It’s been a long few days. It snowed again all last night… May 22nd in Wyoming. It’s hard to believe. There hasn’t been much to do as far as the horses are concerned. The snow and mud has kept us from riding the last couple days, so we’ve been driving over to Crowheart (about 2 hours away over the mountain pass) to get trailer loads of hay. It’s a lot of hard work… loading 200 bails of hay that each way around 70 lbs gets tiring really quickly. I’ve probably driven over to Crowheart about five or six times the last two weeks. Yesterday, we also picked up nine horses from the pasture out in Crowheart and drove them to a ranch out in Riverton. They are going to be shipped up to Canada to the slaughter house. It was pretty sad… it was hard catching them and loading them onto the trailers, knowing they were going to be sent to the slaughter house. The other wranglers called them “killers.” When we loaded them onto the trailer, it started to rain and there was a lot of lightning. A bunch of the horses were stomping, galloping around, and neighing really loudly. It was kind of surreal…

I went riding on Monday with two of the other wranglers. We rode up Suicide trail in the morning and then up this trail called Clearbox in the afternoon. Both of them are narrow trails about a foot and a half wide that go straight up the hill sides. We got to the top of Clearbox and hit snow about 3 or 4 feet deep… where there wasn’t snow, there was just deep mud and marshes. One of the horses sank both of its back two legs all the way into one of the marshes. It was literally sitting on the ground. It bucked for about 30 seconds and finally got out. We lost the trail in the woods and were riding through deep snow and trees for a long time. All the horses had cuts on their legs, and it was tiring. Without a doubt in my mind, it was the roughest riding I’ve ever done. All the horses had their share of bucking, sliding, and tripping through the rough terrain. It definitely gave me a lot more confidence though… something that I’ve been searching for.

I’d appreciate prayer for one of my friends – she was in a bad car accident yesterday and was blessed to make it out alive. She crushed her heel and cut her hand really bad… other than that, she’ll be fine. She won’t be able to walk for a couple months though. Please pray for her. The guy that was in the other car didn’t make it. Pray for courage and strength, as well as healing. She’s been through a lot. I thank God that she’s still with us though.

Just a few pictures from the great state of Wyoming…

Around 7:30 last night, it began to snow again. A couple of the other staff that are here at Turpin Meadow Ranch were playing Apples to Apples… I spent some time emailing and just chilling out. The snow kept coming down. The entire valley and mountains disappeared out of sight because of the thick snowfall – it looked like a heavy white fog had just descended onto the valley, except it was snow not fog.

We decided to go over to Diamond D Ranch down the road about three miles to watch a movie around 9:30 p.m. The rest of the staff live over there, while Corban and I are living on the main ranch. I had to drive a van out there… you wouldn’t think it would be a big deal. It’s just a three mile drive, right?

Wrong. The many herds of buffalo, elk, and moose that roam this area do daily migrations across the main road to get to the Buffalo Fork river further down in the valley. During the early morning and day, they graze in the valley on the west side of the road. Around dusk and evening, they migrate across to the east side where the river runs. Last year, one of the staff members was driving a suburban down the road at night. He was driving around 35 or 40 miles an hour… suddenly, out of nowhere, there was a moose in the middle of the road. There wasn’t any time to swerve and miss it. He hit it dead on. Later on, he said it was as if God had taken the front of the suburban in His hand and just crushed it. The moose simply got up and walked away… the suburban was totaled. Click to continue »

I landed in Jackson Hole around 2:45 p.m. today. The airport is nestled in the valley between the mountains… it’s so incredibly beautiful. We drove 40 minutes back to Turpin Meadow Ranch. The drive alone was astounding… we went through Moose Alley, and the guy driving us told us a bunch of stories about the history behind Jackson Hole. I’ll have to write them all down sometime this summer.

We got back to the ranch and spent some time unpacking and resting. A little later, we drove to Diamond D Ranch… a subset of Turpin Meadow about 3 miles down the road. We saw four moose by the side of the road on the way there, not to mention numerous herds of elk along the way. We even saw some huge osprey nests as well, along with a couple hawks that were flying low. 

I can hardly believe that I’m here. The vast majority of the horses aren’t here yet… they’re still grazing in a pasture about an hour and a half back up the valley. We should be driving up there in a couple days to herd them back down.

I’m heading out tomorrow… I know, it’s like a virtual count-down. For those of you who enjoy sending care-packages, you found the right place… I enjoy receiving them. :)

My address for the summer is:

Cowboy Codington
Turpin Meadow Ranch
24505 Buffalo Valley Road
Box 77
Moran, WY 83013

Just for the benefit of my family and friends…

One more day before I fly out to Wyoming. My flight leaves at 7:00 a.m. from Nashville airport on Thursday morning… it’s kind of nuts. I’m flying to Atlanta and then to Salt Lake City and then to Jackson Hole, WY.

I can’t believe it’s already time for me to start the summer there. I cannot wait to take pictures… and to ride a horse again.

It’s the start of the summer before my junior year of college. I can hardly believe that time has flown by this fast. I still remember the weekend I came up to Covenant to visit my sisters when they were in college.. I was only just starting my senior year of high school, and we had just flown back from England – September 23, 2005. I remember not being able to wait to get to Covenant.. and I remember meeting a bunch of Betsy’s friends — people who have been some of my best friends and greatest blessings during the last two years of being at Covenant.

Three years down the road, they have all graduated… along with Bets. It kind of hit me today that they won’t be back at school in the fall semester when I go back. It was hard saying goodbye today.

My dad sent me this devotional on prayer… It’s long, but it’s so good and so worth reading. You can spare 7 minutes to read this.

People who ski, I suppose, are people who happen to like skiing, who have time for skiing, who can afford to ski, and who are good at skiing. Recently I found that I often treat prayer as though it were a sport like skiing–something you do if you like it, something you do in your spare time, something you do if you can afford the trouble, something you do if you’re good at it. Otherwise you do without it most of the time. When you get in a pinch you try it and then you call an expert.

But prayer isn’t a sport. It’s work. As soon as I’ve said that I’m in trouble because so many sports have become professional and as such are almost wholly indistinguishable from work. I could say that work is something you have to decide to do, you have to allow time for, you have to go at with energy, skill and concentration. But all those things could be said of the big business which is sports. Competition is deadly, equipment highly technical and expensive, salaries absurdly high.

But prayer is no game. Even if you are part of a “team,” as when others join you in prayer, you are not cheered on by spectators or coached by any experts. You won’t get any trophies–not on this side of the Jordan, anyway. It’s not likely you’ll get any credit at all. For some people prayer might fall into the category of “fun,” but that’s not usually the reason we pray. It’s a matter of need and responsibility. Click to continue »