Have a Little Javelina in Ya? A friend of mine runs a thousand head of hogs down in the hills of California. These animals roam wild on the fenced mountain terrain. They root out acorns and other tasty morsels, as well as break into a cornfield now and then. We drove his pickup into a […]
Archive | All Things Western
Jamboree Defined & Podcast
Let’s Have a Jamboree! Speaking some words brings just about as much fun as singing a song. Take the word, jamboree, for instance. There’s something musical about its sound. The syllables roll and dance off your tongue. It comes to life before your eyes. Not exclusively a western word, normally it means a carnival, feast, gala […]
Chuck Wagon Shade & podcast
Hunkered Under the Old Chuck Wagon For those who live in forests or among trees, it’s hard to imagine what it’s like to hunt for shade. We spend the better part of the year searching for sunlight. But in the Old West chuck wagon days, plenty of times cowboys longed for respite. Out on the […]
Which Way Your Stick Floats & Podcast
A Mountain Man’s Floating Stick A fella in Grandview, Washington wrote to me. He could remember his grandfather often saying, “Well, if that’s the way your stick floats.” So, this old boy wanted to know what that meant. Not sure if this was a westernism, I kept scratching and clawing around until I found it. […]
Mount the Horse Right & Podcast
Which Side to Mount the Horse? In 1976 a revolutionary thing happened in the rodeo event called calf roping. A 21-year-old cowboy named Roy Cooper jumped off the right side of his horse. He then ran down the rope and flanked and tied the calf faster than anyone had before. To those who watch rodeo […]
Shoot Through the Water Barrel
Water Barrel Cowards Some of the most colorful phrases coming from the Old West were localized in geography and era. They’re totally meaningless today. One of my favorite taunts, “I’ll shoot through the barrel and drown you.” This strange sounding epigram called someone a water barrel coward. Used in the right crowd, it guaranteed a […]
View From the Barn – Cowboy Christmas Poetry
VIEW FROM THE BARN, Cowboy Christmas Poem by Stephen Bly I’m a peaceful man by nature, hopin’ all things settle down. Never one to pitch a fit, play the fool, or act the clown. I like a muffler on my tractor, and horses that seldom buck; children that behave themselves and chickens that don’t cluck. I like […]
The Lord’s Backyard Christmas Cowboy Poetry
Christmas Cowboy Poem “The Lord’s Backyard” The stars look closer the higher you ride, ‘specially on a clear, winter night. And the moon glow reflectin’ off new fallin’ snow casts a peaceful, other-worldly light. When the wind quits blowin’ and the temperature drops, and the twinklies blanket the sky. They’re lulled by the rhythm of the snow-crunching hooves […]
Roper Honda Wisdom
Ever Seen A Roper Honda? Hondas existed in America long before the importing of Japanese cars. In fact, we had them before the invented automobiles. To an old-time cowboy, a honda was a knotted or spliced eyelet at the end of a rope and used to make or build a loop. Sometimes it was a […]
Home Station
Virginia Dale, Colorado Home Station I drove through Virginia Dale, located near the Wyoming and Colorado border. It’s about halfway between Fort Collins and Laramie. I intended to stop and look it over. However, a blizzard kicked up quite a fuss, so I kept driving. Virginia Dale was a home station on the old stage route. […]
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