Cowboy Gear: Ropes
Slang terms for Cowboy Ropes included Line, string, ketch-rope, clothes line, throw rope, saddle rope, grass rope, twine, whale line, hard twist, hair rope, or pepper-and-salt rope. Whatever you call it, they say that a range cowboy did everything with his rope but eat. Vaqueros in early New Spain (Spanish empire established in North America) made their ropes from braided strips of untanned hide. The ropes were thick and stretched up to 20 yards in length. Other early materials included silk manila, a hard-twist rope, inexpensive to make and good for all-around roping uses. There are also maguey ropes, made from the fibers of the maguey plant, from which the popular drink mescal is also produced. There were ropes made from linen or braided cotton. Mane-hair ropes were called cabresto. Lariat is the Americanized version of la...
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Collecting Recipes
Cookbooks take up three shelves above the desk in our kitchen, some old, some inherited and some new. My favorites are those old, used and sometimes stained binders filled with family favorites put together by church ladies or quilting clubs. I find them in used book stores and sometimes in unexpected places, hidden behind cast-off treasures in antique stores. I have to confess that I enjoy reading the cookbook more than I enjoy the actual task of cooking. It seems our life is so busy, and there’s the menu planning, the buying of the stuff, the prep work, and finally the actual cooking part. When I have a free evening to actually cook, the boys request their tried and true favorites. Sometimes they seem annoyed when I change things up or experiment with a new dish. None the less,...
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The Great Train Caper
Jeremiah and Silver Belle are back along with a few more friends to stop a train robbery! Book 2 Trouble in Texas Series The Great Train Caper Pay Pa’s ransom and rescue Belle’s horse from a mean, no-good robber. Seems easy enough. And then they find themselves in the middle of a train robbery that goes horribly wrong. Just your average Wild West adventure. Action-packed, funny, and a fun read for the whole family. “Jeremiah, my best friend, says I attract trouble because I’m as rowdy as popcorn on a hot stove. Trust me, this is a Wild West tale that may be too exciting for some. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya!” Signed, Silver Belle Chapter Book for Ages 8-10 Soft Cover Available Now. eBook coming...
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Cowboy Gear: Saddles
“The West was won and conquered by the men who sit in saddle leather.” Saddle, a cowboy’s workbench and his throne. In the West, known as cow saddles, range saddles, stock saddles. In the East as Mexican saddles, Western saddles or cowboy saddles. Western cowboys were not impressed with the small, pad-saddles of the Eastern rider and referred to them as hog skins, kidney pads, pimples, or postage stamps. Made for riding, not for working stubborn Longhorns, most came without saddle horn and with narrow pieces of iron as stirrups. Impressed by the skills of the Mexican vaquero, Texas cowhands adopted their saddle among other things, eventually modifying the Mexican-style mochila saddle, which appeared in the 1850s. Known as the “Texas saddle”, it weighed only 12 to 13 pounds, the tree was covered with stitched rawhide and the stirrups...
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