Welcome to the “My Place” page
 My name is Scott
I run the Rope and Wire website.
My original idea for this page was to give those living in the country the opportunity to tell others about the things that made their farm or ranch so special.
Well, I’ve come to the conclusion that either no one likes to brag or no one lives on a farm or a ranch. Whatever the case, no one submitted an article so I felt it was high time to try something different.
So for now this will be literally “My Place.” I’ll use this page to post a western blog or short articles. They will either be mine, or possibly one from a contributing R&W community member.
The theme will remain Western but the content will change weekly, or there about.
If you click on any of the links to past blog's, you can return to this page by clicking on the My Place button across from my picture.
I hope you enjoy it but if not, might I suggest you “stroll the grounds.” Read a story or watch a movie.
Thanks for visiting.
Scott
We don’t have it so bad
Have you ever had one of those moments where you thought life as you know it had just come to an end? I had one of those moments… It lasted for almost two weeks.
About a month ago I bought my sons computer. It was “Better” than mine, a bigger hard drive and more memory space to boot. Two weeks after I bought it, the hard drive crashed. I turned it on one afternoon and nothing happened. EVERYTHING I had been working on for the past year was on that hard drive. I’m not one to get too excited about things but this was different. This was a big part of my life, stored in a box, and the box had just died. My first thought…this is not good.
The fortunate thing for me is that my son is a computer technician. The unfortunate thing is that it took him close to a week before he could find the time to take a look at it. (He’s busy with school, study, full time job, wife and house) He spent the better part of a rainy Saturday morning working on it but it was definitely DOA. My only saving grace was my old hard drive. He was able to pull most of the lost information off of it and transfer it onto a new hard drive in my “new” computer.
I didn’t get off scot-free though. I lost everything from the day I switched over to my “new” computer to the day it crashed plus everything on my desktop including several short stories and a novel I had been working on. I didn’t get a new writing program installed until yesterday and I’m still having problems with the printer, but things are getting better.
From now on I’ll be storing everything in my documents folder and backing it up onto a disk every couple of weeks.
Anyhow, this whole experience got me to thinking. How did those early western pioneers handle unfortunate events? We have it fairly easy now days. Even though the tools and equipment we use may be more sophisticated and harder to repair ourselves, we do have the ability to get on the phone and have someone with the appropriate knowledge at our beckoned call twenty-four seven if we have problems.
Our ancestors didn’t have it so good. If they broke the blade on their plow or maybe broke a leg or worse, if their mule, ox or horse they plowed with died or the milk cow dried up, they were in deep trouble. They didn’t always have a backup cow or social programs like food stamps or unemployment benefits to fall back on during hard times. They didn’t have health insurance or Workman’s Comp. to rely on if they got sick or hurt on the job. The planting season didn’t wait for their health to improve. Winter came whether they had enough wood chopped or not. For the most part they had to be self-reliant. They certainly had to depend on their neighbors if necessary, presuming they even had any close by. Social contact was a must. There was no such thing as a six-foot privacy fence. Their lives depended on things going smoothly. Setbacks were serious and could easily prove to be devastating. They didn’t have phones and the nearest town may have been a day or two away. Jumping into the truck and driving to the nearest hardware store or emergency room just wasn’t an option.
I’ve decided not to whine about my little misfortune. It was a setback for sure but it wasn’t a matter of life and death. I have the comforts of life. I’m not at the mercy of the changing seasons and I have a gas furnace.
I just wish I hadn’t lost that dang novel.
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