Life on a on a Ranch

 Here we are, cruising into August while July sailed by in little more than the blink of an eye. Time seems to go a little faster in the summer and the summer of 2025 is no exception. Along with the end of July came my first tomato of the year. It was hidden under a cacophony of vines and green tomatoes, just a hint of red peeking out. I dug right through the vines to find it. It was small, but I went ahead and shared it with my family- in a salad. There’s nothing quite like homegrown tomatoes and that’s why I make sure to plant them every spring. The Cove FFA chapter grows them from seed, then once they’re good and started, I plant them in the old tractor-tire-mini-garden we have outside our kitchen windows. This year, I actually didn’t plant them. Lucy and her five-year-old-friend Hallie, (who she babysits on occasion), did, as Mother’s Day surprise. Included in the surprise, was a full weeding job of the planters, a couple hanging baskets and all the planting. The surprise has been a gift that keeps on giving because included in the vegetables and herbs, they also planted some flowers from seed, and they’ve been popping up and blooming- namely Cosmos and Bachelor’s Buttons, both in a variety of delightful colors. The tomatoes have gotten a strong enough start, they should be ripening right up and I’m hopeful I can get some canned this year. I’ve been on a small canning streak- I was able to get raspberry and strawberry jam canned and in the cupboard. I’m looking forward to canning peaches this year- something I regretfully never got around to last year. Speaking of peaches, the year Buck and I got married, we were living in Clarkston, Washington. He was working out of Pomeroy and I was finishing up nursing school at Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston. One day, Grandma Janie and family friend, Mern Moore, phoned and said they were going to be in town, and they wanted to stop by with a wedding present. The wedding present was a giant box of canned peaches. I felt like I won the lottery! Ever since, I’ve thought it would be fun to gift someone a box of canned peaches, but I’ve never been quite that generous with my canning- a jar or two, but I’ve never canned enough to give away a whole big box! Anyway, along with the end of July and the beginning of August, comes the Union County Fair. Katelyn and Cooper both have pigs to take. They look great and are ready to weigh in on Tuesday evening. They’ll have 4-H and FFA market classes on Wednesday, showman ship on Thursday, a variety of non-show-activities on Friday and of course, the sale on Saturday. Intermixed in and around those activities, both Katelyn and Cooper have been bunch stacking hay and have a little left to finish up this week. With one more field to cut, all the hay should be done and in a stack by the time we leave to take Lucy to Nebraska. We’ve been trying to enjoy and squeeze in what we can before she heads off to college. This past weekend, my Aunt Marianne and my Grandpa flew to Idaho from Texas. We met them in Boise before they drove to McCall to spend the week with the rest of my family. I’m pretty sure I’ve bragged about my Grandpa here before, but I’ll go ahead and do it again. At 93, he not only lives on his own, but flew to Idaho with plans to go perch fishing on Cascade Reservoir (I know people call it “Lake Cascade” now, but to me, it’ll always be the reservoir where I spent summer evenings learning to waterski… until the summer irrigation made it too low to go boating in). At any rate, he’s spending the week in McCall, but is also planning his fall travel schedule to go see his sister, my Great Aunt Sue, in Arizona in October. Needless to say, we were really happy to meet up and sneak in a visit. In other happenings, Cooper has ABOVE: Lucy, Katelyn, Great Grandpa Denis, Cooper Cooper with his pickup been hard at work this past week. The background to this story is that we bought some cows a few years ago from our friend, Russ Cook. Russ left his feed truck for us to feed with the last few winters. It had originally been his dad Wayne’s pickup. Well, through the course of recent events, Russ kindly ended up giving us the ol’ rig. And through giving it to us, Buck told Cooper it could be his. Knowing he has a couple of years to go before he can take a vehicle down the open road, that didn’t squash his excitement in the least! He spent a full afternoon and evening cleaning it out (albeit somewhat carefully- it is, after all, a feed truck and had doctoring supplies and such stored in various places throughout the rig). He vacuumed and wiped, washed the windows and mirrors, and even installed a couple of very strong smelling air “fresheners”. The radio doesn’t work, but after a visit with Russ, he and Cooper discovered the cassette player does actually work. Russ found some old cassettes to gift along with the pickup, so now he has music to listen to, too. In addition to a thorough cleaning, Cooper also found some black PVC pipe, then he used a blowtorch to bend the tops. He zip-tied one to either side of the flat bed to make smokestacks. They might not do much for the exhaust system, but they look pretty cool, zip-ties and all! One evening this past week, while Cooper was cleaning his pickup and I was catching up in the house. Lucy got home from work, came in the back door and said ten of my favorite words, “Do you want to go for a ride with me?” She was headed out to check some cows and yes, of course I wanted to go! Buck had just used our gelding, Sharp, and since he was already caught, I switched out saddles and threw him in the trailer with Lucy’s horse. It was hot enough that the horses weren’t in any kind of hurry and so we checked cows and also took our time, soaking in a long summer evening horseback. And that, my friends, is something I hope to squeeze in a little more of over the next couple of weeks, out here in Union County. ~Chelsea