Cowboy Poetry – 20% Chance of Flurries

Cowboy Poetry – 20% Chance of Flurries

Winter isn’t too far off and many of us have already experienced the first snow of the season. As I am settling into the routines and adjustments of living in a Northern climate, I’m learning that even a small chance of snow flurries can easily turn into a dusting of white on the ground overnight.

This season be sure to send us your photos, videos, and stories of Montana ranch life during the winter. We would love to share them through all of our online channels.

We thought the following Cowboy Poem was appropriate as we headed into colder weather. We never know what the weather may bring. Enjoy and stay safe out there!
–Ryan Goodman

20% of Flurries
By Jeff Anslinger

As we headed out to start the day
We noticed the sky was turnin’ gray

A cold north wind had started to blow
And we knew that by noon there’d be snow

Now I’ll admit it’s early spring
And a man never knows what the weather will bring

But most of the calves are already born
And just last week the sheep were shorn

Then the blizzard blew in like a demon from hell
How much snow we’d get was hard to tell

So towards the shelter we pushed the stock
But the snow was a driftin’ by two o’clock

Then the sheep went to millin’ and the cattle bunched tight
But like madmen against nature we kept up the fight

We were yellin’ and whippin’ with our catch ropes
But as the blizzard raged on, there sank our hopes

Across our saddles we carried calves to the shed
And prayed to God that by morning they all wouldn’t be dead

We made it to the house, but our hopes they were gone
Then the blizzard blew out just before dawn

For we knew the battle we had lost
But then first light showed us the cost

My heart was sinkin’n while I was on the saddle
Countin’ dead sheep and draggin’ frozen cattle

But in my mind some words still remain
This weatherman’s little rhyming refrain

Stockmen and ranchers, you have no worries
It’s only a 20% chance of flurries.

—Jeff Anslinger is a Cowboy Poet from Northwest Missouri.