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by Susan Metcalf With Memorial Day coming up on Monday, I feel it is important to remember that Memorial Day is about much more than barbecues and a day off. It is a time to remember and honor loved ones and fallen heroes, and it is also important to thank all veterans for their service. I love this Facebook essay so much that I have to share an excerpt from "Memorial Day: A Time for Heroes" by Nancy Sullivan Geng: I picked up the photo and turned it over. Yellowing tape held a prayer card that read: "Lloyd 'Bud' Heitzman,...
My column about aging awhile back brought several suggestions on how to combat aging including advice on where to get the best deal on orthotic inserts for my shoes to suggestions that if I would forego wearing foundation, cross my heart undergarments, it would help pull the wrinkles out of my face. Although those were helpful hints, I decided it might be easier to just change the way I perceive the aging process. As branding season is upon us, it underscores that cowboying with your grown children is a humbling experience....
Many years ago in the mail I received a hilarious self-published book from Maralee Robinson of Billings, Montana. It is called "East Meets West: Real Dude Meets Real Cowboy: Indoor Plumbing Meets Outdoor Plumbing, and All the Things They Have in Common." The book is a collection of reflections of a city girl who married a cowboy. The book was somewhat longer than the title, and it was so funny I couldn't put it down. Maralee dedicated the book to her cowboy husband, their children, any woman married to a cowboy, or any woman...
Sunday is Mother's Day, so I would like to wish all mothers a special day. Those of us who have lost our mothers realize how time spent with our mothers is more valuable than any other gift we could give or be given. I have never written a column that has been requested for reprint more than this column I wrote about my mother and our journey through Alzheimer's together. My mother, Florence Roberts, has been gone for 15 years, but sadly Alzheimer's Disease stole her from me several years before that. Every year on Mother's...
A few years back, a young man came to the ranch to learn all he could about cowboying during calving season. Of course, I talked him into writing a guest column for me to chronicle his experience. The following story chronicles his impression of ranch life on our outfit. My name is Bryan Bade. I am from St. Louis, Missouri, and I am spending two months on the Metcalf Ranch learning as much as I can about ranching and cowboying. I have learned so much I could write a book, but Susan told me this can only be 1000 words long....
The horse market is pretty much through the roof right now, which is great if you are selling, but not if you are buying. I know that I sound like an old fogey, but I have bought many horses for $500.00 in my lifetime, and every one of them turned out to be a great horse. Now, I am facing the fact that to buy a high quality horse, I will have to pay triple that price and add another zero. I just can't quite wrap my head around that, and I sure can't wrap my pocket book around paying $15,000 to $20,000 for a push button...
Farming on cow/calf operations gets slipped in instead of sleep between calving, feeding, branding, fencing, and all the other spring work. It is often a high-speed, high-stress form of diversification that causes a lot of laundry problems. Anyway the inspiration for the following "Rancher's Guide to Farming" came when I wandered out to the shop. I could tell that something was wrong, because my husband and son and our neighbor were standing with their hands on their hips staring at a plow. Finally one of them said, "It must...
Cattle producers have two options as I see it. One is to bury our heads in the sand and keep doing what we have been doing and expecting a better result “next year,” and the other is to educate ourselves and do something proactively with the information we gain even if that course of action is uphill and painful. My favorite semi-retired ag journalist, the amazing Leesa Zalesky, and her co-author Diane (Henderson) Gumaer have written a book that every cattle producer needs to read at least twice. Their book is entitled “A...
Several years back, I inadvertently stumbled upon a new method of calving--the homeopathic method. This like the discovery of all great things such as fire and disposable diapers came about quite by accident. Calving season was winding down, so many other pursuits such as farming were occupying the CEO of our ranching operation. CEO sounds like such an officious title for someone who wades around in knee deep muck in worn out coveralls all day. Nevertheless, one rainy afternoon as calving season was winding down and farming...
Many people try to be very careful prior to going on a big trip, so they don't fall and hurt themselves badly enough that they could not travel. Ranch people try to be extra careful prior to calving season, because that is probably the worst time of the year to be injured. Over the years, we have scheduled surgeries so that we would be healed up by calving season. Unfortunately calving season can also be the cause of injuries. Such was the case about three years ago right at the start of calving season when my son Bret burst...
I love blogs that are honest and authentic, so I was elated when I stumbled upon a really entertaining blog written by Lindsey Habets of Conrad, Montana. Lindsey wrote a series of blogs from both of her toddlers' points of view that are humorous universal experiences of ranching mothers. Lindsey and her husband Jeff raise cattle and hay and their two beautiful children, four year old Hayden and two year old Hadley. The following is an abridged version of her blog entitled "Hello World, I'm a Terrible Two." Hello World, I’m a...
by Susan Metcalf This year we spent most of the high school basketball season huddled around our television watching the games on the NFHS app because of Covid restrictions. Now that restrictions have been lifted, we find ourselves in the bleachers every Saturday for elementary intramural basketball, because we would never miss a game of kindergarten basketball. Where else can you watch your grandson celebrate an assist with a breakdance move that would have made Issei swoon? (No, I do not know who Issei is, but I do know...
My favorite holiday of the year is Dr. Seuss's birthday, which was March 2. Yes, Theodor Seuss Geisel would have been 117 years old this week. He and his 60 plus books have inspired young readers since 1937 when “To Think I Saw It All on Mulberry Street” was published. There have been attempts to cancel Dr. Seuss by calling him racist, sexist, and every other “ist” imaginable, but his wit and wisdom have survived for generations of children to enjoy, and I hope that we can keep his legacy of freedom of expression alive d...
I always marvel at the connections I make with people from around the country and the world through writing a humor/recipe column. One day while sitting in my County Superintendent's office, I received a call from Don Williams of Eugene, Oregon. He was researching his relative, Violet Widdecombe, who taught in Sweet Grass County decades ago. After several conversations and emails, we have become e-pals. He was particularly interested in my recent column on Virgil Gust,...
Winter has been fairly kind to us up until this past weekend when we suddenly plunged into the deep freeze. We do not start calving until mid-March, but my heart goes out to the people who are calving and lambing in this cold snowy weather. It reminded me of this great poem that I believe Wes Sargent wrote back in his senior year in high school in 2007. Wes is now all grown up, and he and his wife Lydia are ranching out in the big country northeast of Big Timber, Montana raising cows and their two children. Besides raising...
Each month, the “Western Ag Reporter” is going to highlight a front page "feel good story" to remind readers that although times are tough in agriculture, there is a sunny side. I think the only reason farmers and ranchers remain in agriculture is because they are always able to look on the sunny side--even if they have to look really hard. I can think of many such examples around our outfit. For example, the other day when we were pushing cows into the corral to preg test them, one high headed cow smelled a rat and cut bac...
After a few hours in office, Joe Biden has signed executive orders that have angered Canada, diabetics, users of epipens, oil and gas workers, Keystone Pipeline workers, union laborers working on the border wall, Border Patrol, ranchers on our southern border, and he disrespected the National Guard whom he housed in parking garages. Rather than promoting unity, these orders and actions have fueled another four year war amongst a divided nation. The situation is far from laughable, but it does remind me of an old Norwegian...
With our economy reeling from shutdowns, it is suddenly fashionable and necessary to be frugal. I grew up frugal, because my parents were 40 years old when they got around to having me, so they were children during the Great Depression. We rinsed out Saran Wrap, recycled wrapping paper, and repurposed everything. When I went off to college, I felt I was pretty well versed in frugality. However, my roommate was the undisputed Queen of Frugality. I can honestly say I could not have drawn a better roommate than Maureen Johnson...
As 2021 rolls in, we look back on 2020 with horrified hindsight and look forward with hopefulness to a good 2021. As I sit here reflecting on the pandemic of 2020, my mind wandered back to Y2K. Remember Y2K? We thought the computers would not recognize 2000 because the dates were formatted in two digit numbers. We were convinced that we would wake up on January 1, 2000 in the Dark Ages. We anticipated power outages, data loss, and the end of society as we had come to know it. Everyone bought a generator, stored up food and wa...
Technically, I am retired. Granted, I have a couple part-time jobs that occupy my leisure time, but every year I find myself in the same predicament as I look down the barrel of the Christmas gun. Every year, it is as though Christmas sneaks up on me out of the blue. So with just hours left before Christmas, I am in my usual pre-Christmas panic caused mostly by procrastination! I made several batches of my favorite fudge, but I made them too early, and we have eaten or given it away already. No problem! All I have to do is...
The countdown to Christmas is on, and I am even more panicked than usual because of added Covid holiday stress. This year, like every other year, I had grandiose plans of creating a Christmas that would make Martha Stewart drool. The reality is that the 2020 Christmas I will create would make Martha laugh until she drooled. We did get the tree up early, which just means that it is already shedding like it is late in evergreen molting season. I think Remi found the biggest fattest tree in the forest. It takes up an entire corn...
Even Dr. Fauci declared on the Sunday after Thanksgiving, “We say it, not being facetiously or having a soundbite or anything, but you know: close the bars, keep the schools open." To ABC's Martha Raddatz, Fauci stated, "Obviously, you don't have one size fits all, but as I've said in the past, and as you accurately quoted me – the default position should be as best as possible, within reason, to keep the children in school and get them back to school.” Opening our schools and keeping them open has proven to be harder than...
I was born into my parents' outfitting business, and I have spent many years as a hunting camp cook, so I have always revered hunting guides. I love to listen to hunters' tales of how their guide nearly killed them off dragging them to the top of every mountain but how it was worth it in the end to shoot an elk on a wilderness hunt. Recently, however, I have come to think that being a hunting guide is not all that difficult. In fact, I have stumbled upon a low stress method of guiding elk hunters. Let me explain! The regular...
The official Christmas shopping season kicks off after the turkey leftovers are put in the refrigerator. We won't be having any Black Friday frenzies this year thanks to Covid. Instead I want to encourage everyone to support small businesses in their community. I also encourage you to check out artisans in your area for unique gifts. In fact, I want to shamelessly pitch two artisan businesses this week! As many of you may know, the beautiful and talented editor of the Western Ag Reporter, Kayla Sargent, was raised north of Bi...
by Susan Metcalf One of the nicest compliments I receive is when readers tell me that they have hung my column on their refrigerator or mailed it to someone (often anonymously) to try to make a point humorously and semi-tactfully. Since we are going into the holiday feast season, I am often asked to re-run my house rules for holidays that might serve as a gentle reminder of family dinner etiquette. However, this year is like no other year, so these have been adapted for Covid Holidays! Grouchy Grandma's House Rules for the...
