Weekend at Rebar Ranch

Posted on April 3, 2022April 9, 2022 by jim

The focal point of our last-minute 2,550 mile boondoggle was spending a weekend at the Rebar Ranch.

When Colette learned that Kevin, Don, and Steve were headed to Dan and Lill’s ranch for the weekend, she decided there was no way she was going to miss the fun.

And if you’re going to drive all the way to Oklahoma, why not hit New Mexico and Texas along the way. Well, in the same trip, not exactly "along the way".

After crossing White Sands National Park, Roswell (UFOs!), Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and Guadalupe Mountains National Park off of our lists, we spent 2 days bee-lining it across a lot of nothingness to the ranch. Colette drove the entire way, while I rode shotgun and worked nonstop. The joys of modern technology when there’s nothing around for miles and you can still be connected to the internet and be able to work!

We arrived before the boys on Friday morning, and were treated to a private ranch tour before the place turned into a Peterson madhouse. I expected a lot of flat dusty ranch land, and was surprised at the varying terrain – from rock outcroppings to ponds to wooded gullies. Having spent quite a bit of time working in the flat featureless land outside Oklahoma City, I had no idea this existed here.

Part of ranching is chores – feeding and watering the cows. With different feeding cycles for the bulls, as well as different cycles for the longhorns vs the Angus, every day is food day for somebody. Water delivery is also a multi-step process, as there are multiple water troughs around the ranch that need to be scrubbed and filled with fresh water. Even though there are several ponds across the property, Dan has discovered that the cows carry more body mass when they drink fresh water – so water delivery is a regular thing. Spoiled cows.

Speaking of spoiled, one of the most fun parts of ranching is Scooby Snacks! The cows love the alfalfa pellets and you can hand-feed them all day long. They love them so much that when the truck pulls up, they have their heads in the window trying to find the snacks. Good fun, if you don’t mind slobber and noses poking around.

More cousins showed up on Sunday, and Petersons got to see other Petersons they hadn’t seen for decades. It’s awesome that everybody took the time out of their lives to make the drive for family time.

All good things must come to an end though, and with Monday morning comes the mass exodus as we all must make our treks back to daily life. We’re definitely looking forward to a return trip to Rebar Ranch on one of our future treks eastward. It can’t be too soon though, since I need to work off the excess pounds gained from the nonstop People-Scooby-Snacks that Lill kept us primed with all weekend!