Daughter of a pioneer gives up comfortable job for country life

Published: August 26, 2024

Daughter of a pioneer gives up comfortable job for country life – she loves it

By Movieguide® Contributor

After Paige Drummond, the daughter of pioneer Ree Drummond, found her corporate job in Texas too boring, she traded it for a full-time position on her parents' cattle ranch.

“When I was younger, I never thought I would ever work here on the ranch again. I had already written it off,” Paige, 24, explained in a video on her mother's blog. “When I was younger, I didn't enjoy it as much, but then as I got older and went to college and then started working full time, I realized how much I missed it and that I just wanted to come back here and try it out.”

“My dad said you don't have to stay here forever if you don't want to, but you'll never know if you like it if you don't like it. Just try it. So that's kind of what I'm doing right now. And so far it's been great.”

The Food Network star's daughter is the only girl working on the ranch, but this is nothing new for her.

“She can really keep up with the cowboys,” Ree said. “This isn't the first time she's learned it. She's grown up with it.”

“It's hands-on work,” Paige said. “It's physically demanding. It's tiring. You get kicked by cattle. I have bruises all over my legs. It's definitely something where you feel and see the physical strain.”

Although this part is not without challenges, she does not have to endure discrimination, for which she is grateful.

“Luckily, no one treats me any differently than anyone else,” Paige continued. “They don't expect me to take it easy, so I have to work just as hard as everyone else.”

“College didn't prepare me for this,” she told The Pioneer Woman Magazine. “But my childhood prepared me for this. I'm proud to be back.”

The hardest thing is getting up in the morning.

“This job involves doing that multiple times every day until 4 a.m. and then working 12 to 13 hours a day. It's pretty exhausting,” Paige said.

“I think a lot of people don't understand what it's really like,” she noted. “Ranch life is glamorized on television.”

On a typical workday, Paige wakes up at 3:30 a.m. She feeds the horses, saddles her horse, drives from Oklahoma to Kansas, and then takes care of the calves and gives them vaccinations.

“You see people riding and it looks wonderful,” Paige added. “If you could ride all day, every day, everyone would want that job.”

“But 90% of the time it's just hard, hard work. You get kicked, you get manure on, you fix fences, you handle livestock… it's a time-consuming, tiring – but rewarding – job.”

She and her siblings have often helped out on the ranch since childhood.

“He definitely wanted us to work,” she said in the video. “When we were kids, we worked quite a bit. We were also homeschooled, so we had a lot more opportunities to go out and work.”

“But I'm learning new things that I didn't do as a kid, like taking care of things myself that I wasn't responsible for when I was younger. So it's definitely a lot different.”

Paige says her younger brothers Bryce and Todd and perhaps her foster brother Jamar will be coming soon to help out on the ranch.

“They'll definitely be back,” she said of her brothers. “I'm looking forward to when they get older, finish college and come back here. It's just cool to be able to do something like this with the family.”

Ree added: “She actually lives in town, in what used to be my in-laws' house. So it's nice that we still have the house, we didn't sell it, and she's moved in and made it her own.”

Ree's in-laws, Nan and Chuck, died in 2018 and 2021 respectively.

“How long she'll stay or whether it'll just be a part of her life or forever, we don't really try to predict or think too far ahead about it,” Ree said.

Paige doesn't know if she'll stay forever or move on to other things, but for now, it's exactly what she needs.

“I could definitely see myself staying here,” she said. “I don't know, I'm not sure, but right now it's great.”

Movieguide® recently reported that Ree is now a grandmother:

Drummond's daughter Alex Drummond Scott and her husband Mauricio Scott are expecting their first child.

“Alex and Mauricio announced big news today and asked me to share it here with you as many of you have been reading my blog since my eldest was about nine,” Drummond wrote on her blog. “Rather than come out with the news right away, I think I'll let my perfect granddog George be the first to tell it. Check out his scarf…”

George wears a sage green bandana that says “big brother.”

And in other news, Paige got engaged to her boyfriend David Andersen on August 4.

“I get to marry the love of my life! How can this be true??” Paige said on Instagram. “God's greatest gift to me and my forever person. I love you David Andersen! I can't wait to be your wife!!! 🤍🕊️🫶🏼☺️”

Ree also shared photos from the engagement, saying, “Happiness is seeing your daughter happy! 😊❤️ Congratulations, David and Paige! (This is going to be fun!)”