River + Ranch Magazine - Volume 6: Issue 4 August/September 2023

THE RANCH ISSUE

DON’T BE CONFUSED, DESIGN • NEW BUILD • REMODEL OUR HOMES ARE ANYTHING BUT PLAIN

RIVER + RANCH

MAGAZINE

Volume 6: Issue 4

River + Ranch Magazine is a collaborative effort to showcase the creativity and design of the West. The two publishers of Bismarck Magazine decided to embark on a new adventure and create a different magazine focusing on design, art, and western living.

Publishers

Hannah Haynes hannah@bismarck-magazine.com

Caroline Crary caroline@bismarck-magazine.com

RIVER + RANCH TEAM

Layout Editor

Copy Editor

Contributors

Cover Image

Advertising

Jenna Kluting

Jennifer Kranz

Maria Fleck

Melanie Sioux Photography

Caroline Crary caroline@bismarck-magazine.com

River + Ranch Magazine Corporation, Copyright 2018 River + Ranch and riverandranchmagazine.com. All rights reserved. This periodical cannot be reproduced without the written permission of River + Ranch Magazine. River + Ranch Magazine will not be held responsible for any errors found in the magazine. Bismarck Magazine Corporation accepts no liability for statements made by advertisers.

Hannah Haynes Publisher/Co-Founder

Jennifer Kranz Editor

Caroline Crary Publisher/Co-Founder Jenna Kluting Layout Editor

Karel Sovak Writer Maria Fleck Writer/Social Media Manager

The Ranch Issue

North Dakota is home to over 26,000 farmers and ranchers. These ranches and homesteads represent our state’s past, present, and future. From a 100 year old ranch to a beautiful new build, take a tour of these amazing ranches.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Melanie Sioux Photography

LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHERS

Grab your cowboy hats! We are headed to the ranch!

River + Ranch Magazine’s mission is to highlight and capture homes, art, culture and stories across the Missouri River and the ranches across the North Dakota plains and badlands. In this issue, we get to do just that.

This edition is so much more than showing off custom banisters or honey oak flooring. We get the privilege of telling you a story; stories of legacy, heritage and generations. Each page tells a story unique to the families’ land and home.

As you read along, you will get to see stunning terrain, majestic horses and livestock, and of course the heart of it all, the home. See how the ranchers of North Dakota live and the places they call home. From Golden Valley to Flasher to right outside Bismarck, you will be blown away by the differences in each one of these homes.

Each homeowner has a story. A story of the past, and how they’ve brought it to the present, and even what the next generation has planned for the future.

THE RANCH ISSUE

Nearly 90% of North Dakota’s land area — 39.1 million acres — is in farms and ranches. Ranchers have been settling here since the late 1800s with the development of the railroad and have continued this way of life ever since. While the look of those inital ranches has changed, the heart and devotion to ranching stays the same. This issue of River + Ranch will give you a glimpse into not only one of the oldest ranches in the state, but also into the modern spaces ranchers choose to live in today.

ASSEL HOME

The inspiration for this ranch home came from the owners’ longtime desire for a log cabin. “We always wanted a log cabin, but we didn’t want the maintenance and the upkeep,” explains Ronda Assel, one of the owners of this featured home. Instead, the Assels compromised, and decided to make their dream an everyday reality. They enlisted the help of Jason Frank, owner of Diversity Homes, to build them a new home. “Jason did an amazing job with my pencil drawing, modifying to make it as cabin-y as you could possibly do it.” Under Jason’s expert guidance, the Assel’s dream quickly became reality.

Just as important to the Assels as the design, was the location of the home. Ronda’s husband, Korey, grew up on this land, so staying on the land was very important to him and Ronda. “This is family land,” explains Ronda. “Our house is on three and a half acres, but my in-laws own the three hundred acres around us, and they live over the hill. Eventually, that will all be our land, so that’s why we built here.” The love Korey and Ronda have for the land appears to have been passed down to their children as well. “Our kids seem to want little chunks of Grandma and Grandpa’s land, so we think that someday they will probably all live here with their families. Or a couple of them at least,” says Ronda.

Because of the home’s distinct cabin-like style, it may surprise people to learn that it’s a Diversity Homes build. “Looking through the neighborhoods and seeing our homes, we have become known for a distinct look of contemporary and modern styles. Because of this, people don’t even realize a farmhouse or traditional style home as being one of ours. But we do way more style variations than one would think. You just don’t think “Diversity Homes” when you see them,” explains Jason. Despite the home’s style being different than his signature style, the Assels knew they could trust Jason with their new home. “We’ve known Jason for 30 plus years, so we always knew when we built it would be with him,” says Ronda. “This was out of his box, but he always figured it out. He did a great job.” The home itself is a testament to the flexibility and talent of Jason as a builder.

The home’s location is the exact same as where the Assel’s previous home had been situated. “We had a modular home here first,” explains Ronda, “so when we had decided we’d outgrown that, we sold it, moved it off, and built in the exact same spot.” Building on the exact same location created an interesting set of challenges for the Assels, including a unique living situation for the duration of the build. “We lived in a camper for the entire build in the front yard,” says Ronda. At the time of the build, the Assels still had two kids living at home and a dog. Thankfully, Jason built their home quickly, only taking four months from the groundbreaking to move-in.

Now, having lived in the home for ten years, Ronda’s favorite part of the house was not even in the original plans for the home. Ronda explains, “Originally, [the back living room wall], in the plan, was supposed to be a straight wall. When they were digging, my husband was here with Jason and the excavator. For some reason, he got this idea that he wanted it angled, so they went on the fly and changed the plan right there and then. Honestly, that’s like my favorite part of the house.” The angled wall only adds to the home’s cabin feel.

The home’s cabin influence is prominent and enhanced by the contrasting wood tones found in the home. “We had a friend who is a millworker, and he did all of our wood and all of our stair railings,” says Ronda. “We knew we wanted lighter tones to contrast with the black.” The exposed wood beams also bring a more rustic feel to the home.

The beams turned out to be one of the more challenging aspects of the build for Jason. He explains, “The homeowners insisted on a specific size for timbers. Finding the length and diameter in one big solid log was a bit challenging, but after a few phone calls, a little bit of luck, and a snowmobile trip to Bozeman, MT, we managed to make it happen. It looks amazing in pictures, but in-person it is even more impressive.” Jason’s extra attention to detail is one of the reasons the Assels were able to trust their dream home with him.

James A. Nelson, DDS

Kristin R. Schoch, DDS

Kourtney A. Grace, DMD

The mantel is another example of the rustic influences, but also of the creativity of the homeowners. “That was just a chunk of wood that was left over from something else, and my husband took a chainsaw to it and carved out the mantel. I went, okay sure, knock yourself out,” remembers Ronda, laughing.

Because the home was a true collaboration between homeowner and builder, the home has survived the test of many years lived within its walls, and Ronda says the home has been exactly what she hoped. “Honestly, if I did it again, I don’t know if I’d change anything,” she says. “I like everything. It turned out better than I envisioned.”

BURKE HOMESTEAD

For Celeste and Mike Burke, family is the reason they have been coming out to this land for years, the reason they now live on this land, and the reason for many of their design choices when planning their current home. “The land belonged to my mother’s side of the family when we farmed,” explains Mike. “We farmed this land before it went into CRP. My grandmother let me take control of the hunting on it, and I fell in love with hunting here. Both my boys got their first deer here. The last hunt that I got to take my father on before he passed was up here. So just good memories.” As the land has been in Mike’s family for years, it has always held special importance to Mike.

The decision to make the move to Mike’s family’s land did not actually start with a decision to move from their old home. Mike’s wife Celeste had always talked about buying a home in Arizona and spending the winters there. Mike recalls, “I’d just mentioned to her, ‘what do you think if once the boys are gone, we build a shop house out there. We make room for my stuff, and we can stay there in the summer and our horses can be there and then maybe you could have your place in Arizona when the time is right.’ I was talking about five years down the road from that because our youngest is now going to be a junior and somehow that turned into, ‘oh we should meet with Scott and Vicki of Hallmark Homes and start figuring out what we want.’ Then, somehow the shop house turned into a house, and then, we’re forgetting about the shop, but we have to build the shop too. It happened a little faster than I was anticipating.” While it may not have been exactly what Mike had in mind initially, the home turned out beautifully thanks to the direction of Scott and Vicki Moran, owners of Hallmark Homes.

In addition to wanting a shop and a place to keep their two horses, Mike and Celeste wanted to build a home that was conducive to hosting and would encourage more shared family time. “We thought a lot about how much Mike’s parents enjoyed family time and how we wanted this house to have different areas that we could do that as well, family meals and board games and cards, so we wanted a big open concept,” explains Celeste. Moving gave the Burkes a chance to start over, as their old house never allowed them to host large family events. “We basically avoided hosting because our place didn’t work,” explains Mike. Now, the Burkes have been able to host family gatherings comfortably since they moved in last July.

Building a new home also gave Mike and Celeste the chance to think through everything that they liked or disliked about their previous home. “We were in our first house for 21 years. We made a list of things that didn’t work for our family anymore and talked to Scott and Vicki and figured out ways to incorporate that into our new house,” describes Celeste. Thinking through these factors meant Celeste had a pretty clear vision of what she wanted. “Celeste kept describing different things she wanted, and Scott said, ‘Vicki go grab whatever plan.’ She brought it, and it was a house they’d built before that Celeste had been in when they had it on Parade of Homes. Celeste was like, ‘Vicki this is the house that when I was in it, I told you that this is my house!’” recalls Mike. From there, the Morans were able to tweak the design to better fit what Mike and Celeste wanted in their new home.

In addition to a new layout, a larger kitchen with more cupboard space was at the top of Celeste’s list, as well as a large closet. “My brother-in-law is an electrician, and in my old closet, I wanted a fancy light in there. He said it wasn’t to code. I told him that I was going to build a closet that I could build any light fixture I wanted in,” recalls Celeste, laughing. True to her word, the closet is now large enough for her light fixture. “Sometimes when I’m having a really bad day I hide in that closet,” says Celeste. “I love it.”

Beyond just in the closet, the light fixtures throughout the home are some of its most unique features. Vicki and Celeste worked together closely to choose the fixtures. Vicki describes, “Lighting should be a reflection of a homeowner’s personality and can sometimes tell a story. The goal here was rustic farmhouse with a little elegance sprinkled in. Mike and Celeste were so good to work with and open to ideas. Pretty yet practical is so important when doing lighting layouts, and we keep that in mind through the whole process.” Pretty yet practical perfectly describes the elegant light fixtures the two chose for the home.

Another huge change Celeste and Mike wanted was to make everything important accessible as they were thinking about living in the home as they got older. “When we were designing this house, we wanted everything on the main floor as we grew older, but we wanted a place for kids and grandkids to spend time and the upstairs accomplished that,” says Celeste. By thinking about the future, the Burkes ensured they could stay in this home for the long haul.

One of the most special parts of the home is the cabinet in the mudroom hallway. The cabinet is literally now a part of the home as it has been permanently affixed by Vicki and Scott during construction. “We wanted a spot to display things that reminded us of family members that had passed away, things they made or special memories, so we asked Scott and Vicki to help design a spot where we could display all those things, and they did a really good job,” says Celeste. Celeste found the cabinet, and together she and Mike filled it with mementos like pictures of grandparents, handmade dish towels, wood carvings, crockpots, and handmade quilts. Vicki and Scott knew when they were designing it, that the space would be special. “There are so many favorite areas in this home for us but at the top of the list would be the mud room which almost takes you back in time,” says Vicki.

Another striking aspect of the Burkes’ new home is the main floor office. “Vicki talked me into the blue in the office, to have the walls and the cabinets match,” says Celeste. “I wasn’t sure at first, but it really looks sharp.” Vicki says they knew the office would be utilized frequently and wanted to make sure it was a room Mike and Celeste would enjoy walking into. “Blue is considered to be the color of the mind according to color psychology,” explains Vicki. “Bringing a fun vibrant color into the office like blue stimulates the mind, increases productivity, and helps you stay focused.” The blue in the office harmonizes nicely with the rest of the house, as fun but more subtle shades of blue can be found throughout.

Both Mike and Celeste love their new home as it fits their current lifestyle much better than their old home, and living on the land of Mike’s family clearly means so much to the two of them. Vicki and Scott were grateful they were trusted with such an important project and enjoyed helping Mike and Celeste design and build on such an important place, something that makes all the hard work worth it.

LITTLE HEART RIVER LODGE

Sitting on family land, surrounded by trees and beautiful scenery, this featured log cabin fits in perfectly with its surroundings. “My husband wanted an authentic log cabin,” explains one of the owners. “It was a process,” she admits.

To build an authentic log cabin, the couple sourced the timber from someone in Amidon, ND. The couple also drew up the design themselves, and, with the help of their regular hired hands, they constructed much of the cabin themselves. “It was a lot more work than we thought it would be,” says one of the owners. At the end of the project, they enlisted Redford Signature Homes to install the roof and do some interior finishing work.

All the hard work has paid off now that their log cabin is complete. “My husband asked me, ‘why didn’t you talk me into this 20 years ago?’” says one of the owners. “He comes down every day. We have a lot of get-togethers here. It’s a really great, relaxing place to be.” Much of the home’s peace can be attributed to the natural beauty of the surrounding area. The home sits on 560 acres, right near the Little Heart River. The owner says she loves being out at the cabin when it rains because she can hear it pouring even when inside, and while it may be harder to traverse, the area is beautiful in the winter.

In addition to the land’s natural beauty, the owners chose to build a cabin on this land because it has been in their family since the 1950s. One of the owners recalls, “I remember coming down here when I was 8 or 10 years old. Back then, Dad had another four hundred acres across the road.” The current owner bought the land from his mother when his father passed away. Both the current owner and his father used the land for cattle grazing, but the 560 acres also provides a perfect place for hunting pheasants and deer. The cabin serves as the headquarters for the owners’ ranch rather than their home. “We talked about living down here a couple of years ago. We decided no because we would have to build on a master bedroom, a closet, because there’s really no closets, and we both decided it’s nice to be close to hospitals,” explains one of the owners. “Besides, it’s more fun not living here. It makes it more of a retreat.”

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While the owners do not live down at the cabin, they have filled the cabin with meaningful pieces to create a home away from home. The butcher block in the kitchen comes from a meat market one of the owner’s father’s owned and ran in Mandan for many years. The sign “Kist’s Fresh Meats Home Made Sausage” comes from that shop as well. The painted china cabinet comes from one of the owner’s mother’s homes after she died. “I just couldn’t let it go. I brought it down, and one day I came out here, and I thought, I have to paint that,” explains the owner. The floating shelves next to it displays meaningful memorabilia like the “Kist’s Fresh Meats Home Made Sausage.” The owner explains, “Everything up here is special to us somehow.”

The home also displays the owner’s love of art. An artist herself, she has done various art projects that have ended up on the walls of their cabin, including painting the antlers that hang above the bed. The owner’s son has also followed in his mother’s artistic footsteps as a professional photographer, and many of the photos hanging in the cabin are his work.

The cabin is an inviting place to be in with its warm wood tones, bold colors, and beautiful surrounding scenery, tucked away from busy cities. Truly a retreat, it is no wonder the owners spend so much of their time here, and it promises to remain a retreat for future generations.

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WOLFF RANCH

“This is one of the oldest ranches in the country,” says Shane Wolff, as he sits on his home’s front porch overlooking his beautiful land in Golden Valley, North Dakota. The Wolff’s ranch recently celebrated 101 years of operation. Shane Wolff is a third-generation cattle rancher whose love of the land is a continuous thread from the early 1900s to now in 2023. The Wolff family takes pride in their family’s long history of hard work in this part of the world.

Shane’s grandfather, Henry Wolff, was born December 18, 1895 in southern Russia to a family of farmers. In April of 1911, when Henry was only 15, he and his family, which included his two siblings, moved to America where they settled in Mercer County, near Golden Valley, ND. Henry worked as a hired hand for about six years before being drafted into the United States Army. After serving, Henry was discharged, and he returned to Mercer County where he began helping on his father’s farm. In November of 1920, he married Amalia Flemmer, and the couple settled on a farm eight miles southwest of Golden Valley, North Dakota.

The newly married couple lived on this farm for about two and a half years before buying land in 1922 that was previously owned by the Walker family. The Walker family had been the family in charge of running the post office known as the Broncho Flats Post Office which operated from 1904-1912. Broncho was a point of contact for all the homesteaders in the area and was the grounds for church services, Fourth of July celebrations, and a few other buildings, including a halter shop, the stone remains of which are on the Wolff’s land and have been preserved.

Henry and Amalia’s first home on the land burned down in 1933, and a new one was built shortly after. Henry’s only son, Armon, began taking over operations of the ranch at the age of 18, buying three sections of land. He married his wife Peggy in 1955 and together they ran the family ranch for around 60 years before Shane and Scott, their two sons, took over the majority of the ranching by the early 2010’s. Armon and Peggy lived in the 1933 home until 1981 when they moved into a newly built one. Their son Scott moved into the old home, first built by Henry and Amalia, where he continues to reside.

Together, Scott and Shane run the ranch as partners, taking care of the same land Henry and Amalia bought 101 years ago. “It’s a 50/50 deal with my brother Scott,” Shane explains. “Has been since we were kids. We’re called Wolff Brothers. He has half the land and I have half the land. His half will go to his son JD, and my half will go to my girls.” The two brothers are dedicated to excellence, and have proven they are willing to make sacrifices and hard choices when necessary to preserve the high standard that is their family’s legacy, which they have now come to expect of themselves.

Kourtney

James A. Nelson, DDS

Kristin R. Schoch, DDS

A. Grace, DMD

Shane and Scott’s higher expectations means every decision they make in their work is intentional, even if it’s not the easiest or trendiest. Even when it is difficult, the brothers never give up, like the generations before them. One of the major areas this plays out for them is the quality of cattle they purchase. Scott explains, “That’s where most of your profit is. Just knowing your business and knowing how to breed those cattle and buy excellent bulls. We’ve always done that. It’s a matter of opinion, but some people say we can’t afford to buy bulls like that, but I always tell my girls, you can’t afford not to. Because a poor cow eats just as much as a good cow and if you’re going to be doing this, you might as well be on top of the game and try hard.” And try hard is right. While the life the Wolff brothers and their families lead is a good one, it’s also a hard one. “Everyone says it’s a really good life. It is, but there’s a lot of hardships, too,” says Shane. “A lot of ups and downs financially and storms and you wonder why are we doing this. But pretty soon the grass gets greener, and you forget all about that.”

The land does not just have historical or sentimental value to the Wolffs but is the very difference between their success or failure as ranchers. “If you’re going to be a rancher, you need to be a steward to the land. If you’re good to that land, it’ll be good back to you. To me, I don’t think there’s anything more important,” Scott states. The Wolff’s land is a reflection of the high-quality work they put in, as the land has clearly been cared for and well-respected. Shane, Scott, and his family put countless hours into caring for the land and their cattle. “You put a lot of miles on. You’re always running and going, running and going, fixing fences and hauling cattle,” Shane describes. All that hard work pays off in the end for the Wolffs. “We have damn good cattle. In the fall, they’re fat and sassy, but a lot of that is due to really good grazing. They’re never shorted… this little area right in here has some of the better Angus cattle in the state almost. That’s what the cattle buyers have told us,” says Scott.

The Wolff’s success did not come overnight as Shane’s personal stories attest. When Shane was first dating his wife Marsha, they didn’t have much besides the land where they lived. “When Marsha and I were dating, we liked this spot. When we got married, we put a little house on the prairie here… At first we

didn’t even have a dollar,” describes Shane. “We just kind of got by. Had three little kids, and they kept us broker which is great, but then we got into a double wide in ’97. We just liked the spot and stayed here.” Recently, in 2020, Shane and Marsha were able to move into their current home, which was built on the exact same spot by Redford Signature Homes. “Marsha did all the planning,” says Shane. “She planned it foot by foot, changed a few things, did this and that, then Greg [owner of Redford Signature Homes] kind of fine-tuned it, and it turned out fantastic.” The home is a place of peace for the two of them and any of their guests fortunate enough to visit. When they have a moment of downtime in the evenings, Shane and Marsha love to sit on their backyard patio under a wooden beam in the shape of a ‘W,’ a testament to their family’s legacy.

As the stories of Shane and Scott, their families, and the previous generations all attest to, nothing in this life comes easy, but takes consistency and patience, and cattle ranching is no different. “It takes a long time,” says Scott. “It’s different than a job. Each day you get a little better at it, and you make a lot of mistakes, and after you get a few years on like we have now, then you can be a mentor to your kids… You really have to like the life to stay with it that long.” As Shane reminisces on what this life means to him, he returns to gratitude time after time, saying, “We’re just glad to have what we have.”

unique: being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.

Kris and Kevin, owners of this featured home, come from a long line of bee keeping. Kris’ grandfather was a commercial beekeeper, and every generation since, including Kris and her husband Kevin, have followed the same

Creative Wood Designs

story by Maria Fleck photos by Melanie Sioux Photography

path. Now their sons are continuing the family tradition, including their oldest Nick who now owns the family business. With a rich family history of bee keeping, it is no surprise Kris and Kevin wanted to incorporate a part of that history into their home. “We were trying to do something different, and no one puts bee

boxes in their house,” says Kris. Kris and Kevin took actual bee boxes that they use for their commercial beekeeping business, stamped with their business’ name, and with the help of Creative Wood Designs, turned them into truly custom bathroom cabinetry. Turning bee boxes into cabinetry proved

an interesting challenge for Mike Ness and his team at Creative Wood Designs. As the boxes were constructed for bee keeping, trying to figure out how to make a bee box fit as a drawer was a challenge. Ever a problem solver, Mike figured it out and was even able to make the drawers soft close.

The other extra challenge was making the bee boxes look distressed. “They gave me nice new bee boxes and wanted them scuffed up to look like they were used,” describes Mike. “They transport the bees across the country from here to California, so we were trying to get that wear and tear on them. Originally, we were distressing them the way you normally would. I texted them a picture, and they went, no that’s not quite it.” This lead to Mike employing a more unusual technique.

Danielle Kemmesat, Draftsman and Design Consultant at Creative Wood Designs, recalls,

“I went out in the shop that day to ask Mike a question, and he’s out there standing on the bee boxes on the concrete floor, and he’s skiing across the floor, twisting them. I’m like what in the world are you doing? ‘Oh, I’m distressing the bee boxes.’ What? I’ve never seen that technique before,” she says, laughing. The extra effort paid off, and the bathroom cabinetry looks amazing. The bee boxes fit seamlessly into the bathroom but are still clearly the focal point of the room.

The bee boxes are not the only thing Kris and Kevin repurposed in their home. For instance, they also repurposed old kitchen sinks as their master bathroom sinks and the current kitchen sink has also been repurposed from its original state. “We only bought one new sink in the whole house, and that one cracked already,” says Kevin. “But the one we got out of a horse pasture is A-okay.”

As always, the passion of Mike and his team at Creative Wood Designs is apparent in the finished product. An incredible amount of work and attention to detail went into this project. Even just getting all the cabinetry to match took a lot of patience. Through trial and error, the team was able to match the wood tones of the bee boxes and the surrounding cabinetry. The finished product speaks for itself in terms of Creative Wood Designs’ skill at creating a beautiful, unique, and meaningful product. “We love it,” says Kris. “It’s one of the coolest parts of the house.”

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