The Country Life is the Life For Me!

I feel like I have been posting a lot lately, but I saw this blog post on Facebook this morning and it inspired me to write one about my growing up years living on a farm/ranch.  This will probably be a little picture heavy and really long,  but just bear with me!  :)  The post was called,  Farms: The Abuse of Children and I loved it!!
     Anyways, about my life.  I have lived in the same house my entire life on a ranch outside of a little town called Weiser, Idaho.  My great grandparents and my grandfather and all of his siblings actually built the house that I live in and story has it that the reason our basement has such short ceilings is because they all got tired of digging :)

This house has been in my family for over fifty years and for some, that doesn't sound that long but for others, it sounds like forever.  All of my siblings and I went to school, K-12 in Weiser, and both of my grandparents, (my dad's mom and dad) also graduated from Weiser High School!  My mom grew up, mainly in Missouri, but moved around a lot because of my grandfather's job.  In one place I think they had a dairy for awhile but I'm not sure.  I know that my great grandparents on my mom's side, as well were mostly farmers and ranchers.  So, I am from a LONG line of people who raised animals and worked the land.  

    From the time I could walk, and even before, I have been involved in everything that takes place on a ranch.  I never wanted to be left out of anything so if my mom, dad, and older brothers were going to do something with the cows, I wanted to be right in the middle of it.  I did go through phases growing up where I didn't want to have anything to do with the cows but I, thankfully, grew out of them!  I even have some cows of my own now so I can earn money for college.  There are still times when it gets frustrating when we have to miss out on things because, say, the cows got out and we have to get them back in and fix the fence but I still love being outside and working with them, especially in the spring when there are new calves EVERYWHERE!!

Branding is always a busy time of the year!  A lot of my extended family comes to help then we have a big lunch afterwards so there is a lot of preparation that goes into it, foodwise and getting all of the vaccinations, tags, and branding irons ready.  My family usually brands the end of April. All of my extended family members are also trying to get their calves branded around the same time so we have to work it out so that we all do it on different weekends so that we can all get the help that we need. We all go around to the different brandings to help each other out.  It is really one of my favorite times of year!

This cow had a huge abscess on her cheek earlier in the spring so we roped her to pop it but when she was down, we realized it had popped and drained on its own and was mostly healed. 

My family doesn't have enough property around our house to feed our cows during the summer so we have to bring them to a pasture that we have in the mountains.  Before we can bring them up there, we always have to walk the miles of fence to make sure that none of the wires are broken from either snow, elk, or from the cows the previous year.  I can remember fixing fence from the time I was super young.  I used to HATE it but as I got older, I started to enjoy it a little more. 

 It wasn't all work :)  We always took time to play around on the huge rocks that are everywhere or to play in the little streams that run all over the place or to play in the huge trees that are everywhere.  We always managed to have fun and get super dirty and work really hard!

At the beginning of June every year, we bring our cows up to the mountain pasture.  This is another huge family event.  We start early in the morning separating the cows, calves and bulls to load on the semis.  The trucks usually come around 8:00 am so we have to have the cows all sorted before then.  We haul the cows about 6 miles to a corral then we trail them the rest of the way (about another 7 or 8 miles or more, I'm not sure :))  until we make it to our pasture.  Then we all gather in the shade by a cute little pond and eat lunch.  Then we head home.  

Sorting in the early morning.

  

We made it!  

     After the cows are all gone for the summer, our main focus becomes irrigating our fields of alfalfa (and some weeds) so that we have feed for the cows during the summer.  Once again, for as long as I can remember, this has just been something that my whole family helps with.  There was no way to get out of it!  There were rarely days when there wasn't a big fight or argument because someone (usually me) didn't want to be out in the hot, humid, wet, mosquito infested fields moving pipe, but, I still did it.  After the hay got tall enough, my dad or one of my brothers would mow it with the swather(?).  Then it would dry for several days then it would be baled then it would be hauled stacked.  Then the cycle would begin again...  Irrigate, mow, bale, haul, stack.  We usually get three cuttings of hay each year, sometimes four when we have a wet year.  Depending on the year and how much water is in the reservoirs, we stop irrigating in August or September.  The hay may get cut one or two more times but toward the end of September to the middle of October, we just let it grow so that the cows have food when we bring them home at the end of October.  This is the final big family event of the year.  We have another cattle drive and this time, we trail the cows all the way home.  There is no loading them in the semis.  Because of this, the fall cattle drive usually takes two days.  The first day consists of gathering the cows and driving them halfway.  This part is usually done on a Friday, then on Saturday, we bring them the rest of the way.  on the second day, a large portion of the way home is on a somewhat busy road so there are always cars driving through our herd of cows. We get some funny looks from the people who drive by but they are usually patient and wait for the cows to get around them.  After we get the cows home, we usually gather everyone in our back yard and have lunch together before everyone heads their separate ways.  

     In the fall, we stay busy moving the cows around to all of the different pastures, trying to stretch the feed out as long as we can.  When we have absolutely no more grass left, we start to feed the cows the hay that we grew during the summer.  We usually don't start feeding twice a day everyday until there is snow on the ground but when it freezes, we start to feed the cows straw with a little bit of hay to supplement the dry grass that they had been getting.  I love this time of year.  I love the cold weather, the snow, and the fact the it starts getting dark earlier.  Some of my fondest memories are of coming in the house at night after feeding the cows with my whole family and taking care of the other animals.  All of the windows are fogged up because it;s cold outside and there is delicious food cooking on the stove.  Those are the days I look forward to during the heat of the summer.  I love sitting in front of the fireplace and listening to the wood cracking and popping as it burns to heat our house.  The worst thing about this time of year is having to go to school!  Now that I have graduated, I will always be at college from September to April, my favorite months of the year.  I know that leaving home and having new adventures is just a part of growing up, but it really stinks sometimes.   

     All of these events and times of year are just the big things.  There are so many other things that have to be done to keep everything running smoothly.  There is always some piece of equipment broken during the summer that has to be fixed or some cow or calf during the winter that needs a shot or a fence that's broken or some other thing.  There is always work that needs to be done!  We rarely go on trips, and when we do, someone always has to be home to take care of everything.  

     So, going back to that post that I read this morning, I agree completely with what the author said.  Being raised on a farm is one of the best ways for children to be raised.  It can be frustrating at times, but you learn from a very early age that hard work will always pay off.  Whether immediately or in the future, it will always be worth it.  Working hard is NOT abuse!  Looking back now, I wish I would have enjoyed it more as a kid.  While I am going to miss out on a lot of things in the net years of my life, I hope to one day have a family and raise them in the same way that I was raised.  Because living in the country on a ranch is the BEST way to live!  

For anyone who actually made it to the very end, Good job :)  Now you know more about my life than you probably ever wanted to :)