Montana Joe

The following post is a true story that happened several weeks ago. Joe wrote this entry as an e-mail to fellow co-workers and I begged him to use it on the blog. The imagery is burned into imagery and I honestly wish you could have been there! So in Joe's own words,

"I was up chasing cows all night…no seriously.

My wife and I woke up late last night to what sounded like cows right outside our window. I tried to convince my wife that they weren’t in our yard but were in the field across the way (we live out in the country…actually all of Montana is out in the country isn’t it?) To make Allison feel better I got up to turn on the porch light and show her there were no cows in the yard. To my amazement, I had a whole herd of cows milling through my yard ripping it up and eating my newly planted trees.

It took several hours of wrangling and running, throwing rocks, and nearly getting trampled to death to get them back to where they belonged. Eventually, I got them back in and the gate shut when the owner finally showed up. It turns out I had herded the flock of cows (yes…you herd me right…a flock of cows) into the wrong field and mixed in with another herd. I ended up in huge argument with the land owner over who was at fault and what I thought barbed wire should really be used for. I threatened to use my shotgun and start shooting cows to fill my freezer with meat…the sheriff actually showed up and everything…it was pretty cool.

Ok, ok…you can stop rolling on the floor now and wipe the tears away. It felt like I was on an episode of Lonesome Dove gone terribly wrong only I didn’t look nearly as cool as Robert Duval in my red basketball shorts, white sneakers, and t-shirt. You better watch out…I’m a real tough guy. I’m working on handle bar mustache starting this morning and getting a new cowboy hat right away.

Only in Montana and maybe Texas."