Innholdsfortegnelse for February/March 2018 i Farm and Ranch Living

I SAT IN ON A SESSION LAST FALL at the Rocky Mountain Farmers Union convention in Denver, Colorado. As I listened to the farmers and ranchers talk about their experiences, I was struck by the open dialogue between them. They were from a spectrum of agriculture—cattle ranches, fruit orchards and row crop farms. But they were connected by their willingness to share advice and ideas with one another. Here at Farm & Ranch Living we want to help facilitate that exchange of ideas. This issue contains a few new columns designed to help you connect with fellow farmers. Those new to agriculture and in need of a little advice can reach out and ask a question; we’ll track down readers who have the answer. Find this helpful exchange of ideas…

PASSENGER CHICKEN Ryan Wheat, age 5, gave his chicken Callie a tractor ride at his family’s farm in Soldotna, Alaska. Callie rode around on Ryan’s head for quite some time, and Ryan really enjoyed it, says his mom, Amber Wheat. WHAT’S SO FUNNY? My granddaughter Jody Jensen lives on a large cattle ranch in northern Utah. She loves the rural life, is an expert rider, and she can rope with the best. Her favorite activities include branding and riding barrels at the rodeo. Here, she shares a moment of humor with one of her horses. BRENT JENSEN NIBLEY, UTAH FARMER IN TRAINING I snapped this photo of my 1-year-old son, Simon, with his grandfather, “Papa Ed,” checking out cattle. Grandpa has a herd of 200-plus beef cattle on Gingerich Farms…

THE FIRST WEEK OF MARCH, things get crazy at my house. We wash buckets, clean the sugar shack, purify jars and tap trees. We hook up the sled to the snowmobile. It’s syrupin’ time. As March moves forward, the sap will run because the days are warm and the nights are cold. On a typical day of sapping in mid-March, we’ll wake up early, and usually five of us kids will go with Dad in his truck to our first location. One of my brothers will follow with a snowmobile and sled in tow. The back of the truck will be filled with buckets. We park the truck at the top of a hill and the snowmobile below, in the valley. Then we set out, carrying empty buckets. We climb…

Hello from the Gila (pronounced hee-la) National Forest. I’m Kelly Burns, and I work at Geronimo Trail Guest Ranch, which is west of the Continental Divide in the mountains of southwest New Mexico. This 20-acre ranch is in the middle of the 3.3 million-acre Gila National Forest. We are four hours from both the Albuquerque, New Mexico, and the El Paso, Texas, airports, and two hours west of Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. While the ranch’s official address is Winston, New Mexico, we are still 90 minutes west of that point. This remote location means we’re off the power grid. Most of our electricity comes from solar arrays, and our water comes from stream-fed wells. Even cellphone coverage stops 70 miles away. Originally a hunting lodge in the 1980s, the…

Horsewoman Sara Karras knows just how frustrating it is when your tack room is a messy jumble of ropes and harnesses. To solve this problem, Sara employs a simple towel bar to help sort out her lead ropes. She clips each rope to the bar and then she drops the other end over the back of the bar, leaving a loop. Then she pushes each rope to the side and adds another. Sara says this organizational method works well for other items, too, like trailer ties and gaming reins. Sara Karras, 14, is passionate about cats, dogs, horses, guinea pigs and llamas as well as tidy barns. She is active in the FFA chapter and 4-H club in her western Wisconsin community. She holds officer positions in both organizations, and…

Submission Guidelines Send Us Your Story Share your stories and photos with us using the online form: farmandranchliving.com/submit Help Us Sort Things Out Include the name of the department your submission is for (A Dog’s Life, Tractor Talk, etc.). For any photos you submit, please identify the people, city, state and year the photo was taken. We reserve the right to use submissions in any section of our magazine, or elsewhere. What You’ll Get If we print your submission in the magazine, we will send you a complimentary copy of the issue in which it appears, and any compensation as may be specified by us in writing. Photos We accept high-resolution digital images. Digital images should be about 4 x 6 inches at a minimum resolution of 300 dots per…

There’s no official manual for starting a dude ranch. Meris Esterly Stout says she wished she’d known a few things on Day 1. 1. There’s a lot of work to off-the-grid living. I learned it’s important to not only be cognizant of how much power and water you use, but also when you use it. 2. When working with horses, a good source of quality hay is so important. It’s difficult to find in New Mexico. 3. Hackamores are a great alternative to a bridle for both horses and riders. My horse wasn’t doing well with a bridle, so I decided to try a hackamore—a type of bitless bridle—and it made a huge difference. We switched our entire herd over to them. 4. I am not a horseshoer. We thought…

South Whidbey Island is a place of everyday kindnesses. When a family’s home burned, residents raised enough money for them to rent another place for a year. When the call goes out for a work party—say, to clean a park—more help than needed shows up, tools in hand. Any time a need is realized in South Whidbey, a group of residents will step up to find a solution. Volunteers have started a foundation to help pay for medical bills—both for people and their pets. Similar programs have paid for oil changes and gas, counseling services and tutoring. If someone needs help, they get it here. The “Hometown Heroes” series in the local newspaper profiles someone doing good work in the community. There are so many nominations, the series will surely…

Feeding and watering chickens doesn’t have to be a messy task. Melissa Griffiths creates low-cost, efficient feeders and waterers using easily found items. Start with two 5-gallon buckets with airtight lids (pickle buckets from the local deli work) and two round metal pans from the hardware store that are at least 16 inches wide and 4 inches deep. With a 1-inch standard drill bit, drill 1-inch holes around the bucket sides near the bottom, about 2 inches apart. Then set each bucket upright in a pan: Fill with chicken feed or water. The feed and water flow naturally out through the holes, but the waterer’s lid needs an airtight seal to prevent overflow. To keep chickens off the pan rim, Melissa places a board wider than the pan on top…

MAPLE STICKY BUNS My family has a small sugaring operation in our backyard. This recipe makes good use of the maple syrup we produce. Everyone loves eating these sticky buns year after year. PRISCILLA ROSSI EAST BARRE, VERMONT PREP: 30 min. + chilling • BAKE: 25 min. • YIELD: 21/2 dozen INGREDIENTS 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast 2 cups warm water (110° to 115°) 1/4 cup shortening 1/2 cup sugar 1 large egg 2 tsp. salt 6-61/2 cups all-purpose flour 6 Tbsp. butter, softened 3/4 cup packed brown sugar 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon 3/4 cup chopped walnuts 11/2 cups maple syrup Additional brown sugar DIRECTIONS 1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in water. Add shortening, sugar, egg, salt and 5 cups flour. Beat until smooth.…

Faith Christophel and her husband, Steve, felt called by God in 1996 to foster and adopt their 16 children from across the country. With their adult daughter Elizabeth, the couple has provided a nurturing place for kids with violent pasts or who struggle with mental and behavioral disabilities. A menagerie inhabits Whispering Winds Ranch, but “the main crop the three of us raise is children,” Faith says. “We wanted them to have a place where they could learn to work hard, be self-sustaining, find peace and make happy memories.” Since writing the diary, Elizabeth has married, but she still finds time to visit often. “My husband, Chris, fits right in with my crazy crew,” she says.…

In this fast-moving world of technology and social media, I strive to teach my nieces and nephews to love nature and the great outdoors at my family’s place, the Garcia-Damon ranch in San Luis Obispo, California. We get away from those modern distractions and go out to collect rocks, search for water bugs in springs, assemble tree forts, gather chicken eggs, and hike up the cow trails with the dogs. The kids and I spend hours at the water troughs trying to catch goldfish. We’ll while away a whole afternoon on the tire swing in the big eucalyptus tree. We help my dad, Roy, gather wood, and, as a fun treat, he rewards us with homemade jerky. Our ranch is a special place, and it’s been in my family for…

What was the use for this? I know it’s dairy-related; I found it in an old barn. STARLINE , which was a manufacturer of dairy equipment, is stamped on it. The small latch is spring-loaded, and it opens to allow something to be hung from the hook. DICK WENKEL St. Paul, Minnesota answer: In 1883, Henry Ferris patented his hay carrier invention. At the time, Charles Hunt and Nathan Helm owned a hardware store in Harvard, Illinois, and invited Ferris to move his shop into the basement. They began selling his hay carrier and started the Hunt, Helm & Ferris Co. In 1931, they incorporated and changed their business’ name to Starline. The company went on to manufacture more than 50 products designed to make…

BEFORE SUNRISE, AND AFTER an abundance of rain, I drove to Burlington, Washington, on a March day. A friend had given me a tip on a beautiful old barn there. The standing water in the foreground created a perfect mirror reflection. The Dutch Gambrel barn, built in the late 1930s, is included in a brochure called Heritage Barns of Skagit Valley. The self-guided tour lists 58 historic barns and the story behind each. According to the listing, Joseph Isling built this barn, which was used as a dairy. It features a hay hood on the other side. Go to farmandranchliving.com/submit  to show off your barn in a future issue of Farm & Ranch Living.…