October Updates
October continues to be packed with fun projects, farm chores, school activities, and rodeo! We had a really big week of photos and cooking on the ranch for a big new project that I'm chomping at the bit to be able to tell you about SOON!
The girls have been a great help and we invited some Team Five Marys staff to come help celebrate an M5 Thanksgiving with leg of lamb and a giant turkey. Then we had Christmas the next day with an M5 prime rib and fresh cracked crab (delivered live to the ranch!) so we could test all of the recipes and get awesome photos. There were LOTS of dishes, a talented production/creative/photography team to work with, late nights around the bonfire, and lots of exciting things to come!
One thing I CAN tell you about right now is that our FIVE MARYS BOG BOOTS are available! The girls had so much fun designing a women’s size boot with a fun western inspired print (since they grew out of the Bogs cute little kid sized prints a long time ago!) We have always loved these boots for all seasons on the ranch and this style remains our go-to pull on boot for just about everything. These boots are the best to hold up through hard work, ranching, or puddle jumping… and they make great hand-me-downs.
The girls had the opportunity to design a pair with a western rodeo inspired style in adult sizes (women 6-12) for tween, teens, and adults - and they couldn’t have turned out cuter! They are available now on the Bogs website. Thanks to Bogs for the chance to work with us on this fun collaboration - even the tag on the sides of every pair say ‘Five Marys’ :)
In between all of these fun projects, we’ve been busy on the ranch checking calves. September and October are our calving months and we check our mommas out on pasture several times a day to tag the brand new ones (an ear tag with a number to identify them to the right mother cow) and make sure everyone is healthy out there. It never gets old to find a fresh newborn just learning how to stand up and nurse and a momma who instinctively knows just what to do. They are protective but they trust Brian for a quick tag and health check of their calf.
Through it all, my all time favorite place to be is still next to Brian checking cows and doing ranch chores. Early on in our parenting, he told our sweet little girls, ‘you will always be the most important thing in my life, but your mom… she will always be a teeny tiny bit more important to me.’
To some this might seem a little harsh and non-traditional, but he wanted to model for them what it meant to find a spouse who cherished you above all else. We get our kids for a coupe of decades of our life at home, but God willing, we get a few more decades with our spouses!
I know how lucky I am to get to spend my days riding around shotgun with him… whether it’s the ranch rigs, his pick up truck, the old feed truck, or the rodeo rig. He takes good care of all living things on the ranch, especially his daughters and most especially his wife. I’m so grateful for this for lots of reasons - for me and for my girls to witness.
