There is fun, and then there is the Cowboy Dome Lunchbox. If you’ve got a little one who is into all things cowboy, or even if you’d like to carry your lunch to work in style, the Cowboy Dome Lunchbox looks like it is for you. Available from web company Accoutrements, you can now roll into the lunch room in 100% cowboy style. Giddyup!

Long an American icon and inspiration for song and story, the wild horse has special protection under a 1971 law. The federal statute calls wild horses "living symbols of the historic and pioneer spirit of the West" that should be "protected from capture, branding, harassment, or death." But the same law also requires the government to achieve "appropriate management levels" of roaming horses so they don’t overwhelm federal lands — and that’s the part that has been vexing for bureau officials.

About 33,000 horses still roam wild on federal lands in 10 Western states. About half of those are in Nevada. The federal agency believes the range can accommodate only about 27,000 horses, and each year government-hired cowboys round up 7,000 to 13,000 horses and take them to holding pens in several states.

Right now, there are just over 30,000 horses in holding facilities awaiting adoption. Those 10 or older or those who have not been adopted after three tries can be sold without restriction under 2004 legislation.

The project isn’t about nourishing cattle with ecofriendly feed or building wooden instead of barbed-wire fences. These cowboy-conservationists aren’t that kind of green. What they are doing, instead, is asking whether cattle ranching can be successful and environmental.

Actually, this may be the more revolutionary question. Environmental groups have been buying up land in the West to control the 80-year-old grazing permits it comes with. The idea is to retire the permits, and with them, the cows. That, eco-activists hope, will save the land.

The Trust didn’t have that option. If it retired its permits, Heyneman says, the government would just reallocate them. So if it wanted to preserve a quintessential American vista, it had to get in the cattle business. What began as an environmental initiative therefore became a ranching operation that defies the conventions of two sciences: ecology and economics.

The entire article is a fasinating read on what may become a new way of ranching out west.

A surveillance video shows a white single-cab tractor entering the property without a trailer and each time leaving with one. The driver gained entry by cutting the locked chain securing the gate, Henderson said.

Over Labor Day, three containers mounted on three chassis were taken, holding 10,740 pairs of boots and 7,400 sets of boot uppers worth nearly $2.4 million, Henderson said.

On Nov. 9, two more shipping containers-chassis sets were taken, holding nearly 10,000 pairs of boots worth nearly $800,000, he said. Four of the five shipping container-chassis sets were found abandoned and empty; the fifth is still missing.

The international SASS organization, created to preserve and promote the sport of Cowboy Action Shooting, allows members to dress in authentic clothing from the late 19th Century and shoot guns (or modern replicas) from the period. Members select an alias and compete in shooting matches, often featuring western-style storefronts.

“I’m a history student of sorts, and have tons of books in my library about lawmen and outlaws,” Hurt said. “It’s all very interesting to me.”

Typical competitions involve scenarios with two pistols, a rifle and a shotgun. The cowboys shoot metal targets at stages resembling a saloon, jail or bank.
The keys to success are speed, accuracy and memorization, as competitors must complete the five stages in a specific order.

There are 80,000 members of SASS worldwide. For more information on the

western themed shooting society

, visit SASSnet.com.
 

The five days of the CFR alone will pay out an even $1 million in the six major events. Edmonton Northlands increased the purse by $50,000 this year and it will go up in annual $50,000 increments through the life of the contract that expires in 2013.

There is also $100,000 at stake in the team roping, $20,000 in the two novice events, and about $10,000 in the boys’ steer riding, back in the fold after a five-year absence. Another $30,000 is held back by organizers to ensure every contestant in the open events takes home a minimum of $2,000.

Good luck to all the cowboys!

The other 2009 Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame inductees are Tyler Magnus, a nine-time National Finals Rodeo qualifier and former NFR average winner in team roping who stars in his own television show; Rope Myers, a former Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association world champion steer wrestler; Ken Welch, a former PRCA champion saddle bronc rider; and the late Jim Bob Altizer, a former Rodeo Cowboy Association calf roping champion and Pro Rodeo Hall of Fame and National Cowboy Hall of Fame member.

From campaign posters to personal mementos, it includes Benjamin Harrison’s Longhorn chair; Calvin Coolidge’s electric exercise horse; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s spurs – a gift from Roy Rogers; Lyndon B. Johnson’s branding iron; Ronald Reagan’s cowboy boots decorated with a map of Texas; and the Saddle of Independence, given to George W. Bush in memory of the 9/11 attacks.

Five cowboys were inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame at Boot Hill Museum on Sept. 20 for their roles in keeping Kansas traditions alive and upholding the "Code of the West" through honest ways and clean living.

Don Goodnight was the first person to be inducted into the Kansas Cowboy Hall of Fame in 2002 as a cowboy historian. Other inductees include Johnny Western, the cowboy entertainer of 2004, and award-winning journalist and producer Bill Kurtis, who was inducted in 2007 as a cowboy historian.

This year’s inductees can be found on

DodgeGlobe.com

.

McBride entered the U.S. Border Patrol Invitational presented by Cooper Tires in Grand Rapids, Mich., just $1,200 shy of $5 million. During round one, McBride covered his bull, Totally Twisted, owned by David Day, for 86 points, placing 10th in the round with no go-round money. Although he didn’t earn a check in the first round, he had the Grudge Match where he chose world number one Guilherme Marchi (Leme, SP, Brazil) as his competitor. McBride rode the bull, Baby Blue (D&H Cattle Company) while Marchi was bucked off. McBride claimed the $15,000 prize money, surpassing the $5 million mark by over $13,000.

“This is one of the greatest things to happen to the PBR,” Randy Bernard, PBR CEO, commented. “Great cowboys like Larry Mahan, Jim Shoulders, and Ty Murray never had the chance to ride for this money. One guy took advantage of that opportunity to reach this milestone and I hope more will follow.”