Book Discussion: The Cowboy Way

[Front-Ranger]

Today I started reading The Cowboy Way by David McCumber, and I would like to discuss it with you.

[mvansand76]

Hiya!

What is it about and do you like it so far? 

Mel

[SFEnnisSF]

Today I started reading The Cowboy Way by David McCumber, and I would like to discuss it with you.

Is the movie based on this book?

[Front-Ranger]

I'm not famiiliar with the movie...the book is autobiographical. In it, David McCumber quits his job in LA and goes to central Montana where he takes a job as a cowboy for a year. I like the way it's written and it's pretty engaging so far. Oregondoggie told me about the book and he could probably answer your questions better. Take it away, O-doggie!!

[SFEnnisSF]

I've been reading something similar called The Secret Life of Cowboys.


I have the movie "The Cowboy Way" sitting on my shelf, waiting to be watched..

[Front-Ranger]

Along with Grizzly Man, Eric? When you get back from Santa Barbara, you are going to have to have a marathon movie watching nite!

[Front-Ranger]

As we begin The Cowboy Way, David McCumber is reporting to work at a central Montana ranch where all the heifers have decided to calve at once...

[Penthesilea]

As we begin The Cowboy Way, David McCumber is reporting to work at a central Montana ranch where all the heifers have decided to calve at once...

 

[Front-Ranger]

Something this book reminds us of...being a cowboy is all about cows. You might tend to think that tending cows has to do with herding them...being sure they get fat in pasture. But no. What it mostly is about is taking care of pregnant cows, mothers of calves, and young cows. David reports to work when the heifers are calving, and is mostly concerned with seeing that the calves are all born and make it through their first days.

[Oregondoggie]

I've been reading something similar called The Secret Life of Cowboys.


I have the movie "The Cowboy Way" sitting on my shelf, waiting to be watched..

Read both myself a while back.  The Secret Life of Cowboys, though rugged, has one disconcerting angle: rich daddy back east to step in when the mud gets too icky.  Or maybe I'm mis-remembering it.  Still, the couple involved do struggle.  And the story complements the more traditional turn David McCumber takes as a cowhand.  McCumber's work is on one huge ranch complex south of Great Falls.  The other involves several locations in Montana.  Glad I've read 'em.  Very glad to be an armchair rancher when the wind blows.

BTW...if Ennis is yur love, try readin' Chilton Williamson's Roughnecking It, a hard-driving account of oil exploration in the late 70s around Kemmerer, Wyoming, just east of the now-ghost town of Sage.  (And, if you want to see a few heartbreaking pictures of Sage, go to www.dustylens.com/ghost_towns.htm --made my tears flow again.)