Eunice Boeve

Wanted Ranch Work: Will Do Anything But Milk Cows
The above ad in the "60 years past" column of the newspaper from my old hometown of Libby, Montana brought a smile to my face and the image of an old cowboy to my mind. For the old time cowboy had an aversion to milking cows, my own father included. My mother loved her milk cows, but he was only interested in those he could rope, brand, or drive and all required the use of a saddle horse.

On a cattle drive a cowboy might on occasion rope and hogtie a cow and get milk for “Cookie” to use in getting them a meal, but milking cows on a regular basis smacked too much of farming and farming meant fences and fences meant the closing of the free range those old time cowboys loved so well.

My dad used to sing the old cowboy ballad, Oh Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie, with his own added words: “for some dry farmer to plant corn over me.” Farmers and sheepherders were the antithesis of the old time cowboy. The farmer fenced the land and the roving sheep ate the grass close to the ground and left a smell those early day cattle and horses were not used to and instinctively disliked. They would not drink from a water hole contaminated by sheep unless driven to do so by extreme thirst and just the sight and smell of sheep often caused cattle to snort and bolt away.

When my Dad gave up his cowboy ways and settled down to be a husband and father, he found a job packing horses for the forest service in Montana. I imagine he was happy riding those mountains trails, a good horse under him and miles of uninhabited land too wild and rocky and steep for either fence or plow.

The Cowboy by Philip Ashton Rollins is an excellent source on the life and times of the cowboy.
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I just finished reading The Rest of Her Life by Laura Moriarty. Kara, a teenage girl accidentally hits another girl with her car and kills her. The viewpoint character is Kara’s mother who has never quite bonded with her daughter perhaps because she never bonded with her own mother. All of the characters are real and as varied as the people in our own lives. It really is a very good book.

The love of books is a love that requires neither justification, apology, nor defense. Langford
Happy reading ! Eunice Boeve