Cowboy Forever
If you’re beside yourself trying to decide what to be for Halloween, worry no more. Be a cowboy, in a long duster and hat with boots and spurs, and it might be helpful if you could pack a six shooter. It is said that houses that have been converted from barns to houses are often haunted by cowboys of the early west. They are never mean or scary; they just kind of reside in the barn/house harmlessly watching over the place. People who lived in one such house said that they often heard spurs jangling on the hardwood floor, and there was a distinct smell of horses and hay and well worn tack in the kitchen. One woman, awake in the early hours of the morning, saw one of the duster clad apparitions walking down the hallway between her living room and dining room and as he passed he looked her way and tipped his hat then vanished through the back door. It’s good to know that true to form, the cowboy, even a ghost of a cowboy, is friendly and polite even when he is haunting a house. Have a great Halloween weekend!
Misfit Marilyn
Marilyn Monroe has been hailed as an American Icon and all time greatest sex symbol, and did over the course of her career play many roles suited to a beautifully, confused blonde in search of a man. She spent much of her time in movies frustrated by her “type-cast” opportunities, always looking for the role that would make her a “serious actor”. Hollywood loved to dress her in high heels, chiffon and red lipstick, which is why it is 
interesting that when she finally appeared in a movie that asked more of her than the presentation of a pretty face, she performed almost entirely in a pair of jeans. In 1960 Monroe starred in The Misfits, a screen adaptation of her then husband Arthur Miller’s play. The movie didn’t do well at the box office, since American movie goers are very often poor at accepting our stars in a role that isn’t what we’ve come to expect. It was the last movie Monroe ever made, her health waning, and her broken heart somehow irreparable, she gave herself to this final effort in a way she had never dared before. Later, by several years, critics took a new look at The Misfits and declared it possibly Monroe’s best work, certainly her most honest. No chiffon or red lipstick, just jeans and boots – unpretentious, real-life clothing for a “serious actor”.
I Do
The view from the barn loft was one of her favorites. The expansive open play of the ranch mingled with the smells of dry hay and horse sweat made her think that maybe the world wasn’t changing as quickly as she thought. There was something about the feel of her boots against the dusty floorboards that made her know she could stand regardless of the onslaught. From the barn loft she could gain perspective and maybe make sense of the big world out there, sure that regardless of where life took her, the barn would still stand, straight as a reed, weathered and worn and true. The new days ahead of her weren’t nearly so ominous when she viewed them from the loft. They were just days, and they couldn’t change the fact of who she was, or what she believed, or where she was going, because when it came down to it, she was a country girl, raised on knowing the feel of good leather in your hand, your eyes shaded under your brim, the strength of a horses back under your jeans. Wherever she went, she took those things with her, and she would take them today.
Drink Your Milk
Realize that you are smarter than you think, braver than you realize and full of the wisdom of a hundred years. You will do great things because the greatness the world is looking for resides in you, and when the day comes that your remarkable nature is required to deliver, you will shine brighter than the star you wished on last night. Cowgirls are made of a combination of adorable and brilliant, making you an unstoppable force.
Just West of Reality
When the “Western” faded from television the reasons were obvious. People wanted to see car chases, not posses, and it became unfashionable to shovel beans and slabs of pork into your mouth without thought of your cholesterol reading. The concept of running your own ranch without benefit of a tax accountant, or a single sheriff and his deputy representing the entire law enforcement structure of a town became unfathomable to a world connected by their thumbs to the four corners of the earth. Sitting around a campfire swilling down the last of the coffee without a cell phone interrupting the conversation is no longer a reality in our world. But somehow with the endless police dramas on television today, there isn’t anything that quite measures up to that click of the revolver pulled from the holster, and Sheriff Matt Dillon saying “you’re coming with me to Dodge”, and the crook just knew he was done, and better than that, so did we.
Be Yourself
At the heart of every woman is a cowgirl screaming for the right of way. Give in to your inner cowgirl!
Pine Country Pizzazz
It’s time the make getting dressed in the morning one of the best parts of your day. The moment has come when throwing your closet doors open should be done with anticipation, with a pounding heart, knowing that what you wear today will make everything go a bit smoother and you will walk into each demanding situation with that, “I know I look good” edge. Pine Country Feed has filled its more than inviting upstairs with clothes that will make you not “that woman who always looks nice”, but rather “that woman who looks so fabulous in everything she wears”. Get your cowgirl style on with boots and belts, skirts and shirts, jackets, vests, and of course that staple of every real wardrobe – jeans. Long on style and blessed with creative genius, the Pine Country closet is brimming with just what you need to go from getting through it to totally owning the day!
Your Dazzling Best
When we were little girls one of our favorite things was playing dress up, which generally entailed a way too big cast off of mom’s former wardrobe, shoes that threatened to twist an ankle and of course string upon string of beads and pendants weighting our neck to the point of immobility. We were very devoted to the layered effect. Interestingly enough that layered look in jewelry is not so far off. There is a wonderful trend in accessorizing that leans toward cowboy motif using pounded metals and larger semi-precious stones, true works of art that would have once been considered solely a representation of the region west of the Mississippi, are now showing up on the necks of coastline divas, and the more the merrier seems to be the popular philosophy. A silver cross necklace with coral inlay might easily be paired with a chunky eighteen inch chain sporting pounded silver disks. Turquoise has become a standard in bracelets, pendants and earrings and it shows up in forms that are both of a Native American bent, as well as a taste of the bohemian. Your jewelry should be your signature, your manifestation of your own style, so wear it big or small in layers or one at a time, but definitely wear it. Anymore, you’re almost naked without it.
Cowgirl Chic
So you’ve got the cowgirl thing going on and you want to turn it up a notch for an evening wedding or night out to dinner. Sometimes it takes a little more than just polishing your boots. Try a tiered skirt, black maybe with a white blouse that has a string of ruffles down the front. Don’t tuck the blouse in and wear a sparkly camisole underneath then tie the whole thing up with a blingy belt. Add some jewelry and put your hair up and you’re dressed for the best. You can go with a shorter skirt, just above the knee or a long silhouette of black denim. The main thing is to be careful about looking like you tried too hard. We have all seen those women who are so bangled and belted they set off an alarm when they move. A variation on this theme is to tuck the blouse into the skirt, lose the undershirt, then pull on a jacket, something fitted and sleek, and of course denim. Cowgirl chic comes in lots of forms. Don’t be afraid to start a new trend.
Outerwear Wonderful
Seriously, is there ever an inappropriate occasion to wear a jean jacket? Slip it on with a pair of sleek wool trousers, a silk blouse and some slick boots and you’re ready for business. Pull it on with your scruffiest jeans and a tank top and you’ll own the ranch. Wear it over a strapless black gown, hair up, dangly earrings and a few bangle bracelets, then pop the collar and you’re set for the red carpet. Wear it over your jamas and you have a hip throw on robe for the run to the grocery store for milk. The only place you might not wear a jean jacket is when you go to bed, unless you’re sleeping under the stars, then you’ll definitely want the denim coat, and possibly a club to fend off wildlife. The right jean jacket sets you apart from all of the hoodie clad, sportswear laden public who wear a jacket simply to keep out the wind, while you’re starting a fashion revolution. Get the jacket, get two, and go for a stroll along the boardwalk. Just see if you don’t feel like the diva you are.
Get Along
Is your identity getting lost in a sea of peach colored tank tops and coffee colored linen pants? Take heart, your inner cowgirl is waiting to be discovered at Pine Country Feed, where the flirty skirts and designer bags will turn your head clear around and back again. There is style around every corner in the Pine Country Upper Room where the boots are crafted of butter soft leather, and there are hats with enough sass to keep Tombstone on its toes. You’re tired of looking like all those women who aren’t sure which blazer to pair with their skinny jeans, and it’s time you did something about it. So get out to Pine Country, the hottest little mountain store, where all of your cowgirl dreams will come true, and lasso yourself some fashion – cowgirl style. The Wild West is as wild as ever, and it’s your turn to ride the range!
Wear It
When you’d rather ride a horse than get a massage, when you think of the smell of hay as fragrant, when you can look at an old barn and feel like you’re home, you know you’ve got that cowgirl thing going on, and it’s a powerful thing. Being a cowgirl means you wear jeans because it doesn’t occur to you to wear anything else, and they better be comfortable and fit exactly right, and you wouldn’t think of wearing them without your boots that form to your foot like a glove. They’re as good for strolling the boardwalk as they are for climbing the ladder to the loft. You don’t wear a belt to keep your pants on, you wear it to get the look you want; it’s as important as your earrings and your hat, which by the way has to sit on your head just right to keep the sun off, the hair in place and heads turning. The jacket you wear is denim and made just right with a little bling and a lot of style. It’s a cowgirl thing. So next time you’re out and about, stop in at Pine Country Feed. You’re a cowgirl and we’ve got your stuff.
Kick Up Your Heels
So do you have your boots for the Rodeo yet? You know it’s this Saturday. Seriously girls! Get your feet in gear and get over to Pine Country Feed, where there are boots just right for your cowgirl feet. And while you’re at it, grab a hat for your adorable cowgirl head. Seriously!
Rodeo Ready
Time to get your style on for the Evergreen Rodeo – the weekend when we’re all cowboys and cowgirls, and the more put together the better. You may want to start with a belt, something studded with silver or blinged with rhinestones, which of course will have a greater impact when accompanied by the right pair of Cowgirl Tuff jeans, and you may as well top it off with one of the designer shirts that Pine Country Feed is famous for. Did we mention that Pine Country Feed is the Cowgirl Capital of the world, because they really get that being comfortable and looking your best should go hand in hand, the perfect pairing of relaxed living and eye catching flair? The Board Walk is waiting for your sassy approach, so pull it all together with the perfect hat, wide brimmed, leather banded, feathered set off with a pounded silver emblem, Pine Country has it all. That’s why you and PC are meant for each other. All you with just the right amount of wild, the best of the west!
Ride ‘em
It may be the gold in the buckle for the competing cowboys but for the rest of us it’s the turkey legs and funnel cakes, the seats so close you can feel the spray of the dirt as the bull races by, it’s a night in June with the lights on the arena and the clowns in the barrels, the flags flying and the crowd cheering, hoping that eight second buzzer will ring before our cowboy loses his grip. The Evergreen Rodeo, which is rodeo up close and personal is a celebration of the American spirit, an evening to see something that most of us never come close to, a parade of horses in their finest regalia, and royalty in satin and sequence, and we love it. Bring on the bulls and the broncs and the thrill of the Wild West. It’s the rodeo and we love it!
Step Lively
On a magical morning in June, June 18th to be exact, if you’re on Evergreen Parkway in the early morning hours and you look to the eastern ridge across the road you’ll see a site worth the wait. One at a time and all in a row, horses of every breed and distinction will come over the hill and down the road as they and their stately riders join the Evergreen Rodeo Parade. They are beautiful and noble as they make their way along the parade route down Main Street to applauding crowds and waving flags, and despite the recent scare in equestrian circles, they will be here this year to thrill onlookers and remind us that this country was built on their backs, and they are perhaps the best friends we have ever had. It is a piece of Americana that cannot be ignored, because today, and for hundreds of years in our history, it has been the same. When the weather turns warm and there is something to celebrate, Americans will be there, to make it happen, and no matter how many times we see it, the Rodeo Parade, with the fabulous horses, make us want to stand up and be proud. The massive four-legged beasts are part of us, and no matter how old we get, we will stop to watch them strut by.
Keep it Real
There is nothing to dress up your perfectly planned wedding like a trip to Pine Country Feed. You will find the extra edge you are looking for at Pine Country where we have the cowboy boots that will make your wedding dress sing, and a jean jacket that will join in true harmony. Give your wedding the spark that is worthy of your great romance and kick off the satin slippers and the long veil in exchange for those better than average boots and a hat that says “let’s ride”. You have never been the princess type, you’re more of the “own the ranch” sort of woman and your wedding day is an expression of the adventure that you and your cowboy have ahead of you. Ride in on a carriage pulled by a royal Belgian and step into your new life the way you have always pictured it. Front and center and ready to ride the range.
Who Wants to Wait Till They’re Buried
So we seriously love the idea of wedding dresses and cowboy boots. You don’t have to own a ranch to want to do something a little edgy on your day of days, and nothing will carry you down the aisle with the kind of confidence you’ll get from a shiny pair of ropers, or some silver tipped steer chasers. It is like saying “today I play the part of the princess bride, but in my heart I am still a fast riding, jean wearing, bring it on home cowgirl”. Your day should be filled with all the things you love and we’ve got some boots that will definitely fall into that category, and even though you’ll probably never wear the dress again your wedding boots are fair game for everything from rodeos to cattle rustling. Kick up your heels a little, you’re getting married after all, and if you can’t be a little sassy today, then when. Look for our upcoming photographs of Brides and Boots – Being Elegant in the West!
Statement
If you’re one of those people who base your sense of well being on your accessory meter, and if you’re not, you might consider it, then Pine Country Feed needs to become a regular stop for you. The belts, boots, hats, rings, bracelets, pendants, watches, handbags, and scarves will carry you to nirvana and back again. Nothing says “put together” like the right shoes and handbag, and if you can top it off with a sassy necklace you might find yourself in a whole new stratosphere. What is more compelling than a woman who knows she has assembled the ideal combination of body décor for the day. There is a confidence that comes from pulling your wallet out of a bag that has silver inlaid rivets speckled amongst red leather tooling and a swath of fringe. You can be ordinary, or you can be the one to watch, and it all centers around the right jewelry, the scarf that brings out the blue in your eyes, the boots that look like you bought them from a cobbler who had weathered hands and a sun induced squint. Every time you leave your house you are making a statement, so speak up. You are a force with which to be reckoned and it’s time people knew it.
Dark Night
The rain poured down in a crushing deluge, flooding the gullies to a muddy brim, washing away any remnant of the late spring afternoon. He hefted his duster onto his shoulders and pulled his hat down a bit closer, knowing the chance of it letting up was slim. His boots sloshed through the puddles that were growing as every minute passed, as he consciously took higher steps hoping to avoid a wash over onto his socks. Nights like this were mean and cold enough to take the breath right out of a man. He imagined the fire waiting for him back inside, wished he was there now, but he forged on toward the barn. The big old door creaked under the strain of the extra water as he opened it just enough to squeeze his way in. He shone his flashlight along the stalls, the mare snorted a hello and continued to chew, the Pinto stomped his hoof against the floor board. Then he saw her, the little girl curled up in the corner. He squatted on his boots and clapped his hands together. She put her head up and immediately began to wag her tail. “C’mon, Daisy,” he said as she jumped into his arms. “I couldn’t figure out where you were,” he explained as he carried the spaniel back to the house, “then I realized I had let the door close before you were out. Sorry, girl,” he said into the top of her head. She licked the rain off his face as they stepped back into the light of cabin, glad to be home together again.
Cowgirl Heart
There’s a reason I’m a cowgirl, actually a few reasons. It’s about the horses which sometimes are more human than people, and about that relationship of trust with an animal that speaks to your soul. There’s an independence in riding and thinking and being part of the sky and the trail and knowing that you belong where it’s just a little bit wild. I like the feel of jeans that are saddle worn and boots that can haul during the day and dance after dark, and I like being part of a great sorority of women who have stood for family and hard work and knowing when to let their hair down. It does my heart good to know that I live in a country that was settled by people with spirit, men and women who valued the cost of freedom and who believed in making their own way. Cowgirls are so much more than the blingy belts and the sassy hats and the jeans that are made for curves, but all those things say that we are who we are and we’re proud of it. Give me my horse and my home, and a man who can keep up with my dreams, and I’ve pretty much got heaven on earth.
You Never Know
When do you know it’s springtime in the mountains? When you leave the house wearing a long sleeved shirt over a tank top and a jacket draped over your arm, knowing that at some point during the day you will need all three. You know when you keep a pair of snow boots, next to a pair of flip flops, next to a pair of gardening shoes at the back door. You know spring has come when you pass more cyclists on the road, and less buggies high centered on the drifts in the grocery store parking lot. There is no doubt that spring has come to the high country when the pick-up trucks that used to have plows attached to the front are filled with lawnmowers, tree trimmers and rakes. The elk begin sporting their sleek coffee colored coats without the clumps of patchy winter fur, the aspen start to spark to life with leaf buds peeking from every branch, the road repair crews no longer wear hoodies under their orange safety vests, the patios start to fill with friends sharing a few moments on their way home from work. Spring in the mountains might mean snow on Thursday, rain on Friday, a sun drenched Saturday and all three on Sunday, with a few other tricks thrown in between. It’s the mountains and spring has come and it is glorious!
Welcome Home
Walk down the street and have the bank president come running out to tell you hello. Bring home an Aspen tree from the nursery and have two neighbors and the guy at the stop light tell you the best way to plant it. Take your dog along when you cash a check at the drive up at the bank, and find a milk bone in the money tube when it comes back. When you stop into your favorite coffee shop find the barista standing behind the counter with your favorite drink freshly made and waiting for you. It’s called living in the mountains, where we do business with our friends and our neighbors become family, and if the snow on your drive is over a foot high you’ll have a line of people waiting to help you dig out. We might need our coats and boots in May, but we may be out in shirtsleeves in mid-December, because once in a while we have those “just like spring” days just before Christmas. We love living here, and we love the other people who love living here, because people who make their lives in the mountains have found a place they call home and it’s a home we are all privileged to share.
