Ranch Wife's Slant — Cowboys, kids, and ranch life

The Peanut Butter Pie Branding Day Tradition

by Amy on May 6, 2013

This past weekend we had our branding and much to my disappointment, I didn’t get to spend any time up at the branding corral. I had so much to tend to in the kitchen, the only time I was up there (it’s within walking distance from our house) was to bring coffee and cinnamon rolls to the crew after the cows and calves were sorted and before the branding stove got fired up.

According to what little information I got out of my husband, the work got done, the cows got moved onto their new pasture, and all the cows and calves eventually paired up. I guess Plan A didn’t work (and we should be surprised by this?) It sounded like getting the herd to the new pasture was a bit of a fiasco at first, because all the cows ran off when they first got there (maybe because they were excited to see grass to eat?) but by evening, the herd had settled down.

My son and his buddies got plenty of calf-wrestling in, all the calves got taken care of, and all of the Rocky Mountain Oysters that were seasoned and cooked on the branding stove got eaten and washed down with Budweiser. We had great weather and no wind, so everyone could eat outside and I felt we were blessed with a great day.

I was so busy making sure I got all the food prepping, cooking, mixing, and last-minute salad-making done in time to feed everyone that I didn’t even pick up my camera or take it with me and take pictures at the corral even though it was my intention. At the time, I thought I was too busy, but now I regret not stopping for 10 minutes to photograph the different aspects of our important day. Next year, I vow to make the time just for taking pictures like I have in the past. I did, however, take time the day before to photograph the popular Peanut Butter Pie I made that has become a branding day tradition.

As part of my branding day menu planning, I deliberately pick a couple of dessert recipes that I can make ahead because I like the insurance of knowing I have some things made in advance that I don’t have to stress over the night before our big day. I always try to plan for those unexpected setbacks because I’ve been bit by them before. Tripping the breakers because I have too many things plugged in, forgetting to do something obvious, not warming things up soon enough, you get the picture.

Several years ago I found a super easy, no-bake pie recipe. It’s like a cheesecake but less work and oh-so-good. Peanut Butter Pie quickly became my son’s favorite dessert, and once some of the neighbors sampled it, it became their favorite also. There’s lots of teasing about none left for Myles. Now I have to make it every branding because the guys look for it and more people want to taste what all the hubbub is about with this Peanut Butter Pie everybody fights over.

The day after branding, my son asked if there was any of his pie left. In the past, he always looked forward to having another piece the next day. Unfortunately, his Peanut Butter Pie was the first dessert to get cleaned up. He informed me I need to make two Peanut Butter Pies next year.

Here’s the recipe:

Myles’ Peanut Butter Pie

1 (8 oz.) pkg cream cheese, softened
¾ c. powdered sugar
½ c. peanut butter
6 T. milk
¼ c. chocolate chips
¼ c. peanut butter chips
1 large tub Coolwhip
1 9” pre-made graham cracker crust (or you can make your own using ground graham crackers and melted butter, mixed and pressed into a pie pan)
½ c. chopped salted peanuts (optional)

(Chopped M&M’s are good too but the dye tends to melt if not frozen right away)

Chocolate syrup to drizzle on top

I didn’t have any peanut butter chips or chopped salted peanuts this time; just chocolate chips, and several guys noticed.

Mix the first 4 ingredients until smooth.

Fold in the Coolwhip until well blended.

Add the chips.

Spread into graham cracker crust. Top with another ¼ c. each of chocolate and peanut butter chips and the chopped peanuts if you choose to add them. Drizzle with chocolate syrup. Freeze until ready to serve.

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Photos of Our Baby Calves After A Spring Snowstorm

by Amy on April 12, 2013

Earlier this week we received around 10” of snow over the course of two and a half days. Since the storm finally broke by daylight yesterday, I remembered to grab my camera and got some photos of my favorite calves.

Getting the day’s forecast is an important part of our cow feeding routine. We like to know which direction the wind will be blowing so we can choose the best spot to feed. We try to pick a low spot along a bank, dam wall or stand of trees to create a windbreak feed area. We also give our cows more feed on cold days.

My favorite part of going to feed cows is watching the calves. Some people like people-watching; well, I like calf-watching. Calves can be entertaining and oftentimes amusing. They’re so curious and want to know what we’re doing that they’ll stare at me and observe what’s going on, sniff the air, and maybe come a little closer. Here’s a couple of curious calves.

We like unrolling our feed in a horseshoe shape. For some reason I find it comical whenever calves will lie down and eat the hay around them but of course none of them would demonstrate once I had my camera in hand.

The only calves we eartag are our kids’ calves, and theirs have yellow eartags. Our cows all have black eartags.

This is the only Hereford calf that’s showed up in our calf crop so far. It’s a heifer and I’ve convinced my husband to keep her as a replacement heifer , even though we aren’t likely to keep any other replacement heifers this year. My husband dubbed her as “Amy’s Hereford.”I couldn’t get a picture of just her without spooking her away.

I refer to this calf as the “panda bear calf ” due to the black coloring around its eyes.

I love the black and white markings on this bull calf. He’s one of my favorites.

The bald forehead markings make me think mother nature didn’t finish her job in making this red one a bald face calf.

Another one of the kids’ calves with interesting markings.

The baldy with a patch of black around its eye.

Once we finish feeding our cows and springer bunch at the barn, we drive up to Pringle to feed the bulls and get a couple of bales to bring home. I took this picture of the Kirk barn from our stackyard east of the barn.

Even though we have a lot of snow, it’s a welcome sight. The ground was getting powdery dry and we need every drop of moisture we can get, regardless of the form it comes in!

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There’s More Than One Way to Pack A Calf to the Barn

by Amy on March 16, 2013

When a new calf seems chilled or a little slow finding its grub, we sometimes opt to intervene and move the cow-calf pair to the barn and out of the elements so we can assist them better.

Packing a new calf even 100 yards to the barn can wear a person’s arms out quickly (and unnecessarily, I might add), so over the years we’ve relied on different calf-packing systems to make the task of getting a baby calf to the barn quickly as well as safely. A mother cow’s instinct is to be protective of her new calf and in so doing, it can make helping a cow and her new calf dangerous sometimes.

What we’ve found safest, easiest, and quickest, is to put the calf between us and the cow by placing the calf in some form of transportation behind us. It allows the cow to smell her baby and she is more likely to follow when there’s nothing to distract her from focusing on her baby. Most of the time a cow will follow us right into the barn. Doing it this way gets the pair to the barn faster and we’re a lot safer should the cow get aggressive.

I’m kind of dating ourselves here, but I took this photo back in 1995.

Notice we were still using a three-wheeler! This is a little cart my husband and father-in-law used to use to get a calf to the barn.

We currently have three different options for hauling a calf. The calf “sled,” (the first photo) which my husband welded and we covered with old denim jeans. It hooks onto a 4-wheeler ball hitch by a cable, giving us a little distance from the pair. We use bungee cords to “seatbelt” the baby calf in, should it decide to get squirly and try to climb out or tip the sled over.

Another option is my husband’s slide-out calf-packer which kind of looks like a luggage rack. He welded a pull-out rack and attached old car seatbelting to plop the calf into so it holds the critter above the ground. This works really good when we feel timing is critical.

There have been times when we had several pairs to turn out of the barn and didn’t the headache of taking each pair out individually because calves act kind of resistant and don’t always head in the direction we want them to. A lot of times we end up pushing them to get them out the gate and it can be wearisome if there are several pairs to let out, so we bought an ice fisherman’s sled to haul several calves at once. This has a limited success rate, as we have more trouble keeping the spunkier calves to lay in the sled even with bungee cord seatbelts over them. Before we get to the gate we usually have at least one calf that’s managed to stand up and/or crawl out.

Every outfit has their own system of getting a calf packed to the barn and I always enjoy exchanging ideas with others so I’m sharing some of the different ways we’ve done it.

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Calving Season Birthdays

by Amy on March 2, 2013

It’s been hard to stay on top of blogging since calving season has started for us so I apologize for the delay. Both my husband and son have birthdays about a week apart at the beginning of our calving season.

One of the traditions we’ve carried on from my husband’s youth that’s always made having a birthday during calving special is the number of calves born on his birthday (his and his brother’s birthday were days apart and there was always a competition over who had more calves born on their birthdays). Another thing that makes a birthday special during calving season at our house is that I actually do some baking. In honor of their birthdays, I’m going to share their birthday desserts. I always ask them what they want me to bake for their birthdays because we usually have relatives over for supper, dessert, gift-opening and conversation. They both have their favorite desserts and the following are what they picked this year.

My husband sticks with tradition. He likes a basic yellow cake with chocolate frosting. For his dessert I start with a yellow cake mix from a box but I can’t help myself; I have to add a little extra to the cake mix to make it “special.” My additions give the cake a nice dense texture and good flavor.

I add the following to a dry cake mix (we’re 5500 ft above sea level so I follow high altitude directions which are listed here).

1 box (4 servings) instant vanilla pudding mix
1 1/3 c water
1/3 c oil
½ c sour cream (or Greek vanilla yogurt, which is what I used this time because it was all I had on hand this time)
3 eggs

Mix all with a mixer until whipped smooth.

Pour in 9×13” greased pan and bake 35-40 minutes at 375˚

For the frosting I use Hershey’s One-Bowl Chocolate Butter cream frosting recipe:

6 T butter or margarine softened
2 2/3 c. powdered sugar
½ c. powdered cocoa
1/3 c. milk
1 t vanilla extract

Mix all with a mixer until smooth and frost the cake once completely cooled.

My little extras gives the cake a nice dense texture and adds to its flavor.

My son goes back and forth between two of his favorite desserts. It’s either peanut butter pie or the simple but yummy Better-Than-Anything-Cake, which is what he requested this year. Technically, my boy has been addicted to this cake since birth. A girlfriend brought supper for my husband and me after we brought our baby home from the hospital and she’d made this cake for us. I think my husband only got one piece because as a nursing new mother, I went through a lot of calories and this was the food I ate to replenish those lost calories.

Better Than Anything Cake

1 box chocolate cake mix
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 small jar carmel ice cream topping
1 small container coolwhip
4 Heath candy bars chopped
Chocolate syrup

Bake the cake according to directions. Once baked and while still hot, poke the cake all over with a fork and pour ½ or all of the can of sweetened condensed milk and same as for carmel ice cream topping to soak into the baked cake. Cool completely.

Spread Coolwhip over cake, sprinkle crushed candy bars over top and drizzle with chocolate syrup; refrigerate. It is an awesome cake and after a couple of days the cake gets soaked even more in yummy gooey sweetness.

The crunchiness of the toffee candy bars puts this cake on the list for top-rated desserts at our home.

So here’s to a good calving season and Happy Birthday to my guys!

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The Modern Day Ranch

by Amy on February 14, 2013

America’s ranches may have gone through some changes over the last 150 years but ranching is still going strong and continues to be a great part of western Americana.

From the start of most of America’s ranches, hardy women have been a crucial part of the operation and women have contributed in numerous ways. I have seen old photographs of ranch women riding horses and branding cattle in long dresses. Ranch women have also gone through some changes in their appearance but like the ranches themselves, the women of the west have adapted to change, making room for improvements in the way they do things. (Most noticeably is probably the ranch woman’s work attire.)

In order to depict today’s ranch woman or ranch wife, it just wouldn’t be accurate without an image of a woman walking to a gate, opening a gate, or struggling to shut a gate. In fact, it’s almost safe to say that should be the first image that comes to mind when talking about the modern day ranch wife. Some gates are easy openers, some are a real bugger but regardless, 99.6% of the time a ranch couple pulls up to a gate in a pickup or on a four-wheeler, the wife gets the gate. Coming to a gate on horseback has mixed results depending on the couple and the ranch…and maybe the number of gates. If kids are involved that can also change the percentage of time a ranch woman has to get the gate.

Ranch women “getting the gate” has become a standard joke in the ranch world. Stories have been written about it (myself included for my column) and cartoons have been drawn about it. If you’ve ever followed the Stampede cartoons by Jerry Palen, a common theme with the ranch wife character Flo is her perpetual battle with gates. Every ranch woman can relate to Flo and her gate struggles.

Even though ranch women see and open and shut a lot of gates in their lifetime, we all have one favorite gate: the one our husbands get.

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Meals on Wheels

by Amy on January 31, 2013

A lot of today’s ranchers have modernized the way they feed their cows by using a hydraulic bale bed. My husband refers to ours sometimes as a “tractor” because the system replaces feeding cows with a tractor and is considered valuable equipment on our outfit. Our bale bed feeder is a DewEze.

What’s handy, and likely what makes bale bed feeders popular, is the convenience, and versatility with which cows can be fed. The process of feeding goes really fast because the hay gets unrolled in a matter of minutes. This bale happens to be only a partial bale but the cows don’t seem to care.

ONE…

TWO…

THREE…

Being on mounted on a pickup gives a person quicker mobility in feeding, loading, going back to the stack yard for another bale.

Another reason bale beds are popular is that pickups are much easier to start than a lot of tractors, although our bale bed pickup is a diesel so we do plug it in in the shop in the winter. We have stack yards in another pasture five miles away so having a way to transport bales on a pickup makes it way faster and it’s convenient to grab a bale from another location whenever we need.

With a bale bed, anybody can feed cows. There’s only a couple of buttons to operate,

a little twine to cut,

and some driving ahead to do in order to feed cows.

Over Christmas break our kids helped us feed cows and while my husband and son took care of our bull chores, my 13 year old daughter and I fed cows. I let her do the entire cow feeding chores with our bale bed and just gave her a little guidance in what to do next and help in lining up to load a bale. It’s nice to know we could easily put our kids in charge if my husband and I ever had an emergency.

A lot of ranchers around here have switched to feeding cows with bale bed pickups because it frees up their time and makes chores go a LOT faster! Anytime we can get through chores quicker it’s a good thing.

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A Rancher’s Desk

by Amy on January 22, 2013

A rancher’s office is outside so naturally his desk is located in his pickup. You can learn a lot about a man by the desk area that he keeps. For instance, hair covering the seats and floor is an indication that his office assistant sheds a lot.

A rancher’s desk has essential office supplies needed to conduct business on a day-to-day basis. Important papers such as toilet paper are filed in the glove compartment which incidentally, is not where gloves are kept. The easy access glove box enables a rancher to find such important papers quickly.

Gloves matched and unmatched are usually scattered on the floorboards, behind seats, under seats, or tucked into door panel pockets. Extra gloves are necessary in case capable, able-bodied people show up who could be put to work or kids come along and forget their own gloves. Those who give the lame excuse of not having any gloves in order to help out are quickly relieved of their complaint because a rancher can round up a pair to loan them from his desk.

Stockmen do a lot of thinking and therefore, need lots of toothpicks in their desk console. Many-a-plan, project, or problem has been figured out while chewing on a toothpick; an act that’s important to the mulling and deliberation process a rancher has with himself.

Finding pens in a rancher’s desk that work are rare because most guys only use the pen they keep in their shirt pocket. Cast-off pens that don’t work are kept for signing insurance policies, writing out big checks, etc.

When the need arises to do some sorting in the office/corrals ranchers rely on a sorting stick typically kept behind the seat. Sorting sticks also make useful pointers.

Hankies and grease rags are ranch office materials that get used daily. Both are versatile in their uses—interchangeably if necessary.

Ranch work doesn’t have any needs for Scotch tape because it doesn’t hold up but duct tape and black electrical tape get used regularly for unusual purposes that only a rancher could think up. Baling wire is also important to a rancher more so than an office stapler. Wire holds stuff together better and many ranchers keep wads of wire under their desk chair. Speaking of fencing materials, fencing pliers, stretchers, clips, and staples are also kept on hand for unexpected meetings with cows outside of fences that are in a state of emergency repair.

A set of standard tools are always at the ready even though they’re never needed until they’ve been removed from behind the desk for some reason. That’s why a Leatherman combo tool is found in many ranchers’ desks. It makes a surprisingly good substitute tool that takes care of many jobs.

Just because a rancher’s desk also happens to be a vehicle doesn’t mean it is okay to mess with his office supplies and stuff on his desk. Most ranchers don’t like dashboard and seat settings tampered with. The office equipment behind the seat can shift and settle making it difficult to move the seat back to the preferred position and console items are kept in specific disarrangement that only the rancher can find an item in. Regardless, most cattlemen enjoy visitors stopping by.

Their door is always open, especially to those who are capable of doing physical labor but be warned that many ranchers have office assistants who shed a lot and with whom you’ll have to share your seat with.

This column was previously publinshed December 7-13, 2011

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Our V.I.T. (Very Important Tool)

by Amy on January 11, 2013

I recently wrote a column about twine cutters. They are a necessary implement in the wintertime for feeding cows hay that comes in round bales. Since these bales are held together tightly with nylon twine, a sharp-edged tool is needed to cut the strings.

Most guys will just use a pocket knife. My husband likes using a serrated edge pocket knife to cut twine strings but for his birthday last year my brother gave him a utility box cutter knife.

These knives work great because instead of sharpening the knife, all he has to do is replace the disposable blade. He keeps it in a very special spot—right next to his snot rag.

In my column I talked about my special twine cutter.

Mine has a very special spot too. I just throw it in the side door panel pocket.

I have a custom made twine cutting knife for a couple of reasons. One reason is because mine doesn’t fold so I’m not as likely to go back to the house with the twine cutter left in my coat or coveralls pocket. More importantly, I get one made from scrap materials because I’ve managed to lose several good pocket knives after having left them on the back end of our feed pickup, including at least one new one. (We use a hydraulic bale bed fitted onto a Dodge pickup to load and unload our round bales instead of using a tractor to feed hay.)

I described in my column what my twine cutter looked like but sometimes having a visual is better. My husband welded a section tooth onto a screwdriver. Mine is the only one that has a nice handle though. If I do lose it, the loss doesn’t make me feel near as guilty as when I lose a good pocket knife that cost money. I’m proud of my custom-made twine cutter because some people have no idea what it is or what its purpose is and I delight in telling them. To each her own twine cutter!

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Ridin’ Shotgun

by Amy on January 3, 2013

Most farm and ranch outfits have a dog around the place. Our dog Pepper, gets to go along to help feed cows in the winter and check water and cows in the summer.

It’s all fine and dandy if there are no other passengers because then Pepper has the whole passenger’s seat to herself and that’s the way she prefers it. She’s not overly fond of having to share “her spot” with another passenger.

When someone else rides along, we can’t get her to move over to the middle seat with just a vocal command. She just looks at us, half annoyed and we have to physically push on her hind end to get her to move over.

If we’re in the little ranch pickup it’s even worse for her because she has to ride on the floor or on the flatbed on back of the pickup. She doesn’t mind riding on the flatbed in the summer, but in the winter she enjoys the heater just as much as we do.

If the passenger gets out of the pickup for more than 30 seconds, Pepper will quickly try to reclaim her passenger side seat next to the window. When that happens, we have to start the process of moving her over all over again.

When it’s just one person driving and Pepper riding along, it’s nice having Pepper for company. The only time we regret taking her along is when she’s found a deer carcass or a cow cleanin’ to munch on. I can attest that a diet of such findings can make the air in the pickup cab unbearable as a result of Pepper’s gassiness.

Every morning when we walk towards the shop Pepper is close behind us because she knows we’re going to get in the pickup and she wants to ready to jump in when we give her the sign. While feeding cows there have been times when a cow will sniff the side window and Pepper will bark at them through the glass. Pepper can put on a bluff but sometimes a cow will call her bluff and then Pepper is a scared dog.

There are instances when she can’t come along and when we tell her, “Stay here, Pep,” her ears and head droop and she looks up at us in the saddest sad-sack look of any dog. She’ll stand in the middle of the drive way with her head partially lowered and will watch us leave before she walks back to the porch. When we tell her from the front porch to stay, she’ll lay her head on her paws and watch us, hoping her appearance will make us change our minds.

Even though our pickups end up with a lot of dog hair, it’s fun to have our pickup riding partner with us. Even if we can’t talk our kids into coming with us sometimes, Pepper’s always willing to ride shotgun.

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Reminiscing Little Delights in 2012

by Amy on December 24, 2012

Sometimes it’s hard to remember those little things that happen to us throughout the year that make us smile, like now. It’s been a depressing couple of weeks for me thinking about the victims in Newtown, Connecticut, the surviving schoolmates, the families, friends, and the community. I continue to pray daily for them. Tragedies like these make it hard to think positively about our world and a glimmer of hope and good thoughts are needed. The last couple of days I’ve been reading a book my daughter bought called The Book of Awesome, about the little things that give us delight and it has been the perfect reminder for me to think of those small delights i encounter each day and the perfect perscription to cheer me up.

Oftentimes we put more focus on our anxieties and worries that we take for granted those daily little bright spots that stop us in our tracks and give us a delightful distraction from our daily stress and troublesome thoughts. Living in the country offers so many little wonders. I know that at our household, we tend to dwell on the numerous things that cause us stress, worry, and anxiety that we don’t give enough credit to all the wonderful small stuff we’ve had the pleasure of experiencing throughout the year.

As I sorted through photos desperate for a blog post topic, I came across pictures of some “small stuff” that gave my family a moment of happiness. Amidst an unusually hot summer and a drought that has affected us like many others in the region as well as having had a close call with a 7,000 acre fire that skirted our homplace and summer livestock lease, any small pleasure was welcomed but quickly forgotten.

The moment I came across photos I’d forgotten that I’d taken from just this past summer, my spirits were lifted at the memory so I am sharing them with you, hoping you can delight in some of our small joys as well.

The curiousness of yearling heifers.

The day Annabelle had her new calf (the kids’ cow).

Capturing eastern South Dakota’s beauty on a long, tiresome drive home alone.

My husband’s inventions for making chores MUCH easier (and safer).

The joy of holding a newborn (my niece).

Feeling the enthusiasm of my son’s excitement over our branding day.

Getting to see lots of my favorite color in flowers and one of my favorite flowers blooming throughout my yard.

After four long years of wishing for bluebirds to nest in our bird house, a pair finally did this summer,

AND being fortunate enough to see the fledglings leave the nest for the first time!

Making the drudgery of having to pump water and wait for the tank to fill every day all summer, more pleasant to look forward to. While I waited for the tank to fill, I enjed immensely, watching a bluebird family every morning as well as watching numerous other bluebirds drink from our stock tank.

The delight of finally getting my own bed frame bench that I’ve been wanting for our yard for Mother’s Day; compliments of my husband’s welding skills.

Finding a treasure this summer amongst a bunch of junk in an old outbuilding on the place.

Getting to see “our turtle” in the dam sunning himself every morning,

then getting to save him from a highway fatality.

Our family moving cows midsummer and nothing went wrong and everybody had a great time together.

Establishing new friendships.

The excitement of finally finding something that’s been on my goal list for a year and getting to check it off.

Morning bird watching and nighttime cricket-listening right outside my window. A favorite summertime pleasure.

Successfully capturing one of my favorite summertime scenes. (I love seeing every full moon even though it wreaks havoc on my sleep).

Sharing in our son’s excitement over buying his first vehicle.

Visiting amazing places of beauty in the wintertime that we live surrounded by, and reveling in the peacefulness it gives (Spring Creek at Storm Mountain Center).