Veeder: How could life get any better?

Contributed / Jessie Veeder By Jessie Veeder Today at 10:00 AM Listen Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? WATFORD CITY, N.D. — “I don’t know how my life could be any better than this.” I was riding my palomino next to my 8-year-old daughter on a beautiful and windy fall afternoon. Rosie had been pretty quiet all day, sort of hanging around the house, maybe a little bored, maybe a little tired, just an 8-year-old who’s been asking to go on a ride to the arena so she could run her cute little mare, Sparks, on the barrel pattern. ADVERTISEMENT I’d been promising this for a couple weekends, but something always seemed to come up — company through the door, cold weather, a meeting that ran late — but Rosie isn’t the kind of kid to forget what we said we were going to do. And she doesn’t like sitting around. And so finally we were given a nice Sunday afternoon where the two of us found ourselves riding side by side in the cool wind and the warm sun, silk scarves wrapped around our necks. Rosie was singing quietly to herself, satisfied that she got to lope her mare at long last. Contributed / Jessie Veeder “I love to ride out here when it’s quiet,” she told me. “You can hear the birds and just think.” I agreed, ready to add my own sentiment to hers, but she went on quickly. “We’re lucky. We have this place. Not many other kids get all this space," she said. "I tell all my friends about it at school. And we have a lizard and a hamster with horses and cows and all the kittens!” “Oh, I agree!” I added when she took a breath. “It’s why I wanted to raise my own family out here.” And that’s when she said the thing about her life being the best it could possibly be and my heart swelled to 10 times its size like The Grinch. ADVERTISEMENT I would have stayed on the backs of our two favorite horses on the trail between my parents’ house and ours together forever if I knew it could keep my youngest daughter and me in that moment where everyone we love is safe and sound and it’s an endless Sunday and she’s 8 and I’m her mother who’s young and healthy enough that I can take her riding to nowhere in particular, just so she can lope and sing. I’m writing these words late at night while lying in bed after a long couple days of rounding up our cattle for weaning. We just arrived home from the sale barn. The 2026 calves are sold now and we all celebrated with pizza and arcade games because we celebrated with pizza and arcade games four years ago, so now it’s a tradition. I took a picture of my dad sitting next to Rosie in the Jurassic Park Game in his cowboy hat and boots, shooting dinosaurs. And then one of my mom playing the fishing game with my niece, Emma. For the past few years this Pizza Ranch in Dickinson has become one of my favorite places on earth. Isn’t that funny? Sale day is a milestone for the ranch, but also for these kids who grow another foot taller, a little wiser to the way the world works, no longer toddlers in pink cowboy hats crying at the sale barn when they realized the calves weren’t coming back home with them. Contributed / Jessie Veeder Remember that? I’ll walk into that sale barn in Dickinson every year for the rest of my life and I will remember that. And I’ll also remember being that little girl sitting next to my dad drinking an orange pop from the café that still looks the same all these years later, only the people seem to be getting older. How dare they? This is our world; they can’t hold the handrail like that when they walk down those steep stairs for another cup of coffee. They used to be young enough that we didn’t have to worry … My oldest daughter is laying beside me. She’s reading this over my shoulder, wondering where she is in the story. “Right here,” I tell her, and pull my fingers through her long, damp hair. “And beating me in the arcade basketball game tonight.” ADVERTISEMENT Next year in the sale barn, at the Pizza Ranch, she’ll be almost 12. I close my eyes and I’m on the palomino next to Rosie. I close my eyes and we’re all just kids celebrating, relieved, trading the points we won at basketball for squishies and vampire teeth. I don’t know how life could get any better… READ MORE OF JESSIE'S COMING HOME COLUMNS Greetings from the ranch in western North Dakota and thank you so much for reading. If you're interested in more stories and reflections on rural living, its characters, heartbreaks, triumphs, absurdity and what it means to live, love and parent in the middle of nowhere, check out more of my Coming Home columns below. As always, I love to hear from you! Get in touch at [email protected]. Subscribers Only Lifestyle Veeder: Waiting for the cold "Yes, it’s November, and, just like us, the sun is slower to rise and faster to set," Jessie Veeder writes. Nov 6 · By Jessie Veeder Subscribers Only Lifestyle Veeder: All that glitters...is our entire house Jessie Veeder shares how a homemade Halloween costume-making party resulted in many sparkling things. Oct 30 · By Jessie Veeder Subscribers Only Lifestyle Veeder: A chill in the air means soup season is here Jessie Veeder shares recipes for her family's favorite soups. Oct 23 · By Jessie Veeder Subscribers Only Lifestyle Veeder: What makes us beautiful Jessie Veeder writes about her changing hair and the impossible standards of our society. Oct 16 · By Jessie Veeder Subscribers Only Lifestyle Veeder: Our kitchen table is so much more than that "My husband and I bought it after our oldest daughter was born, and we had ours built by Amish furniture makers with big family suppers in mind," Jessie Veeder writes. Oct 9 · By Jessie Veeder Subscribers Only Lifestyle Veeder: Lucky enough to have a list of what I love "What else do I love? What else? Let’s think about it now. Let’s make a list," Jessie Veeder writes. Oct 2 · By Jessie Veeder Comments Share Share this article Opinion Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the interpretation of facts and data. The Trust Project What is this? Tags Tags NORTH DAKOTA FAMILY SUBSCRIBERS ONLY By Jessie Veeder Jessie Veeder is a musician and writer living with her husband and daughters on a ranch near Watford City, N.D. She blogs at veederranch.com . Readers can reach her at [email protected] . Listen to this article Conversation ADVERTISEMENT What To Read Next Subscribers Only Lifestyle Briggs: The last WW I veteran 2d ago · By Tracy Briggs Lifestyle Female veterans find healing on Honor Flight 2d ago · By Danielle A. 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