Happy Trails!
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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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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!
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Yesterday Afternoon
11 Aug posted by
We’ve been having some lovely weather here in South Dakota recently. Those of you in the South don’t hate, please? I got the chance to saddle Gump yesterday and move some pairs and I must say, it was a gorgeous ride! I took my iPhone and snapped a couple pictures. Someday folks, I will pack the big camera, but for now these will have to suffice.
Below you will see blue skies, grass and happy cows as well as the best way to view the world- from the back of a horse you know? There’s also pretty lighting!
Happy Trails!
John Deere Green
28 Jul posted by
This past weekend I got to sit in a big green tractor with a very handsome cowboy, and rake hay. The field had already been raked once, but because it’s South Dakota and we have wind, more often than not, the windrows were ruined due to high wind.
The coolest part of our little haying operation is that it’s John Deere Central on this here ranch. If it isn’t green we don’t use it. And even though our skidsteer isn’t green, it’s still a John Deere.
If you didn’t read my first blog on haying you should do that now. Otherwise, continue on.
We went all big guns, and instead of borrowing a cup of sugar from the neighbor, we borrowed this:
Oh yes! A forty foot V-rake. You can’t even see both sides in the picture it’s THAT big. We used this rake because it allowed us to put two of the now messy, windrows together.
The baler and Bud, came in right behind us:
And you can see in this photo the big rows of hay. Be sure you look in the rearview!
And that’s just another day in the life of this South Dakota Cowgirl!
Happy Trails!
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A Trip to the Hay Field
22 Jul posted by
Earlier this week, I took advantage of the fact that I had few moments to take some pictures. So, out to the alfalfa pasture I went to take some photos of them mowing.
Making alfalfa hay isn’t quite as simple as making regular grass hay.
Sure it gets cut and raked and baled like regular hay, but to properly bale alfalfa it’s got to have some moisture in it, whereas with regular grass hay you’d prefer it have no moisture in it when you bale it or it’s likely to catch on fire and make a mess. Not to mention it gets moldy that way and I’m gonna say if I were a bovine or an equine I’d just as soon not eat moldy ol’ hay!
When baling alfalfa, typically it’s done in the middle of the night into the early morning (when there’s dew on the ground), and since I’m not that gung-ho about taking photos when I should be sleeping I don’t have any of them baling it. But that’s ok, because there will be some photos of them baling hay later this year, when they’re baling during normal business hours.
First, we’ll look at the the rake. This particular rake is called a dump rake. I believe this is a 40 foot rake.
It pulls behind the tractor, of course, and you rake up the hay, until the rake is full, and then dump the rake, making “windrows” of hay.
It is really green in the alfalfa pasture.
And like most years around here, we didn’t get the alfalfa cut before it bloomed. No worries. It’s still yummy.
We also do our absolute best to cut each patch from the inside-out. The reason you do this is to give any animals that have made their home in the cover of the grass, a chance to get out, instead of being chased into the middle, which is what happens as you cut from the outside-in.
Here’s what “windrows” look like:
And here’s what has been cut today next to what has been cut and raked from the day before:
I love that alfalfa is still always green after you cut it, because there’s little off-shoots that are too low to the ground to be cut by the mowing machine.
See the bits of green under where it’s been raked, as opposed to what hasn’t yet been raked?
Ah, the smell! There’s nothing quite as yummy as fresh cut alfalfa!
Isn’t it purty?
It’s not amber waves of grain, it’s tall grass with purple flowers!
And let’s don’t forget that we bleed “Green” around here!
The mowing machine sits out to the right of the tractor and cuts as you drive by. Maybe I’ll get some close up photos of that in action this year!
I hope you enjoyed our little adventure!
Happy Trails and Happy Friday!
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A Roping Affair
4 Jul posted by
Saturday was a day I have looked forward to for weeks. In fact, I might go so far as to say that I’ve looked forward to a day like the one we had Saturday for my whole life, I just didn’t know it. It was by far and above one of the best days I’ve ever had, and one of the best days I’ve ever spent horseback.
If you’re not a stranger to this blog, you know that I love branding season. The smell of singed hair, the visiting with friends and neighbors you don’t see often, and the work you do that makes your horses and you better and handier- plus a good, hard day’s work, is just healthy for your soul, I think. And while you’re always tired at the end of the day, it’s not really work when you brand. It’s just plain fun!
Saturday was our second branding of the year- the first being our annual Father’s Day Branding, which is, at the very least a two-day party with well over 100 people coming and going at some point during the weekend. That one involves a lot more manual labor, which I’ve discussed here before, and will again; but today it’s all about how we headed and heeled the calves, in the corral we built in the pasture, in tall, green grass (which, in the future, will be mowed prior to the branding so our heel shots don’t all end up getting stuck in the wrong place). Roping the calves like we did is a lot more fun for the people doing the roping, and a lot more standing around for the “ground” crew. But since we only held back about 60 to rope, it didn’t really take that long, and we’d planned on spending all day, so that we could do right by our horses.
And that leads me to the next exciting part of Saturday- roping on my colt, Dino. I’ve been dragging a log and a big 50 gallon drum around on him, but that’s a far cry from a live, bawling calf. To further make things more complicated, we attempt to rope in a way that is easiest on your critter- it’s a very low-stress, ranch roping, type affair. Not an “everything goes to the left so we can get “one” heel shot sort of roping. You take a different shot based on where you and where your horse is and where the calf is, and release your rope based on the plane of your swing. There’s nearly countless shots you could throw- though me, I’m only apt at about 3 of them. It’s okay. It’s a learning experience. Kind of like life.
If you think about all of the above, and throw in a 45-60 foot rope to keep up with, along with other ropers in the corral, and the horse you’re on, it can be sensory overload. Plus this is only my 4th or 5th time to rope at a branding, and my first time to really rope like this! We didn’t have any wrecks, but rather had all kinds of fun, and I got handier at handling that rope as the day went on. I just only roped a couple calves on Dino, but he really hung in there for me and did a great job and it made my heart really, really happy and gave me some confidence since that is the first time I’ve ever roped on a colt. I have to tell you though, honestly, it’s a lot easier to get in there and rope on a saddle horse than it is a colt, but sometimes, part of growing in your horsemanship journey is stepping outside your comfort zone. It worked out great for me, and I cannot wait until next year! I absolutely must give props to the best saddle horse ever, Gump, as well. It’d be sad to leave him out. Because if he weren’t awesome, the day might not have been so superb.
So without further ado, I’d like to share with you 4 minutes video that one of our Ranch Interns, Martha took and I spent yesterday putting together. You can thank my dad for requesting said footage.
And there’s photos- lots and lots of photos. I took a few, but the majority were taken by my SIL- Cole. I’ll share those at some point, I’m sure. I hope you enjoyed this glimpse into my life!
Happy Trails!
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