Articles written by Susan Metcalf
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Cooking in the West
We are at the stage in our lives where we find ourselves in the bleachers every Saturday for elementary intramural basketball, because we would never miss a game of grandson basketball. Where else can you watch your grandson celebrate an assist with...
Cooking in the West
Our community is mourning the loss of Judy Vidack, who moved to Big Timber to teach at BTGS in 1969, touching the lives of hundreds of students plus parents and community members in her forty year tenure teaching elementary school. She lost a short,...
Cooking in the West
When our son Bret bought into our ranching operation when he came back to the ranch after college, I no longer had to be the unpaid hired hand man in this operation. I was demoted to Assistant Nobody, which is a great title. I love my life of...
Cooking in the West
Calving season is almost upon us. It is a time that fills me with both enthusiasm and dread.There is nothing more rewarding in ranching than helping calves come into the world. The dreaded part is the small percentage of mamas that have delivery...
Cooking in the West
The best part about winter used to be skiing, ice skating, and ice fishing. However, as I have grown older, it has become harder and harder to find a winter sport that I can participate in, because I don’t dare risk my knees, my hips, my skull,...
Cooking in the West
Covid 19 effectively ended our ranch vacation business when all of our summer guests cancelled during the spring of 2020. The silver lining of the pandemic was we found that it was much easier just to rent out cabins than offer guests a full-fledged...
Cooking in the West
I just love those helpful hint columns, books, and posts full of tips on how to remove every stain known to man or cure anything from warts to arthritis with a home remedy. Sometimes though, I have to question the effectiveness and efficiency of the...
Cooking in the West
I always dread when our kids ask us to babysit the grandpets, because it is more responsibility than I want to tackle at my age. I worry that one of the pets will get injured or worse yet--die on my watch. I am much less worried about keeping the...
Cooking in the West
I heard on the radio the other day that children get their intelligence from their mothers. That might explain what has happened to my brain. Perhaps I drained part of it for the first child and the rest for the second. I can almost buy that...
Cooking in the West
This week I am feeling particularly old. In the last two months I have officially become an old person with nothing to talk about but old people maladies. The first thing I came down with was a venous stasis dermatitis ulcer. (Yes Google the images...
Cooking in the West
The last of the Christmas cookies have been eaten, and I find myself thankful that it is coverall season, which is also bulky sweater season. If you cannot follow this line of reasoning, then you aren’t one of those people who gains weight every...
Cooking in the West
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter in late November to mid-December. Female reindeer retain their...
Cooking in the West
This is a tough time of year for working mothers. I know this, because I was one for 21 years. Now, both of my babies have long since left the nest, but I still remember the perpetual state of exhaustion that is the normal state of being for working...
Cooking in the West
“It takes a village to raise a child,” is is an Igbo and Yoruba proverb that exists in many different African languages, and we in rural America have borrowed the phrase. This proverb became reality in our village a couple weeks ago when my...
Cooking in the West
As another general season deer and elk season ends, many hunters are contemplating robbing a bank or at least a convenience store to make ends meet AND stay within the hunting budget their wives have given them. You see, phonier than any hunting or...
Cooking in the West
The best part of writing a weekly column is that readers love to help me out. This week I have Bobcat/Grizzly jokes as the cross-state football rivalry looms this Saturday. I am sure you will be able to tell that the jokes were sorted by a Bobcat...
Cooking in the West
This weekend is Veteran’s Day, and while war rages in the Ukraine, Israel, and fifteen other countries around the world according to Wikipedia, we honor the veterans of all wars. The World War II veterans are becoming fewer in number every day, so...
Cooking in the West
Parent teacher conferences are traditionally held after the first quarter of school ends, and I have to say they are one thing I didn’t really miss about teaching. Now, having returned to the classroom after 16 years off from parent teacher...
Cooking in the West
Since my faithful mare, Tinkerbelle, died, I have been looking for the perfect old lady’s horse. Actually I found him in Ekalaka, Montana, but I can’t wrap my head around the asking price. I have come to realize that the perfect bomb proof...
Cooking in the West
The long awaited general season rifle hunting season starts this week. It has been an important weekend for me ever since I was born into my parents’ outfitting business, and I have spent many years as a hunting camp cook, so I have always revered...
Cooking in the West
As I come to the realization that I am playing in the fourth quarter, my perspective on life has become more retrospective. I am rather baffled by the speed at which I arrived in the fourth quarter, and I am determined not to sit it out on the...
Cooking in the West
“Is your mom ok?” our Crazy Peak Boutique employee, Larissa, asked my daughter, Brooke, last Wednesday morning. “Define ok,” Brooke replied. In her defense, Brooke has lived almost 38 years of her life realizing that her mom is not exactly...
Cooking in the West
With gas and diesel prices through the roof and inflation hitting our wallets month after month, there are many people who are having to get creative about providing food and shelter for their families. Urban camping is now a thing in places like...
Cooking in the West
Fall is an anxious time of year on ranches, because pre-conditioning, weaning, and shipping are the dreaded days of the year when ranchwives are called upon to sort a lot of cattle with their husbands. It is my hypothesis that there are many...
Cooking in the West
Many readers commiserated with me in my pack rat war that I recently recounted, but to be honest, the pack rat war was not the most fierce battle I ever fought as a camp cook. Now, hunting camp cooking is ordinarily a delightful experience!In fact,...