Under the Wire

When my wife moved to Colorado years ago from extreme Southeastern Kansas, she remembers expecting everyone to be packing a six shooter, riding horses and living in the Wild West she’d always heard about. Some new arrivals, I’m told, still expect a little less civilization than they find. If they look hard enough, though, they can still find many of us carrying on the traditions of our Western heritage.

I’m here to tell you, however, it is darn hard to be a cowboy in Colorado. Cattlemen, farmers, ranchers and others making their living from agriculture tend to be very traditional. We value our...