Western life series ;

Describes the cattle business and looks at the clothing, equipment, work, and skills of the cowboy.

This contemporary "log of a cowboy," to borrow a term from Andy Adams, reveals the daily life of a cowboy during the years 1979-1981. "I came up one steer short, 158 instead of 159. I rode through them again and got another count, the same: 158. So I went back to the junkyard. This time, l walked it afoot, checking out every hiding place. I drove the steers out into the open. Still one short. Then I happened to look around and saw a steer peeking out over the steering. Wheel of one of the wrecked cars. He was inside the car and appeared ready to drive off." Cowboying on the LZ Ranch in the Texas Panhandle did have its lighter moments. In fact, humor was sometimes all that kept John Erickson and the Ellzey family going as they struggled through a depressed cattle market, drought, sickness, injuries, and West Texas weather:. "The temperature at noon was down to five degrees and the chill factor was minus thirty-seven. That is killing. Cold. It wasn't a fit day to be out, so naturally we went out to feed cattle. I wore my wool long johns, with six layers of clothes above the waist and three below. My outer shell was my big cowhide coat. We drove through the steers on wheat pasture in the morning. There really wasn't much we could do but Lawrence can't stand to sit around in a nice warm house while his cattle are out there suffering. If we couldn't make them comfortable, at least we could suffer with. Them."

For more than a hundred years, American cowboys have made their living through the skilled use of horse and rope. Whole libraries have been devoted to the horse, but no one, until now, has written a thorough study of the origins and evolution of ranch roping—which differs from arena roping as practiced by rodeo cowboys. Author/cowboy John Erickson studies ranch roping from every angle: its origins in the Old World; old-time loops and throws; the influence of modern team roping; and the endless debate between those cowboys who rope "hard and fast" and those who "dally." Mixing scholarship with his working—cowboy's knowledge of the subject, Erickson tells stories of cowboys who could not resist fitting their loops on "things that ort not to be roped," such as elk, deer, badgers, bears, and bobcats. He tells of jackrabbit roping contests, and of cowboys who roped mice, geese, hogs, wives, or a runaway milk wagon. Anyone who has ever "built a loop" or even thought about it will find this book hard to put down.