Branding Trap

Branding Trap

It's an essence, a feeling.

Of happiness, of love.

Of belonging.

It's like going home.

It's the gathering place of the Lord,

The gathering place of friends.

Where love is found,

And where love never ends.

We ride the sulky ponies,

We ride the rank ones too.

We ride the old broke bridle horses, 

Our smiles shimmer in the happiness of our hearts.

We kiss in this dust,

We cuss in this dust, 

And we rope the soggy calves.

It's where you know you're meant.

Where God intended you, 

Where when He made you He said "Set them there. Among the sagebrush and the horses. There, in the dusty branding trap. Coughing in the branding iron smoke and the dusty desert dirt with giddy souls."

Then God smiled upon the cowboys and the cowboygirls.

And our hearts still long for the branding trap.

xoxo Gussie and Kricket

. . . .Cowboys and Cattle Land, A Little Old Bunkhouse. . . .

Cowboys and cattle land
A little old bunkhouse.
Dust in the summer
Blizzard scar in the winter
Wind through the pines.
A creek littered with laughing children in wet denim
Unraveled braids
Mischievous smiles masking pure hearts.
Horse hair and sweat.
Perfected biscuit recipe
Golden like the horse that shares its name.
Wiry strands of creamy mane lace my fingers.
Conchos show the sun to itself.
Broncs have run these corrals
Their hooves have acquainted with the cedar.
Black and white cow dogs trot beside a young boy on a big sorrel.
Cow-calf pairs drift on.
Bulls butt heads, throwing 2000 pounds one way then the next.
83 years of experience, memories and heart sit atop a paint
And grandma cusses in the kitchen.
Fresh air tastes better spiced with freedom
And we bounce in our innocence and happiness.
Silk and slides smile beneath smiles.
Metal rattles at the gravel.
Shiners beneath felt laugh at the world from their black and blue.
Fresh horses shake out in steep country.
God smiles upon the land
The horses
The buckaroos and buckaroogirls.


<3 <3


Have a phenomenal day all!!
Luvs, Gussie

Gypsy Drifters

The Gypsy Drifters

Yellow lines run, just like me, from mountains to the desert.

My heart throws itself at the land and at the horses.

Snow paints over the dust, the rabbit brush stands like islands and The Eagles sing me on down the road.

Old cedar fences strung with the barbed wire curse bear big Angus bulls.

Time seems to slip away in my parts, but the fresh country rings wild and adventurous.

The sage and the scent of horses drift across this cold breeze. 

I wonder what Texas is like.

I wonder how far I could run, how far I could ride across that range.

Coffee, hot and bitter, and I can feel horse hide on my skin always and I dream of grays and blacks, sorrels, roans and bays.

Like an artist with his canvas, me with my map and I splash some paint across the West. 

The barns that sweep through my fingers remind me of the ranch, of grandpa, of the old days.

The cedars staring at the gypsies as they pass remind me of a bird dog’s grave. 

The sage brush covers country like a grouse pup across the desert mountain's ridge.

The cliffs and the rocks are the only things that fence me in.

I don’t know where all I’ll go, all I know is right now, I’m driftin’ through old Idaho.

Gussie 

A crazy weekend and a little Bertha

So thanks to me postponing getting a bunch of cinches ready to take and sell next weekend, it is now 10:38 p.m. on Sunday night and I haven't posted a word about Bertha Kaepernik Blancett! But it IS still the weekend!

So I am going to make it short and sweet and come back to fill in all the details in the next post...

Basically, Bertha did it all and she IS an ALL-AMERICAN BAD A!

She was born on September 4, 1883.

She worked for several different shows; including Pawnee Bill's Historic Wild West Show, Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Show, and the Atkinson Show.

In 1909, Bertha Kaepernik married Del Blancett, they had no children over the course of their marriage.

She competed and is known for several appearances at both the Pendleton Round-Up and Cheyenne Frontier days.

Bertha rode bucking horses 'slick', 

performed in shows and Hollywood productions, 

competed in the Roman Race, 

hazed steers for her husband, 

worked as a pickup rider, 

and in her later years ran a pack string!

She lived to be 95 years old!

So until later, here is a little bit to prepare you for what is to come.

I knew you couldn't handle all of it with the details at one time, it is an overwhelming amount of awesomeness!

<3 Kricket