Summer at the Duxbury house means time spent with family and cattle. See why this week’s Insider, Duxbury Beef, is not just a business, it’s a lifestyle…
I Love You…Especially When We’re Working Cattle
By Shannon Duxbury
For years, I’ve heard people talk about how hard it is to work cattle with their family.
They plan for family fallouts when it’s time to round up cattle. The Duxburys though…we don’t play that way.
Now, we certainly have disagreements, and it can be annoying when someone (not me) misses a cow through the chute, and we have to run her back intothe group. However, the days we got to work cattle with our siblings, cousins and friends were some of our favorite days of the year.
Birthday parties, pool parties, and days at the park were always fun as kids, but there was nothing better than spending a summer day working cattle with one another. We begrudgingly rolled out of bed to round up cattle but softened the blow with homemade caramel rolls and orange juice.
We doused ourselves in bug spray
(and still ended up covered in bites) but couldn’t stop smiling once we were covered in manure from pushing calves. We hung on tight when our horses took off to round up a loose pair but dove in like football players when itwas time to throw calves.
We worked hard, got messy, laughed like crazy, and indulged in an enormous meal made by our superheromoms when the day was over. After dinner, our dads dove into Euchre, and we climbed on haystacks, created forts in the wood pile, and embarked on adventures through the trees. Working cattle was more than gathering, sorting and vaccinating cows and calves.
It was camaraderie, laughter, and memories.
All of the “kids” are grown now, and it still makes us smile when we recall those memories all those days ago.
Now, a new generation has entered the chat. The kids have had kids, and it has brought a new joy to working cattle that we could have never imagined. Tiny people create big joy, and I think all businesses, no matter what kind, deserve to be injected with the joy that littles bring.
The ranch is 130 years old. Nobody can deny the history and legacy the ranch holds, but there is something about the viewpoint of a child that makes everything feel brand new.
It’s hard to imagine the roughhousing we did while we try to prevent all the ways a child could get hurt. Likewise, it’s hard to even define the feeling we had as kids as “joy” when we experience the most powerful happiness imaginable while watching little kids we love enjoy the ranch as much as we do.
The ranch was born again when littles stepped back on it. We were born again when we had littles join our family. We remember what it’s all for when we see the joy on a child’s face when they get on a horse or see a cow. It doesn’t have to be the first time. We hope it won’t be the last time. The beauty about kiddos is that every time feels brand new. It is our greatest joy to watch the next generation enjoy the ranch.
This is what Duxbury Beef is about.
The ranch is a part of our family.
Our cattle are apart of our family.
Every year, our family continues to grow with cattle and kiddos. Ranching is not our job, it is our lifestyle. Our cattle are not our coworkers, they are a part of our family.
We adore introducing our ranching lifestyle to the newest members of our family, and it is our sincere pleasure to introduce parts of our family to you.
If you’ve stayed to the end, thank you for reading the proudest part of our legacy. Thank you for staying to find out what is most important to our family. We hope you become an extension of our family through our beef.
Love is very important to the Duxburys, and we truly believe you’ll taste that when you eat Duxbury Beef.
From the Duxburys- the young, young at heart, and 4-legged variety. We love one another, especially when we work cattle. Thank you for being here.