Ponytail by Ree

I snapped this photo of Paige a couple of weeks ago, and it’s going to be the final photo at the end of my cookbook since I love it so much. And it’s not about the quality of the photo (lest you think I’m patting myself on my freckly back), but what it says. My girls have grown up on this ranch, and while they’re distinctly feminine, they’ve gotten to experience a working world in which there is nary a distinction between girls and boys. It’s easy to imagine that an agriculture environment such as a cattle ranch could easily slip into grooves of “boys do this” and “girls do that”, but that isn’t the way it is here. I’m sure my girls sometimes wish it was. Ha.

I laugh, too, at the different ways this gender equality is reinforced on the ranch. From Marlboro Man and his brother, Tim’s, perspective, it’s pretty simple: This is a family ranch, the kids are part of the family, and everyone pitches in equally whether they’re male or female. And it isn’t even that it comes up in their thinking—all the kids work. That’s it. They’re progressive, in a beautifully practical, natural sense.

But from Bryce, Todd, and their cousin Caleb’s perspective, it’s a little different: There is no way in hayull they would stand for getting up at 4:00 am to ship cattle, haul hay, wean calves, and move cattle day after day in the hot summer if they thought the girls weren’t going to have to do it, too. There would be a revolt of epic proportions. It simply wouldn’t fly.

And from Alex, Paige, and their cousin Halle’s perspective? Well, they’d have way too much pride to be given a pass because they’re girls, if such a pass ever even existed.

I make these observations as I am getting ready to put a roast in the slow cooker, by the way. (Another ha.)