Our Family Getting Together

Did You Know? -

• Nighthawk - The cowboy who watches over the remuda of horses during the night
  
  
• Night Rider - Cowboy who rides during the night to watch over the herd (also see Day Heard Shift)
  
  
• Outlaw - A horse that cannot be broke or ridden.


• Poke - Pouch or bag used by cowboys to carry small personal items.


• Pulling - Leather Holding onto the saddle horn to keep from getting thrown when a horse is bucking. Also known as Gabbing the apple.


• Quirt - A weighted, short-handled whip made of braided rawhide or leather.


• Range - An open area of grassland where cattle and horses grazed.


• Rawhide -The untanned cattle skin; a skin that has not been processed to make leather.


• Remuda -The group of saddle horses found in a cow camp. These are the horses the cowboys ride when taking care of the herd.
• Riding Drag The cowboys who rode at the rear of the heard while on a cattle drive


• Rodeo - A sporting event where cowboys display their skill in riding bucking broncos and roping cattle. The rodeo as a sport began in the 1870s and remains popular today.


• Rollin' your Bull - To roll your Bull Durham cigarettes


• Roundup - The bringing together of a ranch's cattle for branding or to start a cattle drive.

Did You Know? - Red River Valley is a folk song and cowboy music standard of controversial origins that has gone by different names—e.g., "Cowboy Love Song", "Bright Sherman Valley", "Bright Laurel Valley", "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", and "Bright Little Valley"—depending on where it has been sung.

Edith Fowke offers anecdotal evidence that the song was known in at least five Canadian provinces before 1896. This finding led to speculation that the song was composed at the time of the Wolseley Expedition to the northern Red River Valley of 1870 in Manitoba. It expresses the sorrow of a local man or woman (possibly a Métis, meaning of French and aboriginal origin) as her soldier/lover prepares to return to Ontario or as his girlfriend or wife can't take the harsh life in the west and leaves him to return to Canada.

The earliest written manuscript of the lyrics, titled "Red River Valley", bears the notations 1879 and 1885 in locations Nemha and Harlan in western Iowa, so it probably dates to at least that era.

The song appears in sheet music, titled "In the Bright Mohawk Valley", printed in New York in 1896 with James J. Kerrigan as the writer.

In 1925, Carl T. Sprague, an early singing cowboy from Texas, recorded it as "Cowboy Love Song" (Victor 20067, August 5, 1925), but it was fellow Texan Jules Verne Allen's 1929 "Cowboy's Love Song" (Victor 40167, March 28, 1929), that gave the song its greatest popularity. Allen himself thought the song was from Pennsylvania, perhaps brought over from Europe.

From this valley they say you are leaving
We shall miss your bright eyes and sweet smile
For you take with you all of the sunshine
That has brighten our pathway a while

Then come, sit by my side if you love me
Do not hasten to bid me adieu
Just remember the red river valley
And the cowboy that loved you so true

For a long time, my darling, I've waited
For the sweet words you never would say
Now at last all my fond hopes have vanished
For they say that you're going away

Then come, sit by my side if you love me
Do not hasten to bid me adieu
Just remember the red river valley
And the cowboy that loved you so true

Did You Know? - More cowboy terms...

• Grub Line Rider - A kind of cowboy pan handler who hangs around a cow camp for free food until he is kicked out then proceeds to find another camp and starts over.


• Half-Hitch - A knot often used by cowboys to tie a lariat to the saddle horn.


• Hat Bender - (Rodeo term) A horse or bull that does not buck at all, just runs around.


• Hazin - To move cattle or horses slowly along in the direction you want them to go.


• Hen skin bedding - A cover stuffed with feathers.


• Hobbles - Restraints that fasten around a horse's front legs below the ankle, to keep him from running off while the cowboy is out of the saddle. Most commonly used during the night when the cowboy was on the open range.


• Hot roll - The cowboy's bedroll


• Jerky Strips of dried meat that could be stored for long periods.


• Kack A piticular type of saddle with a small horn and a double cinch


• Lariat A braided rope used by cowboys.


• Lasso A lariat tied with a special knot so that the lariat could be tightened when thrown over the head of a steer or horse.


• Maguey A type of rope made from the fibers of the maguey plant. Most early cowboys preferred rawhide or hemp ropes, however many modern trick ropers use maguey ropes because they are very flexible.


• Mustang A wild horse, or a specific breed of horse.

Did You Know? - Native Americans were using ground corn (maize) for food thousands of years before European explorers arrived in the New World.

European settlers, especially those who resided in the southern English colonies, learned the original recipes and processes for corn dishes from the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Creek, and soon they devised recipes for using cornmeal in breads similar to those made of grains available in Europe.

Cornbread has been called a "cornerstone" of Southern United States cuisine. Cornmeal is produced by grinding dry raw corn grains. A coarser meal (compare flour) made from corn is grits.

Grits are produced by soaking raw corn grains in hot water containing calcium hydroxide (the alkaline salt), which loosens the grain hulls (bran) and increases the nutritional value of the product (by increasing available niacin and available amino acids).

These are separated by washing and flotation in water, and the now softened slightly swelled grains are called hominy. Hominy, posole in Spanish, also is ground into masa harina for tamales and tortillas).

Did You Know? - Spin A Yarn: (idiomatic) To tell or create a story, especially one which is lengthy or far-fetched.

Did You Know? - A campfire is a fire lit at a campsite, to serve the following functions: light, warmth, a beacon, an insect and/or apex predator deterrent, to cook, and for a psychological sense of security. In established campgrounds they are usually in a fire ring for safety.

Did You Know? - S'more appears to be a contraction of the phrase, "some more." While the origin of the dessert is unclear, the first recorded version of the recipe can be found in the publication "Tramping and Trailing with the Girl Scouts" of 1927.

Although it is unknown whether the Girl Scouts were the first to make s'mores, reports on the group as early in 1925 describe them, and there appears to be no earlier claim to this snack. It is unknown when the name was shortened, though recipes for "Some Mores" are in various Girl Scout publications until at least 1973.

Did You Know? - A pancake, also known as a hotcake or flapjack is a thin, flat, round cake prepared from a batter and cooked on a hot griddle or frying pan. In Britain it is made without a raising agent, and is similar to a crêpe.

In America, a raising agent is used (typically baking powder). The American pancake is similar to a Scotch pancake or drop scone.

They may be served at any time with a variety of toppings or fillings including jam, fruit, syrup, chocolate chips, or meat. In America, they are typically considered to be a breakfast food. In Britain and the Commonwealth, they are associated with Shrove Tuesday, commonly known as Pancake Day, when perishable ingredients had to be used up before the fasting period of Lent began.

Archaeological evidence suggests that pancakes are probably the earliest and most widespread cereal food eaten in prehistoric societies.