Tag: ranching
-
Bootism Disease
Bootism Diseasolumn for Oct 11-17 My family has a genetic disease called bootism. It’s a rare disease that affects only ranch families, but knowing that there are other families like ours all over the country with too many boots is reassuring. The disease can infect a person at infancy, as it did with both of my…
-
A Lot of Junk Drawer Miscellanea
While escaping the craziness of opening weekend of elk season for the SD Festival of Books in Deadwood, it turns out I didn’t miss anything exciting. A few tags were filled but the report I got was that those who went farther south of Pringle to hunt down in the Minnekahta area between Hot Springs…
-
What Really Counts
People who spend any amount of time around a rancher should expect to be asked to count something sooner or later. My rancher counts things like money, days, years, bales, elk and cattle. After selling culled cows at a sale barn, he counts each day that the expectant check hasn’t come in the mail. Once…
-
Livin’ on the Edge
Ranch work isn’t as life threatening as say, working on an Alaskan king crab fishing boat but the way my husband and I go about getting our work done could be considered dangerous. We’ve become somewhat desensitized to the risks we take. We put the thought of consequences we could suffer later out of our…
-
Ranch Life Suits A Gemini
Horoscopes seems hokey to me, but I find ranching and my Gemini characteristics perfectly suited for each other. Both are chock full of the unexpected and our unpredictable lifestyle is well-matched to my mercurial nature and penchant for adventure. Work on a ranch takes place outside and requires a lot of physical activity a Gemini’s…
-
Grease Rags
Wednesday my husband had been up at the hayfield fixing on equipment all afternoon after he made a morning run to Rapid City to get parts first. When he pulled into the yard that evening I walked out to the shop to find out how his day went and if his fixit work put him…
-
The Pringle Well
You can’t get a beer at Pringle’s watering hole like you can at the Hitchrail Bar and Restaurant but the town well sees just as much activity as the Rail does. The Pringle well has become an unlikely hub for social activity. It started getting an influx of attention about the time the drought started…
-
The Barb That Snagged Me
I’ve gotten used to blue jeans, shirts and coats getting torn open from catching on barb wire but it aggravates me every time it happens and I don’t accept it very well. I know I have to expect it to happen occasionally but sometimes it seems like it happens regularly. It makes me spew hot…
-
A Lifestyle of Infinite Variety
Our lifestyle is one of infinite variety. Our daily summertime routine involves making a big morning loop to check on salt, Alberson Valley and the tanks at a location called Callon Spring. All of which takes about an hour to drive. Seeing that the floats haven’t stuck is vital in making sure the stock tanks…
-
Driving Lessons
Kids that live on a ranch learn how to drive a stick shift. Driving lessons for ranch kids happen real early. It’s just a tradition, I guess. Our son was about five when he first learned on an old Dodge pickup. Once they learn, they help drive equipment back and forth or a pickup and…