My journey through life on South Dakota Ranch
Please carry me away to Vegas.
I’m on my way to Vegas to see the sites, enjoy Cowboy Christmas, do some photography work, and watch the Granddaddy of all rodeos, the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo.
Y’all be good while I’m gone; I’m sure that I’ll keep you posted on Twitter and Facebook, and a photo or two may even pop up here- though what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…Hopefully!
Happy Trails!
[ad#Amazon Holiday]
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!
[ad#Google Banner]
I am on my way to Texas today; and that also explains my lack of posting this week. But I promise I’ll be back soon with stories of calving, trailer cleaning, photos of snow piles and so much more!
Happy Trails!
[ad#Kindle Banner]
I had a lot of photos from San Antonio to sort through and it took me a long time to figure out how I wanted to share the experience. I decided that slide-shows of each of the things/places we went might be easiest. I’ll do my best to recap before you look through them. As always, click on one photo to scroll through them all in a larger size. Enjoy!
Our first visit Friday, was to visit the historic Alamo. I had been when I was about 11, and don’t remember being that impressed but this time was different. I enjoyed taking photos, looking around at the grounds, and really remembering my Texas History, which is taught 3 times to Texas kids while growing up. There is a nearly 140 year old live oak at the Alamo that was exceptionally spectacular, and of course, anyone that knows me realizes that I love, love, love, love, love cacti, and there were plenty on the grounds to photograph. My sister was with us as well and was nice enough to snap a photo of Zach and I when we completed our tour.
Then we were off to the Spanish Governor’s Palace, Circa 1722. I had a whole paragraph written on this, but it got deleted and I don’t want to rewrite it. Sorry!
We spent plenty of time on the River Walk, which is just cool. I didn’t take as many photos as I would have liked, because frankly I wasn’t into packing the camera bag, and my purse around. But my new Epiphanie Bag is going to solve that problem. We ate, and ate some more, and I enjoyed my fair share of the best beer ever- and of course it’s courtesy of the Shiner Brewery in Shiner, Texas. If you love beer and you’ve never had a Shiner Bock, you’re missing out. I promise. If you’re friends with me on Facebook, I probably made you dizzy with all my check-ins! Needless to say we had a GREAT time!
Saturday we headed to New Braunfels, Tx to hang out with my kid brother, my sister-in-law and my niece and new nephew. After a lovely morning at the Jumpy Place (where we made an attempt to wear my almost 3 year old niece, Tatum, out), we headed to Gruene, Tx (in Texas, it’s just simply pronounced Green- if you’re German and you read this, please forgive us!) to have lunch at one of my all-time favorite places to eat- The Gristmill. It’s right on the Guadalupe River, in an old Cotton Gin and the place has so much character it’s just not even funny. Dining on the Guadalupe doesn’t get better, y’all! It screams Texas Hill Country, rustic, and everything else I love about where I grew up. Not only is Gruene home of The Gristmill, it’s also the home to Gruene Hall, Texas’ oldest Dance Hall. They had a band playing that afternoon and Tatum, was all about dancing with Aunt Jenn. I have to say, all that dancing with that adorable child is BAD for the baby fever occasionally creeps up on me. There must have been an old car show going on somewhere around there because the parking lot was full of classic cars. I took photos of two of my favorites.
Sunday morning arrived and we checked out of our hotel, and drove to Wimberly, Texas where we were going to visit my brother and his wife at their lovely home, and then we were scheduled to head to Driftwood, Texas to eat some of the world’s best bar-b-que at The Salt Lick. When we arrived, we were greeted by my brother and Tatum walking down the road- they’d just come from feeding the neighbor’s horses. We jumped on the trampoline and went to the river, as they live on the Blanco, and then headed to have some amazing BBQ. They’ve added a wine cellar since I was there last time, so Zach took me to my first wine tasting. It was splendid! He even participated and he’s not a wine drinker. It must be true love! I came back with two bottles! I wanted to come back with about 5, but I was afraid I’d run out of room in my suitcase. After all there was a slight packing debacle (more on that later)! Suffice it to say, I’m not allowed to pack unsupervised anymore. Zach jests, I think.
There’s more photos to come, but this is all the photos I have that I took! I hope you enjoyed seeing my trip to Texas as much as I enjoyed sharing it!
Happy Trails!
XO, TSDC
[ad#Google Banner]
Our vacation is officially over today, as we’re about to catch a flight back to South Dakota, also known as God’s Country. But I’m going to give you a sneak peek at what’s to come this week as far as trip recap is concerned. I had an absolute blast on this trip and it was great to get to see my family and spend time catching up, visiting and otherwise having a super time!
Happy Trails!
While we were on our trip to Steamboat Springs to ride with Buck Brannaman (I say “we” because my friend Sharon came with me to ride with him as well), we got to stay at the Wyndham. I have the World’s Greatest Parents because they own time-shares, and this was one of those times when they were able to share their love with their favorite eldest daughter. I don’t have a single negative thing to say about this condo. It was beautiful. Nearly bigger than our house here on the ranch- and it certainly felt quite spacious. But maybe that’s because I don’t live there? Zach always tells me that if there is any empty spot in the house it will be filled with candles, photos or the like. He says it has something to do with Ovaries. Isn’t he hilarious? His wit is one of the things I love about him!
Enough about that. Let’s get to the awesomeness of the digs we had while in Steamboat.
Walking in to the two bed two bath condo:
The kitchen island:
Cool Adirondack type chairs:
The kitchen:
I secretly or not so secretly, wish my kitchen was this pretty. Or at least had such awesome counter tops. Formica just doesn’t do it for me. On a positive note, I do have red walls. Those make me happier!
The view of the rest of the Great Room:
A super cool copper table!
Continuing the Adirondack theme:
The fireplace was pretty.
I was really in love with the tile.
I love all the earthy colors.
This year if we get to put in our fireplace, I think my mantel should look like this one!
The master bedroom:
I don’t know what is with the glare in this photo.
There was a vanity in the master bedroom that was separate from the vanity in the master bathroom.
Master Bath:
Wouldn’t this soaker tub that was in the master bedroom be just awesome after a day on the slopes?
I thought the dresser in the Master was so pretty:
The view from the deck:
It was a really relaxing place to stay while we were working our minds and bodies to the bone at the clinic. We even used the fireplace. I think sometimes that it gets cold here early, but it dipped below freezing for a couple nights while we were there.
Thanks mom and dad for sharing the love. It was a really great place to stay!
[ad#Google Banner]
I don’t know about the rest of you, but I tend to get emotionally attached to things. Yes, I love my horses and my dogs and my chickens, and of course Zach, but in this case, I’m taking about my truck. My truck, better known as The Beast to those close to me, hit a milestone today. Yes, miles. I know, I’m so funny!
It rolled over 250,000 miles.
I’m so proud of it. I mean, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that it would get there; it’s been my friend, for 10 years. We have been to New Mexico, Colorado, and of course through all the states between Texas and South Dakota; including Iowa, and Missouri.
We’ve had lots of good times. We’ve vacationed in Colorado, and rodeoed in New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and South Dakota.
The Beast in Colorado
We’ve encountered snow in various states too.
In Camoflage
And, we have had our share of hiccups. There was this one summer that it left me dead in the water until it got a new injector pump as well as lift pump (for those of you not car savvy, that means, the pump that sucks fuel out of the tank, into the engine so it will run), and the time the freeze plug fell out. Our last little hiccup came when we sorta killed Bambi’s mama on a trip back to South Dakota.
I had just gotten in to Nebraska; it was about 7:30pm in November and there were deer everywhere, as is per usual. This one herd of about five, I saw ahead of me, slowed down and they all but one turned away from me. She managed to get caught in my dually fender and of course I was pulling a loaded horse trailer too. Needless to say I was very shaken up. And I felt bad.
Our boo-boo
Another View
Poor Beast
We’ve had some good times and some bad times. And I realize, Dear Beast, that you are rarely clean, other than your oil and your fuel filter. But I love you despite how I treat your paint. It’s just that I live on a gravel road. And there isn’t any point in washing you when we go up and down it to barrel races. I will wash you one day, and you’ll be dirty the next. But your outer beauty isn’t what counts. It’s what’s on the inside that I love- though don’t get me wrong- I heart your leather seats. So, I’m going to raise my glass to you, Dear Beast, that we’ll share another 250,000 miles of good times together!
Love,
Your Cowgirl
I arrived, safe and sound at my destination at 10pm on Friday evening. Two hours later than I’d intended.
As you can probably guess, driving a thousand miles across the country could be adventurous enough on it’s own, right? Then throw in a horse trailer, a dog, and 5 horses, and you’ve got yourself a lot more adventure. On a previous trip to Texas, one from say from November, last year, I had not one, but two blowouts on my horse trailer. One someone stopped to help me change- the other, well little ol’ me was on her own. We made it, but needless to say I was tired. Since I started hauling horses on my own, I’ve had at least one blowout a year. A few years ago, I had three in about a one month period of time. So you might say I’m the queen of tire troubles. I can’t, unfortunately, blame my tire troubles on Mother Nature, which I would otherwise attribute to my current spat with her. No, this can be attributed to the Mysterious Tire Guru who has had it out for me for years. Or if you ask Zach, he’ll say it’s because I log thousands of miles on my tires, both truck and trailer yearly. He has a point. My truck is 600 miles short of rolling over 250k. Thank God for diesel engines.
The first leg of the trip went fine, save for the fact that I didn’t get left until 11:15am. And I cried on and off that morning while I finished my packing because I already missed Zach and the ranch and I hadn’t even left yet. Silly, I know. He reminded me as he kissed me goodbye that the trip is about having fun, and riding my horses, and enjoying the things that I love to do. I landed that night in Kearney, Nebraska, a town named after the evil army Colonel, Stephen Watts Kearny that was responsible for the massacre of countless Indians. They fail to tell you about that part of their history on the town Chamber of Commerce website. Go figure.
The second day started out fine. I got my horses loaded and we were on our way by 8:30 am. We stopped for fuel at around 10:30 and I decided I wanted to wait until I got to Salina, KS to eat. Well, I flew through Salina, and the next easiest place to stop was Newton, KS. By this time, for whatever reason, looked back at my driver’s side tires on my pickup. The outside tire (I drive a dually truck) looked like a really funny shape, so the first thing I did when I pulled off the interstate and got stopped was feel my tires. The outside one was warm. The inside dual, well it was warm too. But it was also flat. Crap.
I ordered myself a burger and milkshake at Braums and decided I’d see what the Google Application for my Blackberry could do for me in the way of finding a tire shop. I figured even if the thing had a hole in it, there was no point in just trying to air it up. Not only was it on the inside of the truck which is obviously about the hardest to get at, but it’d take me four extra hours to get home because I’d be putting air in it at every service station. No, the thing to do was to find a tire shop in town that could accommodate a big trailer and would either be able to work on me hooked up or have room for me to unhook (which is my least favorite thing in the whole world. Hooking and unhooking my trailer).
Google came through again, in a big way, as there was a tire shop nearby. I called and the guy if he had room for my trailer and he said he did and that I could either unhook or I could stay hooked up. Regardless they could do it. I took down directions, but was confused by them, and so I asked a man sitting at the booth in front of me. He explained them again, and this time they sank in. Then his wife chimed in with “do you need a place to put your horses?” I was like, well maybe. She proceeded to tell me that there was a riding club arena on the way to the tire store and that it wasn’t locked up and I could put them in the pens there. Hallelujah!
The riding club was just maybe 1/2 a mile down the road from the Braum’s restaurant. I unloaded two horses and for some reason when I unloaded Gump, his little brother Dino had a freak out and fell down in the trailer. I hurried to put Gump and Sonora in a pen, and then ran back, knife in hand, ready to cut this colt out of his halter if need be. He was quietly laying in the trailer, and I was able to free him from his halter, untie the lead rope from the trailer, and then re-halter him when he got up. He returned to his regularly quiet self immediately, and climbed off the trailer like nothing had happened.
I got my other two horses off-loaded and went to the tire shop.
They had me in and out in 45 minutes; they checked all my air pressures and repaired the hole that had been caused by a teenie piece of gravel. It had worked its way all the way through the tire. They even helped me hook up my trailer again because well, small-town folks are good like that!
When I got back to re-load my horses I started filling hay bags first. It’s nice for them to have something to munch on while they travel. A nice woman pulled up with her two grandkids in tow and wanted them to see the horses. So I told her if she’d wait for me to finish filling my bags with hay, I’d get one out and let them pet it. Nukie (WDX Nukem- one of the ranch’s stallions) was the first horse loaded into the trailer which meant that he got to have two boys, age 2 and 3 pet him. They were very excited. I love when I can make a kid’s day like that. She thanked me and went on her way. Nuke got loaded. Then Camo. Then Dino.
Now remember, Dino is a coming 3yo. He has 10 rides and he is quiet and friendly and otherwise I love him. His first time to get into a trailer was Thursday morning when I left the ranch. It took about 5 minutes, but he loaded right up. When I stopped for the night, he got right off, and went right where I put him. He didn’t even look around. For a young horse, that’s saying a lot about the work I’ve done with him. He’s focused on me, trusts me and is laid back enough to just be “ho-hum” about all the things that lots of young horses find to spook at (the laid back attitude can be attributed to our breeding program). I think however, his fall that he took in the trailer scared him a bit. Because it took me 30 minutes to get him loaded as opposed to the 2 it took that morning. He’d put one foot in, and then step out. Or he’d put both feet in, and then paw and back out. Or he’d only partially put a foot in and paw at the ground. He just needed some time to reassure himself that it was safe. But I stayed patient, rubbed on him a lot and love him even more now!
Then it was time for Gump and Nora and we could be on our way, again! Neither of them gave me any trouble at all because they’ve been up and down the road and across the country several times.
The rest of the trip was uneventful save for the CRAZY drivers in Oklahoma City, OK. Other than seeing my life flash before my eyes a couple times we made it to my parent’s place, safe, sound and none the worse for wear- though I can’t say that about the trailer lights. Those shorted out, on the trip home, and while I had taillights, I was blinker-less and that’s something else my dad will have to fix for me.
There’s more updating to be done, but I figured I’d share the most major parts of the trip, first, and work on updating everyone as we go through our first week of warm weather!
Love,
Me
Is where I’ll be tomorrow! I’m taking 5 horses, a furry papillon named Higgins, and myself to spend the winter there. I am glad that I am able to do this for so many reasons; the first being that financially we’re able to allow me to do this, but also that I don’t have any kids so I am free to *move about the country*. Because someday I won’t be free to *move about the country* like I am now. I’m also continually thankful to Zach who has agreed to live without me for four months. In case none of you have heard, I’m the lucky one in this relationship! He graciously allows zebra print chairs into our living room. He won’t come in and turn off HGTV if that’s what was on, and he supports my every endeavor and is the biggest cheerleader a girl could have. I have learned so much about life, living here in this place. So much from him about making life easier to live; and plenty about the animals and caring for them.
In the last 18 months I have specifically learned that getting upset doesn’t help you solve problems. It only makes you more likely to compromise as you aren’t thinking clearly. I have put into practice the concept of letting go- as in the only person/thing that I can control, is me. Being mad doesn’t do you or anyone any good. And worrying only puts creases in your forehead. If you can change something do it. Don’t fret about it or spend time worrying. Affect change. Affect the things you can. Let go of everything else. And if you believe you can do those things, then you CAN. And as such you will be more effective and less affected by what life throws your way.
I think the one thing that I am going to take with me and run with for the year is the word “believe”. Because if you don’t believe in something, you’ll fall for anything, right? But more than that because you have to believe in yourself first. Believe that you can do it. I am going to begin to do that again. There was a time in my life when I believed I could do anything. That whatever I wanted was possible. And that spark in me was stripped away by certain individuals. I’m sharing my 2010 word with y’all because I need you to remind me when I get down or am too hard on myself or on my horses, or if I allow someone to run me down or tell me that something can’t be, that if I believe hard enough in my ability, that I can make anything happen. I can’t say that I’m taking this journey alone. Because I’m not. I’ll have God, Zach, and y’all with me to help remind me that if I set my mind to something I cannot fail. I may not reach the level of success I wanted (RIGHT THEN), but I have to remind myself that there are milestones and every try, every good thing, gets me closer to having a better horse, making a better run, and maybe, closer to a run of PRCA rodeos and eventually a run to Vegas. And besides that, all the fun I’m going to have and all the trials and tears mixed in make me a better, stronger, more well-rounded person.
So I’m going to spend the winter working on fulfilling that life-long dream that I have of running down the alley at the the Thomas and Mack Center in December. And I’m going to be gracious, hold firm to what I believe about training my horses, my riding, my ability and not let anyone tell me I can’t.
Because I BELIEVE I can.
New Mexico Cholla, 2003
I have mentioned before, at least once, that I love the desert. My favorite part of the southwestern desert is certainly the Joshua trees, and all the different types of cactus are a close second. I love cactus so much in fact that I have several in pots at my mom and dad’s house in Texas. They’re big and beautiful and were too much to move to South Dakota, plus they’d really hate winter here.
And since I’m trying to wrap up showing y’all the photos we took on our road trip to Vegas, I thought I share some of the cactus I snapped while we were in Arizona. This was on our way to Flagstaff, AZ. Other than the quick bit of Arizona we drove through on our way to Vegas, this was only my second time in Arizona. We were a cat’s eyelash from the Grand Canyon, which is on my list of things to see and visit in this lifetime. The cacti pictured are a type of Cholla cactus, I believe.
The photo shown on the left, was taken, by yours truly in New Mexico the summer of 2003.
