Moms are special! Here at RealRanchers.com we share and celebrate rural Wyoming living and, in honor of Mother’s Day, we’d like to recognize Rural Mother’s everywhere.
Our Facebook followers (those who like us, who really like us!) came up with this list of “You Might Be A Rural Mom If…” Only edited slightly for formatting reasons.
- You’ve helped run a ranch your entire life, raised 5 kids, and still maintained your sanity. Thanks Mom! (P.S. Our Kaycee, WY ranch has been in the family for 108 years!) – Frank NeVille
- You give your kids (and yourself) a spit bath, so a freezing baby calf could warm up in the bathtub. – Echo Fisher Renner
- You wouldn’t let your kids go barefoot in the Spring until it was 70 degrees, so they watch the thermometer ritually. (Eastern SD doesn’t have snakes or sand burrs so bare toes in the grass was pure joy). – Donita Hill Graves
- You cook supper, do laundry, and bottle feed calves all at one time… and not burn a thing! – Brady Gray
- You’ve mothered and nursemaided about every species including your own. – Britt Whitt
- You’ve had to admit bad news like, “We’re selling the cattle and the farm because we can’t keep working for nothing anymore and I’m scared!” – Charlotte VanGenechten
- You look at your living room floor on a very cold snowy day in February and have several newborns on the floor in front of the wood stove. I think there were puppies, lambs, calves and maybe a goat or two. That was when we quit calving in February! – Cathy Andreen
- You ask for a new rifle for Mother’s Day, really meaning it, and then are so excited when you get the one you where wanting! Guess what I asked for, and got, for Mother’s Day this year? – Tales of a Ranchers Wife
- You’ve had a sick bottle lamb living in the house for the past week, wearing a pair of diapers. And the one night when he was really feeling bad, he got to sleep on the bed besides me. All babies need comforted when sick. – Bonnie Whitt
- You’ve told a story like this, “I had a huge tom turkey attack me when I was feeding pigs one day. He jumped on my back and knocked me down so I did what any other ranch woman would do; I rung his neck and killed him…I thought. I threw him in the back of the van and headed down the highway to have my dad-in-law help with cleaning him…when the turkey came back to life and attacked me in the moving car going 70 mph down the highway! I WILL NEVER RAISE TURKEYS AGAIN!” – Shelly Neff
- Or like this, “So today started at 3:14 a.m. when the phone rang and it was Park County Sheriff’s Office. Dispatch: ‘There are MANY cows out.’ Me: ‘So what color are they?’ Dispatch: ‘MANY colors.’ I spent 3-5 a.m. chasing cattle. It was so much fun watching a City Cop try to herd cows in the dark! I love my life… even if I have to rise and shine before the sun.” – Shelly Neff
- You’ve had your 2-year-old do this, “When I was two my mom gave me the task of carrying two chicken eggs back from the chicken coop to the house. I was SO excited that I clapped my hands together with joy…only to have the eggs crack with yolk running down my arms and tears running down my cheeks. My mom wiped the mess off me and wiped my tears away, gave me a hug, and made me smile when she let me help her “check under another chicken” for more eggs! Happy Mother’s Day to all the rural moms out there! -Malorie Bankhead
RealRanchers.com 
So many great stories about ranching women — thanks for sharing!