ArizonaRealCountry.com 15 December 2017 DESOLATE RANCH WIFE By Jolyn Young November was a busy time for the Young family. I washed three dozen loads of laundry, we celebrated Thanksgiving with the in-laws, our family was filmed by a camera crew for inclusion in a documentary on modern-day cowboy life, and I made brownies with the kids. Wait. What? That’s exactly what I thought when renowned photographer John Langmore called while I was idly browsing through sweaters at a thrift store and asked if his crew could come film me and the kids. “Sure,” I replied. Then I rushed home and scrubbed the baseboards with a toothbrush. Not really. But when I imagined my home through the lens of a video camera which would later transmit the scene to an untold number of viewers, I did notice a few cobwebs I’d been neglecting. I vacuumed the ceiling corners, wiped off the countertops, and resisted a deeply felt urge to paint an accent wall and refinish the floors. The film company, Ultralite Films, wanted to document a remote ranch wife and her children in their natural setting. For us, this includes plenty of dust and back issues of Western Horseman scattered across the floor. John, along with Bud Force, Hank Wizrodt, and others working hard at 1922 Films headquarters, is making a movie that captures the essence of today’s real working cowboys and their families. To do so, they are traveling to several ranches across the Western United States and filming everyday scenes. Titled “COWBOYS: A Documentary Portrait,” the film is scheduled for completion next fall. If you’d like to see the movie trailer, go to www.ultralitefilms.com, click the “Our Work” tab at the top of the page, then watch the clip titled “COWBOYS.” After they got some riveting footage of me taking laundry off the line and the kids roping the dog, we headed up to the wagon camp to visit my husband. Jim, along with the rest of the cowboy crew, had been camped out on the far reaches of the ranch for several weeks, and I and the kids missed him. Before we left, I had a stern talk with the children about the importance of keeping their clothes on while the cameras were Camera Crew Meets Cowboy Family rolling. At one point, Grace took off her shirt and claimed that her belly button was hot. I put her shirt back on, then told her I’d tried the same excuse at a bar one night in Chico, California, and nobody believed me, either. The guys filmed our little family reunion at the branding corral, then shot the cowboys eating lunch and roping some cattle in a brushy draw. They wanted to film me driving down a crude dirt road through a steep, rocky canyon, but I had put two dirty diapers in a plastic Walmart bag and tied it to the roof, which kind of ruined the shot. Having a film crew out was a blast, and not just because it motivated me to deep clean my house and fix beef and potatoes for a crowd. Like my mom said, I’ll do anything for company. We live 2 1/2 hours from town down 50 miles of dirt road, so it was fun to share our unique way of life with others who aren’t able to see it up close and personal every day. The movie is designed to appeal to not only cowboy folks, but also big-city folks, international folks, and all other kinds of folks, so our smiling faces and laundry on the line may one day be seen in countless theaters and homes all across the country and beyond. I’m just glad I had the foresight to remove the Halloween- sized cobwebs from the front window and that the children remained fully clothed. Jolyn Young lives on the O RO Ranch in northern Arizona with her cowboy husband, Jim, and their two small children. She writes a humor column that is published in two states. To read more of her work or contact her regarding publishing Desolate Ranch Wife, visit jolynyoung.com. Above: Hank Wizrodt and Bud Force of 1922 Films shoot footage of the cowboy crew of the O RO Ranch range branding some big calves while Grace and Milo Young look on. Below: Hank Wizrodt carries a drone toward the branding corral to shoot some aerial footage of the cowboys. Grace Young tags along.