Wives and mothers… for most of us women, we all become one or both of these at some point in our lives. It is a different role for each of us. Some of us are stay- at-home moms, some work from home and some mothers have jobs and work away from the house. No matter which kind of mom you are, if you are a wife and a mother, those tittles alone make you super woman if you ask me.
Where I come from we have the “Ranch Wife”, these women are a different breed. And if you know one or more of these women, you will agree they are not your run of the mill meek little house wives. These are some of the strongest, toughest, hardest working women I have ever had the pleasure of knowing.
I want to tell you about three ranch wives that I am proud to have in my life. I admire and look up to these women, and am proud to call them friends and family.
There is a generation of women that was raised to be domestic, their momma’s taught them to sew, cook, clean, and raise a family and take care of their husband. And that’s what they do, and they do a great job of it. If you were raised in this generation and happened to marry a farmer or rancher it is not only your job to raise the family, take care of the house and cook and clean for everybody, you are also the hired hand. Hired hand is not even the right word to use, it’s more that they are their husbands right hands. There are a lot of tough men and cowboys in this country but behind every one of them is an even stronger woman.
My mother in-law was raised in this generation. She is one of the strongest women I know. I have watched her work beside her husband just as hard, or harder than him, then go to the house and make a meal for the crew, quick clean up the dishes, and then head back out to help finish whatever needs to be done. She does it without a second thought and without complaint. She knows the ranch and the animals like the back of her hand, and can make a meal fit for a king. She helps take care of kids and is always thinking of what others need.
She spends days fixing fence, not to mention countless hours in the summer spraying noxious weeds, and can tell you exactly what draws to find them in. She knows every cow on this place, and probably can go back without looking in her books and tell you who that particular cows grandmother was. She spends countless hours mowing the acres of lawn we keep up to make the ranch look nice, and can run any piece of equipment on this ranch as good or better than most men.
In her “Spare Time” she will teach a granddaughter to sew, keep her house, cook and clean, be the book keeper as well as help take care of the garden. If she has any other spare time, you better believe she’s doing something for somebody else other than herself. I look up to her on a daily basis, and cannot count the lessons learned and advice this woman has shared with me. I think of her not only as my husband’s mother but a mother to me as well. I am blessed to call this woman part of my family and to have her as friend.
I grew up in a different generation, and I didn’t grow up on a ranch. My mother was a stay –at- home mom until all of us kids started school, then she went back to work full time. I watched her try to juggle work and a family, we kids had to pitch in and pick up the slack. I was raised by a hard working mother, but I will only pale in comparison to these ranch women.
My neighbor and one of the best women I know, lives just up the road from me. We met when we were in high school at a Range Camp. We had more fun than two girls should have had at Range Camp. We lost touch, and who would’ve guessed that fate and my husband would’ve brought us back together. Her grandmother, and my husband’s grandmother are sisters, and now not only are we great friends, but we are family too.
She, like most honest to goodness ranch wives, are the most modest of kinds. She would probably tell me that there is no reason for me to look up to her, but I do. She moved away from home after high school got married and started a family. She had 3 little boys they are just a year apart, in fact the oldest two are only 11 months apart. As if that alone didn’t make her superwoman, her husband was deployed to Iraq while the boys were small too. After he returned home, her and her family moved back home to live and work on the family ranch. I was glad to have a friend I enjoyed so much here in the neighborhood. Their boys, so close to the same age as my girls, will get to spend the coming years growing up together.
Then in the spring of 2012, her family received terrible news. Her husband, a man I’m very proud to know and call family as well, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. I can’t tell you how my dear friend dealt with this; she never has been and never will be one to wear her heart on her sleeve. I only hope if faced with dilemma such as this I am as poised and confident as her.
When I heard the diagnosis I cried, I never saw her waiver. She took it on, full steam ahead they were going to beat this, and they did. He has had clean scans and is back to being the husband and father he was. I admire her strength in the face of such a hard situation, I thought she was strong for raising those boys during her husband’s deployment, but this woman is made of special stuff, and I am glad to call her my friend. Often when I see their family, I stop and have to thank the Lord. My family is truly blessed to have their family in our lives!
Did I mention she is the most self-less person too? She is always going out of her way for others. I am always in awe of her kindness and generosity. She is also one of those hard working ranch wives, she goes out and puts a full day in right next to her husband, and then never fails to take care of her family’s needs. She also takes care of mowing the yard, not to mention help her mother and grandmother take care of their yards, and she can decorate the most beautiful birthday and wedding cakes. She rides horse, sorts cattle drives tractors and grows a garden and spends countless hours putting up produce. All of this, and let’s not forget to mention she is raising 3 fine young men, and teaching them to be self-less hard working responsible gentlemen. I am so glad God sent me to Range Camp at 17 years old. Who would’ve guessed he would’ve put a woman in my life that I would learn so much from?
My next friend I met at church. I believe there is a pattern developing here; I believe God put these women in my life for a reason. I didn’t grow up going to church. We went to Sunday school once and a while, and honestly I couldn’t recite a bible verse if I wanted to. However, I have on occasion found myself opening up my bible to find some answers to my problems. I have so many things to thank the Lord for. Since having the opportunity to get to know this woman and her family over the last several years, I am thankful he sent me to church to meet her.
We are from the same generation, but didn’t meet each other until we were both mothers. She is a stay at home mom of 4 of the most splendid, polite, wonderful children. I am telling you though, these ranch women raised up here in our area are truly a different breed, and I honestly cannot put myself in the same category as these ladies. And really, stay at home mom isn’t really what she is, she is so much more.
This women has more talent and ability in one of her pinkies, than I have in my whole body. Every day she gets up and gets kids off to school and does the regular old house hold motherly duties like cook, clean, and laundry, but I forgot to mention that before all of that, she went out and milked her cows and took care of the rest of her chores outside.
I can’t even begin to list her many talents. She can bake and decorate the most beautiful of cakes, and then head to the hay field and run a bidirectional tractor with a hay head, and pull a hydro swing behind. I can honestly say I have a small panic attack just thinking about running something like that. She is a wonderful mother as well as quite the horseman too. She can trim a horse’s foot, kill a rattle snake with the leather reins of her bridle, pull a calf and AI a cow. She made her own dining room table, which is to die for, and make some of the best tasting food I’ve had the privilege to taste.
There is an old saying: “A jack of many trades, a master of none.” That would be me; my dear friend on the other hand, is a master of many and a jack of none. I’m pretty sure there is nothing this woman couldn’t do if she set out to do it.
One thing I admire most about her, is her faith. The longer I know her, the more honored I am to call her my friend. She, along with most good “Ranch Wives” are amongst the most generous self-less people. I believe it has a lot to do with their faith in god, and being raised by a generation of hard working “Ranch Wives.”
I have learned a lot from these women, and I look up to them. I only hope I am someday half the woman they are.
