Book Description

Rarely do we have the good fortune to meet an individual who has directed their life along a path that has satisfied their inner desires rather than submitting to a stereotyped mold formed by society. Gene Skaug is such a person. Whether running a string of pack animals, training a cow horse, cutting a steer from the herd, or just shoeing his own horse. Gene is doing what he wants to do. At the end of the working day, he has the satisfaction of knowing he has accomplished a professional job. A life lived so close to nature yields knowledge few of us ever obtain. As the sailor knows the sea. The vaquero knows the land and the animals that inhabit it. The following collection was penned during the lonely evenings at a line camp in Western Nevada. The thoughts are those of a buckaroo. There is pathos as well as humor in these poems; they are statements about life with which we can all identify. Let us hope that Gene Skaug will continue to commit his thoughts to paper as he has done so well on this occasion. Carl L. Sauls, MD