Category: Cowgirl Voices
“Commuters”
- May 15th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 3 Comments
posted by Chelsea
Last week, while driving to pick up my husband from the shop where we were having our pick-up worked on, I was listening to the radio. I heard this statistic:
“Americans who commute more than 15 miles to work each day are 60% more likely to be obese than those who don’t have to commute”. They went on to say how driving leaves less time for exercise, and how people tend to eat in their vehicles, not to mention the stress of traffic, etc. etc.
I laughed. Then Buck jumped in the car with me and I patted his leg and told him the statistic- just giving him fair warning :-) He drives at least an hour, if not two, everyday to “work”… his office just looks a little different than those in the 60%, I’m sure. Our cows are out on summer range- a long way from anywhere. Packing salt, fixing and building fence, and riding/hiking in and out of the canyon doesn’t exactly pack on the pounds. His spray work is almost all deep in the canyons and he hikes with a tank full of water on his back. As far as the stress of “traffic” goes, it consists of a few ranchers, lots of deer, some cows on open range, and boulders in the dirt roads. Between hiking the canyons, working cows and calves,
keeping our “machinery” running, and starting the summer season he’s already lost 15 pounds, and that’s just been since we turned out cows, not even a month ago, when his “commute” started up again.
I suppose the statistic depends, in part, on what you do on the working-end of your commute. :-)
An Ode to Ranch Wives
- May 11th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 7 Comments
posted by Chelsea
An Ode to Ranch Wives.
Cleaners of all things brown, gooey and/or red.
Explainers of why animals are alive as well as dead.
Early risers and sack lunch makers.
Excellent branding med givers, photographers, and bakers.
Her husband’s right hand man
For jobs that are often more than she can stand ;-)
Lover of her man’s encouragement and praise
For all of her cattle-handling ways.
A gal with a grasp on reality
One quick to find a horse trailer when she needs to pee.
A ranch mom can catch and saddle a horse for her kid,
only to watch ‘em ride and be so glad for all the times she did.
She can ride, rope, and sort
Or she can stay home and build the best home-grown fort.
Dinner: she can make on a whim,
even when her schedule is filled to the brim.
She can work around a rancher’s time frame–
A task that should bring any ranchwife fortune and fame.
She understands a job that will take “an hour”–
something that ends up taking all day, and yet she does not sour.
A ranch gal knows that becoming a “ranchwife” doesn’t happen overnight,
And she learns quickly that it isn’t a job to be taken light.
She learns to take life in stride,
And her tolerance for problems grows increasingly wide.
So on this Mother’s Day and in life,
An ode to you- ranchwife.
You handle your fair share and put up with a lot
and as we all know- you are the best catch your husband has ever caught!
Windy Days
- May 7th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
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posted by Robyn
Yeah, I know it is now May and Summer is supposed to be on its way; it is just taking a while for me to get this post written. No excuses. Please forgive me :)
Even though the wind blows in my neck of the woods quite often, March is and was extremely windy. It roared in like a lion and roared out just the same or worse. Making it easier to worry about the baby calves being born.
With the mercury barely touching 45, if lucky, the howling wind made it feel -45. But the little guys seem to get up to nurse anyway.
Makes it hard to sleep at night but there were some of us who completely ignored the fact and slept no matter how hard the wind blew….
I thanked God in my prayers every morning that when I woke up the lid was still on my house!
Building A Loop
- May 1st, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 5 Comments
posted by Chelsea
While Charlotte is the queen of capturing the action shots, I seem to be more drawn, when I’m actually shooting, to the cowboy-close-ups. Like this one of my Buckaroo….
And this one of Luke…
And this one of the most photogenic person I’ve ever been around, Uncle Charley…
So, after a couple of brandings, I sorted through my pictures and found these loop building shots that all made me smile…
Truth be told, the mountains in the background, still covered with snow, made me smile, too…
Oh, and the sunny we were all enjoying, that made me smile, too…
A wonderful, glorious spring… and a few loop building cowboys…
…put a smile on my face.
I hope your spring is as fabulous as ours has been!
Week Two’s Top Ten
- April 23rd, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 1 Comment
by Charlotte
10. Cousins. (This is the first time my man’s horse had been roped on. His cousin is sitting beside him to help the young horse learn what is expected of him.)
9. Going down.
8. Friends.
7. Down the fence.
6. Heal Shot.
5. Floater.
4. Discussing.
3. Through the smoke.
2. Serious boy.
1. Couple of cuties.
Thanks for stopping by.
Been Branding
- April 17th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 1 Comment
posted by ann
Branding season has hit full stride in our neck of the woods. The boys have been to four brandings now, with several more on the docket. The two oldest kids have also been helping ranching friends work their cows, as well as help them turn out. I’ve had the opportunity to attend only one branding (so far) and have a few photos to share………
These first two photos are particularly exciting for me because my husband is riding my 6-year old mare at her FIRST branding! She did great…..
Next….Blaine getting some coaching from Dad……
(photo credit Heidi J.)
Whoa Cole!!! (Not sure what happened here….sometimes things can get pretty exciting in the branding pen!)
But, all’s well that ends well…..
(photo credit Heidi J.)
And of course, there’s always an audience of critics future ropers!
Branding Photoshoots
- April 13th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 3 Comments
by Charlotte
There are some things I really love about taking my camera to brandings.
1. This is how my husband usually looks in front of a camera.
This is how he looks at a branding.
2. I can really work on my timing. This is what my action shoots used to look like.
Umm… where’s the calf? What is going on – is my man even at a branding? Is that even my man? Could I get any farther away?
And now I manage to get a shot or two like this.
See how I have managed to catch the rope in action. (And there’s no doubt who that is roping.)
3. Where else would you get men shoulder to shoulder and happy about it? It is the perfect combination of work and play.
4. There is so much to pay attention to that I can develop my skills of being aware. For example, this shot . . .
I was just clicking away because it was a father/son working together shot (which you wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t told you because I cut the father’s head off – another thing to be aware of), but I just love how much action was captured. To me it catches the feeling of a branding much more than a shot like this. . .
5. I love coming home and seeing what I’ve got. It’s so hard to see what the photo is really going to look like on the tiny screen in the sun. But when I get home and see them on the computer monitor, I get a little rush at some of my gems.
(The man closest to us just started roping last year. He’s doing so good – - - for an engineer. hehehe Maybe there is hope for me after all.)
More Branding
- April 12th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 2 Comments
by Charlotte
Here are my top ten from the branding pen last week. Please keep in mind that one day I had to “help” and one day I forgot my camera, so these are mostly from two days.
10. Lots of action, but I cut the first person’s head off – oops.
9. In the briddle and knowing her job – Vanna.
8. This would mean more to you all if you could hear what they are saying to each other, but I still like the display of teamwork.
7. I like the pattern of the ropes. Three calves are at the fire.
6. There always has to be one of the kids. Look at my youngest’s expression; that’s his branding face. :)
5. My timing is getting better without the action setting. Yay for me.
4. Heel shot. All of my top tens need one of these.
3. Shaking out a loop.
2. Two friends working together.
1. (Of course it’s one of my man.)
I would like to mention that I do not like the new editing tools in flickr. Just saying. Any one know of some alternatives?
A Grandparent Weekend
- April 10th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
- 5 Comments
posted by Chelsea
Because of our lifestyle:
… we don’t leave town too often. And when we do it has to be exactly the right time of year for exactly the right length of time. We haven’t figured out what either of those are, but we’re pretty sure someday we’ll figure it out :-) Until then, our family and friends come here and jump into the fun with us.
That said, my folks were the lucky ones to come join our fun this last weekend…
… and I’d be lying if I said we didn’t ALL have fun. They brought the crib and changing table for the baby’s room. They brought dinner. They took us to dinner. They brought some much needed items from Costco- ie: cozy new athletic socks. They played with their grandkids. They did chores. They brought their own bedding- including sheets- so there was no extra laundry. They bought me a latte and shampoo. They pulled calves. They stained their clothes with cow-gunk. They did our dishes. They made us feel loved and adored… and then they left– leaving us with the unpleasant reminder that they live entirely too far away!
Nightlight
- April 6th, 2012
- Filed under: Cowgirl Voices
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posted by Robyn
A few weeks ago I wrote about an old cow we have. The story was titled “Ol’ Sally“…well, I’m going to write about her again. If she only knew!
We wintered dear old Sally ( if you don’t remember Sally is 14 this spring) and she made it through one more. We look for her every day when we feed and tell her hi and make up silly stories about her. Just the other morning we go down to the field where she is and low and behold!!!!!! Baby #13!!!
And there she is folks! Sally and her new baby heifer. Sue named her Nightlight. It is fun to watch them. You know we don’t loose them very often because they’re the only ones in the bunch who have big white faces. Way to go Sally!
