Merry Christmas, Y’all
‘Twas the week of Christmas, and all around the ranch all the cowboys were working the DDD brand. “The only weather we don’t work in is rain and lightning and when it’s too hot for the stock,” says ranch manager Weldon Hawley. Cowboys work ten hours a day, five and a half days a week. “There’s always enough cowboys around for an emergency, like fighting a grassfire or something,” says Jimbo Glover. “Somebody asked me, ‘What do you want to be when you get big?’ and I said, ‘I ain’t going to be a fireman, I’ll tell you.’”
Cowboys practice old-fashioned virtues. “Integrity is what the world’s missing now,” Weldon Hawley says. “There’s a lot of pride in their work, a bunch more so than anywhere else.”
Arriving at the pasture where they’ll work, the cowboys unload their horses and mount up in the faint glow of the moon and their vehicles’ lights.
“To do this, you just have to love it,” says Weldon Hawley. And the Waggoner cowboys do love their work; you can see it in every face as they ride out into the pasture. They are a living image of the American West. And this is an opportunity to see who they really are. These are the cowboys of the Waggoner Ranch.
Whether you’re reading from the city or the ranch, we hope you have a very merry Christmas. Don’t have a copy of Cowboys of the Waggoner Ranch yet? There’s still time to get yours in time for Christmas. Just choose priority shipping by December 21st and it will get to you in time for the holiday!