When pulling the photos of this piece from the picture file my first thought was “Wow! I sure wish I could still carve that good!” Unfortunately, those days have passed. AFIB and age has just about put the kybosh to my carving abilities. Oh….I still go down to the shop each day and look at the worktable, littered with unfinish work from months and years past, but the ability to create and most of the thrill has gone. Yes, I can still squeeze out an occasional bust but what used to take days now stretches into months and the quality of the work has suffered. Anyway………
While this wrangler pictured above doesn’t really show it, the Line Rider was one of the worst job handed out on the ranch. As the early ranches seemed to go on forever someone was needed to ride the far reaches to make sure that things were in order and especially to keep any nestors from moving in and setting up camp. Remember the movie “Will Penny” starring Charelton Heston? That was a good example of what a Line Rider was…. Showing up looking for work only to find that the only job open was riding the line, housed in a far off shack and expected to stay out there for the duration of the winter.
Comments welcome.
