Home on the Ranch - Insight 1

For the past 2,341 days I have lived a relatively soft life. This past week has been a helpful reminder in that perspective—particularly for where I came, where I am, and where I intend to return. I spent eleven days home as my final visit before I return for good in less than 250 days. It was a reminder that life when I come home may be a bit of a rude awakening from the lifestyle I now enjoy.

Muscles I normally ignore were quite rudely reawakened during my visit. A different form of fatigue encapsulated me. So much so, it took three full nights before I felt truly rested again. My body ached, and still does to some extent, from work done nearly one week since. My joints, muscles, and scrapes reminded me of the Friday Night Light trainwrecks I endured as a 16- and 17-year-old kid. Despite the sharp pains and dull aches, I finally got some of that long sought after sound sleep that most of us adults find elusive.

Part of the trip’s tiredness may originate from excitement to see family, but largely it came from the daily grind of work on a ranch. The crazy thing? My parents went easy on me; we finished early to visit my brother, finished early to visit a brewery, finished early to enjoy the weather and eat outside before the arrival of much welcomed spring thunderstorms…all of this was so much easier than I recall when I was a teenager working ranch projects dispersed amongst weekends. The time where a priceless day or two between Friday games and Monday morning school starts, or wrestling tournaments and track meets sandwiched necessary ranch tasks with the required attendance of academics. During those times, we stole four to six hours of hard work from a weekend day, which coupled with at least three hours of commuting where my brother and I snuck in homework in the back seat of the pickup as we sped down the 72 miles of highway and gravel road each way.

I finished my travels to the ranch with our annual branding event on Sunday and flew away early the next morning before the sun had a chance to rise above the sandstone rims behind the house. In fact, I always feel a tinge guilt leaving the ranch when I depart because it seems as if I am some secret mistress sneaking away in the middle of the night. This time Dad jokingly told me as we bumped down the drive, “This is the last time I do this for you!” and I am excited for that statement to be fully realized one day.

All the reminiscing and physical reminders of my visit’s escapades made me consider a lesson on ranching, agriculture specifically:

Agriculture is a unique industry. It is fulfilling, simultaneously stressful and stress relieving, while demanding physically, emotionally, and financially even to the best. Ranching and farming are at times antiquated, which also makes them rife with tradition. Agriculture poses challenges from weather, low margins, unpredictable markets, all while often being misunderstood by those not within the industry themselves. Personally experiencing agriculture can be one of the most fulfilling things to encounter when you see your improvements over time. You can see where you were and where you are now, and it is a fantastic experience. While stressful because of the emotional toll of livestock loss, financial worries, and constantly arising issues, the physical work day-in-and-day-out helps alleviate the stress in ways most people can only find in a gym. Processes and ways about doing things are often antiquated for many reasons, but that nod to a long history often presents opportunities to share culture, traditions, and significant events now seen as unpopular like branding season. Challenges are unending with unpredictable weather, unknown possibilities with markets, and unending hopes of a better year. Despite losing public support more and more each year, agriculture still has some of the most genuine, sincere, and happiest people in the world because agriculture has meaning.

Farming and ranching inherently holds purpose simply due to the nature of the business. As humans we need farmers and ranchers, we need agriculture. There are the common reasons such as food and clothing and additional biproducts. However, men and women within agriculture are very much stewards of the land and want what is best for the piece of earth that helps take care of them. They hold small ‘preserves’ of history and lineage, ways to look back at where we started as Yeoman Farmers in the 18th and 19th centuries. They care for the environment and want nothing more than to care for the very earth that helps keep them and consumers alive while also educating and informing those around them, so they no longer have a dwindling approval rating.

What I wish people understood more was they also need to be reminded of their roots. At one point in our history, we all started as hunter-gatherers, then improved our methods of survival through farming, which then evolved in some respects into ranching. The physical demands of agriculture should be appreciated more than we allow today. Now we often use vacations for exotic experiences, but if someone wants to ‘reconnect’ and learn about their past while learning about their present they should investigate agricultural experiences and see how hard it can be just to do some of the simplest things.

At the end of the day, we should all visit a ranch or a farm and see how the real world works. Things are slower, families work together to care for animals, land, and environment. And they all do it with immeasurable gratitude.