30 Days of Ranch Memories: The Saddle with a Secret

In an blog earlier this month, I mentioned the set up at the Iodence Ranch, describing various out buildings in our yard.  One of those buildings was the tack shed.  At both ranches my dad worked on when I was little, horses were used extensively.   We would move cattle from pasture to pasture on horses, use them for brandings, and doctor from horse back.

Well, I was a horse fanatic!  I couldn’t get enough of them.  My mom had a great horse, Penny, and I loved to ride anything that would let me get on.  I collected Breyer horses and they were my prized possessions.  Well one fall, I’d say I was six, I spent a lot of time in the tack shed “riding” on the saddles that were stored in there.  One of them was just my size, and I “rode” it often.

Fast forward to Christmas morning that same year.  I was always an early riser on Christmas morning, and still am if someone wants to warn Stan. . .I rushed into the living room, which was about 3 steps from my bed.  There, underneath the tree was a saddle!  And it was just my size!  I couldn’t wait to go riding.  But then I figured out I had been riding on it!  If memory serves me right, my parents tried to convince me that Santa sometimes has to “store” Christmas items before Christmas, because that sled gets pretty heavy to pull!

Either way, I knew.  I knew that Santa didn’t exist, except for in our hearts.  He might have visited a few times after that – I can’t really remember and I always found my mom’s hiding place for gifts.  But one tradition our family has kept is hanging stockings and filling them.  This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions, and my parents and I fill each other’s socks with fun small items – stamps, lotions, kitchen utensils, candy, you name it!  So even though I figured out the real Santa many years ago, Santa still is there for those who believe!

 

 

30 Days of Ranch Memories: Learning to Count

I mentioned in an earlier post I didn’t go to daycare, and I rarely went to a baby-sitter, with the exception of when I was really little or it was a super busy time on the ranch.  I was very fortunate to spend a lot of time with my dad.  And a lot of that time was spent feeding bulls, keeping them healthy and getting them ready for the annual sale down at the sale barn at Charles’ (less than a mile from our house).

When you are a young’un there is NOTHING cooler than being with your dad when he feeds those big ole horned Hereford bulls.  I think if the truth be told, I learned how to count on those bulls.  We bucket fed them in long bunks, and when I say we, I mean Dad.  I’d usually stand in the back of the pick up or sometimes get to ride on my dad’s shoulders and help him count.

I wish I’d had pictures of those bulls – all lined up eating.  But I don’t.  I do have some great some great memories with my dad – calling the bulls in his loud voice and beating on the pickup door to get them to gather up.   Oh, and there were no seat belts or car seats either. 

Sale time was always a fun and exciting time.  And although not a real “Ranch” memory, I was always excited for the Hereford field rep, Art Handle, to stop by.  He always had jokes and made me laugh.  Later, much later in life, I actually got to share a backdrop with Art at the SD Summer Show in Huron.  We got each other’s ears and had a few chuckles about that little girl who grew up to become a breed rep too!

See no Evil. Hear no Evil. Speak no Evil.

For nine years of my life, my dad was the herdsman at Iodence Herefords in the Nebraska Panhandle. He worked for a great man, Charles. We lived in a house on the main ranch across the drive way from Grandma I. In addition to our houses, the yard included the barm, shop, feed bins, tack shed, and some other out buildings.

One of the best things about ranch life for this little girl was the five older Iodence kids on the ranch, 3 boys and 2 girls that were like older siblings.  During the summer, my dad and the boys, Mark, Brian and Curt, spent a lot of time in the hay field. And I was a ranch kid, who rarely went to a baby sitter.

I can still remember the summer day when the boys were greasing up the rake and tractor out in the yard and got into a grease fight...what I remember most includes 2 things.  The first is that I had the best view of this. You see our bathroom faced the yard.  I could stand in thebathtub, and peek out of the orange gingham curtains to see and hear  every happening in the yard.  The second thing I remember is this was the first time I heard certain four-letter words.  I'm not sure of the details, but I know my dad wasn't impressed when I told him what I heard and saw that day.  But then when you're five, the bathroom window was the window to my world!

My First Fair Experience

           
Since I mentioned my first 4-H Club yesterday, the Sandhill Hillbillies, I thought it would be fun to reflect back on my first project – a breeding heifer named Herfy.  I was a scrawny little thing and Herfy was just my size.  I rinsed her and brushed her and led her in a zillion circles around the corral out at the Cox Ranch where my dad worked.  And then fair time came.  I was so excited to take her to the Hooker County Fair!

We were in the check-in line, and I was most likely gawking around and not giving 100% of my attention to Herfy.  One of the big kids had a steer that got loose, knocked me down and put a hoof right in the middle of my back!  I had the wind knocked out of me! But I wasn’t seriously hurt!  Well that “big kid” and I have kept crossing paths during our adult lives – and he is John Tucker, who still raises Herefords in Nebraska.  Well, you should have seen his mom rush over to me – I never will forget that – she was so horrified, but I was fine and with a little ice, and some extra TLC from my family and the Tucker family I recovered just fine.

Well, Herfy was just about as tame as tame could be. And she wasn’t too bad either.  Herefords were the breed of choice in the Nebraska Sandhills in the early 1980s, and I was ready for my show ring debut. Herfy did way better than I had imagined – reserve champion heifer at the fair! (read more about this in an earlier blog: 30 years and a little trophy ago) I was so excited.  And you know what? Through every move, and that’s a lot, I carry that little marble-based trophy with me.  Oh I’ve won other honors and even nicer awards, but that was likely the “hook” that got me into the beef industry. 

I might have been trampled in the check-in area, but I didn’t that get me down!

I want to apologize in advance for the lack of pictures the next month.  Writing these blogs made me realize I need to bring some photo albums from my parents' house.

Kicking off 30 Days of Ranch Life Memories

Welcome to 30 days of Ranch Life Memories.  Thanks to Holly Spangler for the challenge to blog for 30 days about a rural topic. Holly is compiling a list of five things daily about rural life.  Visit her blog:  My Generation I just hope I can remember 30 stories from my days on Nebraska ranches.

Thanks to my great parents I had a pretty good upbringing. We did move around fairly often, but some of my fondest memories are from the two Hereford ranches my dad worked on as a herdsman back in the 70s and 80s --Iodence Herefords at Hemingford and Cox Ranch north of Mullen.  It seems like for the longest time I thought every kid got to ride in a feed pickup with their dad or be with their dad while making fence or just run around on the gravel road.  Those were a little more carefree times. I didn't know what a latch key kid was; we never lead to lock our doors. I thought it was normal to ride a bus that was a four-wheel drive suburban or a little bit later in life to go to a one-room school.  Yes, life was simple.  And life was good.

Since my blog is a place I share my random thoughts and life experiences I thought it would be good to get some of my childhood  ranch memories on paper, so to speak.

And speaking of putting the pen to the paper, I think I always knew I would be involved in communications and travel.  My first words were bye-bye and at my first 4-H meeting I was  elected reporter of the Sandhills Hillbillies 4-H club.  I remember how excited I was to record the happenings of each monthly meeting and submit my report to the Hooker County Tribune.  Think about most 8-year-olds writing --penmanship was not pretty, but later in the year, I started using my mom's typewriter.  I don't think that was very pretty either.  But  there was nothing  more exciting than to see my byline in the news as reporter.  I'm sure the older kids knew there was monthly work and were glad to see  the little kid get excited about writing.

I'll probably talk about 4-H a lot I  the next month because it seems that youth projects and rural living eventually lead to 4-H projects and ultimately careers. 

Today has been just a preview, and I'm excited to share more ranch life memories with you in the next month. 

The 30-day Challenge

I’ve been a little absent from this blog lately – I did a great job capturing my trip to Israel this April – and am thankful to have the blog to go back and visit.  But then May hit.  I turned 40. Resigned from a 15-year stint at American Angus Association. Listed my house. And moved to Illinois to start the next chapter.  And with that new chapter came a lot of newness:  commute, job, renovated farm house, state fair and a crazy life, including Stan and Holly.  But I’ll catch you all up on that later.

The 30-day challenge is posed by my friend and one of the greatest writers I know, Holly Spangler.  Each November, she blogs daily with a theme in mind, and encourages others to do so too.  Holly is a great writer and captures rural Illinois and farm life for so many readers in the Prairie Farmer, and she has inspired me to take this as a way to get back to my “Thoughts on Life” blog.

So, for 30 days, starting Nov. 1, I’ll be recounting my Ranch Life Memories – a blog that discusses growing up on cow-calf operations in Nebraska – both in the Sandhills and in the Panhandle.  Yes, those were the “good ole days” and it will be nice to take a walk down memory lane during one of my favorite months of the year.

Please come back to visit, and  I’ll try to enlighten you a little how I got my start in the beef industry  running around barefoot in the corrals and wrangling cats and cows.  This is going to be fun!

Eat Beef: Convert a Vegetarian

Thank you social media for informing me that it is indeed World Vegetarian Day.  I won’t be celebrating this event, and if you want to, I hope you enjoy it to the fullest.  But the thought of it, triggered my memory to about 10 days ago when I helped the DeKalb-Kane Cattlemen’s Association distribute steak samples at the finish line of the Fox Valley marathon, half marathon and 20-mile race.  Justin Martz and I, along with other volunteers stood at the finish line for nearly five hours, shouting the following as we handed out bite-size samples of fresh off the charcoal grill top sirloin:

 

 “Zinc, iron, protein, B-12!”

“Refuel and rebuild muscle with beef!”

“Try one of beef’s 29 lean cuts!”

 

We answered questions about places to buy beef, how to prepare beef, and why the protein in beef is so important to athletes like those we were talking to.

More than once, we heard runners say that they had waited the entire race for their steak sample, or they remembered last year getting to the finish to eat beef or this was their favorite race because they knew there was steak at the finish line.

And more than once we heard the following while bite-size morsels were devoured:

“Oh, I’m a vegetarian, but I do need the protein.”

“I guess I’ll take a 5-minute break from being a vegetarian.”

“It smells so good. Guess I’ll  be a vegetarian tomorrow.”

But the one I liked best was this female runner who took this sample from the plate, put it in her mouth and exclaimed how good it was before asking what it was.  When beef was the answer, she hesitated above a nearby trash can to dispose of the partially chewed sample and said, “It tastes so good, and I’m a vegetarian,” and she kept on chewing!

My point is that so many people claim to be vegetarians, yet when tempted with something that smells great, tastes amazing and offers a definite health benefit, people were swayed.  Now, some people did flat turn us down due to their beliefs and good for them.  However, those who “took a break” from vegetarianism, are probably not that devoted to it.  They chose that way of thinking for different reasons.  But with that charcoal grill and cattlemen grilling fresh steaks behind the finish line – that was the last straw. 

Most of my readers are meatatarians.  And so am I.  Today I urge you to tell your beef story and share the health benefits with someone who is “unsure”…I can tell you the samples we were handing out looked much more tasty than the protein bars!