2014 Kathryn Boyd-Batstone – “Family Ranch” These photographs are copyright Kathryn Boyd-Batstone and are used here by permission. They may not be used elsewhere without her permission. The Triangle 5 logo, based on the five generations of Millican homesteaders who have worked the land, frames the entryway onto Sherry Millican’s land. Sherry’s only son, Curran Manzer, now lives on the homestead with his wife, Michelle. After moving back to his ancestor’s land to help care for his grandmother, he decided to start his own taxidermy business and operate out of his grandfather’s old shop. Sherry spends most of her breaks drinking a soda in her son’s shop. The family gathers in the kitchen for their traditional Sunday dinner night. Millican and Richey work on maintaining the homestead while Curran Manzer, Sherry’s son, works at his taxidermy business and his wife Michelle tends to her geese and ducks. “The ranch is a living, breathing entity,” says Richey, Sherry Millican husband. “It’s no different than a sibling, or your son or daughter, and you have to take care of it. It just doesn’t take care of itself.” Sherry and Richey follow in Sherry’s ancestor’s footsteps by preserving the original buildings, raising goats and horses and growing their own hay. Sherry Millican and her husband Todd Richey stop for a short break to chat about the farm. After 18 years of marriage they have learned how to live and work on the ranch. Bob Reno, a local farrier and fellow rancher, shaves down horseshoe nails while Sherry Millican watches. In order to sustain their traditional ranching lifestyle, the Millican’s offer trail rides, logging trees and renting out a portion of the land to various agricultural companies, but the fate of the future of ranch is still unknown. Though they are in their 60s, the couple continues to wake up every morning and care for their animals, just as generations of Millicans have done before them. Millican takes a moment to listen to the grain blow in the wind, a sound that has always calmed here. In the face of the many changes that come their way, Millican and Richey focus on preserving the land they love and doing what the Millican ancestors did before them: taking care of the animals, cultivating the land, and waking up to do it all over again.
