Let the Ropin' Begin

The cowboy is the only person I know who does the same thing for relaxation and entertainment that he does for a living.

Doctors golf.

Accountants...well I haven't a clue as to what accountants do. I honestly believe that if they work for the IRS, they spend all of their time contemplating new and deceptive ways of making us part with our hard-earned money. Don't get me started.

Lawyers play tennis.

Cowboys rope.

It's in their blood. Their eyes sparkle when the subject is brought up. I saw this very thing take place just the other day. Clint was over and my DH posed this question, "Wanna rope tomorrow?"

There. The sparkling eyes. They're behind the glasses. Take my word for it.

That really is a rhetorical question. It ALWAYS elicites a positive response. And now that the days are longer, you can bet that more often than not, we will be spending many of the coming days, weeks and months in the arena.

I am not complaining. Not by a long shot. I love spending time out there as much as they do. No, I don't rope. That would only serve as comedic relief. Actually it wouldn't be very funny. It would be sad. Really sad.

Good thing I know my place. I run the chute, help with the horn wraps, and take the pictures. I have mastered the art of multi-tasking. Here's Tiffany putting on one of the horn wraps:

For years, we would drive to a friend's place a few days a week and rope in the summer. Our kids grew up in and around the arena. They learned to work the chute. They learned how to work the gates. They learned to move the cattle back up the alley. They learned how to rope chickens, cats and each other.

When we moved here, for the first time, we had an arena at our house! It's not fancy by any stretch of the imagination and it needs lots of work, but we are thrilled. It only took DH a year and a half to find time to get in there. He was completely snowed under when we got here and then there was the problem of the ground. It was concrete hard and we didn't have the equipment to work it. Enter the oil field. We have a few wells on the place and they asked whether they could park their tractor and equipment at headquarters for a while. No problem. They kept asking whether there was any work that they could do for us in return and DH finally mentioned the arena. In no time at all that D-40 ripped up the arena ground and opened up the possibility of us actually using the arena.

DH and DS spent evenings in the shop designing and building a drag to pull behind our little tractor. Then the kids were drafted into breaking up the huge boulders of dirt that still lingered with sledgehammers. Finally! We had a soft foundation, DH had a few minutes to catch his breath, and the roping could commence.

Someone's feeling a little frisky this afternoon:


We raise both beef cattle and Corriente (roping cattle) so we always have cattle on hand and after the boys put in a long day of work, there's no better way to kick back than throwing a few loops.
These two make a good team. They think alike. They're both perfectionists and lifetime learners. Tiffany videos their runs and they study them. Not so they can enter ropings and win. Just because they are the type of men that study anything they are interested in. They are forever pushing themselves to improve their skills. It's one of the things I love about DH.

In between runs, there's always time for a good story and, if I keep my eyes open, quiet moments like this:


This is the time of day that photographers adore. The boys were visiting between runs and I told them that the light (that golden light - DD teases me about this) was just perfect for some great shots.

Plan on more roping posts in the future. Since I write about my daily life and roping is a big part of it this time of the year, roping is what you get.