When people hear the word ranching, they tend to think of Cowboys or of elderly men who have lived on that land for 80 years. It’s a very physically and emotionally taxing job. It involves a lot of machinery, power tools, barbed wire sweat, blisters, and dirt, which are typically things that we would more likely associate with masculinity. But when I am barked on this journey to find higher quality food for my family, I also discovered this softer nurturing side to operating a ranch.
Giving our children, this lifestyle of growing up on a working ranch with all the room to grow and explore in the sunshine in the dirt to learn what hard work meant to be very connected to our food and know exactly where it comes from was very important to my husband and myself But he already had a job that had him working well over full-time that took all of his brain space and all of his working hours and so starting Ranch became my project.
I grew up in the suburbs and have never been around, livestock in my life. It was all a very daunting and overwhelming thought to start a ranch, and on top of that we purchased a severely overgrazed property, which was worse than starting from scratch. It was starting -100 not zero. But the process of bringing this property back to Life was such a blessing for me because it really hooked me on this whole process. As women we love to nurture and grow things and bring life. It’s one of the greatest contributions that we give to this world, we are life givers, and ranching has so much of that woven into it.
Yes, there are days where you’re driving at tractor and loading trailers and taking animals to be processed and lifting all the heavy things which Don’t seem as innately feminine, but women can do hard things we can learn skills that seem man dominated and intimidating to get into and we’re very good at doing those things if our motivation is our family and life
There is nothing more feminine than embracing nature and raising your babies in the sunshine and helping an animal, give birth and awakening the earth to produce better grass, figuring out how to nurture animals so that they produce more nutritious food to nurture your family with and getting into the rhythms of the seasons and the gestation and lactation cycles of your animals….
Yes, ranching is predominantly a male field and has been for generations, but there is a side of it that speaks so Perfectly to a woman and a mother.
And they always find it interesting and comical that when someone finally can accept the fact that I’m a woman running Ranch, then the automatic assumption is that I’m running it for my dad or my grandfather that I inherited this and I’ve lived this way my whole life and so that’s why you can stand to do this or that’s how you got into this because people can’t seem to fathom the idea that I just wanted to do this. I wanted to create this life for my family. and I did.
So when you support this Ranch this farm, you are supporting a woman and a mother who is working hard to provide the life she wants for her children and it is so appreciated. Thank you.