There may be life off the ranch, but any Fremont County farmer or rancher will tell you – The #aglife is “the good life!” #Aglife is a County 10 series, brought to you by Wyoming Community Bank, that pulls the curtain back on farm and ranch life in Fremont County.
Like many couples, they met as college students. Gary was raised on a small farm and ranch five miles from Douglas, and Karen was the daughter of teaching and coaching legend at Riverton High School, Glenn Burgess.
They both graduated from high school in 1974, Gary a Bearcat and Karen a Wolverine. They met two years later at Casper College.
Gary’s parents, Howard and Norma Huxtable, ran cows and farmed.
“They bought into the Deer Creek Grazing Association south of Glenrock,” Gary said.
Gary wrestled at Douglas and rode bulls and bareback broncs, and he continued to rodeo in college as an independent. He graduated from Casper College and then went to Laramie for a year before returning to Douglas to work.
Karen graduated from Casper, then followed her parents to Montana, where Glenn had an administrative position.
Glenn and Tiny moved to Billings, where Glenn ran a Vocational School, before returning to Riverton in 1981.
“I decided to go to Eastern Montana,” Karen said. “MSU Billings now. I did my student teaching at a rural school in Montana, then did my student teaching for Special Education in Sheridan.”
“It took me five years and I never finished,” Gary said.
They were married in 1981, five years after they met.
“When I finished student teaching, I worked in a bank in Billings,” Karen said. “Then I got a call from the head of special ed in Sheridan. I went back to January to teach in Sheridan, then I took an elementary job in Glenrock.”
Meanwhile, Gary worked in construction, uranium mining, and then as a welder.
After they were married, they lived in a trailer that Karen owned in Glenrock and Gary commuted to Douglas.
“I moved to Glenrock after a short while,” Gary said. “I went to work for ARCO Oil and Gas in Glenrock as a pumper, then Karen and I started our own pumping business.”
In 1989, they came to Fremont County.
Shadow and Luke – h/t Randy Tucker
“When we moved here, I started substitute teaching,” Karen said. “Then I went full time, that’s when my hair started to turn white.”
They bid on a foreclosed property in 1993.
“Three people applied for it. A guy put our names in a hat and drew us,” Karen said.
“We had to do an application with the Farm Home Association. We had to build a farm plan and submit that to FHA.”
They were landowners.
“We financed with Farm Home Association,” Gary said.
The property was 1100 acres with 650 irrigated.
“We sold the north half after the second year,” Gary said.
“We had to make it work,” Karen said.
Their operation is 545 acres, with 311 irrigated acres.
“It’s not enough to make a living,” Gary said. “Karen supported my bad habit, farming. We’ve done a little bit of everything. We’ve raised corn, pinto beans and mostly alfalfa,” Gary said. “This year we planted corn.”
They run cattle near Glenrock, shipping them each spring and fall.
“We run them with his folks’ cattle, and Danny has some too,” Karen said.
They have Angus cattle.
“We run about 200 cow-calf pairs,” Gary said. “Us and the kids.”
His parents have between 120 and 130 head that winter at their place each year, and a friend runs a few more with them.
“We haul six loads, and my folks haul three to four loads each year,” Gary said. “We use the Thoman boys quite a bit to ship.”
When asked if it was tempting to liquidate their herd with the present astronomical price of cattle, Karen said, “We thought about it.”
“With our present operation, Karen and I have 50 to 60 head of our own, and Danny has another 30,” Gary said. “Karen and I seriously thought about selling out last year.”
They sold some old cow/calf pairs last spring for $3100.
“What are you going to do next year for income if you sell out?” Gary said. “We had some dry cows, heiferettes, and three and four-year-olds that sold for almost $2000.”
The Huxtables have four children.
Matthew was born on the Fourth of July in 1984, Michelle in 1986, Ryan in 1991, and Danny in 1996.
Matt and Michelle were born in Casper when they lived in Glenrock. Ryan and Danny were born in Riverton.
Karen had a long teaching career in Riverton, retired briefly, then returned to the classroom where she had attended fourth, fifth, and sixth grade as a child, St. Margaret’s Catholic School.
“I taught at St. Margaret’s from 2018 to 2024,” Karen said.
She retired again, once again briefly, and returned to St. Margaret’s as a supervising teacher.
“Now we have two, young ones, new gals, one with an English degree and one finishing up her degree,” Karen said. “They’re motivated, and I’m going in to help them as a mentor teacher.”
When asked how long they plan to continue to farm and ranch, Gary had a story.
“I’ll tell you about my dad, he’s 93,” Gary said. “In 1996, they sold their farm and moved. Someone said, ‘Howard, are you retiring then?’ He said ‘I’m never going to retire. What happens after you retire? You’re done.’ My philosophy is that we’ll stay at it.”
“He loves it out here, I love it out here, it’s peaceful, it’s beautiful,” Karen said.
The valley they live in is heavily populated with center pivot irrigation systems.
“It wasn’t mandatory, but when Midvale opened this district, they highly recommended pivots because of the sand,” Gary said. “That’s why pivots are here.”
Gary came to the place in the fall of 1989 with a friend, Chuck Davis, who was managing the Carney Ranch Company nearby.
“We met Chuck in Riverton, when we left Missouri Valley, (and) he said ‘Gary, close your eyes for the next four minutes,’” Gary recalled. “When we came over the hill down to Muddy Creek, he said ‘You can open your eyes.’ When we left, and I saw all the badlands on the way back I realized why he said that.”
All four Huxtable children were active in 4H and FFA at Shoshoni High School.
“They all started out showing pigs, because that’s the easiest,” Karen said. “Two of the boys did woodworking. Matthew is really good at woodworking. They were active all through high school.”
Both Karen and Gary enjoy and admire their neighbors and their community as a whole.
“We moved into a community of great people, this is a fabulous community,” Gary said.
Karen concurred, “Some of the people have changed, but they’re still great people.”
The Huxtables are doing a major remodel of their home, with new siding and windows on the way. When they moved into it over 30 years ago it needed a lot of work. Karen’s father Glenn worked inside to update the house. Glenn stayed busy in his spare time helping farm as well.
“We had a field that hadn’t been irrigated in two years,” Gary said. “Glenn started plowing, it was more like ripping sandstone.”
“Dad liked straight rows when he plowed, but the ground was so hard he had to keep backing up to keep the plow in the ground,” Karen said. “He wasn’t happy about it.”
That’s just one example of the value of family to Gary and Karen.
They still work cattle owned by Gary’s parents, but now they’re more involved with their children and the generation after them.
On any given day, the Huxtable place can be crawling with grandkids.
Gary brought in a building he found near Douglas, and they’re converting it into a bunkhouse out in the yard.
Gary ran an oilfield structure business for several years called Huxtable Fabrication. He hired local teenagers each summer and they built metal sheds for the gas and oil industries, building them on the farm, loading them onto trailers and hauling them to Frenchy Draw and the Lysite/Lost Cabin area.
Their place is a little slice of Wyoming heaven with the Owl Creek Mountains soaring above them to the north and low-lying ridges surrounding the valley they call home.
It’s the magic of generations living and experiencing life as it once was, and can remain, all mixed in with ample amounts of work.