginning of his experiment, Pavlov would ring the bell each time he set out the dog’s food. Soon enough the dog learned that when the bell rang he would get food and of course would drool profusely when the food arrived. Eventually the dog would start drooling just when he heard the bell, even before he would see the food.

We have cows much like this dog. Ok… no… not really. They don’t drool and there is no experiment happening on the ranch. But over time they have learned that when the feed truck drives through the gate it means feeding time. Its cool to see our cows come running when ever the feed truck goes through the gate!

Lets go sledding!

January 24, 2014 by Allison

Have I mentioned that I LOVE living on a ranch? I love all of the things that the ranch brings and today I am loving having a 4 wheeler and fields of snow to pull my kids on their sleds. I know that are so many great places to raise kids, but this is the best place for me to raise MY kids!

Christmas Lights on the Ranch

January 23, 2014 by Allison

Before the Christmas season is too far gone, I have one last photo to share with you.

Cowboys Pete and E were busy putting up lights on the fences, around trees, and along the house. Their decorating even made it into the corral along the barn. If only I could get a good picture of the cows standing under the lights like they do at night. Until then (which is most likely to be next year) we will have to enjoy this view of them!

Cooking With The Rancher’s Wife: Crème Brûlée

January 21, 2014 by Allison

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

Ok, now the real post may begin…

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

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

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

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

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

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

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