The Idaho Rancher's Wife

The Ranch From the Wife's Perspective

Pick Photos for a Photo Contest

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In November the Idaho Cattle Association has an annual event of meetings and greetings for its members.  The few days there are filled with all types of information to help cowboys and ranchers keep making it year after year.  I recently learned that they also have a photo contest for its members, perfect for me to enter a few shots in. 

Once again I want your help in picking some to enter. 

The categories are: COWBOY CHARACTERS, THE COWBOY EXPERIENCE, COWBOY HUMOR, RANGES & LANDSCAPES, and CATTLE & HORSES.

Please, please comment below the posts of your favorite pictures.  Its folks like you and me that are voting, not an actual judge so I want YOUR opinions. 

Thanks, Friends!

The Last of Working the Calves

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With so much going on, I missed putting these pictures up.  We have had so many days of working the cows and calves.  Most days are hot and sunny but we did have one day that was overcast and rainy.  Of course you already know that rain at any time is beautiful and happily received. 

 The Rancher’s Sidekick found creative ways to stay busy, dry, and warm.  It DID include commandeering his sister’s stroller and blanket.

 The Cowpuncher was willing to come on a day that he didn’t ride and was cold and rainy.  That’s a pretty dedicated cowboy.

Our Ranching Family

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When we find people that have a similar purpose, passion, and experiences we create a sort of brotherhood. We find comfort and friendship with those that can relate to us.  In our ranching family we recently have dealt with detrimental losses. 

You may have seen in the news about several ranches in South Dakota that have lost more than 80 thousand animals.  At the beginning of the month a freak storm came along, a storm of several inches of rain, feet of snow, and winds up to 70 MPH.  Had this storm come during the winter, when ranchers might have been better prepared, there still would have had incredible losses. 

But it wasn’t at a time when ranchers were prepared.  Even the cattle weren’t prepared.  These cows hadn’t grown their winter hair.  These ranchers hadn’t brought them in where they could have been better protected from the wind and rain.  Some still had their calves that were weeks from being sold. 

And so thousands and thousands of cows and horses walked aimlessly in the blizzard until they dropped to the ground from exhaustion.  Here they were covered and smothered by the snow, causing them to suffocate.  The rain caused inches of deep mud to stop them in their tracks, leaving them only to stand as they were buried by snow.  For some that survived the actual blizzard and freezing temperatures, they later drowned in the runoff from the rain and melting snow.  Many are still dying from effects of the cold and may continue to die from any sickness or infection spread by the dead.

These are real families that spend day after day working to raise cattle just like we were are.  Can you imagine if this happened to you or me?  I hope that you are because so many ranches won’t be able to bounce back from this loss.  Not only did they lose calves that would be this year’s pay check, but they lost the cows that would bring in money for years to come. 

Ranchers all over can understand, even if only a fraction, what these families must be going through.  A sickness runs through the herd, fires blaze through the summer rangeland, or there is one of those freak storms.  From experience I know that there is nothing worse than watching your animals dying as you strive to do everything you possibly can.  Every minute you are willing them to live.  You almost feel silly praying for cows or horses but praying is about the only thing left to do. 

I don’t know if there is anything any of us can do, but I wanted to bring this up just so you can be aware.  That you can realize what a loss our ranching family has had.  We are already in the midst of an uphill battle to keep our lifestyle.  At every turn it seems there is another fight that will bring one more ranch down.  But please, help our ranching family keeping fighting.

Logan Canyon

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With having a semi and bull wagon, the cowboys will sporadically haul cows for other ranches.  Its usually the spring haul out and the fall haul home.  Last week The Rancher took the afternoon to haul cows from up Logan Canyon to Snowville.  Being the wonderful husband that he is he asked if I would like to come along.  He knows that, first, I love trees, and second, I love trees in full fall colors.  This was the trip for me.

And he was so right!  With every turn there were new colors intermixed with incredible cliffs and ambling creek.  It was literally breathtaking.  Every year the same thought comes through my mind- God has to be an artist to create such amazing colors.  I may have told The Rancher that we needed to move our cows this way so that I could live in the midst of all that beauty.  Yes, he just smirked about it… (For the record I do find it beautiful here, just a rugged beauty, not a take-your-breath-away beauty.)

So if I can’t have it out my window, I had better have a picture of it.  These don’t come near the vivid colors that we saw, but at least it reminds me that the fall beauty is out there somewhere.

 

Fall Calves

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Any rancher’s wife will tell you that the fall is a stressful time.  You have to get the calves weaned, vaccinated and occasionally some other fun stuff (tags?).  In the mix you still have bulls to pull out, cows to preg check and get settled into fall pasture, and other fall clean up.  Of course every ranch has their own process to but there is one common thing-stress.

There is an incredible tension that comes home with the semi loads of calves when these cowboys wean them off.  Tension from thoughts like we hope we found all of the calves… We hope that they have grown over the summer… We hope that none of them are sick.  And then we pray every night that they will keep growing and that none will get sick.  The day that we sell those calves is the day that we can heave a sigh of relief. 

In the meantime we are doing everything we can to fatten these babies up!  We took our nightly spin through them and so far we are quite pleased with our crop of calves.

 


A Real Fireman

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The Rancher is very involved in volunteer programs in our community.  He is with the Search and Rescue, Fire Chief of our local community, and runs with the EMTs.  There was a point that I thought he was crazy but we had a good talk about why he does it.

He explained that when we are wanting to live away from the city for the space needed to run a ranch (or to stay sane), we are giving up the luxury of being close which equals taking on the risk of being so far from certain conveniences, or necessities.  And when we take on the risks, we also must take on the responsibilities. 

So The Rancher has taken on the responsibility to be the local fire chief.  And with that comes some pretty fun perks- like visiting the local elementary.

Cowboy Kings

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Following The Rancher around has had some fun perks that I had never considered.  Probably the most rewarding one has been the opportunity to get to know some of these other cowboys.  The nature of the cowboy is to be hard working, rough and tough but looking at these men a little closer I have been able to see another side.

There is the tender side that I see- when they are helping a sick calf, a quick but gentle pat and word to their tired horses, and then when they take a minute to hug and talk to my babies.

These men are very humble, something I have learned with taking their pictures.  They always say things like, “I’ll break your camera” or “Find someone better looking to take a picture of.”  This is just one way they are humble. They aren’t looking for any fame or glory when they do something, even if it is cool. They just ride because they love it. 
They also have a silly side, and not always alcohol induced. They will sing as they ride down the road. They tease back and forth constantly. One of my favorites is to hear their hilarious stories of days in the past.  
There is so much to these men, living and working out here in this rough country. These men rule this land like kings, The Cowboy Kings. Riding because it is their fortune, working because its their legacy, and loving it all because it is their destiny.

 

 

Our Favorite Cow Hand (or Paw)

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When I gave you a look at our preg checking day I neglected to tell you about some of our best men.  Well, they aren’t men at all.  They are dogs. 

After a few days of working calves through the alley and squeeze chute, The Rancher said, “Those dogs are worth two men working out there!”  And he is right.  These dogs run along the alley, sticking their nose under to bite the heels of the cows.  Then they will nip at the cows in the chute to head them out.  It sure saves a guy having to always run back and forth trying to get the cattle to move.

A Rancher’s Wife Chicken Chase

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The day started out ordinary and beautiful, and typical of a ranching day, that was sure to change.  The cowboys were gone so something was bound to go awry. 

After coming home from getting my hair cut I had a call from The Rancher’s mom across the way.  She was somewhat in distress because the chickens were out.  You may not think that this is much of an issue but I assure, it is.

I wish that we had the picturesque Little House on the Prairie farm where the chickens and bum calves ran around free… Lovely pets that nestle and come at a melodic call.  But that isn’t what we have here folks.

We have wild calves that in their wild roaming they roam into the chicken coop.  They reek all sorts of havoc on that little coop, like dumping out the water, turning over the feed and ruining the feeders.  Of course this inspires more chaos as the chickens have been terrorized and set free.  Chickens wandering free is problematic- first because it means we have to hunt them down and get them back in.  But also because there is someone else hunting after the chickens… the ornery dog.

As good rancher wives we dedicated ourselves to finding the lost chickens, saving them from being dinner, and safely returning them to the coop.  It was a darn good thing that we were dedicated because it took FOREVER to wrangle up those chickens.  Have you ever herded chickens?  I think it is worse than cats.

They had scattered all throughout the sheds where the old junk has collected, the new tractors are parked, and everywhere in between.  We climbed under and over nasty, dusty, dirty, grimy… I actually don’t know what most it stuff was (but I did find a few treasures that would look lovely with flowers planted in them).  But we suffered through it and slowly, but surely, we gathered the chickens one by one back to the coop.

The real hero of the story is The Rancher’s mom, who by the way needs a better “Rancher Wife” blog name than that (if anyone has any great ideas).  She is so brave!   I don’t really do chickens.  I will chase them, cluck at them, gather their eggs, and occasionally squeal because of them but I won’t touch them (read pick them up in ANY sort of way).  But this lady scoops them up without the blink of an eye.  When she can’t just scoop them up she has a handy hook that snatches those chickens, just as if she was fishing.  And as she walks them back to the coop she sweetly reminds them that it is much better to stay in the coop, gives them a pat and lets them gently down.  I was so impressed at one point that I almost told her she was one good hooker lady, but I didn’t think that was very nice…  She has some sort of chicken super powers that any nasty chicken had better beware.  

50!

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I didn’t realize until after I had already posted my last adventure but I have done 50 posts!  I have really been loving sharing the ranch with you.  I have such a passion for our lifestyle and I love the chance to give you little glimpses of it.  Our life here isn’t perfect, and it isn’t always picturesque (as I have shown) but there really is so much here for us. 

There really is so much to capture on the ranch.  And so many seasons.  So many surges and lulls.  You may not find it all too interesting, but it is all a part of my life as The Rancher’s Wife.  I get to deal with the crazy schedule, dictated by cows, mother nature, and occaisionally the cowboys (oh, and we shouldn’t forget the BLM or Forest gurus… we could never forget them!).  I try to fit in what can here and I hope you have enjoyed it thus far.

Is there anything more you want to see?  What part of the ranch do you want to learn more about?

I would LOVE to have your input fellas, because even though this is my blog, its about sharing the ranching life with you!

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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