A love note to Betty Lou

Any rancher will tell you that cows have no great respect for excuse or circumstance. In times of joy or grief, hardship or plenty, celebration or sadness, one aspect of ranch life remains universal – come hell or high water, the cows still need to be fed.

Katie and Tel Menard are as familiar as any with this reality of ranching life. The grandchildren of local ranchers Gerald and Betty Lou Fleming, the adult siblings work together daily to winter 400-plus head of cattle northwest of town, using two tractors to feed round bales in fields worked by three generations of their family.

Alongside her husband Gerald, Fleming family matriarch Betty Lou was a steward of the ranching operation, formerly known as the Jacobson ranch, for upwards of four decades. This year, Christmas Eve marked the first anniversary of her passing, and the Menards took the opportunity to remember their Grandmother in a way she would have appreciated – a whimsical Christmas wish spelled out in hay and cattle.

Gerald and Betty Lou Fleming first came to Lincoln from the Helmville area in 1965, hiring on with the Jacobson ranch outside of town. After 25 years spent and four children raised on the place, the Flemings eventually purchased the ranch from the Jacobson estate in 1990 and remained on the property for the remainder of their lives, operating it with the help of their son Leo Fleming, who now ranches near Ronan.

Now owned by Rick and Mary Sampson, the old Fleming ranch now employs two of the Flemings’ grandchildren. Granddaughter Katie resides in the ranch house, built in 1922, while Tel Menard and his family operate from the adjoining Grosfield ranch, also owned by the Sampsons.

Katie, who helped out on the ranch as a teen, returned to the property after the sale to the Sampsons, residing there alongside Betty Lou, who remained in her home until her passing last year. Katie said the inspiration to feed in a specific pattern visible from the sky was Tel’s, but she and their other siblings, Tahne and Klint, contributed to the design.

“Tel just said ‘why don’t we feed in a shape’,” said Katie. “So, they did the Christmas tree, and I did the ‘heart you’, and it was Christmas Eve, which was a year ago to the day that Grandma passed away, so we thought we’d just do a little something for her.”

An aerial photograph taken by Tel via drone garnered an enthusiastic response from friends and family when shared on social media.

“Wonderful, I bet it brought smiles to their faces,” their aunt Kris Fleming commented on the photo posted to Katie’s Facebook.

“I think that she would say it was one of the best presents ever,” Linda Menard, the siblings’ mother and daughter of Betty Lou, told the BVD. “I am so proud of them that they did such a beautiful tribute to Mom. I know that she and dad were smiling down from Heaven in awe.”

“You really don’t stop thinking about them,” Katie said of her grandparents. “Every day, I guess, it just comes up.”