Code of the West

"The Cow Boy" (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Though the Code of the West was always unwritten, here is a “loose” list of some of the guidelines:

• Don’t inquire into a person’s past. Take the measure of a man for what he is today.

• Never steal another man’s horse. A horse thief pays with his life.

• Defend yourself whenever necessary.

• Look out for your own.

• Remove your guns before sitting at the dining table.

• Never order anything weaker than whiskey.

• Don’t make a threat without expecting dire consequences.

• Never pass anyone on the trail without saying “Howdy”.

• When approaching someone from behind, give a loud greeting before you get within shooting range.

• Don’t wave at a man on a horse, as it might spook the horse. A nod is the proper greeting.

• After you pass someone on the trail, don’t look back at him.  It implies you don’t trust him.

• Riding another man’s horse without his permission is nearly as bad as making love to his wife.  Never even bother another man’s horse.

• Always fill your whiskey glass to the brim.

• A cowboy doesn’t talk much; he saves his breath for breathing.

• No matter how weary and hungry you are after a long day in the saddle, always tend to your horse’s needs before your own, and get your horse some feed before you eat.

• Cuss all you want, but only around men, horses and cows.

• Complain about the cooking and you become the cook.

• Always drink your whiskey with your gun hand, to show your friendly intentions.

• Do not practice ingratitude.

• A cowboy is pleasant even when out of sorts. Complaining is what quitters do, andcowboys hate quitters.

• Always be courageous. Cowards aren’t tolerated in any outfit worth its salt.

• A cowboy always helps someone in need, even a stranger or an enemy.

• Never try on another man’s hat.

• Be hospitable to strangers. Anyone who wanders in, including an enemy, is welcome at the dinner table. The same was true for riders who joined cowboys on the range.

• Give your enemy a fighting chance.

• Never wake another man by shaking or touching him, as he might wake suddenly and shoot you.

• Real cowboys are modest.  A braggert who is “all gurgle and no guts” is not tolerated.

• Be there for a friend when he needs you.

• Drinking on duty is grounds for instant dismissal and blacklisting.

• A cowboy is loyal to his “brand,” to his friends, and those he rides with.

• Never shoot an unarmed or unwarned enemy. This was also known as “the rattlesnake code”: always warn before you strike. However, if a man was being stalked, this could be ignored.

• Never shoot a woman no matter what.

• Consideration for others is central to the code, such as: Don’t stir up dust around the chuckwagon, don’t wake up the wrong man for herd duty, etc.

• Respect the land and the environment by not smoking in hazardous fire areas, disfiguring rocks, trees, or other natural areas.

• Honesty is absolute – your word is your bond, a handshake is more binding than a contract.

• Live by the Golden Rule.

 

Compiled and edited by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated January, 2011.

 

Child Labor Laws | Farming | Department of Labor | The Daily Caller

I am fed up with this continuing assault on our freedoms by the nanny state.  I realize that our President grew up in a third world cesspool eating dogs, that he hangs out with revolutionary socialists and racists, and has an issue with Americans, those who “cling to their guns and Bibles” but no more.  Enough!   This needs to stop.

Rural Kids, Parents Angry about Labor Dept. Rule Banning Farm Chores

A proposal from the Obama administration to prevent children from doing farm chores has drawn plenty of criticism from rural-district members of Congress. But now it’s attracting barbs from farm kids themselves.

The Department of Labor is poised to put the finishing touches on a rule that would apply child-labor laws to children working on family farms, prohibiting them from performing a list of jobs on their own families’ land.

Under the rules, children under 18 could no longer work “in the storing, marketing and transporting of farm product raw materials.”

“Prohibited places of employment,” a Department press release read, “would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.”

The new regulations, first proposed August 31 by Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, would also revoke the government’s approval of safety training and certification taught by independent groups like 4-H and FFA, replacing them instead with a 90-hour federal government training course.

Rossie Blinson, a 21-year-old college student from Buis Creek, N.C., told The Daily Caller that the federal government’s plan will do far more harm than good.

“The main concern I have is that it would prevent kids from doing 4-H and FFA projects if they’re not at their parents’ house,” said Blinson.

Read more…

Child Labor Laws | Farming | Department of Labor | The Daily Caller.

Cowboy Wisdom

1. There are three kinds of men: The ones that learn by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence.
2. Never approach a bull from the front, a horse from the rear or a fool from any direction.
3. When a cowboy’s too old to set a bad example, he hands out good advice.
4. Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.
5. Don’t squat with your spurs on.
6. A decent cowboy does not take what belongs to someone else and if he does he deserves to be strung up and left for the flies and coyotes.
7. Never miss a good chance to shut up.
8. If you find yourself in a hole, the first thing to do is stop digging.
9. Conflict follows wrongdoing as surely as flies follow the herd.
10. If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
11. Never drop your gun to hug a grizzly.
12. If you’re riding ahead of the herd, take a look back every now and then to make sure it’s still there.
13. Broke is what happens when a cowboy lets his yearnin’s get ahead of his earnin’s.
14. Worry is like a rockin’ horse. It’s something to do that don’t get you nowhere.
15. Be thankful we’re not getting all the government we’re paying for.
16. Keep skunks, lawyers, and bankers at a distance.
17. Don’t corner something meaner than you.
18. When you wallow with pigs, expect to get dirty.
19. Timing has a lot to do with the outcome of a rain dance
20. Don’t worry about bitin’ off more’n you can chew; your mouth is probably a whole lot bigger’n you think.
21. Only a fool argues with skunk, a mule, or a cook.
22. There’s two theories to arguin’ with a woman. Neither one works.
23. Speak your mind, but ride a fast horse.
24. There never was a horse that couldn’t be rode, there never was a rider that couldn’t be throwed.
25. An old timer is a man who’s had a lot of interesting experiences — some of them true.
26. Never drink unless you’re alone or with somebody.
27. A full house divided don’t win no pots.
28. No one but cattle know why they stampede and the ain’t talking.
29. An angry bull is less dangerous than an angry woman.
30. Good judgment comes from experience, and a lotta that comes from bad judgment.

Be Careful What You Wish For

It was spring in the old west. The cowboys rode the still snow-choked trails looking for cattle that survived the winter. As one cowboy’s horse went around the narrow trail, it came upon a rattlesnake warming itself in the spring sunshine.

The horse reared and the cowboy drew his six-gun to shoot the snake. “Hold on there, partner,” said the snake, “don’t shoot – I’m an enchanted rattlesnake, and if you don’t shoot me, I’ll give you any three wishes you want.”

The cowboy decided to take a chance. He knew he was safely out of the snake’s striking range. He said, “Okay, first, I’d like to have a face like Clark Gable, then, I’d like a build like Arnold Schwarzenegger, and finally, I’d like sexual equipment like this here horse I’m riding.”

The rattlesnake said, “All right, when you get back to the bunk house you’ll have all three wishes.” The cowboy turned his horse around and galloped at full speed all the way to the bunk house. He dismounted on the run and went straight inside to the mirror.

Staring back at him in the mirror was the face of Clark Gable. He ripped the shirt off his back and revealed bulging, rippling muscles, just like Arnold Schwarzenegger. Really excited now, he tore down his jeans, looked at his crotch and shouted, “Oh my God, I was riding the mare!”

A Cowboy’s Prayer

A COWBOYS PRAYER

Oh Lord, I’ve never lived where churches grow.
I love creation better as it stood
That day You finished it so long ago
And looked upon Your work and called it good.

I know that others find You in the light
That’s sifted down through tinted window panes,
And yet I seem to feel You near tonight
In this dim, quiet starlight on the plains.

I thank You, Lord, that I am placed so well,
That You have made my freedom so complete;
That I’m no slave of whistle, clock or bell,
Nor weak-eyed prisoner of wall and street.

Just let me live my life as I’ve begun
And give me work that’s open to the sky;
Make me a pardner of the wind and sun,
And I won’t ask a life that’s soft or high.

Let me be easy on the man that’s down;
Let me be square and generous with all.
I’m careless sometimes, Lord, when I’m in town,
But never let ’em say I’m mean or small!

Make me as big and open as the plains,
As honest as the hawse between my knees,
Clean as the wind that blows behind the rains,
Free as the hawk that circles down the breeze!

Forgive me, Lord, if sometimes I forget.
You know about the reasons that are hid.
You understand the things that gall and fret;
You know me better than my mother did.

Just keep an eye on all that’s done and said
And right me, sometimes, when I turn aside,
And guide me on the long, dim, trail ahead
That stretches upward toward the Great Divide.

Charles Badger Clark

Introduce Yourself…

I’m Robert Ray, a husband, a father, a Christian, an American, a former Marine, a conservative/libertarian, trucker, and several other things to boot.  Hopefully the labels haven’t served to box me in!  (I rather detest labels, as too often they separate people.  Rather than see another human it is too easy to see “——–“.)   I am 46, and I was born on New Year’s Day 1966.  I have been married 18 years, and I have five children with my wife Courtney.

I use to blog often a few years ago, but I let it fall to the side.  Between things going on in my personal life and the election causing people to turn rabid on one another I gave it up.  I am back because Facebook doesn’t exactly give me the opportunity to express myself.  It is a little to broad in that in includes friends, family, coworkers, classmates, and people from all over.  Much as it has served to bring together people from all over life, it has also been destructive to relationships.  I won’t go further into that now, but a google search will bring up plenty of articles on the topic.

I had already written an introduction, but it was lost somehow.  Far better than this one too, but so it goes.

I’m not looking to write specifically about anything.  So far I’ve posted mostly political, but I don’t want a political blog at this point.  I don’t have the time or energy to engage in the sparring that such blogs often fall into.  I know, people like blogs about specific things, and if you need a label, at this point it is life as seen through the eyes of this cowboy.  depending on how much I take to this I may have separate blogs for different things.

Thank you to all who have come, and all who will come!  And thank you in advance for the friendships I’m sure will come from this experience.  Y’all are welcome!  Come on in and sit a spell!