RanchHERs Penny Kasun and Dani Jeanne Lawrence are ranchers to the core, raising their kids on the rugged 7 Up Ranch near Prescott, Arizona. Together, these two close friends manage the daily grind of ranch life while teaching their children the values of hard work and resilience.
The 7-Up Ranch was homesteaded in the 1880s and is one of the oldest ranches in Yavapai County. The historic ranch is part of Camp Wood Cattle Company, which also includes The Kate and TT’s Ranch. This family of ranches spans 185,000 acres of rangeland and runs 1,200 cows, 1,000 stockers, and more than a dozen Quarter Horse broodmares and three studs.
Kathy and Swayze McCraine purchased the property in 1999. After her husband’s death, Kathy brought on KJ and Penny Katsun to help her run the ranch in 2010. Later, in 2017, Tyler and Dani Jeanne Lawrence moved to the property to help run the operation along with their three sons.
“Penny, Kathy, and I are pretty much the glue that holds everything together,” Dani says.
Kathy owns and takes care of the property. Dani teaches homeschooling for the kids, utilizing her degree in education, and runs the business side of the operation. Penny cares for the horses and keeps up the daily routine.
“We call ourselves a ranch family,” Dani explains. “Obviously, not family by blood, but everybody has a part, and their part is no less or more important than anybody else’s part. It’s vital to the overall operation. It just works.”
In this brand-new episode of RanchHER, which premieres tomorrow night, Janie and the crew join their family as they gather and brand cattle across the challenging terrain, showcasing how motherhood shapes the next generation of cowboys and cowgirls.
