Almost Gypsy Soul

When I moved here 9 years ago, I quickly realized I was amidst avid fans who love their Cowboys. and I mean LOVE! Being a Cowboy, of a different color (Go OSU Pokes!), I can appreciate enthusiasm, but I still said that my favorite activity was watching Wyoming football fans watch Wyoming football. I'd been somewhat unplugged for a few days when UW rolled out the new marketing campaign complete with a new slogan, which when I heard it said....YES! The World Needs More Cowboys! I instantly loved it. In my 9 Wyoming years, I've been to a couple football games and I even jumped out of my seat and cheered a few times! For those of you who know me, know that I'm not a huge sports watcher and therefore, don't even call myself a fan. But this UW gig is starting to grow on me. When I started reading the comments and complaints (which there was plenty because I'd been unplugged while this unraveled), I was speechless. I mean seriously.....the new slogan is racist and sexi...

I am nearly at a loss for words here folks. After watching a FOX News video about the protest going on where college kids are demanding free tuition and student loan forgiveness, I'm at a loss. At what point did we become a nation of entitled, spoiled brats? Now I have my own ideas about how and when this came about, but really when? how? why? I feel strongly about the way I was raised . Hell I didn't even know we were in poverty growing up until just a few years ago. I was raised to make my own decisions and own the consequences of those decisions. Anyway back to the actual free college and student loan forgiveness. As such, I took a few concurrent college/high school classes while I was in high school. If I earned good grades, those credit hours were paid for by my high school. I then chose to go to a small 4 year college on an academic and basketball scholarship. I worked my ass off to earn grades that allowed me to keep that scholarship for 4 years of undergraduate study....

I know people that have kiddos have undergone some huge life changes, and they probably see the world in a different light than those of us who are still without kids....or even a different light than before they had kids. I've heard and read many things that say us (without kids) just don't understand since we don't' have kids.....we don't know what its like and don't offer parenting advice. Well I'm going to offer some parenting advice even though you told me not to. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE teach your kids 1. how to write, with a pencil and paper using correct  grammar and sentences 2. how to count change, as in back to someone who has purchased something from them 3. how to tell time on an analog clock 4. how to take pride in tasks they set out to accomplish 5. speaking, face-to-face communication with eye contact and a strong voice that can be heard 6. work ethic, how to work hard to earn something that they want and that it may take time to ge...

I get a little angry when people talk about the "wild horse" herds that are roaming around my area and how the ranchers are simply trying to keep all the grass for their livestock in order become extremely wealthy on the back of America. But today was a real win for a lot of folks....of both the 2 legged and 4 legged kind. The U.S. 10th Circuit Court upheld earlier court's decision to manage wild horse herds in southwest Wyoming. Yes, this was brought about by a lawsuit originally filed by the Rock Springs Grazing Association (RSGA). RSGA is a large private landowner in an area known as the "the checkerboard" which is alternating sections of deeded and federal lands, most of which is unfenced and managed by the BLM. RSGA won this lawsuit and BLM was ordered to remove horses from the range, due to an emergency injunction filed by wild horse advocates the gathers were brought to a halt. The way has now been cleared for BLM to remove approximately 800 horses f...

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is charged with managing public lands for multiple use which includes the management of "wild" horse herds. When I wrote my original post in response to a news story that was ran by NBC News, I decided that in order to further educate myself, as I encouraged all my readers to do, I needed to attend a wild horse gather. And I did just that. Last week I attended the Salt Wells Herd Management Area (HMA) gather, where BLM estimated that approximately 150 head would be removed from the range. Throughout the entire month of gather, an expected 700 head would be removed. This sounds like alot right? Consider that this covers an area that is nearly 2.5 million acres and 700 head isn't all that much. I'll be honest, the gather was pretty much what I expected and not all that exciting. We were a good mile away from the trap and we waited for a long time before horses started coming in. The ran pretty far from us and there were no incidents...

**Spoiler Alert** I'm about to throw a temper tantrum. If you don't want to read something negative, stop now **Spoiler Alert** Debbie Downer, Negative Nancy, Pessimistic Patty, Whiney Wendy.....I hate them all however, I've become them all lately. The stress, the uncertainty, the lack of motivation, the lack of feeling of  purpose....its all piling up and I'm not really sure what to do to handle it.....How to get back to my old self....one that I like much more than the person I have become. I want to go to work and feel productive, I want to go to work and do something....ACTION, help me here people. I want to enjoy life. I want to live life to the fullest, I want to feel a purpose. When the government shut-down on October 1, I was sent home. No work, no paycheck, no contact with my ranchers (interestingly the latter has been the hardest part, I never realized just how much I enjoy talking to these guys each week). Here we are into the third week of furlough and i...

I really wanted to leave this 5-part series, "The Dirty Game" published by SI, alone, really I did but Part 5: The Fallout sent me reeling, flying off the handle if you will. I wanted to leave this story alone because I am an OSU Alum and I am proud to be a product of Cowboy Country and therefore some may think that my opinion is biased. Yes, I am proud to be a Cowboy. No, I am not a die hard football fan. gasp. In fact, most of the names in this "story" I didn't even really know who they were, but that does not change my opinion of the final part, The Fallout. I'm not going to discuss my thoughts on the first 4 parts, The Money, The Academics, The Drugs, The Sex because I do not think that a legit investigation has been completed yet. There were definitely not enough facts presented by Mr. Dohrmann and Mr. Evans to convince me that the OSU Football program was, beyond a reasonable doubt, guilty of the accusations. Now I will say this, I'll be dis...

When I was growing up I thought I had it so bad. I had chores, I had a summer job, I got spanked, I got grounded, I was responsible for my own checking account. The older I got the more I realized how thankful I am for the "rough childhood" I had. My parents taught me responsibility, integrity and that there ARE consequences for my actions. This week I spent a fair amount of time at the National High School Finals Rodeo that is held here in Rock Springs where there is somewhere around 6,000 high school kids here from all over the U.S., Canada and Australia competing in 10 days of high school rodeo. A few days ago, I was sitting outside the NRS trailers talking with Chance and a mother and her 7ish year old screamed by. The mother was dragging the little boy by while he was screaming and crying "I want that rope." As they made their way in front of us, he grabbed her arm, shoved it in his mouth and proceeded to bite her as hard as he could. She threatened that ...

I'll preface this post with I don't have kids of my own (I don't want to lose any readers!) so in my expert opinion......here we go. As I'm out and about, I've noticed that little kids all have their own cell phone, Ipad (I mean seriously they took the book Goodnight Moon and turned it into Goodnight Ipad ), Ipod, Gameboy (whatever the new ones are called, I realize that Gameboy is so yesterday) and various other devices that require some sort of charging cord. Along with packing these items around, it seems that many kiddos also pack around the opinion that they have to have these items and their parents owe it to them to spend the money so that they might carry them to school each day. I have even offered the advice to one of my ranchers "If you have trouble, just ask one of your grandkids to send me the email from your Iphone." Last week, a friend from back home posted this video of the reveal of her daughter's birthday gift from Mom and Dad. ...

First things first.... .Click here to read the article by NBC News. Then remember that I now call an area that is approximately 70% public lands home. Yes, there is livestock grazing. Yes, there is recreation (4 wheeling, hiking, hunting etc) Yes, there are "wild" horses. After reading this article I was extremely saddened by the misconceptions held by so many. A few comments and thoughts from yours truly on the actual article (some are directly from the comment that I posted to NBCs site) and the comments that I took some time to read....which fueled me to make my own account on NBC News so that I could post comments....something that I never do! "Stallions and mare, beautiful and strong, guiding their young" The wild horses are thought of as "beautiful and strong" and an icon of the American West.   If we look at the definition of the very term....maybe the tens of thousands of horses that we have aren't really wild at all, but ...

A controversial subject to be sure. Sure they are neat, wild animals, cool to see (maybe I don't know I've never seen one in the wild, but I wonder have they seen me?) You've all heard it, they were here first, they are so beautiful etc etc. They sound so precious....an integral part of preserving the American West.....but how costly are they? Table 1. Total wolf mortality in WY from 2003 through September 30, 2012. Cause of Mortality 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012  Total Control                    18     29    ...