Birde Lover

Posted on April 10, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

When I saw a bumper sticker that said, “Have you hugged your kid today?” I couldn’t help but think that’s a no-brainer but did consider whom I haven’t hugged lately.

After contemplating those I’ve neglected, I realized the kids’ babysitter needs a lot more appreciative squeezes from me. I don’t know of any ranch family that hasn’t had a good ole horse at one time or another that’s been well-trusted with kids. Our babysitter horse Birde, eases my mind whenever our kids or their guests want to ride. Sometimes I trust Birde more than a young adult in taking care of our kids. 

His papered name, “Ezzy Jet Birde,” makes one think he might have nabbed a little speed in his pedigree, but in truth he’s so laid-back he’s borderline lazy. His calm demeanor matches that of our daughter’s, which makes the two a perfect fit. She likes being in control to say when it’s time to take off on a lope, and isn’t interested in hot horses she can’t handle.

Of our meager remuda, Birde’s the curious one, always coming up to greet us if we’re nearby. He likes anybody’s company but enjoys even more, the companionship of kids around petting, grooming and feeding him. We trust Birde the most with novices whenever young guests ask to ride but are unaccustomed to being around horses. He doesn’t spook when kids dart around him or holler and endures being saddled and bridled by little people wanting to do it themselves.

Birde’s patience with young riders, his temperament, and understanding the nature of inattentive kids around makes him a favorite among kids and adults. As tikes, I had no qualms about putting our youngsters on him. Our kids developed their riding skills on Birde because he reins easily and tolerates being handled by them. He’s not restless while getting saddled and stands still no matter how long it takes kids to clamber up by saddle strings, stirrups or any other means, in order to make it to his back. Which to a kid, a horse that stands 15 ½ hands high is a long way up I’ve been told.

Since he and our daughter aren’t eager to chase down a cow with lightning speed, they make a good pair for bringing up the rear when moving cows. He doesn’t get wound up and take off when other riders leave to wrangle runaways but if my husband or I need a horse that hustles, neither of us fares very well to saddle the babysitter. Anything beyond a trot with Birde needs spurs.

He takes good care of our kids and has a likeable personality but due to his timid nature, he’s lost his rank in pecking order to our youngest, more aggressive and appropriately named gelding; Beandip (or Bean for short).

Even though Birde’s the second oldest horse on the place, he gets run off at feeding time, so we make sure he’s paid accordingly for his babysitting services.

He may not hold any records for jet-fast speed, but he’s a champion for soundness and kid-tested sitter approval, which I love him for. Have you hugged your babysitter today?

This column was originally published January 13-19 2008 © Amy Kirk

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Levi’s Lost Calf

Posted on April 5, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

 At the 2011 South Dakota Young Farmers and Ranchers conference I finally met journalist, blogger, author, and rancher, Amanda Radke from Mitchell, SD in person. She and I were both speakers at the conference and we had an opportunity to visit a little bit.

I have read her articles in the Tri-State Livestock News and BEEF Magazine and follow her tweets on Twitter. She is a great beef and agriculture advocate and a true asset in helping promote the industry and getting the right information out to the public.

I was excited to have a chance to visit her and purchase copies of her new children’s book, Levi’s Lost Calf. Since my son was a baby, I started collecting children’s cowboy and ranching books because I struggled to find any to read to him.

Amanda’s book is my latest addition to my collection. The pictures are beautifully illustrated by Michelle Weber.

In her book, little cowboy Levi

along with his buddies Pepper and Gus,

help roundup cattle on his family’s ranch and discovers his favorite little red heifer is missing. He checks different places around the ranch and discovers lots of wildlife

living on the ranch before he finds finally finds the little red calf. 

The book also has a special recipe for little cowboys and cowgirls and a page with ranch terminology.

I was so excited to have an opportunity to get Amanda’s new book for my collection that I bought extra copies to give as gifts and one to donate to our county library. You can do the same by ordering copies of her book here.

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Living the Simple Life

Posted on March 30, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

I thought my household needed to be simplified so I read Living the Simple Life by Elaine St. James. I was amazed to learn that I didn’t need to buy the book.

It just verified that I should have written it. My family has been doing the majority of the book’s suggestions for years, which proved that we are behind the all-consuming times.

One of the book’s suggestions was to consider a smaller home. Having a small house has simplified problems such as company staying for an extended visit. Staying here is like camp; visitors have to rough it without conveniences such as television and privacy. There’s no guestroom with a door or private bathroom, and we make guests sleep on the couch. My simple spending plan has allowed us to offer company the same hide-a-bed couch in our living room that we’ve had for 15 years. 

It may seem hard to believe in today’s society, but we’ve managed to get by without a garage—the space designated to store people’s overflow from their house. Without a garage, I’ve eliminated the need to waste money on things like excess holiday decorations that aren’t out long enough to pay for themselves and require storage for 330 days.

I was familiar with the book’s idea of having a moratorium on spending except to buy groceries and personal items. I do it because I can’t always get away for big shopping trips, which has led to coming up with creative solutions rather than a buying solution; another suggestion.

I keep meal planning simple too. All our meals are made with beef. And cooking doesn’t get any simpler than not cooking. Ever heard of a crockpot? It’s really simple.

Evidently eating meals together is another novel idea, which wasn’t in the book but a problem I’ve overheard complicated moms talking about and a simple practice I’ve developed to meet several of my family’s needs simultaneously. I don’t know what it’s like with other families but in mine, my husband, kids and I, all have to eat, live together, and usually have something to say, so I’ve simplified by meeting all of their needs at once and make mealtimes something we do together. 

Our family time is simple too. We spend it together and my simple parenting style includes eliminating busy time fillers so that our kids have an excuse for being kids. As a result, they’re more self-sufficient. They can sufficiently entertain themselves through the interests they’ve discovered such as making up immature song lyrics, rhymes, poems and strange noises, mocking me, or creating different ways to annoy me.

Did you know that one way to live simplistically is to find ways reuse what you already have? This concept seems simple to me but evidently people need the idea suggested to them because this gal was able to sell her book informing people that you can actually reuse your old stuff. Most of the gifts I give include at least one reusable plastic or glass jar.

I did find it surprising that filling the dishwasher or washing machine full before running it had to be suggested. I always considered those simple habits no-brainers.

Reading the book made me feel like I’m the queen of frugal, simplistic living, which should’ve been obvious since I married the king.

This column was originally published December 29-2010-January 4, 2011 © Amy Kirk

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Narrowing the Gender Gap

Posted on March 25, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

For one of my first guest speaking engagements, the topic I chose to talk about was communication between couples and understanding our partner in order to help narrow the gender gap. Since a lot of couples who farm and ranch work together in addition to living together, I thought this might be a helpful topic. 

According to the books I kept finding in our home library that I bought, read, and kept for reference, it was evident that by no means was I an expert on the subject but rather far from it. In my effort to gather information, I couldn’t help but laugh to myself over the books on relationships, communication and understanding our partners that I kept finding and had forgotten about. It was obvious that I continually try to understand the male mind as well as try to get my husband to understand me.

Of course, experience does count for something. After 18 years of knowing someone, you definitely pick up a few things about each other. As you learn new things about your partner, you adapt your thinking, behavior, and attitude toward them.

Of all the books I’ve read and shared with my husband the two books that revolutionized our marriage was For Women Only by Shaunti Feldhahn

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and For Men Only by Shaunti and Jeff Feldhahn.

Yes, I HAD to read For Men Only to find out what it said about women and how accurate it was about the way women think (it is right on). I think these two books should be required by law that a couple reads them before they get their marriage license. Both books basically hold all the secrets in understanding the opposite sex.

In order to prepare the material for my talk I re-read both of them and doing so was a good refresher for me in understanding how men and women think and just how different our thinking really is. Getting my husband to read “another relationship book” is proof of the differences in the way men and women think, so in the past in order to get the information into his head, I offered to read to him instead. He was willing to humor me and listen so I would read a chapter a night before we went to bed and we’d have a brief discussion if we felt like it.

Most of my guest speaking talk referenced these two books in addition to some of the other books that have benefitted our relationship including The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman (my runner up for insightful reading on relationships), and To Have and To Hold by Val Farmer. All of these books are Christian based, quick, easy reads and surprisingly beneficial to at least narrowing the gender gap and books I highly recommend in understand our spouse.

There’s only one book I’m still waiting to find in understanding my husband and it’s one that explains what his hand signals mean.

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Lazy Baker’s Homemade Cinnamon Rolls

Posted on March 20, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

 

I love surprising my family with made-from-scratch cinnamon rolls but the only time I make true cinnamon rolls is on branding day and vaccination day when neighbors help us out.

I consider myself a lazy cook and balk at the time it takes to make them. In order to satisfy my desire to make rolls for my family and not have to put a lot of effort into them, I rely on an alternative version of homemade cinnamon rolls.

My solution is pull-apart cinnamon rolls baked in a Bundt pan. I use a dinner roll recipe, modified slightly. I grease a Bundt pan with Crisco and sprinkle the bottom and sides with cinnamon and sugar. After I’ve raised the dough, I roll it into two inch size pieces, layering in the pan and sprinkling cinnamon and sugar between each layer. I’ll add chopped walnuts or pecans or chopped apples if the mood strikes me, raise again until doubled then bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes or more if needed. I usually test the center for doneness just to make sure they’re not doughy in the middle.

Once done, I flip onto a large plate; melt ¼ c. butter or margarine and ½ c. – ¾ c. brown sugar in a sauce pan and drizzle over the top of the pull apart rolls.

These are a big hit on weekends, at family gatherings, and special occasions but always a welcomed sweet surprise. Consider yourself warned, though that they’re usually gone in a day.

2 T yeast

2 ½ c. flour

2 T oil (I use olive oil)

2 T sugar (I use honey)

2 t salt

2 c. water divided

2 ½ – 3 c. more flour

Put yeast in ½ c. hot tap water; sprinkle with sugar to expedite. Set aside until foamy 5-10 minutes. Mix the oil, sugar (or honey) and salt together, andd to 1 ½ c. hot tap water. Stir in 2 c. flour with wooden spoon until smooth. Add remaining flour and knead until smooth. Cover with a towel and let rise until double. Punch down and roll bite size pieces of dough, layer in pan and sprinkle with cinnamon and/or nuts and apple chunks. Cover bundt pan and let rise again until double – 30 minutes. Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Test center to make sure middle is not doughy. Flip onto plate and drizzle carmel sauce over top.

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Getting In Touch with Your Inner Cowgirl

Posted on March 15, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

When any of you ladies out there get to feeling out of control, in a rut, downtrodden, or run over in the rat race, take the time to restore your soul and get back on your feet.  The best way to do this is to get in touch with your inner cowgirl; here’s how:

  • Take the backroads and savor the countryside.
  • Skip the hair and makeup routine. Wear a ball cap or a visor.
  • Use duct tape for repairs.
  • Drive a stick shift or a pickup for a spell (TIP: it’s not a “truck” unless it’s a one ton).
  • Play cards: Poker, Blackjack, Gin, Cribbage, or Texas Hold ‘em.
  • Spit—but practice first. There’s an art to spitting without having drool dangling from your lips.
  • Belly up to a bar, down a domestic beer, and eavesdrop on men’s conversation. See if you can learn something new about the male species, or better yet, join in on their conversation.
  • Trim your fingernails short. See how useful you can be without manicured nails and put some calluses on your hands.
  • Carry a pocketknife.
  • Change a tire or use a set of jumper cables by yourself.
  • Save time, money and water, and ditch washing your vehicle for a month.
  • Wear something made by Carhartt: a jacket, vest, coveralls, bib overalls, or a cap. (There are other colors available besides duck brown.)
  • Have a juicy hamburger or cup of coffee at a salebarn cafe. (They serve the freshest burgers and coffee around.)
  • Spend a day horseback appreciating nature, the earth, weather, animals, and the especially the quiet.
  • Buck up.
  • Avoid going to town for anything other than groceries and personal items for a month.
  • Help a farmer or rancher pitch hay, fill buckets, chop ice, or other livestock/manual labor-related chores for a day.
  • Observe livestock animals’ behavior and get to know them.
  • Pull or wrestle a calf.
  • Eat rocky mountain oysters cooked on a branding stove.
  • Replace your packet of tissues with a bandana.
  • Watch Lonesome Dove or read the book, or do both.
  • Get seats at a rodeo close enough to get some arena dirt in your lap and feel a breeze from a horse loping past you.
  • Get fresh air into your lungs and enjoy a good night’s rest; work outside all day or spend a summer night sleeping under the stars listening to the sounds that nature provides.
  • Learn the lyrics to a Chris LeDoux song.
  • Help check, fix, or build fence all day and let your mind empty out.
  • Don’t complain.
  • Get your jeans dirty. Mud, manure, dirt, grass, and/or blood can achieve this.
  • Wear cowgirl boots for work, play, and leisure for a week.
  • Be neighborly.
  • Keep a wad of baling wire handy to use the next time something needs fixed.
  • Groom a horse for 20 minutes instead of yourself.
  • Get outside and watch the sun rise, sun set, or the stars at night.
  • Savor an afternoon siesta on the ground on a sunny day (ideally, in spring or summer).

Getting to know your inner cowgirl is easy but to find the real cowgirl in you means you’ll have to pee outside.

This column was originally published December 15-21, 2010 © Amy Kirk

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South Dakota Magazine

Posted on March 10, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

Being able to take off and physically explore the nooks and crannies of my state the way I want to isn’t something I’m able to do at leisure due to the responsibilities of my family’s lifestyle. The best alternative I’ve found for experiencing the rest of South Dakota is by having these places delivered to my mailbox.

South Dakotans are not only fortunate to be residents here, we also have a magnificent magazine dedicated to featuring interesting stories about of all the incredible places and people in our state. Traditional South Dakota foods, town histories and cultures are collected in one glossy bimonthly magazine. All of the wonderfully written features are complimented with stunning photographs. I live in the far western quarter of the state and seeing photos of the rest of South Dakota’s towns and points of interest is my cheap travel escape and reading about my fellow South Dakotans is the next best thing to meeting them.

Finding the South Dakota magazine in my mailbox is the highlight of the week’s mail and a real delight to receive. I can make enjoying it last for several weeks by deliberately not reading all of it at once. The first thing I do upon receiving the latest issue is drop all of the other mail.

I delight in each magazine issue by perusing the photographs and scanning the titles, and figure out which stories I want to read first. One of my favorite features of the magazine is having all of the places that are featured marked on a map of South Dakota

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with the page number so I get a visual of where the town is located in the state and in relation to where I live. Sometimes the places that are featured I’m aware of, live by, or have passed through, but sometimes I’ve never heard of the towns until I’ve read about them in the magazine. More than once on a rare trip traveling across the state, I’ve passed by a place that’s familiar to me only because I read about it in the South Dakota magazine. Regardless of my knowledge of all the great places in South Dakota I always learn something new about other towns and landmarks that the SD Magazine features.

I especially love reading about other small towns in eastern South Dakota. There’s something special about each town that always sticks in my memory. Even if I haven’t been there yet, reading about South Dakota’s towns takes you there.

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Another Handy Use for Duct Tape

Posted on March 5, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

Now that calving has begun, (as of Feb. 17th) my husband and I started the process of every day, looking over the herd and making an educated guess as to which cows are most likely to calve soon. There are various signs to look for such as a cow looking “bagged up” (her milk is coming in), acting stand offish or won’t come to feed, excessive tail switching, or visible amniotic fluids, to name a few but these signs are by no means a guarantee.  Some cows may not even look close and calve during the night–thus the reason we also double check with night checks.

After we feed the cows, while they eat we look them over and jot down the ear tag numbers of the ones we want to get in close to the barn. Especially at night when the temperature is predicted to drop a lot, we get the ones we’ve picked put in the barn.

My husband and I have different systems for writing down and referring to the numbers of cows we want to sort off and get to the barn. He writes down in his calendar/calf record book in that day’s space, all the numbers of the ones we’re getting in and puts a circle around the numbers. While we’re looking for the cows on our list, he continually refers to his calf record book.

I don’t like hassling with opening and closing my calf record book so much so I jot the numbers down in my book and write them down on a piece of duct tape that I stick to my coat sleeve so I can look at the numbers at a glance while looking through the herd.

As we get a cow in (preferably more than one at time but we take what we can get), I scribble out the number with my pen. I’m a southpaw so as you can see, my list of numbers goes on my right sleeve so I can mark the numbers off. Writing the numbers down on a piece of duct tape is way easier and quicker for me to see all the different numbers quickly.

Yet another handy-dandy use for duct tape. I just want to know what people did before duct tape existed.

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Cooking with My Rancher Husband (Well, Sorta)

Posted on March 1, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

Here lately, I’ve been cooking with my husband in mind. Every time I tie one of my new aprons on, I either 1) remember different times he wore the shirt now made into an apron, 2) try hard to remember ever seeing him wear it, or 3) laugh about how mad he got the first time I tried to get rid of all the ugly western shirts he would never wear.

 

I recently made room in my husband’s side of the closet by re-purposing some of his old shirts.

I hand picked some of his old ratty-looking ones but mostly ones that he would never wear because they weren’t his style and couldn’t stand to let me get rid of them.

 

When I went to the Women in Ag conference in Spearfish Canyon last fall, one of the evening activities was making aprons out of old button-down or snap shirts. I didn’t actually make one there but took the cool idea home with me. I didn’t have a pattern, but figuring them out on my own was easy using an apron I already had.

This particular shirt is nearly new looking but my husband’s had it hanging on his closet rod since we were dating.

One time he saw this shirt along with some other shirts equally as obnoxious looking in a box that I planned on putting out of their misery on a yard sale a girlfriend and I were having. He got really mad that I had priced his perfectly good shirts so cheaply compared to what new ones cost. The fact that I never saw him wear them didn’t matter. I took a risk and cut them up instead, to make into aprons.

I pinned an old apron I had, over the top of his shirt and cut out the front and back, making sure I didn’t cut through the pockets (I didn’t cut down the sides of the shirt, I just left what was already sewn together and cut only 1 ½ inches or so in order to pin the ties in place then stitched over it).

 

I cut out wide strips out of the sleeves and made the ties and neck strap then turned the shirt inside out, pinned the neck straps and ties in place at the corners,

sewed up the edges, inverted, pressed and top stitched. I took off the tags and re-sewed them on the front.

 

These went together in a couple of hours.

 This one he’d cut the sleeves off once the elbows were shot and turned it into a haying shirt (trust me, he has PLENTY more; I didn’t leave him shorted) so I had to improvise for the ties and neck band with material from my scrap pile.

Making shirts into aprons was so fun and easy that I made some to give as gifts for my girlfriends. I got old shirts from my girlfriends’ husbands so they had something useful that was made from a shirt their husband used to wear.

I wear aprons a lot more now than I used to and I think of my husband every time I wear them. Having new aprons to wear has motivated me to cook supper by 1.98%! but the best part about making these is now my husband’s old shirts are actually getting worn.

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Celebrating Our Little Cowboy’s 16th Birthday

Posted on February 29, 2012 by ranchwifeslant

Sixteen years ago this past Friday, life as my husband and I knew it was forever changed when we became initiated into parenthood with our firstborn; a son. We had no idea what we were getting into but we’ve been fortunate enough to figure it out fairly unscathed.

 

Throughout my first pregnancy, the big joke with extended family was whether our baby would come out with a big handlebar mustache. My husband was known for his signature mustache. Back in the mid nineties, having ultrasounds and finding out a baby’s gender was just becoming popular but my husband and I didn’t want to find out what we were having. I liked surprises and the tradition of not knowing whether it was a boy or girl until the baby arrived.

 

When I was four days past my due date and getting bigger by the day, my doctor said I should probably be induced and scheduled me to be at the hospital the next morning to have our baby. As fate would have it, my water broke in the middle of the night and I was extremely relieved not to have to be induced. I preferred labor and delivery to happen on its own and wanted to experience childbirth with minimal intervention from drugs used to aid in labor and delivery. On February 24, 1996 right at lunchtime, our 8 pound, 11 ounce boy arrived (but he didn’t have a mustache).

 He’s grown up wearing Wranglers, cowboy boots, cowboy hats, and scotch caps most of his youth.

Like a typical little boy, he’s always been enamored with guns: toy guns, sticks or jaw bones that looked like guns, cowboy movie rifles and pistols, and of course the real guns we kept locked in the cabinet. In the summertime he would sleep outside with his cowboy “bedroll,” saddle, toy gun, and dog, and slept outside under the stars.

Growing up, he didn’t have favorite Disney movies or cartoons; he had favorite cowboy movies that featured guns.

Once he got a sister to play with, he was usually able to get her to dress in cowboy gear, gun belts and holster was always willing to loan her one of his guns to play cowboys with him. 

Bringing their guns along while feeding cows

He wore out hundreds of toy rifles and especially toy pistols. When he turned 12 he took the hunter’s safety course and soon became a crack shot and shot both of his bull elk and Black Hills deer with one clean shot. Not surprisingly, for his 16th birthday, all he wanted was a gun. A Ruger 223 with specific features.

One of the things I love best about our son is his memory. Since our boy was a tot, he has always been inquisitive and loves learning. He picks stuff up like a sponge and manages to retain it and is a factoid fanatic. I can ask him any science, math, or history question and he knows it. When he was in 6th grade, his math teacher asked the class how many liters are in a jug of milk (3.78 liters) and our boy was the only one who knew the answer because he’d just seen it on the milk jug the week before and remembered. Anytime I forget someone’s phone number or street address, I am usually saved because our son always knows.

 

He’s always loved dirt and water in any form. Most of our son’s diaper years he was either thoroughly immersed in dirt or water.

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A day in the hayfield with Dad and Grandpa

He loved a good garden hose or soft dirt pile he could kick and stir up.

Taking a break on the 4th of July wearing his famous dirt kicking boots

He also enjoyed anything with a steering wheel.

Showing his Grandma how to “drive” a tractor

Before he was three he drove a lot of miles parked in our driveway in the mornings while his dad drank coffee.

 He’s been around cows all his life and  grew up going out to check cows or feed them with his dad and grandpa.

Bottlefeeding Annabelle; his and his sister’s first bottle calf

Over the past 16 years I have tried hard to savor every day of being a parent and enjoy each new phase my kids go through. Some days (and nights) were dreadfully long as a mom but when it comes to raising kids, it’s so true that the days are long but the years are short.

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