I LOVE THIS Cowboy

I love this man--cow poop and all!Yes, I'm talking about Terry and not my horse! Although I love Cowboy the horse too--just not as much as I do Terry!  Terry is such a hard worker, he can do ANYTHING, is considerate of others--especially me, loves his family--especially all 6 of those grandkids, is good with animals, makes a mean omelete, shows respect for the elderly, loves a good joke, finds the humor in most situations, and is an all around good guy. Even makes a great part time cowboy when needed! (Part time cowboys are needed in Peance Creek, Colorado EVERY year the last week of October to gather all those cows off the range and bring them back home to Utah!) Thanks hon for still making my heart flutter each and every day for the past 32 years. Cow poop looks good on you!

Colorado Sunsets

We just spent the last 9 days over in Peance Creek, Colorado gathering the cows from 29,000 acres of land. Yep, that's 29 thousand acres. The property is 27 miles long by 4 miles wide. It takes an hour (in a vehicle) to get from the bottom of the mountains to the top of the mountain range. It can make for some really looooong days--especially if you are on horseback. We LOVE this time of year tho. We love spending time with and working along side family to gather the cows and bring them back to Utah. I did a combination of horseback riding, riding my razor all over the country side, and driving our truck up and/or down the mountain to follow horse riders. It was a great time and believe it or not.......I can't wait to do it again! We had some rain, sunshine, warm days, cold mornings, freezing nights, and even some snow. The weather was soooo much nicer than in years past. The evenings provided us with some really breathtaking sunsets. My cows all made it back to Utah and am glad that part of owning cattle is behind us. Later in the month comes weaning calves, more vaccinations (we vaccinated the first round when we got them back to Utah on Wednesday),  checking to see what cows are pregnant, and deciding which cows go to market. Oh, the joys of owning cows......... My horse, Cowboy, did a great job herding and gathering cows--this was his first year with the cows. He wanted to be right in the thick of everything! Have to say that Terry looked really good sitting on Cowboy too! Just had to throw that in for the "ick" factor for my daughters! Love you, girls! By the way, I used my new chinks while in Colorado. I got lots of cow poop on them and even some horse poop so they are officially broke in!

Not to be Outdone!

I just couldn't let Terry be the only one to try his hand at leather work. I decided that I needed a pair of leather chinks (aka short chaps) for cow camp this year. The scrub oak is VERY tall over in Colorado and last year I tore a pair of jeans on it. Sooooo, I made my very own pair of chinks! It was harder than I thought but very fun and satisfying to get them J-U-S-T the way I wanted them. I saved myself many hundreds of dollars and get to claim bragging rights cuz they're made with my own two lil hands! Terry helped do some of the things that were really difficult but I did all the blinging stuff by myself. Even though my project was way smaller than building a WHOLE saddle, I think my sense of accomplishment was pretty near what Terry felt after 7 months of his project. I'm pleased as punch that they turned out so well. Terry thinks the cows will be scared off cuz of all the bling but I say--no bling is ever too much! What do you think? BTW, I threw a "Paisley" pose in for good measure. And don't worry, I'll actually wear cowboy boots with my new chinks and not bare feet! And I'll break the chinks in on the back of my horse! A HUGE Thank You goes to our friend, Tom--same guy that helped Terry build his saddle. Thanks for sharing your time, talents, and equipment, Tom! You're a handy guy to know!

Colorado Objects

These are a few of the objects that caught my attention at Cow Camp this year. Maybe it's the new camera. I see things a little differently through a camera lens. There are some really interesting things out there on those 28,000+ acres...

Why We Go to Colorado Each Fall

Here are a few pictures of the cows--the reason we travel so far (about 7 hours for us in Layton), spend a ton on groceries, spend a ton on gas to get there, spend a ton on propane trying to stay warm in our trailer, eat more food than we usually consume in a two week period of time in a mere 4-5 days, freeze our hineys off, put up with getting up each morning at 5 am, collapsing into bed each night at 11 pm, sit for hours on end in a truck during an almost blinding snow storm, put up with all the mud--in your truck, in your trailer, in your hair, EVERYWHERE!, play endless card games with the family, have absouletely NO privacy for any amount of time, pee on the mountain behind a horse trailer--or possibly IN the horse trailer when people are around, have it sooooo dang cold outside that the water all freezes up and you can't shower for 2-3 days, wear so dang many clothes to stay warm that you have to start 15 minutes before you actually need to pee to get down to bare skin!, eat yummy food, have great conversations with family, enjoy the outdoors, get to see your hunky hubby on a horse with some chaps on, see some REALLY magnificent scenery and feel blessed for where we live, eat dutch oven food, eat TONS of homemade cookies and meals, laugh with your mother-in-law and feel grateful that she is a part of your life, admire your father-in-law for all that he does for each and every person in our big ol' family and to see how cute he is with his wife of 55 plus years, to witness some really beautiful sunsets and if it's not your turn to cook breakfast you get to see the sunrises, have scripture study as an extended family and to do family prayer as a large group, to see how awesome some of your nephews are--love that Dustin!, these are but a few of the reasons we go to Colorado each fall and actually look forward to it all! Looking forward to next October already!

When You are in Charge of Two Seventy Five Year Olds...

One day at Cow Camp the weather had been bad so Grandpa and Grandma decided that they didn't want to drive so they hopped in my truck and demanded that I drive them up and down the mountainside. BTW, Grandma never did any driving while at Cow Camp--not sure why she thought this day might be different but she was very vocal about not wanting to drive this day. Anyway, we stopped on the mountainside to wait for Terry and Dustin to give them their lunches and this is what two seventy-five year olds start doing while waiting. I really thought I had been put in charge of two six year olds. They kept laughing and telling jokes and stories. They really enjoyed being with each other (IF they weren't asleep that is!) They are pretty cute senior citizens! Maybe I'm just partial to them!

The Job of Chauffer

While at Cow Camp this year, I got the job of chauffering Grandma Rae up and down the mountainside. She is one craaaazzzy lady so there was never a lack of laughter and good times and good conversation. I consider her one of my best friends in life and have to say that I REALLY enjoyed the job. On a side note tho, we would be in the middle of a conversation and she wouldn't respond so I'd look over and her lil ol head would just be bobbin and yep, she'd be sound asleep! Apparently I can be quite boring! The roads were snowpacked and had dropoffs on the sides so my eyes needed to stay on the road. I felt silly at times cuz I'd just be ramblin on about something only to find that Grandma had fallen asleep! Fun times! What a great lady she is even if she shows a small level of disrespect to conversators!

Introducing....

SHOWA! Here are some pics of Showa at Cow Camp this last week. She did great and helped Grandpa cover a lot of ground looking for cows. She didn't mind the snow and the mud. She loves carrots and apples. She doesn't like dogs--oops!--not a good thing in this family of dog lovers!! She liked being in Colorado and likes Utah even better. Today she meets Gunn, Uncle Jared's horse, as she comes back from Colorado to Utah to live in Ioka. She is a VERY tall horse and is very gentle and easy going. She doesn't like to have her neck petted and patted in anyway but otherwise likes her nose scratched. Thanks for the name, B. It's a good one and will serve her well. Welcome to the fam, Showa!