ranch life – As Far As The Eye Can See

Waskesui

I am sitting in the dining room at Hawood Inn in Waskesui.

I came here with Russ. He has been in meetings for two days at Elkridge Resort, they are discussing climate solutions for ranching and farming. I am working on the book we are creating about ranching. I am done the bulk of the writing and now need to work to select and place the best pictures. I came to the Waskesui townsite because we are now checked out of our room and I wanted to come back here to reminisce. Almost 15 years ago I traveled here with three little kids to meet my extended family for a reunion. I hold so much love for those people in my heart. It is comforting and a bit sad to be back here without them, our elders are passing and much has changed. Waskesui remains beautiful and on this sunny but cold winter day it is quiet and rather soul stirring.

Perhaps that is the reason that as I perused our most recent photo shoot from Liz, looking for the pictures that fit best with what I am saying, the picture below stopped me in my tracks.

I am pondering a point I made in my writing. I have a section in the book to explore whats it like to be me, a ranch wife. One of the realities is that this ranch life has created quite a distance between me and the people and spaces of my original hometown, Saskatoon. In the book I readily point out that Russ has acted to lessen the hardness of that. How has he done it? This picture stopped me. The tall guy wearing the slicker, looking like a pretty seasoned cowboy is in fact a grade 8 teacher in Saskatoon. He is my cousins husband. After almost 30 years of knowing Jimmy I just think of him as my cousin. Russ has always been so welcoming of my family and has weathered the challenges of having rookies on the trail, to give them an experience and help them feel welcome at our place. I sometimes take that for granted because it has always been the case, but its really awesome to feel that any of our people can come, and they do.

The other thing about this picture that just about takes my breath away is the two layers of action in it that Gina and Morgan are responsible for. Gina, our oldest daughter, visiting from Toronto at the time of this picture, is helping Jimmy to get tacked up for the ride ahead. The smile you can glimpse tells me how comfortable she is, happy to have Jimmy there and so willing to prep horses for others. Morgan several feet behind her is almost ear to ear with his horse Padre and so very capably bridling him. The last time I was in Waskesui I was attempting to parent two year old Morgan, five year old Jill, and 7 year old Gina. They were terribly cute and endearing, but I had to leave Russ at home haying and I am terrible about asking for help. So I remember the juggling of being here in Waskesui and doing what it took to keep us all on track while soaking up the reunion time as much as possible. Now here I sit, sipping coffee, Morgan is holding down our work at home, and his own, Gina is living a big life, on her own merit, in Toronto and Jill just sent me the goofiest video from her responsibilities at Starbucks in Regina. She is deep into rehearsals for the current musical she is in. I feel like I am bragging to put all this into print, but maybe its okay to say what a friggin relief it is to see your kids get to this point. Maybe its okay to say that raising kids is so incredibly frazzling but in the most rewarding and endearing way I have known. Maybe its okay to confess that seeing your kids being capable and helping others is a source of deep pride. Maybe a stew of all that is what was swirling when I stopped on that candid picture. It was a second in time, it looked like just another cowboy moment but I guess for me, sitting on the shores of Waskesui lake, it marks a milestone in parenting.

There are a couple more pictures that help round out the points.

This picture is one of my favorites because right in the center of it is one of my favorite dogs ever, looking directly at Liz’s camera. For the purposes of the blog this image illustrates something, my niece Brodie and her friend Clare are in this picture. They are darn good help. Brodie started riding many years ago as a visitor at the ranch and we have enjoyed having Clare for two seasons of cow chasing now. Russ is really good at giving people a chance to learn.

Here is Jimmy, now safely seated in his saddle, he is with our new friend Steve. The slicker he is wearing was bought in June, embroidered with our brand by Lynn, it is Russell’s but Jimmy did it justice for its first appearance on the Bar MW trail. He looks so natural. I like imagining what the students in his city classroom would think to see their teacher as a working cowboy.

The day captured by Liz in these pictures was a very good day. My kids were all home and all on a horse and some of my Saskatoon people were near. With the help of my local friend Sandy I was able to get this large crew fed. The picture was pretty complete.

Come on over for a decaf….

Do you have time for an evening coffee? In my case it will have to be decaf.

The windows are open, the birds are chirping a bit, the air is still, it is a gorgeous evening. It is 9:28pm on the longest day of the year. I think I have about a half hour before my pillow and I need each other.

I am missing my blog. I just haven’t made it here too much lately and definitely not for a chatty blog. I like doing those. This is my chance.

We feel like these are good moments we are in. Maybe that’s crazy, considering the fuel bill for last month is a little more than $9,000. Life is kind’ve expensive these days. We carry on. We are counting ourselves blessed in this moment that our dugouts are full, the creek is full, the well is full and the grass is growing quickly. This was a scene we couldn’t imagine last year at this time. Our cow herd is doing really well, gaining some weight back after our tough winter and doing well with pushing out the calves. We are thankful. The last little bit has seen Ron and Russ working on fence repair and construction. Ron has also been attending to machinery upkeep. Russ has been getting cow/calf pairs trucked to their summer pastures. Morgan has been a jack of all trades and recently started doing some horse training. Jill and I are floating around the edges. Jill dives deep when needed. She has had the nerve wracking job of running the controls on the hydraulic chute and continues to be the head castrator on our crew, she is swift and kind. So………….all our skills are being expanded and deepened as we all continue to monitor the calving herd and respond to things.

When we checked cows after church on Sunday we found one abandoned by its Mom in 34 degree heat. It was dehydrated. We kidnapped it and through electrolytes and bottles have him almost thriving again. We have a calf to bottle feed for the foreseeable future, his Mom is AWOL.

Off the ranch Gina has had a great month so far and I am going to write about that a bit more in a few days when we celebrate her 20^th birthday. She arrives into the Regina airport tomorrow and we are sure looking forward to setting our eyes on her.

Jill graduates next week. We have so many different feelings. One of the big ones tonight is concern. Morgan tested positive for Covid this morning. Our hope is that he remains the only case in the house, he works through it and we are all good to attend next week. However, it may unfold in a multitude of ways that mean we will be flexing and bending. I picked up five more boxes of test kits, so we have about 30 tests on hand. That should allow us to test the heck out of ourselves. At this point Morgan is doing well, he has a sore throat and a bit lower energy but otherwise is feeling good.

I have a lot of baking to do in anticipation of next week and today dawned cool and cloudy so it was the day to get at it. I put a mask on and baked away.

Seems like overkill maybe, but peace of mind for me means this is how it looks. I made a puffed wheat cake using a new recipe and put it in a bundt pan. It turned out so well. That kind of stuff excites me. I also made a batch of buns and bowed to peer pressure, (just from Russell), I used a little mini branding iron and pushed our brand into the buns. It didn’t really turn out.

Once they rose the brand became almost invisible. It was worth a try.

When I was a kid our route to the cottage included driving past a pig farm near the Petrofka bridge. It was inconceivable to me that anyone could live with the smell that came from that place. I perhaps was acting like a bit of a snooty city girl. Anyways, its spring on our ranch and Ron started taking care of the manure in our corral today. Our whole yard smells just like that spot on the highway. I never thought I would be a girl with a not-snooty nose, but here I am killing it! The balance to this smell is the heavenly aroma on my kitchen counter from the bouquet of roses that Russ picked me in the pasture. He was thrilled to report the abundance of wild roses found there and took me for a tour later today. The smell is incredible.

We celebrated Father’s Day by attending church together, having lunch out and our good ol cinnamon bun and bacon celebratory meal for Supper. On the way to church everyone answered the question, “what is your favorite memory with Dad/Russ?” At lunch we talked over, “what is something Dad/Russ has set as a good example for me?”. At supper we worked with the question, “what is something you are looking forward to doing with Dad/Russ?” Later on Gina phoned Russ, I was there, Russ put the phone onto speaker phone and I asked her those questions. She indicated that she really liked answering them. Maybe sometimes words can be gifts. (I hope so at least, because Jill was the only one to buy Russell a gift.)

I spent half an hour on the phone yesterday reporting fraud on my credit card. Today I was telling Gina about it, she reminded me that I had given her permission to use my credit card to pay for parking fees at the course she was at. So………..I called the credit card company today and spent half an hour getting the fraud report reversed. Oops. In my defense, Gina was in Vancouver and the line came through on my credit card for “Honk Mobile Toronto” and I had just been in Toronto so it just seemed that these $20 dollar daily charges were a result of my number getting lifted. Nope. Russell did say, “weird that they would steal your card number and then only spend so little.” Yes. Weird. And………..my mistake….again.

Time is up.

I wish I could put into words all the funny stuff that happens.

There is hours I could spend writing about the Tenderlands. I have been struggling. Maybe a few minutes will present itself.

We have some deeply uncertain days ahead.

Mostly, we are well.

Our deepest truth is that we are thankful.

I promise if you were here in person I would not do all the talking like this. I would enjoy hearing about what you are being tested by, what you have been smelling lately and any mistakes you are reckoning with, along with the funniness, gratitude and worry that might be shaping your days.

Day 40 – Calving Season 2022 – Boy do we need each other!

If we had to do what we do all alone, we would perish. Our ranch would fail. We would fight more battles than we already do, among our animals, with each other, with our property. We are good at many things, masters of a few, I make bread and buns I am very proud of. When Russell rides a horse I say he is like “poetry in motion”, he wears his heart on his sleeve like none other. Morgan is a witty and courageous cowboy. Jillian has hands on animal and equipment skills, many skills. Ron is capable of so many kinds of repairs, although its fence repair at the top of his list these days. These are things we excel at. And we also struggle. There is so much we can’t do. We are so needful of others. I really suck at yardwork and paperwork. Russell is not naturally handy. Morgan has not had the chance to get past the beginner stage on lots of maintenance skills. Jill has her mind on things other than the ranch. Gina is more and more shifting away from the ranch which means we are one skilled person short. We do what we do well and behind the scenes there is also a bit of chaos, things left undone, ragged edges, things needing fixing and we look at all this and feel embarassment, feel overwhelm, wonder how to tackle what needs done and then make calls and texts inviting help. Its so humbling and at the same time kindv’e exciting and rewarding. The people coming together moments create good feelings. This past weekend was a vivid case of our need creating many, many memorable moments.

The setting for the weekend was that Jill and I were away in Victoria to see our girl Gina in Shrek the Musical.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch there were arrivals happening. Calves just kept being born but more importantly family from Saskatoon and Regina arrived to help Russ on the ranch, not because Jill and I were gone, but its just how things lined up. It was our Regina cousin Jen who supplied me with most of the pictures in this post.

After getting cows checked with the Saskatoon visitors, get calves up to suck and grab cookies for supper there was a mad rush to get to Carnduff to share in Gina’s debut with Shrek via the livestream, gathered in Laurie’s basement in Carnduff where the wi-fi is strong and Dawson could be the tech guru that got everything set. There was a big crew gathered at the Tiki Bar/Pool room/TV area, and it was a darn sad deal when the livestream didn’t transmit. That same performance will be streamed again this coming weekend so I will watch it with them and it best work.

The next morning my brother in law Gary worked as lead and a crew, including Morgan and my nephew Seth replaced some siding on Ron’s house. The storm damage has been a problem for months now, and my weakness with following up on paperwork outside my comfort zone was part of the problem. In the end, we realized the effect on our premium of making an insurance claim made it not worth it. We would get it done outside of insurance coverage. We were blessed to be able to have Gary’s expertise and Seth’s woodworking skills on the job. Its all fixed!!!

Meanwhile, cousin Jen and Emerson were down from Regina for the weekend. Jen is capable in so many ways, on horseback they helped Russ and Morgan with calving checks and getting cow calf pairs sorted out and into their spring pasture. (Russ was also especially grateful for Jen’s skill wiht drying dishes. With our dishwasher out of commission and six mouths to feed Russ spearheaded alot of dishpit time.)

Russ had quite a group working with him. I have to commend my nephew Seth who is not a horse lover by nature but rises to the challenge at the ranch. I am not a horseback riding natural, I appreciate that its kindve a big deal to climb into that saddle. (

With the siding on Ron’s house fixed the guys moved onto the next challenge. The ferocous wind in one of our April storms blew three 16 foot sections of wind block fencing down. With great team effort they got it reassembled and back in place.

Meanwhile back in Victoria, there was a different kind of team work happening. We were “team Gina”, 9 of her family gathered to attend the 2nd evening performance, we were from Vancouver, Nanaimo, Saskatoon and Carnduff. Thanks to my sister Jan we had a team toque, we had so much fun and Gina wowed her aunties and cousins. This picture was grabbed after the show. Forty eight hours later Gina is still struggling to get the green tinge from her skin.

Russell’s sister Tammy knew that Jill and I were away and called to offer to make supper for Morgan and Russ. When she learned that there were six to feed she didn’t hesitate to generously provide a hot and nourishing meal. This charged up the crew for the night ahead which was an important project.

The day was long for the home crew. The cowboy cottage was in for repairs. We have special guests arriving soon and our leaking chimney is not conducive to good sleep. We needed Gary yet again. Meanwhile, it was evening and Laurie and Dawson were free to come out. It was a great roof repair crew. I think there are 4 different stories at once in this picture. Gary is face down working on the roof, there is beer drinking, bareback horse riding and Emerson is on the move.

The view on the roof. Thats Russ who now feels really good about the leak proof status of the ceiling.

By the time the evening was over we had a friend in using our shop for a tire repair and he and his daughter joined the shenanigans. Jen had made a late night batch of bannock and it looks like Russ was telling an amusing story in this picture. With minutes to go before midnight they sang Happy Birthday to Gary, it was almost his day.

Our favorite breakfast restaurant recharged the crew the next morning. Fed like kings yet again by the wonderful people there.

For most of the weekend Russ and I were surrounded by others and didn’t have time to text anything other than the bare essentials. I have screenshots here of our texting. Cows who have freshly calved and talk of rain. Thats basically it.

Can you figure out what Russell’s last text translates to?

My sisters and I got to be together on the eve of Mother’s Day. A special memory.

I am fiercely independent and have a real challenge to delegate and ask for help. I don’t like to bother people. It feels terrible to be needy. ( A whole blog post about this is almost ready for the Tenderlands series.) But the bottom line……

It takes a village to raise a child.

It takes a big circle to keep our ranch afloat.

We need each other.

The Dog Days of Spring

My larger goal with my blog is to keep things very real. I can’t imagine what benefit there would be to projecting this message, “we sure have our sh*t together.” We don’t. Today that means nothing dark to report thankfully, just life.

Our dogs are a huge and constant source of joy, having said that they cost me. Last night around 2:30am I was wakened by our outside dog, she was defending our yard from coyotes (I think), her barks were quite ferocious and Coffee responded from the dog room and joined in. That’s a lot. I was awake. I could not go back to sleep for three hours. Now I am so whooped I am almost useless, so why not write a blog about it eh? Its 6:50pm, I think the guys will be working for another hour but I am tired so I am unusually hungry. I am generally trying to eat low carb but I just polished off a large bowl of leftover perogies. Its one of those days. Back to the dogs…….I was just rounding the counter when I started to trip over a noisy thing on the floor but ended up just kicking it. I thought it was a dogbone. No, not that pretty. Coffee had brought in a donkey hoof trimming from the ferrier’s recent visit. A couple friends with donkeys brought them over to meet with the ferrier. We had souvenirs. True confession here……..I have a regular appointment with a cleaning woman. Every second Tuesday she is here. I’ll be honest, I feel guilty about this. It’s a serious indulgence especially now that I am not working outside the home. It needs to be in place until I dig myself out from the pileup that happened when I was committed to too much. Maybe I will always give myself this treat. For one thing, it frees me up to have company without worrying about the state of the house, at least not as much as I used to. (I am operating under the belief that the day will return when once again our house holds regular company). Anyways, today was Joanna’s day to be here and two hours after her departure I have a horse hoof on my kitchen floor. If I used hashtags this would be the spot to place a #ranchwifelife.

This donkey hoof is not as gross as it looks.

As I write this Coffee is playing with the water dish. Its quite large and holds a lot of water and it can create a flood when she gets going, and I should be disciplining her, but here I sit. And this is the spot for a hashtag including these words…. if I ignore it will it go away? I always try hard to have the house clutter free before Joanna gets here, I can achieve that in places, but never in the 3 years I have had Tiki Cleaning coming here have I ever been truly ready in the whole house. Todays victory was slim, the kitchen was almost perfect by the time she got to it (better than it has looked in weeks and now even better after her handiwork).

The scene where, believe it or not, clutter has been reduced.

Back to the dogs…….this morning Coffee had another set of puppy vaccinations. She rolled into the vet clinic like a beast on fire. She was so excited by the bird in the lobby and being out and hearing other dogs and she made her presence known. As I was holding her for the early part of the exam I quietly urged her, “okay Coffee, now show these women your best self, you can do it Coffee!” Then I explained to Coffee that they were used to our old dog Foxy, a sweet and quiet Chihuahua, she needed to be like Foxy. There is nothing like negative comparisons to guide behaviour…..not my best moment, but really I was just trying to be funny. I was kind’ve embarrassed by her huge presence, her 15 kg was coming off as 50. The trip home was a bit outrageous. I had groceries in the back and Coffee was super reactive to vehicles we crossed paths with. Its like she thought she would chase them off so she would throw herself at the back window each time one went by. I thought she was going to give herself brain damage. After the third time it happened with no sign of it abating I roared. When I have mentioned my grouch factor before many people have said to me, “YOU….grouchy? I can’t imagine it.” I wish you could have been there. You would have believed it. She was driving me nuts and I was sleep deprived after all! Despite making myself hoarse after shouting her name only a few times, nothing changed. I pulled over onto the highway shoulder, got her on my lap and held on for dear life. She was perfect the whole rest of the way home, best pals, only damage was the wet mark on my pants from her slobbering on me. Earlier in the ride I had resigned myself to the thought that I had likely ruined 6 dollars worth of bread by letting Coffee near the groceries in the state she was in. It turned out the bread was perfect. It was the tortilla chips that died, I see a taco salad in our future.

In other news it has been a record setting day on the ranch. According to the names Russell is sending my way we have had 22 calves today and glory be, none of them needed me. There are some noteable ones for sure. We started the day relieved that Canada had safely calved and birthed herself almost a mini me. She is red and white so she earned her nametag. Later in the day another special red and white cow gave us a calf. Here she is…..

This is Mrs. Claus, she had just birthed her own mini me.

The heifers were really busy today too, emotion, fidelity and lust all calved. (Story behind these weird names in the blog post called “Love Me Tender”). One of the later ones today is “Abba.”

“ABBA” with her new calf. We love the music of ABBA at our house.

The sun is shining, the wind is low, the air is warm, it’s been an especially beautiful prairie spring day. A great day to have 22 calves. Now I am going to leave this and go work on supper. I am hoping for a super inspired finishing thought. Maybe it will happen. Maybe it won’t.

As I finish I am not super comfortable with this post. I am not really used to being so scattered and off the cuff, and maybe, like having a cleaning lady, feel a little guilty. Guilty for highlighting a bunch of passing details in a light hearted way. Life around us is serious, am I being irresponsible to turn my back on all the deep need in the world? Maybe its okay to appear to ignore the hard stuff for a bit. Maybe a day where the sun is shining and the air is still and the dogs are acting crazy and a cow named lust is calving, maybe that’s a good day to embrace that line in the 23^rd Psalm I talked about a couple days ago…“He makes me to lie down in green pastures.” We are allowed to take a break and rest and let others help us and maybe try something different, something light and fun. Maybe despite being sleep deprived we can find ourselves saying, through all the craziness, “he restores my soul.” May that be so.