Last week we had a special visit from my parents. They drove all the way from Idaho to New Mexico pulling a gooseneck trailer with six horses in it, dropping off two at our place, staying overnight and spending the next day with us, then continuing on their way to two other siblings’ homes to deliver the rest of the horses.

We went for a long ride up Soledad Canyon while they were here. The desert was in bloom and the painted grasshoppers were teeming!

After 50 + years of ranching, my parents are finally retiring, selling their ranch and cattle, giving away most of their twenty-some horses and mules, and buying a house in town and a travel trailer to enjoy some southern winters and visits to grandkids. I’m excited for them, but also sad that there won’t be an Idaho ranch to go visit. We loved helping them with their spring cattle drive every year, and some of their horse-training endeavors! While the Idaho place never felt like “home” (my heart will always be in the middle of the Nebraska Sandhills where we grew up and ranched for so many years), it was a really beautiful place to visit and make many family memories. I’m sure we will still go visit them, but a house in town probably won’t be quite as exciting as their ranch always was.