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 Norris
& Suzie Albaugh are 5th generation “Albaugh Ranchers.” Their
story is quite interesting and unique. Norris & Suzie were in the same kindergarten class and even attended the same church and graduated high school together. While reading their story I was certain that I would learn that they were childhood sweethearts or they dated while in high school. Nope! Not the case here. A mutual friend introduced them introduced them nine years after high school graduation. The Albaugh’s were married three months prior to their tenth year class reunion! Norris and Suzie have three gorgeous children: Helen, age 7, Wilhelmina, age 4 and Waldo, age 1 year. The kids love working the cattle with daddy & papa when not helping out with other chores. Both Helen & Wilhelmina can tell you what each calf is and who it belongs to. They can also push calves through the chute. For this reason, the Albaughs’ love the gentle and docile nature of their native Shorthorn cattle. One never knows when one of the kids might be distracted by a pretty flower or get the urge to see just what that bug is up to! Suzie is a wife and mom. Before becoming a full-time mom, Suzie worked as a floral designer and has been know to satisfy the urge by assisting local florists when they get busy. Norris is a husband, a dad and a rancher but also volunteers his time as a Board Member of the Lahontan Conservation District, whose mission is to provide technical resource and educational services to people, groups, and agencies by identifying resource issues and creating programs and projects to address these issues. He loves to read and is especially fond of great western stories. Norris & Suzie taught Sunday School together for quite some time. They believed that children need both a male and female figure in the classroom, especially in the climate of today’s American family. They do miss teaching, but since the birth of Waldo they feel that God’s call on their lives is to be parents. The Albaughs run about 200 head of cattle, including 150 purebred Shorthorns and 50-60 head of commercial cows. “Most or all of our cows are at least 50 percent Shorthorn influence,” Norris says. The cow herd is run on about 400 acres of irrigated pasture. “We only get three to four inches of precipitation a year,” Norris notes. “So, we have very little non-irrigated land. We can flood the whole place in 48 hours.” The Albaughs love what they do and hope that someday their children will be the 6th generation to carry on the tradition of the purebred native Shorthorn cattle. From what I have learned in an incredibly short period of time, Norris & Suzie have nothing to be concerned about! Waldo, in the meantime, would do well to learn how to please his big sisters and keep them happy campers!  _______________________________________________________________________________________ 
Back in the
early 50s, LaVern had a Shorthorn heifer she wanted to enter in the
fair. She and her grandfather drove from Cottonwood, California
to Adin, California to ask Mr. J.E. Albaugh, Ron’s father, if he would
tote the heifer to the fair. Mr. Albaugh said “yes,” and that’s
where the saga of Ron and LaVern began. Seems only fitting that
this romance would begin with a Shorthorn cow! |
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