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

God, I'm Just A Cowboy...

I'm Just A Cowboy

It’s a cover, a guard which I let no one nor animal break through. 

They say I’m rough and heartless, mean and unforgiving. 

I’ve been starched stiff by fate, the past and the world.

I’ve rode the rank ones and they’ve soured me to most everything gentle, the wild stuff is all I want, horses, cattle and women alike.

 I’ve gained an invincible mentality and I run at danger, a sickening grin on my face, just to see if I’ll survive. 

I’ve been torn by love and my body beaten, so the barbed wire curse I’ve strung around my heart and soul. 

Emotion and feeling I’ve left for the weak to dwell and stone is the likeness I’ve taken on. 

Broken ribs don’t cause pain, for pain is just a state of mind.

 Everything ill that falls upon me I believe I deserve and if God wanted me dead he’d get me that way. 

Those who come close to melting this metal I’ve made of myself, my instinct is to break their hearts because of fear. 

I live life as if I’m careless only for dread of loss.

 I try to shield myself from love for betrayal will torment my heart. 

I don’t want to be victim to emotion, to love. 

For I am a man and God has made me to be tough, but I do not grasp that God made me with tears as well. 

Any who come close, who’ve ridden my wild and threatening trail, who’ve clawed at my heart strings, I tear them down and batter them in worry that they may break me open and I fall apart, or in love.

I think not much of tenderness and the girl I love, her heart I’ll break, Lord help me for that girl’s sake.

 God, I’m just a cowboy, prone to many a mistake.

Happy day friends.

Gussie

Coffee and Horses

This morning I was supposed to be an ambitious little child, bouncing around and doing chores, riding horses, etc.

I got up late.

So 7:30 I get up, refresh yesterday's make up (I'm horrible, I know) and start prodding mom out of her pajamas, which is hard because this woman is perfectly content with coffee, jammies and movies :) 
Driving up to the barn, mom in the passenger seat holding to her coffee cup like it's a small child, is stomping the 'brake pedal' which she doesn't have while I drive us there ;) hehe she thinks I'm a bad driver, no, no, no, I'm just so good, I can do it all fast! Ride a horse and drop miss momma off at work.

All days should start with coffee and horses, all days like so will be good ones. 

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles."

~Audrey Hepburn

And I believe I like this quote!!

Luvs! Have a wonderful day all!!!

Gussie 

Dorothy Morrell, World's Champion Cowgirl Bronc Rider

Hello friends...

I know I said I was going to do this on Wednesday and I was being a horrible liar, things got a little crazy, but here we are on Friday and I really am going to tell you about Miss Dorothy Morrell! 

Dorothy Morrell on Skuball

(Photo Credit: flickr)

This photo was taken by photographer Doubleday during Cheyenne Frontier Days in 1926.

I had a really hard time finding any information on her besides in the book Cowgirls by Judy Crandall.

So here is what I did find...

Nothing about when she was born, some of the photos I have looked at are dated around 1920, so I am guessing she was born sometime around 1900, probably a few years earlier.

She was not a only a bronc rider, but a trick rider as well.

She won her first prize money at the Clayton New Mexico Rodeo.

In 1914 at the Pendleton Roundup, she received her lifelong title of World's Champion Cowgirl Bronc Rider

Other accomplishments;

She was elected Queen of the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco where she was awarded with a golden watch.

She received a medal for World's Champion All-Around Cowgirl.

Won the title World's Best Cowgirl Bronk (sic) Rider.

In 1917, she received medals on Movie Day during the New York Guy Weadlick Rodeo.

She later married a man named Skeeter Bill Robbins.

I wish I could have found more information, but that is about all I know about Dorothy!

There is a photo of her where she has literally fallen off of a donkey and is landing on her head. It seems to be quite a joke that she could ride a bucking horse as well as she could but she fell off a donkey. This is where my special interest in her began. Because I have fallen off a donkey! It is quite a good story really, I rode it while it bucked, but those little things can bring things to a stop quite quickly! This may or my not be how I separated my shoulder a couple summers ago... hehe oh dear

She gives me hope that maybe if I am lucky I might be able to ride a bucking horse too, I guess we will find out!

Anyways, the first time Gussie and I were perusing photos and reading about miss Dorothy, Gussie busted up after reading that and told me she was going to start calling me Dorothy! Luckily that one didn't stick, I really don't need another nickname, I have plenty! 

I hope you guys enjoyed this, let me know if there is any certain special cowgirls you would like to hear about next!

I'm off to gather my things and sharpen my knife... because tomorrow is BRANDING DAY! First one of the year and I am so excited I can hardly stand it!!!!

I hope you all have a more than wonderful weekend and enjoy your Easter holiday celebrating in the Lord :)

Much Love,

<3 Kricket