On October 19th, in one of my first posts titled “BACK TO 9 TO 5”, I wrote that I had started to sell on EBay various items I had left over from my studio. The first sale I made was of an Indian mannequin that was part of an installation that told about an Indian maiden, Pokerhontas, and how she was involved in the origin of Las Vegas as a gambling mecca. Here’s a photo of my installation.
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| HE'S THE ONE ON THE LEFT POKERHONTAS IS 3rd. FROM LEFT |
The buyer was Mimi Sidwell of the JX RANCH in Tucumcari, NM. I asked her to send me a photo of “Sisco Bob” (her new name for the mannequin) in his new home. I’m afraid she’s a better rancher than photographer - - - this is the photo she sent, but he looks happy enough.
I wanted to learn more about her ranch so I turned to Google and was fascinated by the story of her life. I learned that Mimi was born in Sweden, grew up horseback riding every day, while dreaming of being a ‘cowboy’ and riding the wide-open spaces of the West. While living and working abroad she had the opportunity to go on weeklong camp-out rides in Arizona's Monument Valley and Canyon de Chelly. Right then she knew where her heart had belonged all along. It was just a matter of time. In 1988 the opportunity presented itself to move to the U.S. It was not long before she found herself living on a ranch and learning everything from having hands on experiences fixing windmills, fences and pipelines, to caring for and working cattle, while also helping out day-working on other ranches.
She met Tom Sidwell in 1995, and in 1996 Mimi sold her farm in her homeland Sweden and purchased a 14,000-acre ranch in South Eastern New Mexico. Tom was still managing a 64,000-acre ranch an hour and a half away, so Mimi was alone on the new ranch for that first year. She took care of the 350 cows and calves, and bulls she and Tom had bought, moved them, fed them, fixed fences and repaired water pipeline leaks. Tom would come out on weekends when together they would install new pipelines and water troughs for the cattle.
In the fall of '96 they married, on horseback (of course!)
The following spring Tom moved to the ranch, and together they operated it until fall of 1998, when they sold it because of the then uncertainty of the future of public land grazing permits, and bought a ranch in the Pine Ridge area in the Panhandle of Nebraska.
They've been back in their beloved New Mexico since the spring of 2004 and together operate the JX Ranch, a 7,000-acres working cattle ranch and guest ranch, not a "dude ranch", located in northeastern New Mexico at an altitude ranging from 4,000 to 5,000 feet.
JX Ranch is owned and operated by the two of them. They have no hired wranglers, cook or other staff. About 160 Texas Longhorn cows and their Charolais-cross calves graze on this ranch. Every morning they ride out to check on the cattle, watch for new calves being born, or move them to new pastures when scheduled.
The calves never receive any antibiotics, hormones or insecticides, and are eventually sold as dry-aged, natural free-range beef to customers throughout the United States. During the summer months they take up to five guests at a time. (It sounds like the vacation of a lifetime).
I recommend you visit their website for a very interesting read about their ranch life and to purchase their steaks at: www.leannaturalbeef.com
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| MIMI AND TOM RIDE OFF INTO THE SUNSET TOGETHER |
Amazing Story! That's a hard act to follow.
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