This will be my final Rancher’s Diary column. I was recently informed that with the current business changes at Grainews, my column will no longer be published, but I was graciously given the chance to say goodbye to my readers — many of whom have become personal friends over the years.
I first became aware of Grainews nearly 50 years ago when the first editor-publisher John Clark contacted me after he saw one of my articles in another publication and wanted to reprint it.
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After that, I started sending him a few articles on topics such as calf scours and horse care, and a few personal experiences with unusual situations — like saving a newborn calf with a broken lower jaw.
That calf belonged to a friend whose cow had stepped on it and he gave the calf to us because he didn’t want to deal with it. My husband Lynn, the kids and I went to get the calf. We brought him home in our old 1957 Volkswagen, with the kids holding onto him in the back seat.
We taped the broken jaw into place and fed the calf with a nasogastric tube (into the nostril and down the throat) for three weeks while the jawbone healed.
At that time, I was a young ranch wife with two small children. My husband Lynn and I were struggling to make ends meet, to pay for our ranch and cattle. He did part-time jobs for other ranchers. I did my “off-farm job” at home, writing stories and articles for horse and livestock publications on an old LC Smith typewriter at odd hours between taking care of kids and cows.
Cattle and horses were my passion from the time I was a small child. My goal in life was to learn as much as I could about them and their care and to share that knowledge with others. It was fun to sometimes add a bit of humour along the way.
After a couple of years purchasing a few of my stories and articles, the editor at Grainews asked if I would write a regular column about daily life on our ranch. He suggested I obtain a small camera to take around with me while doing chores, riding range, etc. which I did, to illustrate my columns. For many years I mailed my typewritten columns and printed photos, and then in 1985 I finally got a computer and was able to send my material by email. I am grateful for the multiple editors I worked with over the years, who published my articles and column in Cattleman’s Corner and especially enjoyed the friendship with Lee Hart — the most recent editor — who came to visit us here at the ranch a few years ago.
My Rancher’s Diary spanned several decades and chronicled the life of our family as our kids grew up and helped us take care of cattle and horses through all the challenges and fun times. When we had unusual situations or interesting adventures, I shared those, too — for example, the premature calf that lived in our kitchen for four weeks, in our daughter Andrea’s old crib, until he was able to live outside. Or the cow that got her foot caught in a cattle guard and tore the hoof shell off; we kept bandaging it until she grew new hoof horn. She and her calf lived in our backyard that summer.
Our kids were good help. They both started riding range with me at a young age on my old mare Khamette, the first horse I ever raised, who became a very dependable kid horse.
Michael helped Lynn irrigate and do the haying, and Andrea started riding the range by herself early on, training her young horse. Our family made a great team on the ranch and our lives were closely entwined with those of the animals in our care.
Readers of my diary column sometimes called — to ask advice on various things they were dealing with on their own places with their own cattle, or to tell us how they solved a certain problem, or just to visit because they identified with what we were doing.
We had pleasant surprises when people stopped by our ranch to visit. We met a lot of wonderful folks who went out of their way to come to our place when they were travelling. The result was many lifelong friends we still correspond with, and some have come to visit multiple times.
When we nearly lost our daughter in the summer of 2000 — she spent much of that summer in the ICU at the Intermountain Burn Center in Salt Lake City, after being badly burned while trying to help control a range fire — we were amazed and blessed by an outpouring of love and care from many Grainews readers, some of whom were burn survivors themselves or had family members who were burn victims.
It’s been a great experience, sharing our lives with other farm and ranch families. Over the years, you have all become like a big extended family. Even though I will no longer be writing the column, I am grateful for the chance to have had this interaction. We have appreciated the phone calls and visits from folks who have gotten to know us and shared our journey. See you around sometime, out on the range!
