Category: Cowboy Common Sense

“Why are the horses running?” my wife asked. I looked out the window and 15 of our horses were running full speed across the pasture. I ran out of the house, climbed a high corral fence and saw a mama grizzly and two cubs a hundred yards from me running for their lives. The horses were in hot pursuit led by Scout, our most mischievous horse. If there is trouble Scout will be right in the middle of it. “Grab the camera!” I yelled. I can testify from firsthand observation that grizzlies, even 6-month-old cubs, can outrun a horse. The…

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A front page article in the March 2 issue of the JH News & Guide regarding a wolf encounter by local resident Brian Hayden included this statement; “Wild wolves, going by the numbers, virtually never attack people.” The facts dispute that conclusion. From the year 1800 until present there have been at least 36 fatal attacks by wolves in North America. Two of these fatalities occurred in this century. On March 8, 2010, schoolteacher Candice Berner was out jogging near her home in Alaska and was attacked and killed by a wolf or wolves. DNA testing and necropsies performed on…

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In 1972, when I majored in Game and Fish Management at Arizona State University, Cleveland Amory and his Fund-For-Animals had a convention to drum up support for their anti-hunting cause. Me and some other characters decided to take advantage of the situation. [note to editors; I know proper grammar is supposed to be “a couple of guys and I”, but please don’t ruin my persona by correcting the lousy cowboy grammar.] We set up a table on the sidewalk with a sign having a cute caricature of a little woodchuck-looking animal and the caption, SAVE the NAUGAS. BAN NAUGAHIDE. We…

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Any time government steps in to solve a problem it creates two or more problems of equal or greater magnitude. That maxim seems to describe Teton County Housing Authority (TCHA), a local government attempt to make housing more affordable for public employees and lower income private sector workers. Everyone else is weighing in on this issue. It is time for some simple cowboy common sense to be applied. First, this cowboy operates from the premise that almost no one in government deliberately starts out to cause or exacerbate a problem. They are generally good-hearted and have good intentions. They are…

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First, a little cowboy poetry: “In Jackson Hole on a scenic spot the Budge family built their home, This was the place they chose to live, no more to ever roam. This hill was perfect for its panorama of scenic downtown Jackson, The home, the hill, the mountain views, gave them satisfaction. Then one fateful day a crack appeared inside their domicile, It gradually grew a bit each day, expanding all the while. ‘Til finally it was plain to see their family must get out, The home was doomed, sad to say, beyond any reasonable doubt. The fighting began over…

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When I was a kid, we were so poor that sometimes for Sunday dinner we would have Sage Grouse Shadow soup. Some neighbor had killed a sage grouse, but before cooking would loan it to us. We hung the grouse above boiling water so its shadow was in the pot. We would boil it, then return the grouse to its owner. The soup was delicious. There is a big controversy going on right now about Greater Sage Grouse management. Some want to list them as a threatened species, ostensibly because rural development and oil and gas drilling is destroying their…

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The grandkids called me up one day and said “to the Snake River” they was headed to play. They urged me get off my pony and come, to ride on their raft and have lots of fun. Well, I been workin’ quite hard, I could use a break. Fixin’ fence and buckin’ hay are making my back ache. So against my better judgement I decided to go. “Come on, Grandpa Jonesy!” they pleaded. I couldn’t say no. We met at West Table Creek, according to plan. They was wearin’ swim togs and had a beautiful tan. My western shirt and…

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When I was a Cub Scout leader the boys enjoyed playing “Calvin Ball”. It was tag/dodge-ball with no rules. Or, rather, the person who was “it” got to make the rules on the spur of the moment. It was chaotic with no predictability. Perfect for eight year olds. We have a bunch of mental eight year olds running our country. We have leaders who deliberately ignore, misquote, misinterpret, or misrepresent law to get their own way. Here is the law which trumps all other laws; “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance…

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The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (Fed) met in Jackson Hole on August 28-29. Annually a bunch of egghead economists try to impress us with their knowledge of how to direct monetary policy. They promise us free Bubble-Up and free Rainbow-Stew because of their smarts. This year they had competition. The American Principles Project hosted the First Annual Jackson Hole Summit entitled “Central Banks: The Problem or The Solution”. You can watch replays on website JacksonHoleSummit.org. It was held at Hotel Terra in Teton Village and at Diamond Cross Ranch in Buffalo Valley. This cowboy had the privilege of…

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I think we need to go ‘back from nature’. I know, I know. The saying is supposed to be ‘back to nature.’ But I propose that ‘natural’ isn’t always better than how man can alter the environment to improve it. Nature doesn’t necessarily know best. Take the current drought in California. I was recently in conversation with a man who farms 35,000 acres in California. He has spent thousands over the past year drilling new wells because the aquifer has dropped. He said, “The real problem isn’t drought. It is that environmentalists won’t let us build any more dams. So…

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