“If a rancher doesn’t have a near-death experience about every two years, he’s doing something wrong.”
Uncle Robert

Forbes Magazine has published its list of most dangerous professions and ranching is fourth from the top…more ranchers get killed on the job per capita than cops, firefighters, oil rig workers or most any other line of work. Only pilots, loggers and commercial fishermen are more likely to punch out the time clock for good.

http://www.forbes.com/2008/08/25/dangerous-jobs-fishing-lead-careers-cx_...

And anyone who’s ever been near a ranch knows that mortal danger lurks in the most bizarre and unlikely places.

The last time I visited Uncle Robert he was out in the barnyard butchering cows to keep his family fed for the winter. Not 12 hours earlier, one of those cows had bolted in a loading chute, dislocating my Uncle’s shoulder. As he skinned the animal he’d wince and chuckle about “how good revenge would taste all winter long.” Recently he snapped a tendon while feeding hay, putting an end to his skiing season, as he bravely put it. Robert’s closing in on 75 years old and embodies the Code of the West.

www.My-West.com

The art, the movies, the lifestyle, the landscape, the history…these and so many other things are what we love about the west and it’s all well and good. But as I wrote this over a cup of coffee in a big city, my Uncles were out on horseback a three-day cattle drive, bringing the herd down for calving. The average daytime temperature was four degrees. I know because I checked it on my I-phone. They have chosen a life of hardship and sacrifice and rich rewards that have little to do with luxury or possessions. They are the chosen few, the stewards of the land for a short while.