Ranch Wife's Slant

Cowboys, kids, and ranch life

Author: Amy

  • What’s Buzzing in the Black Hills?

      If you’re planning a visit to the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota, then you definitely need to sign up to receive the Black Hills Buzz newsletter. Someone was kind enough to add me to Black Hills Buzz’ e-mailing list and whoever it was I want to thank them profusely. While here, you’re going to…

  • Summer Commute

    There’s a reason why we drive beat up little four-wheel drive pickups. Our summertime commute is not full-size pickup, sedan, or new vehicle friendly. Getting to stock tanks on summer range or to salt locations requires using Forest Service roads. The ones we frequent are a little more than a two-lane cow trail. Driving on…

  • What Fairburn, South Dakota Means to Me

    Every summer my husband’s extended family has a family reunion at a different location around the southern Black Hills; usually in one of the small towns where different relatives who volunteered to host, live or once  lived. It’s always held in the summertime, oftentimes around the Fourth of July or Memorial Day.   This year family…

  • The Wordle I Was Looking For

    Last spring my son introduced me to a website that quickly became my new favorite writing distraction. He learned about http://www.wordle.net/ in school; Beautiful Word Clouds. It’s an art gallery of words.  It’s a handy writing tool, and my latest obsession. It’s perfect for me because on some writing days I feel like my draft looks…

  • The Face of Terror

    Last Tuesday, the family spent the day moving our cows to a different pasture.   We loaded up our horses and drove to our starting point to gather cows, which was a twenty minute drive from home. Our son followed in his pickup because he and my husband planned to gather up and move salt…

  • Fixes and Kisses

    My kids know better than to come to me with their broken toys or equipment. The best I can do, is give them a sympathetic hug or a kiss, but neither have been successful repair tools. My approach doesn’t fix it, or do much to make the kids feel better, but my husband delights in…

  • Time to Change

    This year’s haying season’s been full of changes. We’ve had big and frequent rains, tall, thick forage growth, and a record number of bales on our hay ground compared to the past eight years. During a haying frenzy, my husband and I were trying to get a couple of fields baled before it got too…

  • A Ranchwife’s Poems

    The book club I’m in meets every month, and oftentimes the summer book club gatherings aren’t well attended because people are busy or gone. At July’s meeting, a few of us met along the shore of Stockade Lake, east of Custer just inside Custer State Park. The host for July’s book club meeting chose poetry for our reading selection….

  • Roads Less Traveled

    On the road trip my daughter and I took while my son was at camp, I experienced some lost and found moments. My daughter and I spent our time getting lost and making discoveries. I intentionally picked rural routes to travel on in order to get acquainted with other farm and ranch communities in South…

  • Fair Enough

    Participating in our county fair is fun but sometimes I can turn into the Wicked Witch of the Fair when it gets down to the wire. The weeks prior to Achievement Days, I have to look at or walk around posters and displays propped up on unused spaces during their varied stages of completion. It…