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May 24, 2004

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...a weekly
Ranch & Country Life column

 I See By Your Outfit

Are you a wild woman? Do you have a mind that conjures up marvelous ideas, projects and pursuits involving a whole lot of fun and creativity? To paraphrase the poet whose name I can't remember--maybe it was Kipling?: "There's hardly a woman alive who isn't wild and free somewhere deep in her soul."

Beyond kitchens, kids and keeping the ship of the homefront on an even keel, the Wild Woman is sorting through her imagination and coming up with ideas the likes of which tend to change the world around her--always for the better, always for fun, and always in creative ways. How do I know this? I know because the High Priestess of Wild Women lives right here in my town. She has formed her own fledgling company and has incorporated it as Wild Woman Productions, Inc.

An early project of Wild Woman Productions, Inc. was the purchase of an old abandoned church building in a byway town. Long a photographer's dream-shot, the church had stood for years, its clapboard siding turning nutmeg brown as the weather and years took their toll. The High Priestess along with another Wild Woman have begun renovating the picturesque old building. The goal: to establish a center for fine arts and creative pursuits of to-be-announced activities.

Already the elegant old house-of-worship has made a change in people's lives, and its transformation hasn't yet been completed! Last month a couple said their wedding vows on the steps of the church. It was a glowing day with clear cobalt skies above and spring-green prairie grass below. Meadow larks warbled in the background. Sadly, the wedding ceremony had developed a slight glitch--their human singer had failed to appear.

And then-- guess what--a Wild Woman who can sing like an angel happened along. She was on her way to a distant city but recognizing some of the assembled people, she stopped. The traveling Wild Woman stepped into the breach and lifted her clear soprano voice toward the heavens. It was serendipitous.

The magic rolls on with the latest Wild Woman project in which yours truly is happily involved. Wild Woman is producing a ranch woman calendar titled, I See By Your Outfit.

Each calendar month will have photos of ranch women lambing, calving, irrigating, feeding bum lambs, calves, piglets, feeding the roundup crew. Also fun activities such as Saturday night square-dancing or taking a ranch version of a hot-tub dip (bathing in the horsetank in the south pasture). Photos will have humorous captions and a mini-story about the meaning of activity depicted (we plan to lay a bit of education on any of the public who need to know something about the fine art of ranching).

One of the Wild Woman women owns a gentle Hereford bull. So we created a "rodeo clown" scene. A Wild Woman painted her face like a clown, donned an outlandish, eye-hurting costume and pretended to be dragging the bull from the front (by his horns) while another pushed from behind. The bull merely looked bored. Caption: "That's A Lotta Bull."

Wild Woman Productions, Inc. plans to have the calendar ready by Christmas, but it will include nineteen months--the last half of 2005 and the entire year of 2006. All proceeds are slated to go towards a Creative Arts & Performance Center in our town.

Having bragged on the above at possibly boring length, you may be saying, oh, groan, not another calendar. You could paper the Empire State building with free calendars produced each year. So what's so intriguing about I See By Your Outfit?

The High Priestess of Wild Woman Productions, Inc. has sworn me to secrecy, but here's a hint: The ranch-woman outfits depicted in I See By Your Outfit are--oh, my--VERY skimpy.