Deep in the Heart Movie

This weekend, a new movie is being released here in Texas about Richard "Dick" Wallrath, owner of Champion Ranch and special donor to Texas FFA and 4-H.

The movie will be playing all this weekend (Opening February 17th) at Cinemark Theatres in Texas. Depending on how the movie goes over in Texas this first weekend, it may be released nationwide!

The movie is about a real Texas rancher. Wallrath owns Champion Ranch in Centerville, Texas which raises Brangus cattle. The movie tells the true story of how faith brought Wallrath a second chance. He had hit rock bottom, losing everything - jobs, hope, and his family. Dick found faith, picked himself up and trudged on to eventually earn back the love of his children, build a nationally successful window company and become the leading all-time individual donor to Texas 4-H and Texas FFA Association.



This sounds to me to be a great inspiring movie about a man who has helped so many youth! Make plans to go see it this weekend, or to learn more, visit http://deepintheheartmovie.com. 

Texas Drought Photos

A few days ago, Brandon and I were on a photo assignment from my mom and dad to get some pictures of the ranch's pastures to show some of our northern friends about the drought. She posted several on the V8 Ranch facebook page of the pastures and stuff but while we were doing the ranch photos, we decided to take some pics of Mollie vs. the drought.

When I came up with the idea to take Mollie's picture in the drought conditions, my husband said his typical response of "you are crazy". In fact, he and my granddad have this acronym they use on the ranch for problems that occur due to "W.A.C.".....standing for Women Are Crazy. Ha, that's another blog topic. And, as you can see from her picture, I guess Mollie agreed with her dad. I'm pretty sure she is thinking, "Mom, REALLY? Why are you making me do this?"

But, I insisted on taking these photos. Because years from now, when we tell Mollie that she was born in the worst drought of modern Texas times, we can show her these photos and help her put it into perspective. When I think of drought, I think of these poor helpless pioneers in their dresses and bonnets during the dustbowl.

Then, I am reminded of the fact that our drought is worse than the drought Texans faced in the 1930s. So Mollie is living in the modern day dustbowl. So we thought it would be a good illustration to photograph Mollie standing next to the big cracks in our pasture. To put it in perspective, Mollie is nearly 5 months old and weighs 15 pounds. As you can see, the cracks are bigger than her.

I know it is somewhat hard to see, but here she is standing next to the cracks that we had just put her whole body into in the pictures above.

 And here is one where you can see, her legs and feet fit easily into the cracks.

This picture shows one of our fencelines on the ranch, where the cracks in the pasture are causing the fence posts to lean over and be crooked.

These are at a different spot on the ranch, but you can see these cracks are wider than my hand.

Here is a section of what we call our "springer pasture." I was getting scared to drive across this actually.

More pictures of some smaller cracks on the ranch.

We are located about an hour south of Houston, and I know there are lots of folks out there worse off than us, especially further west. Many of our customers and friends at experiencing weather-related issues due to drought or flooding this summer. While I think we are in a rough situation at V8, every day we continue to be THANKFUL for all the many things we DO have. We are so much more blessed than most, and we try to keep this in mind. We have all of our customers and friends in our thoughts, and continue to be optimistic for the future!

The Great Boling Blizzard of 2009

In the first week of December this year, there was more snowfall recorded in Boling, Texas than there was in Chicago, Illinois. What a fun fact! A few weeks ago, on December 4-5, we got 4 inches of S-N-O-W right here on the Texas Gulf Coast. For us, this creates all kinds of pandemonium. Of course, school was cancelled. No one ventured out of their homes to come to work that day, except of course, me, the die-hard RHD'er, and Christa, who was working on updates from home.

In my own defense, I lived in Michigan for 2 years so driving in snow doesn't scare me all that bad. So I braved the very traumatic 4 inches of snow to drive into work that day. By about 10 a.m., everyone at the ranch was calling me to tell me to come take pictures of all the snow at the ranch. Since it was a Friday, I decided to shut down for the day.

As soon as I got home, I started snapping pictures. First, I found it very amusing to see our holiday (a sled being pulled by Brahman bulls) in the snow. How fitting.  And who says Brahmans can't make it in the cold?

Next, I headed over to my house, which everyone said was the cutest, since I had went all out on my Christmas decorations. My little house, key word here being LITTLE, looked like a little Christmas dollhouse.

From there, I got all duded up in my winter gear. Which included at this point a cowboy hat, a Burbery scarf, a puff jacket, and J.Crew muddy boots. I was looking real cool.  My only excuse is that we don't get cold weather that often, so I didn't really have many options.

I headed over to the V8 Showbarn to discuss the day's events with another warm-weather-fan...Matt Karish. He was just as miserable as me. But perhaps, the most miserable all was our herd bull at the showbarn, Mr. V8 380/6. Bless his heart, all the other ladies in his pen were huddled up under the barn, but there was a little heifer in the pen next to his who was in heat. So this guy was NOT leaving his post right by the gate because he was in love. Poor thing, but hey, I guess we all do stupid things for love sometimes.

From there, I was summoned over to the working pens, where it just so happened to be our bad luck that the snow day was the day we were flushing cows and putting in embryos. I thought I was going to just photograph the snow. However, I overheard my dad telling the ET technicians...."Okay me, Rachel and Frank (our cowman) will go pen the other cows and call y'all when we have them in the pen so y'all don't have to wait out in the cold."

What? I have to help pen cows? You should have seen this scenario. Who works cows in the snow wearing a Burberry scarf, Chanel sunglasses and J.Crew boots? Rachel Williams, that's who. And at this point, Frank is thinking his life can't get any worse, because in all honesty I'm not that much help when it comes to working cows. Seems like I do something wrong more than I do things right. Which in this instance, I manage to get my SELF stuck in the muddy lot. As soon as I was running behind the cows to shut the gate I hear my dad yelling at me to stay along the fence because I'll sink in the mud. Too late! I sank to my knees. Thank goodness for those J.Crew wellies I bought! I hear Frank and Dad yelling at me to grab the side of the fence and pull myself up. Nice work. I prefer designing ads in the heated, covered office.

After lunch, and successfully putting in 100 embryos, we finished up for the day, and I headed home to get warmed up in the comforts of my window unit heater. So hopefully, we're finished with snow for the rest of 2009. And 2010, 2011, and 2012 for that matter. I'll take the 110 degree Texas summer's any day over this snow baloney!

Funny things our cows do

Earlier in December, we were doing a big flush at the ranch. It just so happened that this flush occurred during our "winter blast" here in Texas.....which equates to 40 degree weather. I know my northern friends are rolling their eyes right now. It's been raining cats and dogs for the past few days, and things are pretty nasty here at the ranch, with mud everywhere. (A perfect opportunity for me to wear my new J.Crew muddy boots though!) 

On our ranch, we have two Shorthorn cows who are big pets....CF Fool's Likeness and CSF Miss Texas. Fool's was born in 1993 and Miss Texas was born in 1996.  So they are definitely a pair of grannies.

For the past 16 and 13 years, they've had it pretty good. Both were old show heifers. Now that they are getting older, we feel that they have earned a special spot on the ranch so they get to live in our old show pens right by our house. The two grandma's are best friends, and it's hilarious the things they do. For example, they live in the lane that we use to pen other cows. But whenver we pen a pasture full of Brahmans and run them down the lane...Fool's and Miss Texas just sit there, hang out, and never move. They'll watch 200 head of Brahmans run right past them and never even stop chewing their cud. Which turns out to be pretty nice for us, since we never have to even move them out of their pen.

Or, they are really funny when we are getting them ready to flush. They stick together, and they never move faster than a very slow walk to get to the pens. Once we get them in the pens, they know exactly where to go. You don't even have to give them a tap. They'll stand in the chute at the exact spot, and they go in the same order every time. You never even have to close the headgate...they just know what to do.

Some people reading this might think we are a bit crazy or think...they're just cows. But to us, they are MORE than just cows! Fool's Likeness was our very first big significant purchase as a Shorthorn heifer. In 1993 when we bought her from Cates Farms, she cost $10,700 which at that time was unheard of. People thought we were crazy for paying that much for a heifer. She raised 2 Louisville Champion bulls for us. Miss Texas was one we purchased from Connell's in Iowa, and she also won a ton of shows, but most memorable was her unique ability to kick you from any angle. You could be standing up by her head, and she'd manage a way to kick you. Or you could be just passing behind her in the stalls, and she'd nail you. She especially liked my mom though, who would reach up in the pecan trees in our backyard and grab her some pecan leaves...she loved to eat those.

So during the flush, Fool's accomplished the funniest trick she's ever done. Apparently, Fool's wanted to see what was going on at the flush, or maybe she thought she could help out. She parked her big self on the concrete sidewalk, under the roof, right by the catwalk where we work all the cows. And she would not budge. She also decided to use the posts as a scratching post, which provided entertainment for everyone. Everyone on the crew had to walk around her each time they needed to move down the chute. Which meant that the humans had to get in the mud...but Fool's could still stay on the pavement. She was not getting herself in the mud, or getting out from under the covered roof. She was in the middle of the action. But, oh well, as we figured....I guess she's earned it. She pretty much rules the ranch.

Working Ranch Magazine

A few weeks ago I was sitting at Catalena Hatters in Bryan, Texas while Brandon was getting his new cowboy hat shaped. I saw this magazine sitting on the bench in their store so I picked it up and started browsing through it. LOVE IT! This is a great magazine for anyone in the cattle business.

A relatively new publication, Working Ranch is what I would consider similar to a Sports Illustrated, Cosmo, or Cowboys & Indians type magazine for ranchers and those who love the cattle business. It's very trendy, has great articles, and really relates to those who are living the ranch lifestyle day in and day out.

The great thing about this magazine is that it is free! That's right, you can get a free subscription if you visit their web site at http://www.workingranchtv.com/.

Their next issue that will be arriving is the November/December magazine, so you might want to go ahead and subscribe so that you'll be on the mailing list for that issue.

And, for our advertising clients, this is a great publication to consider advertising in. Their rates are very affordable and they have a great circulation. If you're a livestock person wanting to advertise the person to talk to is Todd McCartney and his e-mail is todd@workingranchmag.com. This is a great outlet for advertising bull sales and other registered cattle events.

Enjoy reading!