A Day in the Life
come spend a day with me on our farm + ranch 🌾🐮
Hello! Maybe you noticed a new name of my newsletter, Planting Season, or maybe you didn’t. I’ll likely share more about the name change in the future—but that isn’t what today’s post is about. I don’t plan to make this type of post a regular occurrence, but I thought it would be fun to share an old-school-style blog post and share snippets of a somewhat normal day on our farm & ranch (with lots of photos!). Because of all the pictures, you’ll have to click the link to read it, as it’s too long to read in your email. Enjoy!
Friday, January 24th, 2025
3:01 a.m.
Yes, you read that time right. Today, I’m cooking lunch for the calving crew, and I chose to make pulled pork sandwiches and the roast needs to bake for 8-ish hours. I usually cook once (sometimes twice) a week for the calving crew to give my MIL a break, and today is my day. To get the roast done before noon, I set my alarm for 3 a.m. (and programmed the oven to start preheating at 2:45 a.m.). The night before, I put a dry rub on the roast and let it sit in the fridge; then, at 3 a.m., I got up, put it in the oven, and promptly went back to bed.
4:53 a.m.
My alarm goes off for the second time, and I push snooze a couple of times. But, shortly after 5, Nora comes into our room and asks if it’s morning. I tell her it’s not and walk her back to her bed. Since I’m up, I go to the kitchen around 5:15, get a cup of coffee, and sit down at the kitchen table with my notebook and current non-fiction book. (In truth, non-fiction isn’t usually my favorite genre, especially parenting books. But this one is good so far.1) I read a little bit and scribble some words in my notebook.
6:00 a.m.
We wake the big kids for school (Nora doesn’t have school on Fridays). Rich makes the kids breakfast. I pack lunches for the kids (most days, they eat school lunch, but occasionally, they get to bring a packed lunch). We fill backpacks and water bottles, get dressed, and brush teeth.
6:36 a.m.
Rich leaves with the kids to the bus stop, which is seven (gravel) miles from our house, and the bus arrives at 6:50 a.m. Pepper runs out the door, sad she didn’t get to ride along. Nora is still asleep. I go back into the house and clean up the breakfast dishes. I check my email and pour a second cup of coffee. Rich returns to the house at 7. Around 7:15, Nora wakes up, and I make her breakfast.
7:45 a.m.
I remember (amazingly!) to take eggs out of the fridge to bring them to room temperature to bake a cake this morning. (I know you can leave (fresh) eggs out all the time, but I cannot break the habit of keeping them in the fridge.)
8:00 a.m.
Nora colors at the kitchen table, and I set up my “barre studio” in the kitchen. I put in my AirPods (which gives me more of a studio experience) and do a barre workout. Afterward, I call our insurance company (this issue takes up more of my day than I would have liked).2
9:21 a.m.
Nora and I make a chocolate chip bundt cake from the Magnolia Vol. 3 cookbook. This is my first time trying this recipe.
9:55 a.m.
I make myself breakfast—eggs and avocados. It’s probably bad to wait to eat so long. But I’m not always hungry when I first wake up. And I usually eat part of a kid’s bagel in the early morning, and I ate some cake batter. ;) Nora eats a second breakfast with me. I take the cake from the oven and let it cool.
10:38 a.m.
No photo proof of my outfit, but I put my Carhartt overalls over my leggings and head to the coop to check on the ladies. Rich helps me unload the bags of chicken feed I bought in town yesterday from the car.
The weather is all over the place today. The sun shines, then a squall of snow comes in for a few minutes, and then back to the sun.
10:58 a.m.
Nora and I take Pepper for a short walk. Last summer, Rhett raised sweet corn in the tree rows, and the stalks are all that are left.
11:28 a.m.
After our walk, I shower and take the pork roast from the oven. I shred the meat and make the sauce. I sprinkle powdered sugar on the cake. Then, I gather all the food (pulled pork, baked beans, coleslaw, cake) and get it ready to take to the ranch yard.
12:15 p.m.
We arrive at my sister-in-law’s house in the ranch yard—three miles from our house. The ranch yard is where the barn is and where all of the ranch crew is working. I feel weird taking a picture of all the crew around the kitchen table, so this pic of some of the boots in the garage will have to do. Ten of us gather around the table and eat lunch (we’re missing a few people today, plus the kids in school). Afterward, we stand around and talk in the living room while two of the guys throw lassos, practicing roping.
1:13 p.m.
We stop at the barn on the way home to see the calves. The second set of twins was born this week. The calves are still with their mama, but raising two calves is hard for a beef cow. One of the calves will eventually go to another mama who loses a calf.3
One of the twins. The cow is annoyed with me being so close, and she let me know.
More cows and calves. During calving season, 40 pens are set up in the barn. Calving is still relatively slow today, so only a handful of the pens are being used, but as the days go on, there will be times when all the pens are full.
1:34 p.m.
Keeping it real, I get home to a sink full of dishes. I didn’t have time to clean up before taking lunch to the crew. Nora watches a show while I listen to a podcast and clean the kitchen. I spend the next couple of hours making more insurance-related phone calls, returning emails, checking social media, doing laundry, and I can’t remember what else. (Probably sweeping, picking up, and letting the dog in and out.)
3:15 p.m.
Nora and I drive to the bus stop/mailbox to get the kids. Friday is an “early-out” (they get out of school at 2:30 instead of 3:20), so the bus arrives around 3:30 p.m. We drive home, and they get a snack and head outside to kick a football for the next couple of hours.
4:29 p.m.
I start making chili for dinner while the kids continue to play outside while I listen to a podcast.
4:59 p.m.
Another storm blows in, but it doesn’t last long, and it isn’t bad enough to bring the kids inside. Around 5:30, Rich gets home from the shop, and the kids come inside. We eat dinner, break up sibling squabbles, and ask the kids about their day (which they never have much to tell me).
6:30 p.m.
We all sit down to watch a movie. This picture is actually from last Friday’s movie night, but I forgot to take a current one. But the pic would have been the same. Apparently, we’re a family that lets their dog sit on the couch.4 (I didn’t see this coming.) But she enjoys movie nights with the family. 😂
8:00 p.m.
After the movie ends, we start the bedtime routine: pajamas, brush teeth, and a couple of stories. After getting the kids in bed, we let Pepper outside one last time, put her in her kennel, and get ourselves ready for bed. Before 9, Rich and I are both in bed. He reads a book while I look through the cookbooks I checked out from the library this week. I set my alarm for 5:30 a.m., hoping to drink one cup of coffee and read in silence before the kids wake up on their own. 💚
If you made it to the end, thank you! 💛 If you enjoyed reading this, would you let me know? (Full transparency—this took me many hours to put together. 🫠 ) Let me know if you have any questions; I’d love to (try) and answer them! And to my fellow rural readers, what looks different or the same about your days? 🌱
I do have a complaint about the book, which makes me question the accuracy of the rest of it. Early on, in a chapter about food (and how kids are less active today than decades ago), the author writes how kids eating “genetically modified wheat (among other things) has played a role in obesity.” Ugh. There is NO GMO wheat in the U.S. You cannot buy any bread (or any other wheat product) made from GMO wheat—because there isn’t any. I will try not to go on a complete rant here, but when bread is marked “non-GMO,” it’s simply a marketing tactic because you cannot buy GMO wheat. (Basically, you’re paying more for something that isn’t real.) No farmer in the U.S. raises GMO wheat. Anyway, a quick Google search would have told the author (who is an MD and PhD) this. I can’t believe this false information got past his early readers, editors, and whoever else reads a book before publication. And I know many people will read that line and assume it’s true, perpetuating the myth. Sorry, I did rant a bit, but I digress. Now I’m trying to decide who I can complain to about this who will listen. 😂 If anything, I guess I’m telling all of you this, and maybe you learned something new today (and you can tell a friend). ☺️
While sitting in my car in a grocery store parking lot, a guy doored my car, leaving a decent-sized dent. I had never had this happen before, and now I know what not to do. He wrote down his insurance information on a piece of paper and gave it to me. After he left, I realized he didn’t give me his name. I thought to take a picture of his license plate. The next day, when I called our insurance company, they could not find his policy number, and without his name, they didn’t have much to go on. So, he either accidentally gave me the wrong info or purposely did it. (I’m going with the latter.) So, I spent much of the day calling the local police, our insurance company, and the DMV (to see if I could get his name from his license plate number). Let this be a lesson if this happens to you: take a photo of their insurance card and call the police to make a report. We will likely have to pay our deductible to fix the car when it wasn’t my fault. Sigh.
We do our best to keep the loss rate low, but some calves still don’t make it.
She doesn’t shed, so I guess that’s partly why she gets to be up there.
Stacy! So glad you posted this. I read it two days ago and am still thinking about it - maybe because we left Montana to move closer to family and lately we’ve been missing MT so much. But also because I wanted to remember to comment and say wow, girl your day held so much! you made two big meals AND did a barre workout AND had to talk to insurance! i hope you went to bed feeling like you crushed it, cause you did. I think we oftentimes as moms see all the things we didn’t get to in a day instead of all that we DID! Maybe doing this DITL post helped you see all that you do for yourself and others in a day. Pretty beautiful!
I love this so much Stacy! Do more of this! 💛