From: george.kincaid@worldnet.att.net   
      
   Reminds me of that line from "The Searchers"...a Texican is a human man way   
   out on a limb..." Sounds like it's a wonder anybody survived at all.   
   "Gerald Clough"  wrote in message   
   news:6e2dnYvFOrqsqvzZRVn-tA@texas.net...   
   > Todd wrote:   
   >> Hi all,   
   >>   
   >>     Did anyone see this series on PBS last week? Any observations, good   
   >> or bad?   
   >>   
   >>     It made me wish I could get in a time capsule and go back then for a   
   >> while. Maybe a year or two. I sure ain't tough enough to make a go of   
   >> cowboying nowadays!   
   >>   
   >>     West Texas looks awfully desolate. Hard land to scratch a living out   
   >> of ...   
   >   
   > Tougher than this show depicts. In the 1860's where they're set up, that   
   > house would be pretty much unheard of. Glass in the windows? Good luck.   
   > More likely, it would have been a dugout. And the horses were luxurious.   
   > More likely would be Spanish ponies, broken only to the extend that most   
   > of them didn't try to kill you or kill themselves when handled.   
   >   
   > And the cattle were tame. The more than once description by those who did   
   > it in reality was "wilder than deer." At least they were in the open. If   
   > they'd set it in South Texas where it was brush country, even back then   
   > before the brush line moved north, they'd have needed ambulances to haul   
   > off the participants.   
   >   
   > And the owner seems to think he's lord of the manor. What he would have   
   > been lord of would be a modest chunk of land that happened to have some   
   > water on it, if possible. He wouldn't have owned 10,000 acres. He'd have   
   > branded wild cattle as far and wide as he could, and he wouldn't see much   
   > of them for the next year. He'd have had to gather them up over several   
   > counties. If it was a hard winter, some of them would be down by the Gulf.   
   > If those folks had to really live an 1860's cattle operation, they'd have   
   > all quit the show in the first 48 hours. Makes me wonder about the other   
   > PBS HOUSE shows, because I don't know that much about life in those other   
   > situations, and I now question the accuracy of them.   
   >   
   > --   
   >                       Gerald Clough   
   >    "Nothing has any value, unless you know you can give it up."   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)