Hi! I’m Shelly Nicolaysen and I live on a fourth-generation sheep and cattle ranch in central Wyoming with my husband, Kem, our three kids and two dogs.
Yes, I’m a vegetarian. It’s not a political or ethical thing; growing up my family ate vegetarian for religious reasons. I lost the religion but kept the food preferences, even in a house full of hard-core carnivores. I won’t tell you what to eat.
Before moving here in 2006, I’d been working on an MA in in Religious Studies and had no background in ranch life or agriculture. In those first years, I found all of this so alien and astonishing, from the chalky dust thirsty cows kick up while around the water well on a hot summer day, to a ewe licking her newborn lamb clean while snow falls around her.
I write about living, working and raising kids on a Wyoming ranch.
Vegetarian Ranchwife 