Today’s view:
A Day in My Life
13 Feb posted by
Friday morning didn’t start out like any other day on the ranch. I say that tongue in cheek, as there really isn’t such a thing as a “typical” day.
At 6:30, when we awoke, I looked out the bedroom window to find a dozen saddle horses in our yard. That’s never a good sign, but it’s not usually a big deal either, save for that this morning, of all mornings, outside it was in the negative digits, temperature-wise. Add that to the fact that I had a non-negotiable trip to town planned for the morning- which involved taking calves to the sale barn, and well, I knew it was going to be one of “those” days.
I don’t fret over such things, though, as it’s just how life is sometimes. It’s better to just smile and get along than it is to be upset about things that happen.
As I got around and had a cup of coffee, I glanced out the living room window. What do you think I saw when I looked out that window?
If you guessed horses in the neighbor’s pasture, you’d be right.
I went outside and started the pickup.
I came back in, bundled up and got ready for the sale barn.
Then I climbed in the ranger, headed to survey the fence damage. Thursday, a cold front had come through, and the horses just got pushed through a not-so-hot, hot-wire fence.
Gumpy, and about 15 of his partners, were still in the pasture where they belonged, like good horses, and when I headed towards the hole in the fence, he took all his compadres towards the corrals, because he was certain I would feed him or something!
Then I set about rounding up the others.
Here’s some video.
They were in four different locations and it took a little bit of work. It was also discovered Saturday that I’d missed several head in the neighbor’s pasture. So that’s on my list for this week- at least it’s going to be in the upper 40s, as opposed to barely double digits!
Once I got all the horses situated, I went to the corral to sort off a stud horse named Nukie, a bull that isn’t ours, and to whom we don’t know who he belongs, and a wayward mama cow who came home a few weeks ago when we weaned her from her calf. We’ve been too busy to put her back to pasture, so she’s just been in the corral. That little job took a few minutes, and left me with 16 calves in the corral.
Then I got in my now, warm pickup, backed up to the loading chute, and in about 30 minutes had all my calves loaded. Sometimes the babies don’t know how to look for a “place to go”, so it takes longer to load them than it would if there had been cows or bulls that needed to go to town, plus I’m not nearly as handy as a rancher who’s been doing this since they were knee-high to a grasshopper!
Once that was finished, I realized my trailer tires were low. And as the queen of blow-outs, I had to rectify that situation prior to leaving. My fingers got cold.
And then I was off.
The calves got unloaded at the sale barn.
I ran errands and bought wine.
I headed home.
I got home, left the groceries in the pickup.
I started the tractor and watered some horses.
I fed hay to our escaped saddle horses, because the fence wasn’t fixed in their pasture.
I drove home, unloaded the pickup, cleaned the kitchen, and made hot-wings for dinner.
And then I had wine.
I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life.
Happy Trails!
The Weekend, on the Ranch
6 Feb posted by
This weekend we got all the mares in and weaned the babies, pulled all the stud colts off and put them in with all the saddle horses, and then turned the mares back out. Needless to say the corral has been noisy and there’s mares hanging out on the fence lines chatting with their babies.
I got to take some cool photos of the mares and babies as they came in to the corrals.
Did I mention it was a frosty morning?
One of my favorites:
At some point this week, I’m sure there’ll be a photo or two of a cute, fuzzy baby, but for now, these will have to suffice!
Happy Trails, and Happy Monday!
Red Wine Roast
26 Jan posted by
Yesterday I posted “What’s for supper” at our house on my Facebook page, and managed to get everyone all excited, so I figured I’d share the recipe.
I cooked a Home-raised, Sirloin Roast in Red Wine. I should warn you- your house will smell amazing for hours and you will be good and hungry by the time it’s done.
As with any roast, low and slow is the way to go! Now, I cooked mine over the stove, but that’s not to say you couldn’t cook it in the slower cooker, or the oven, after, of course, you’ve seared the meat.
Here’s what you’ll need.
3-5 TBS olive oil
1 large yellow onion, quartered (purple would work too, but I think white might get too mushy)
3 cloves of garlic, peeled.
Salt
Pepper
2 cups of beef broth (or 2 beef bullion cubes disolved in 2 cups water)
2 cups of red wine (or more if you feel naughty!)
1/2 cup water
fresh or canned portabella mushrooms
red potatoes, quartered (optional)
Season the roast with salt and pepper or whatever else suits your fancy. Season all sides. (note- fresh rosemary would be lovely in this dish, but my rosemary bush has, sadly bit the dust in this winter weather).
In a large stock pot, skillet, or dutch oven, heat olive oil over med-high heat. When the pan is good and hot, add onions and garlic. Stir for about a minute. Then place the meat, fat side down into the pan. Cover and cook until seared, repeating on each side, about 2-3 minutes per side. Then add 2 cups of red wine, 2 cups of beef broth, 1/2 cup water, and potatoes if desired. Bring to a boil for about 2 minutes, then turn heat to low, cover, and let cook for 3- 3 1/2 hours (or until roast is tender). You’ll need to turn it a few times to best distribute the flavors. With 30 minutes left, add mushrooms.
And voila- gorgeous, tender and oh so tasty meat!
Now, we’re on a slow carb diet at our house, which is why there are no potatoes in the photograph. But if I were eating potatoes, it would have been even better. It was melt in your mouth tender!
If you wanted to do this in a slow cooker, You could sear the meat in a large pan first, then transfer it, the onions, and garlic to the slow cooker, add the broth, wine and water, place on high for about 1/2 an hour, and then turn it to low and go on about your day.
If you were going to cook it in the oven, I think 300 degrees would get you. It will take about 22-25 minutes per lb. of roast for a medium rare roast. So if you have a roast that’s 4 lbs, about an hour and half will get you. Please keep in mind that a sirloin roast is one of the more tender cuts of roast. If you were using say a boneless-top round roast, it’s about 35-38 minutes per lb to get the desired tenderness/doneness.
No go. Cook. And be merry.
Happy Tails!
Come Ride With Me!
17 Jan posted by
It’s a -6 this morning, but just as recently as January 8th, I was riding through a snow-free pasture, with a long sleeved shirt and a fleece on. It was even warm enough for me to don a cowboy hat again. Here’s a short video of Gump, me, and a couple of the kids long-trotting out to check on some crippled bulls.
I love long-trotting across the prairie!
Happy Trails!
Cows Baby!
11 Jan posted by
It’s the time of year to feed cows and since the weather has been lovely the cows haven’t been too interested eating. But today, with temps in the 20s, and wind chills making it feel colder than that, along with swirling snow, today they were really interested!!!!
This silly ol’ cow was running alongside the pickup!
They’re all happy girls now!
Happy trails!
My Weekend in Pictures
24 Oct posted by
I feel like I haven’t talked about what’s going on here on the ranch in forever. And it’s because I haven’t. I’ve been really busy doing stuff; what stuff I can’t even begin to say. Handling horses, moving horses, sorting pairs, moving pairs, giving fall shots. Which reminds me- I have video to show y’all from a couple weeks ago. It was SO Windy the day we chose to give one of our herds some fall shots I had to film it so you could see!
I’ve digressed. This weekend we went out to our pasture up north- about 20 miles or so from the main ranch, to try and gather our missing pairs. A pair is a cow and her calf. We knew we were missing some because a week ago we gathered our family and friends to ride the pasture and trail the cows to the corral so we could give them fall shots and get a count on them. The count wasn’t even close to right, but we knew that in some places the gates had been rubbed open, and storms can push cows through fences, or a hunter can come through and let the fence down and not get it put back right; regardless we were missing some pairs.
Saturday brought us to a pasture I’d never been in before- a Pasture with Virgin Creek running through it. Virgin Creek is named for three virgins, that I believe were kidnapped, and reclaimed. I’ll have to ask Zach’s dad for the full story. I only know that there were three Virgins because I’m currently reading “Dakota Cowboy” which is a history of the reservation.
I took all these pictures with my iPhone, so they’re not all fantastic.
Here’s a couple views of the creek from one of the highest buttes:
It’s hard to tell but those dark spots- all trees. Getting across that creek was an adventure all in and of itself! There were very few places you could cross, even horseback. Lots of cut-banks and drop offs and if you could get down in one spot, you had to make sure you could get up the other side and that there was enough room between branches you wouldn’t take out your eye or something!
I have to say I was glad I donned my hair-on-hide chinks and the extra jacket because the weather decided to catch us in a quick sprinkle of shower- and Bob, just so you know, those hair-on-hide chinks, they shed water just fine!
We managed to find 19 of our cows in the neighbor’s pasture and our one missing bull. We got them back to the corral, and sorted his cows from ours.
Did I mention yet that it was a beautiful day, Saturday?
Gumpy looked handsome as usual, no?
I love his mane blowing in the breeze:
It got late in the day and we needed to be done in time to go play football with Ty, Zach’s son, so we left our cows corralled overnight.
On our way to the football game, we saw this:
And it was honestly as beautiful as the photograph!
Sunday brought another round of riding, because we needed to get our cows that were corralled, back to their own pasture!
And that is just what we did:
Zach rode a handsome horse named Dozer, I rode my loyal partner, Gump, and Wayne, Zach’s dad rode his horse, also known as, the Polaris Ranger. Our cousins, Earp and his son Scottie, rode their four-wheelers through another pasture to check for more missing pairs, as we were still short 25 or so after Saturday’s gather. Thanks to their help, we’re only missing about 20 pairs now! Slowly but surely we will get there.
And that, my friends is just another glimpse into a day in my life…
Happy Trails- and remember to smile and ride!
Working Ranch Vacations
24 Aug posted by
If you’ve ever wanted to experience the life we are fortunate enough to lead, now’s your chance. We’re opening our doors! At least the front door to our house. This is an idea we’ve tossed around for quite some time now, and we’ve finally decided we should just jump in.
If you’ve not visited the Ranch Website, here’s some history for you:
At the Ducheneaux Ranch in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, we’re a real working ranch. We raise registered quarter horses, and black angus cattle. Our location along the banks of the Missouri River put us in some of the best grass country in the land.
The Ducheneaux family has been ranching this little piece of heaven on earth for 60+ years. Now, you can join us here to experience the life of a rancher.
The vacations will work this way:
You can bring your own camper, a tent, or stay at Bob’s Resort up the road. Also, we are happy to welcome you into our home as one one of the family if you want to stay here! Some of the things you’ll get to do include feeding cattle, calving, brandings, horse training/riding, branding horses, moving cattle from one pasture to another, halter breaking weanling and yearling horses, putting the bulls out to their pastures, checking and fixing fence, sorting the bulls off the herd, and fall gathers, shipping calves. Not only can you experience them here, but we’ll take you to help the neighbors if they’re in need of our help that day. You could even tag along to a high school rodeo or barrel race if your heart desired. Every day brings a new challenge. Life here is never boring. Chances are pretty good that in the summer you’ll see rattlesnakes, blue racers, grass snakes, antelope, white tail and mule deer, coyotes, the occasional porcupine, red tail hawks, pheasant, grouse, and in the fall if we’re lucky, bald and golden eagles.
In addition to the daily chores on the ranch, of which you can certainly opt out, you can fish, hunt whatever animals are in season, help with cleaning the hen house, feeding the chickens, gathering the eggs, and gardening. You can take a Native American history tour or hear stories of the ranch from 60 years ago, told on Scatter Butte. History abounds here!
We’ll serve three meals a day- many of which will include natural, antibiotic free, home-raised beef. And we can’t forget Zach’s famous Banana and Macadamia nut pancakes for breakfast; or Jenn’s World Famous Shrimp Alfredo. We can lunch alongside the Missouri River. In the evenings we’ll enjoy sitting around a campfire with adult beverages, playing guitars and singing; sitting on the back deck to watch the sun-set or we can even plop in a good old fashioned DVD. There isn’t a phone here, but we do have wireless internet access and your cell phone, well it might or might not work, so if you want to hide from humanity, this is THE place to be!
We’d love to hear from you, so if you want to experience this life, please look us up!
Happy Trails!
Scatter Butte
15 Aug posted by
In Black and white…
I mentioned the other day on Facebook, that I had taken some absolutely gorgeous, amazing and otherwise picture er, um book-worthy photos and that you’d have to wait until the book was released to see them, and I haven’t changed my mind about that. But, I couldn’t stand the suspense, so I decided to share a photo, that’s still good, but that isn’t MY favorite, and turn it into a black and white, so you can still see the view, but it won’t be in color.
And without further ado:
Enjoy your Monday!
Happy Trails!
