Category: South Dakota Humor
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Branding Day Protocol
If you’ve ever been to a western South Dakota branding that served Rocky Mountain oysters cooked on a branding stove, you may not think such an event requires etiquette but there are certain expectations that go with branding. According to an undocumented branding policy, if you want to help gather cattle, don’t be late. Special…
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Branding Day Protocol
If you’ve ever been to a western South Dakota branding that served Rocky Mountain oysters cooked on a branding stove, you may not think such an event requires etiquette but there are certain expectations that go with branding. According to an undocumented branding policy, if you want to help gather cattle, don’t be late. Special…
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Motherland
Towns are a lot like mothers. Some towns insist on a neat, tidy, and uncluttered environment with well-groomed yards. Some have stipulations for businesses wanting to remodel or rebuild for the town’s appearance sake. Some communities regularly have buildings getting updated or renovated to restore a town’s original vintage look or a new addition of…
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Eyesore, My Eye!
I can’t imagine life without a clothesline, but evidently some people can’t imagine life with one. I wrongly assumed once that everybody has experienced line-dried clothes and loves the smell of fresh air in their laundry like I do. When I pluck sun-dried laundry off the line, I burry my nose in them; inhaling a…
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Not Amused
Theme parks and carnivals don’t amuse me at all. A lot of new kids to our ranch think it’s an entertainment mecca, making me the head of amusement park security. Kids that have never seen a stack yard are in awe of our two-story, neatly stacked round bales. I know what they’re thinking before they…
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Learning the Language
Anytime someone visits a different country and culture, it’s helpful to learn the native language. The following is a language lesson covering some of the most commonly used words in ranch country. It’s a complicated language that’s similar to English but has room for misinterpretation. Slick calf/cow: A calf or cow that is NOT slippery when…
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How I Survive December
I used to feel like the time between Thanksgiving and December 25th was a month-long winter storm. I anticipated the Christmas season with dread. The last few years I’ve adopted strategies to lessen my worry, stress, and pressures associated with the season. Now I give up, cheat, and put off. This lazy attitude makes me…
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Storm Mountain Christmas
Merry Christmas! For the past five years my siblings, their kids and spouses, our mom and my family, have celebrated Christmas at Storm Mountain Center. Storm Mountain is a Methodist church camp for youth and reunions in the summer, but hosts retreats, meetings and gatherings of all sorts in the wintertime. SMC is situated…
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One Big Free Bird
For many years Pringle’s had a chicken that’s somewhat of a free bird in the area. It loves a good time and is especially drawn to crowds. Back in the nineties, a nine foot chicken was given to the Pringle Volunteer Fire Department. For a long time it hung out in the back of…
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Waiting For A Downpour
I’m one of those people who look for the bad in a situation. Problems are commonplace on a ranch and I thrive on the drama that our ranch’s problems produce. The basis of my column is about marriage, parenting, ranching, and rural life in western South Dakota but it’s describing the troubles we face that…