Good Saturday to you all!

It’s been a perfectly snarly winter day in Pocatello and beyond. In point of fact, I had a dark chill seep into the marrow of my bones early this afternoon, which resulted in a hot shower, buckets of hot tea and a gorgeous potato, dill and buttermilk soup for dinner.

But this morning…well…I’ll let you see for yourself!

RW and I headed out to the Gilbert Ranch to play cowboy and cowgirl

for a stint. This is what it looked like:

The Gilberts run about 120 head of beef, free range, on the backside of the mountains they live on. Around Christmas time, this year, the family lost a father and husband (you are missed, Todd) Since then, the girls, their spouses and the current or former Snake River Hotshot boys, among others, have stepped up to run and help out at the ranch in the wake of Mister Gilbert’s death.

It’s a heartbreaking thing, to be out there on horseback, sorting heifers in the snowfall.

It’s a heartbreaking thing, to be part of an iconic American heritage that is slowly dying out all across the Rocky Mountains and the great plains.

It’s a heartbreaking thing to sit a cowhorse and feel it coil and collect beneath you as your legs wrap tight around a barrel and your heels hang deep off the edge of a pair of stirrups. One hand on the reins. One hand on your hip. SQUINT INTO THE SUN NOW.

It’s a heartbreaking thing to walk on that horse through a pasture where newborn calves, coats like crushed soft velvet, walk with their mothers, or sleep, curled up on the ground with their noses tucked up against their hind legs.

There’s a boy ain’t this life damn romantic kind of feeling that takes over in a girl.

And-when-you-walk-inside-for-a-sausage-potato-and-egg-scramble-with-salsa-you-feel-glad-for-the-hot-food-and-you-watch-Blake-oil-his-new-saddle-and-think-about-how-much-you-want-a-horse-again…it was that kind of day.

For the Gilbert Women who were left behind in December:

You’re strong and beautiful and when you’re weak, we’ll help hold you up.

You make Carhartts look fine and you make crap covered boots look fashion forward.

But more importantly, you are strong of spirit and you have God on your side.

Take heart.

Who can be against you?

We believe in all of you.

Always,

Jillian & Robert