Cow Crap Contentment

We live in Salmon, a very isolated community in the midst of mountains, rivers, and farm ranches. Lots of farms and ranches. In fact, we live on my father-in-law's dairy farm and cattle ranch. You get used to the smell of cow crap.
I remember voicing aloud several times in high school that I would never marry a cowboy. I refused to belong to that type of "crowd" and so I thought it would be pretty easy to not ever be infatuated with a "cowboy", let alone marry one. I hated the sight of wrangler jeans, the sound of twangy country music, the apparel of the buttoned-up flannel shirts and the large belt buckles, and how can people wear hats THAT big? Anyways, you get the point.
So, I fell in love with my husband. He didn't wear wranglers, didn't wear the hats or the large belts, didn't listen to the twangy music. After I fell in love with him, he brought me to his home in Salmon to see where he grew up and to meet his family. It was then that I realized, I had fallen in love with a cowboy of a different kind. He loves to ride horses, loves to work on the farm, loves to ride his motorbike to change irrigation pipe, loves to be in the mountains on the summer ranch, etc. I had stereotyped cowboys, and had fallen right through the facade I had created.

In the beginning, I wasn't used to the horse riding or the cattle drives or the way 4-wheelers worked or accustomed to all the dust on my car from endless driving on dirt/gravel roads. But I have grown to love this way of life. We live 7 miles from town, and today on my drive to town, we drove right through a cattle drive. Right in the middle of the highway were 100 beef cattle, being herded by 4 or 5 cowboys on horses. The road was covered in cow crap, the calves were bellowing to keep up with their mothers, my kids were so excited that so many cows were within inches of our car and they were yelling and "whooping" at them to go!

I had a moment right then. A moment where I was lost in my thoughts. A moment where things all came together. A moment where my life was in complete perspective. I love where I live. I love the sound of the cows, the smell of the crap, the dust on my car, the dirt on my kids' shoes. I am so lucky to live a life out in the country. So glad to raise my kids in this environment. So glad for small isolated towns. So glad for the slower paced, laid back lifestyle. So glad for the familiarity of the timeless tradition of herding cattle. I am so happy to have had the moment, the moment full of thoughts and flashbacks and wishes for the future, for however brief that moment was, I was truly content.

And then the cows were all done weaving around our car, headed south. And we continued north to do all the errands in town. But for that one brief second in time, cow crap was truly a good thing!!!