"The Big Out There was full of alkali dust coated cheeky characters, some quiet, some dangerous, some odd, some brilliant, some prophetic. We were quick with our laughter that came down deep from the gut, and just as quick with our tempers. Horses, cows, men and women….endless miles of nothing but sagebrush...long hard days...booze soaked and silver lined, rawhide wrapped and glued together with a silent code of honor and reverence for the things we were surrounded with and lived in, but never able to quite wrap words around…." And so it begins. In mid-1970’s Brenda M. Negri quit a job as a gallop girl for Thoroughbreds at Oregon’s Portland Meadows Race Track and headed east, determined to follow livelong obsessive as a working buckaroo. It was a time where women rarely if ever, were found buckaroo full time for a living unless they were born into a ranching family, dating a cowboy, or married into it. Negri had no such entrée through kin or insider connection. Alone, driving hundreds of miles while sleeping alone at night, she brazenly knocked on ranch doors asking and begging for a buckaroo job as she wandered across two states. Given a chance on a cattle feedlot in Idaho, from there she went on to work for ranches in Nevada, Oregon, Idaho and California. She knew, met, worked for and with legendary cowmen and buckaroos and a colorful cast of characters, some of who could have stepped out of the paces of a John Ford Western script or a Damon Runyon novel. The Big Out There: A Buckaroo Life in Words and Art is a nostalgic, gritty, titillating collection of vignettes, tributes and memories of life based on Negri’s experiences with the people, the places and the mystique of a working buckaroo life. Documenting years Negri worked horses, cattle and ranches from 1977-1989 and beyond, accompanied by her whimsical sketches, The Big Out There reverently pays homage to a tough yet romantic, almost otherworldly time and the legendary people in it during the final years of big cow outfits running on the deserts and mountains. It is a rare peek into a place and a time, where working Vaqueros and buckaroos with “a flip kind of wildness” worked and roamed over the ION Country (Idaho, Oregon, Nevada) and the Pacific Slope of California. Negri's first book from September 17, 2018, The Way of The Pack: Understanding and Living With Livestock Guardian Dogs, has sold hundreds of copies; her book has been seen in movies, You Tubes, several magazines, international writings, numerous photographs and included in four famous dog films.
✔ Author(s): Brenda M. Negri
✔ Title: The Big Out There: A Buckaroo Life in Words and Art
✔ Rating : 3.6 out of 5 base on (53 reviews)
✔ ISBN-10: 1791395945
✔ ISBN-13: 9781791395940
✔ Language: English
✔ Format ebook: PDF, EPUB, Kindle, Audio, HTML and MOBI
✔ Device compatibles: Android, iOS, PC and Amazon Kindle
Readers' opinions about The Big Out There by Brenda M. Negri
Elaine Leonard
The world created in this book was unlike anything I've ever encountered. The author's imagination knows no bounds, and I was completely mesmerized by the fantastical setting.
Katherine Stevenson
The way this book explored the complexities of human nature and relationships was both profound and relatable. It touched my heart in ways I didn't expect.
Aileen Menzie
The themes of resilience and hope resonated deeply with me. This book taught me valuable life lessons that I'll carry with me for years to come.
