Some of my Favorite Things...

The smell of your saddle pad after a long days ride

George Jones singing through your pick up speakers

A fresh haircut

Flowers on your kitchen counter

Gain Laundry detergent

Picking pieces of sagebrush, to keep in your pocket

Looking for arrowheads after a wind storm

Gun powder

Fleece blankets and sweat pants curled up on the couch

Tortillas and butter

Big Turquoise necklaces paired with pearls

High Fives and good shots

A firm handshake

Jokes…that I understand

Draft Beer and a good band

Cash in your pocket

Black smoke coming out of your exhaust…I gotta let the cob webs out sometimes

New jeans

Following a blood trail

Coffee with too much creamer

Archery Elk Hunting

.270 Short Mag

What We've Been Doing...

Kody married a freak

The meat pole

My first time guiding an archery elk hunter

My second time guiding an archery elk hunter!

We caught these guys napping...

I start hunting again on the 14th! Wish me all the luck in the world!

~Wyoming Wife

A Bronc Ride

Kody drew a horse named Sarcee Trail, a bronc he had never been on.  He made a few phone calls to some buddies of his to see how much rein to give the horse, but they had never been on her either. 

The whole day, I was nervous for the ranch rodeo.  I always love when Kody rides bucking horse, but on that day I wasn’t really excited…I think I told him behind the chute that he didn’t have to get on…he looked at me like I was a freak. 

In a nutshell here is what happened.

The horse reared up as and turned around in the chute.  I did really well for being within 5 feet of my husband being tossed around.  I felt a little helpless, but I knew he would be alright...I was talking with God. 
They couldn't get the horse turned back around, so they gave him another horse.  He didn't get it covered, but you can't ride them all.

Thank you Wyoming Ranch Life Images and More for the great pictures!

You can find them on Facebook or their website at http://www.wyomingranchlife.com/

Until Next Time,

Wyoming Wife

My Brother Who I Still Think Is Three...

This is Little Cody…he got the name little Cody since Big Kody (My Kody) came into the picture, before that he was Cody Bear or Baby brother. He grew up…and it upsets me.
I was talking to someone the other day and I was telling them about my little brother Cody who is 8...I stopped and said, “Oh my goodness, he is 10.” Then I had to tell them if I think he is still a little boy maybe he will stay that way forever.
We are about 12 years apart, I’m his big sister, if he wants a soda pop, candy bar or ten bucks to buy a toy he knows I will give it to him…but we never take advantage of each other.
Were identical in the sense of our personalities. He is my buddy, my friend and the best secret keeper.
Cody always gives me a hug when he sees me, even if it’s in public. He still thinks it’s cool to hang out with big sis.
One time we went out of town for the weekend, Kody, Cody, My brother Troyboy and myself. We picked Little Cody up from school…he was wearing all camo as if he just got out of the tree stand. He looked at me and said, “ I knew you were going to like my clothes.” …he refused to change out of it all weekend. And for Cody being Cody…that is why I love him.
Here are some of my favorite pictures of little Cody….the best little little little brother anyone could ever ask for. I only say little 3 times because I have 2 other little brothers.
　

Love you Little Cody! 　

Photos courtesy of my Mama

A Final Farewell

Last Christmas my family got a very unexpected, dreadful phone call. Our Uncle had passed away at the age of 43 while lying on the couch taking a nap. Uncle David Christian Barrett was my Moms only brother and my Grandparents only son. My Mom and Grandma left on the next flight out to comfort my Aunt Lori and mourn over the loss of a beloved person. My Dad and Grandpa left the same morning, but driving with all the kids. I was unable to go….but I terribly wanted too.

A grave site service was planned for the month of July and we as a family could comfort each other, because there is no better comfort than a family coming together for each other during such a desperate time. 7 Months after the loss of my Uncle, we were able to start laughing and telling stories instead of being numb.
The grave stone had been placed in the ground, my aunt sang a beautiful song, while a few people stood up and reminisced of a life taken too soon.

　
We had a picnic in the park and visited with family we hadn’t seen for years.  And we wished my baby brother Cody a Happy Birthday.

　
I’m really not sure why all of us kids end up wrestling at family gatherings…if you come from a wrestling family you would understand. I guess we will just have to face it, all of us together cannot take Troyboy down...he is an animal. 

　
　
　
Later that evening we wanted to send my uncle out with a bang, just as he would want us to do. We lit hundreds of fireworks in a residential area. It was fun, and everyone made it through the night with all their eyebrows intact. We danced on the side walk while the little kids stood in amazement of all the sparkling lights.

We had fun, just like Uncle David would have wanted us too. 

A Year With Your Lifelong Friend

On December 12, 1986 a little cowboy was born. The youngest of 3 kids, the only son and his parents pride and joy. They named him Kody.
3 years 3 months and 17 days later a little girl was born. The first child of 5, born to a loving mother and a cowboy dad, they named her Jordan. The parents of these kids were in different stages of their life, different generations and miles and miles apart.
The kids weren’t raised down the road from each other. They were separated by a few rivers, state lines, zip codes, highways and never knew who each other were. I was happy with where I was living close to my grandparents with a pony, a playhouse, tire swing and sitting on the back porch with mom watching Dad ride outside horses for people. I never knew anything different.
Kody was raised with Hancock horses, BB guns, 22 mags and trapping coyotes and bobcats in the winter. I always thought snow was something that you went to visit in the mountains, and the only thing I knew about winter was not to eat yellow snow.
I was a big sister 4 times over and Kody was the baby. He was the rambunctious kid, the wild one without a care in the world. I was the one that loved holding my baby brothers hand as we crossed the road and making sure his helmet was buckled correctly when he set off on his dirt bike.
I was 13 when we moved, crossing the rivers and state lines to get to our new home. We moved to Wyoming where winter is real and people own snow boots and Carrhart coats.
I knew Kody through mutual friends, but we didn’t start dating until I was 18. We would go camping, hunting and shooting. I loved Kody from our first date and my mom thought I was crazy when I told her that. She was just looking out for her baby girl, and she knew all about cowboys. My mom knows everything.
Our wedding date was set in a very remote place far from town with the mountains surrounding us in every direction. It was a beautiful day, I married my cowboy.
As our first year of marriage has come and gone there are so many things I have learned being a Wyoming Wife. I always have a pair of boots in the truck because this California girl has gotta have her flip flops. I’ve gained some sort of uncanny self-reliance being married, if I have to start off walking out a lion track with a few dogs while Kody is with the hunter, I’m alright with that.
I learned that sometimes you just have to put all your might and muscle into a gate that has given you fits every time you try and close it, and Kody ends up closing it for you. Except that one time he wasn’t there, it took me 15 minutes to shut it. But I did it.
I learned that sometimes you just have to put on your big girl pants and head into the mountains in the dark because Kody packed into a bear bait and you have hunters to pick up. Let me tell you I was singing Amazing Grace and Old Rugged Cross. It was nice one on one time with God. That one time my hunter shot a bear and couldn’t find it, I had to hike in the trees the opposite way of my hunter and look for this bear…but I found it. And then I had to go back through the same gate I could barely shut.
Kody held my hand when my trusty horse Sonny decided it was time to go to Heaven, he cut his tail hair off for me to keep, and Kody even cried with me. That goes to show when either one of us are hurt or upset it hurts the other.
When were working I have to trade my turquoise necklaces for paisley printed wild rags, my good boots now have a holes in the bottom, and my carrhart vest has just enough pockets to hold chap stick, cell phone and two way radios when were lion hunting. Because of Kody I am now an official Wyoming hunting guide…because it saves us money with me guiding hunters instead of paying someone else too.
On a more serious note, the first year of marriage was simple and meant to be. We work, we mend, we fight and sometimes I cuss…and then apologize for my potty mouth. We had to learn to lean on each other when times got hard, but hard times make your love stronger. My grandparents tell me that the first few years of marriage are hard but that’s where most of the memories are made, enduring tough times with each other and making due with everything you have. So if you don’t have a lot of cash in your pocket, but your set off in the right direction…don’t worry. You have a soul mate, a best friend and someone to go through tough and great times together.
To my Kody, I look forward to all the years to come, all the hunting seasons, all the cowboy-ing, new and old dogs, and I can promise you I will always giggle when your trusty horse decides to split in two with you on his back.

I Guess an Old Cow Camp Can Be Emotional

Sunday morning we woke up late without a care in the world. We were like free spirits. I was positive that a sun burn was on my to do list for the afternoon. We didn’t have a schedule, no where to go and the dishes in the sink were going to have to wait to be washed. The laundry in the hamper wasn’t hurting anything and the two loads of clean clothes sat perfectly on the bedroom floor. I wasn’t going to hang them up. There is no such thing as housework on a beautiful day.
A last minute decision sent us winding up a mountain road, I packed up the cooler, Kody called our friend Tom and we were off. I love seeing new country. Of course new country with a little bit of history makes my mind wonder into the past where old cow camps sat, loading chutes and an old round pen sat tucked away miles from town. Where mommas gave birth to there babies at home, and Daddy busted broncs outside the kitchen window. Would the happy couple sit out and watch the stars at night after tucking their babies to sleep? When they got into a fight would the young wife storm off on her horse and sit by the creek? This is just some of the history that keeps creative minds wondering.

　
Kody always talked about the old VR Cow Camp, I wanted to see it, but time never really allowed until our spontaneous Sunday morning. I was so touched when we got there, of course watching for snakes, but I almost felt like I was intruding going into the old homes where families once gathered around the kitchen table and told stories of their days work. I was so touched by the emotion these houses and bunk houses brought to me. I wanted to live there.

This is Jill’s handprint, I don’t know her, but underneath her print in the concrete read that she was 5 years old. She had a brother named Chief who was 8, and Bill must have been her twin brother because he was also 5. Their handprints laid in the concrete, time and weather withering them away.

The cows can get into these buildings, the bears and rock chucks can now call this their home. This beautiful piece of history is frozen in time, memories linger all around, and maybe a flicker of light comes out at night singing a lonesome tune.

~Wyoming Wife

Feeling Helpless

I have been so busy working at the store I haven’t been able to help Kody work cows or even just ride. It had been 10 days since I had rode my colt. The last time I rode was about a 15 mile ride moving yearlings to another pasture. They were gentle yearlings, easy to move and there wasn’t a rotten one in the bunch.
I had been cranky with the bi-polar weather, the rain, the cold and the wind. Everyday I have off work there are lighting storms, thunder that will send chills up your spine and rain I swear will leave welts on anything you leave exposed. I was chatting with Kody about the weather dilemma, more so saying this weather needed to change so I could get out and do something. Not five minutes after being on the phone with him, my sister calls and tells me she will work for me on Friday so I can go move bulls with Kody and my father in law Kelly.
We didn’t wake up to terribly early, the wind was supposed to start blowing around 11 o’clock. Our horses were saddled and we were off the gather the bulls into the corrals so they can be turned out for summer with the cows. I personally like moving cows, bulls are rank and slightly violent with each other, they are big and my horse and I are small. Kelly and I weren’t too much man power with the horses we were riding, the colt he was on, Alice was her second ride. Although my horse is still green we can still get up and go, granted on real windy days he had to check out every stick, sagebrush and gate posts. It really is a chore riding young horses.
Kelly and I were off in one direction and for once Kody was on a horse that’s broke, Kody went to gather a few that were off in the distance and Kelly and I thought it would be good if we stuck together to help each other up if one of our horses slipped out from underneath us. Kelly had Kody trot my horse around in a few circles, I told him it wasn’t necessary but he insisted, he told me, “Jordan, I don’t want the fine china to get broke.” I guess I couldn’t argue with that.
Our horses were doing great trailing these bulls, the wind was blowing about 40 m.p.h., our horses were a little jumpy but that is expected with the wind. We gathered all the bulls, they were spread out pretty good. And then…my hat blew off my head. Luckily my horse only jumped once, my stampede string was as tight as it could be, but not tight enough for rip roaring wind.
We get to the gate to push the bulls through, and on the other side of the fence there are 7 horses that rushed to us, and I’m not kidding you the ride went downhill from there. Those horses are nickering, bulls are fighting at the gate they need to go thorough. I swear one bull literally thought about charging my little paint horse and I along with Kelly and Alice. There is barn wood everywhere, old rolls of wire, a boat, an old motor home, everything you don’t want around when your trying to push these bulls through the gate when your riding a colt. Bulls went in every direction, my horse was preoccupied taking everything in, and I’m just trying to stay on him. I whipped him with my reins and finally got him to go while Kody is hootin’ and hollerin’ working all these bulls by himself. I was the helpless girl on a young horse on a windy day with a bunch of junk piled all around us with bulls fighting and my horse jumping all around. Lets just hope the next ride isn’t like that.
To make things even a little better, we got them all in the corral and were short one bull. We loaded our horses and Kody was off trailing the lost bull to the corral. It was a great photo opportunity for me.
Kody also reassured me that he has been there before, riding young horses and sometimes you feel helpless on them…that made me feel a little better.
That’s all for now!
~Wyoming Wife
Here our some pictures of our eventful day!

The bull that made me wonder if it was my last day.  Doesn't he look grumpy?

The instigator

The needy and nosey horses.

The big loop, and the Cowboss for the day.

Rearranging Our Little Store

My Grandma and I thought we should rearrange the store. The layout was getting boring, it had been the same way for 10 months. We needed a change of scenery. We got the job done with the help of my beautiful sister, my red headed brother, our cousin Clay and Little Cody sat back and ate my ice cream. A new ice cream shop opened across the street, that is the highlight of the Month of May. If you have not eaten Bunny Tracks flavored ice cream yet…you have not lived. Anyways, after a truck load to the dump, minimizing clothing racks, utilizing our trunks and shelves, we made the store look about 5 times bigger.

Here are some of the finishing touches!

This cool ladder is awesome decoration.  I picked it up for $30 at a garage sale.  It displays wild rags, belts and necklaces.  I'm in love. 

I kept this spot the same, the trunk that all of this sits on is so heavy.  I love the old fruit crates and the furs of a badger and a racoon.  



This is my favorite part of the store.  The saddle stand blends in perfectly with the rope baskets and the trunks.  The saddle stands are adorable and make for great decoration, Kody builds them, I paint them! That is teamwork!