The reason is, cowboys can’t make a living wage these days.\u00a0 As The Oregonian<\/a> reported: “Hired livestock workers earn a little over $10 an hour, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.\u00a0 In eastern Oregon, ranchers prefer to pay day wages \u2014 $100 to $150 \u2014 for buckaroos who provide their own pickups, horses and herding dogs.”<\/p>\n Some of my old friends have taken to writing poems about the cowboy life.\u00a0 One of them is a South Dakotan about my age, Kip Sorlie<\/a>:<\/p>\n “My life requires purpose, something more important than myself.\u00a0 With my children gone, I found purpose once again in cowboy verse.\u00a0 It is an honest, straight-forward handshake with honest, straight-forward people who, even if they do not live the life style, carry the values with great pride.\u00a0 It is for them that I hope to be, at least partially, successful.”<\/p>\n Here’s a humble man who doesn’t carry on and swagger.\u00a0 We need fewer cowboys in the White House and more of them doing what they do best, wrangling and writing poetry.<\/p>\n Happy Thanksgiving to all my virtual pardners.\u00a0 See you on the trail — Charley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hello, it’s Charley again.\u00a0 Back in the saddle here at the blog while the owner is on vacation. Lucky me.\u00a0 He gets to eat turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes while I sit in my quarters trying to clean out the … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetcowboy-300x211.jpg\" "\\"Welcome")
<\/a>Times may be tough for cowboys, but then they always have been.\u00a0 You may think that all we do is dude up and meet pretty women <\/a>(click the image<\/a> for details) but you would be as wrong as a six-legged mule.\u00a0 And that is pretty damn wrong — just ask the mule.<\/p>\nI swear this tale is true!\r\n But I've embellished it,\r\nAs storytellers do\r\n To make the pieces fit!\r\n\r\nOf men who lived this tale,\r\n Two have long departed.\r\nThe third awaits a trail,\r\n The fourth has not started.\r\n\r\nA son may sometimes spurn\r\n A dad, too proud to hope.\r\nBut in the end they learn\r\n From withered, weathered rope.\r\n\r\nThe first rope wagoned in\r\n Was fated on to me.\r\nIt's tied to where I 've been\r\n And where I hope to be.\r\n\r\n-- Epilogue to \"Rope\" by Kip Sorlie, from \"Cowboys Are The Magic\"\r\n Hardcover volume is available for $30 postpaid from:\r\n \u00a0Kip Sorlie, 24327 446th Ave., Winfred, SD 57076<\/span><\/em><\/pre>\n
![click the image<\/a> for details) but you would be as wrong as a six-legged mule.\u00a0 And that is pretty damn wrong — just ask the mule.<\/p>\nSome of my old friends have taken to writing poems about the cowboy life.\u00a0 One of them is a South Dakotan about my age, Kip Sorlie<\/a>:<\/p>\n“My life requires purpose, something more important than myself.\u00a0 With my children gone, I found purpose once again in cowboy verse.\u00a0 It is an honest, straight-forward handshake with honest, straight-forward people who, even if they do not live the life style, carry the values with great pride.\u00a0 It is for them that I hope to be, at least partially, successful.”<\/p>\nHere’s a humble man who doesn’t carry on and swagger.\u00a0 We need fewer cowboys in the White House and more of them doing what they do best, wrangling and writing poetry.<\/p>\nI swear this tale is true!\r\n But I've embellished it,\r\nAs storytellers do\r\n To make the pieces fit!\r\n\r\nOf men who lived this tale,\r\n Two have long departed.\r\nThe third awaits a trail,\r\n The fourth has not started.\r\n\r\nA son may sometimes spurn\r\n A dad, too proud to hope.\r\nBut in the end they learn\r\n From withered, weathered rope.\r\n\r\nThe first rope wagoned in\r\n Was fated on to me.\r\nIt's tied to where I 've been\r\n And where I hope to be.\r\n\r\n-- Epilogue to \"Rope\" by Kip Sorlie, from \"Cowboys Are The Magic\"\r\n Hardcover volume is available for $30 postpaid from:\r\n \u00a0Kip Sorlie, 24327 446th Ave., Winfred, SD 57076<\/span><\/em><\/pre>\nHappy Thanksgiving to all my virtual pardners.\u00a0 See you on the trail — Charley<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hello, it’s Charley again.\u00a0 Back in the saddle here at the blog while the owner is on vacation. Lucky me.\u00a0 He gets to eat turkey, stuffing and mashed potatoes while I sit in my quarters trying to clean out the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4534","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4534"}],"version-history":[{"count":43,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13170,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4534\/revisions\/13170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4534"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4534"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4534"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}](\"http:\/\/chcollins.com\/100Billion\/wp-content\/uploads\/meetcowboy.jpg\"){kind=link}