“Sit tall in the saddle, Hold your head up high
Keep your eyes fixed where the trail meets the sky
And live like you ain’t afraid to die
And don’t be scared, just enjoy your ride” -Chris LeDoux
If there is one thing that sealed the deal on my love for horses and farming, it was the time I spent with Grant and Abie in Wyoming. So if I think back on how I ended up here, it was most surely by going there. And now, I realize that Grant was my close to my age when I met him, 57? At that time he was still shoeing all his own horses…a small group of around 90 including mules and pack horses. I didn’t think much of it back then, but now I realize….the many aches and pains that come from working with land and animals. I remember, as Grant aged he moved slower. But when he was on a horse, he had wings.
The picture above is of a milk cow named Meg. My first cow, a gift from Grant and Abie. If you are going to be a cowgirl….you have to have a cow. And a horse of course. When they thought I was going to drop out of college, Grant and my Dad coined a deal on the horse. But the cow….
Grant bought a pair of cows to be nurse cows. He and Abie also had a cattle farm in Missouri where they spent their winters. The one he planned on giving me didn’t have a calf…so he gave me his milk cow. A beautiful dutch belted cow. She was one of a long string of gifts from Grant and Abie including a colt named Harley, a rope horse for Curtis named Lucky, a bobtail cat, a charlais heifer…
And our cattle herd began. The belted gene is a dominant one, so ….
We kind of fell in love with them. This was our 2006 calf crop.
Farm News: Jennifer dug the best of the potatoes left in the garden…will they last?
What’s in the bucket? potatoes, carrots, fennel, onions, cabbage, summer squash, a cucumber or cherry tomato? farm flowers and basil.
The recipe – one of Abie’s pack trip recipes for scalloped potatoes. A sturdy dish we packed into the Wind River Range for our guests. Pack in a snow bank until ready to heat over a wood fire:)
Happy Eating, Happy July 4th, and thanks for buying local food from Circle S Farm.