THROWBACK THURSDAY: Cowboy Skills that Ruled the West on The Next Generation

M Supper the Pepper Broadcasting Network. We have to hit the reset, but to create a true culture preparedness starting at a very young age and filtering all the way up. Hello everybody, and welcome to the Next Generation Show where we delve deeper into the little things in life. Here we explore the lost art of fatherhood, parenthood, and preparedness for the world. Today, I'm your host, Ryan Buford along with my co host, Young Master Colin, and today we're broadcasting from the heart of the snow covered, blizzardy Pacific Northwest. Thanks for joining us today, and there's not a moment to lose, so let's saddle up and get right to it. Thanks all for listening. First off, a couple of quick announcements. I just wanted to let you know that for the folks out you who are listening to the live feed, you can also join us on the live stream by signing up into the chat room. For those of you who generally download the podcast, you can actually go to the website during the live shows that we have here on Prepperbroadcasting dot com and click on the link that says join chat and in there you'll find folks like me and like minded folks as well, who are talking about all sorts of different things behind the scenes. Some of it's related to the show topics, some of it's off the wall, but it's always a good time. So I'm in there along with several like minded listeners, and we encourage you to join us. We're here every Sunday at three pm Pacific six o'clock Eastern time, and some of the other show hosts are available on different times, generally about six o'clock Eastern time nine o'clock Pacific. Also another special announcement for those of you who haven't heard, there is an amazing giveaway that we have going on right now at the broadcast to Prepper Broadcasting are dain Dy, the rockstar show host over at gun Metal Armory has put together amazing Henry's twenty two survival rifle pack work worth over two hundred and fifty bucks. I'm gonna drop a link into the chat room right now for the folks who are there so that they can go and sign up. But don't feel like you've missed out. There's i think nineteen days left in this giveaway, so if you'd like to get more info, stay tuned, or you can follow us on social media and shoot me a message and I'll send you the direct me direct link. Also, you can check us out on the Prepperbroadcasting dot com website for more details or hit us up on social media and you know, as always, we'd love to hear your feedback, comments, show ideas, anything like that, so feel free to reach out to us if you have a chance. You can find us on the Prepper Broadcasting website on the Next Generation show page and you'll be able to see our social media links there everything from Facebook, I think we've got a me wee page, Instagram, Twitter, and you can always reach me at prepper Dad at mail dot com. So today we've got a special show topic that I wanted to share with everybody, and it was something that I actually was sparked by. The project for this week. Colin came up with a great idea for the Pine Size Prepper project and that'll be we'll get into that a little bit later in the show. But. It got me thinking. And the project itself is it's how to build a cowboy bedroll, and so we'll get into that later in the show, but it's kind of sparked an interest in me and made me realize that a lot of the things that we have today weren't of available not too long ago. And one of my favorite fiction authors is a man by the name of Cormick McCarthy, and some of you might have recognized some of his other works. He wrote a book called The Road, which was later developed into a motion picture. He also wrote the I Think It's a book series call In. One of the books I Think was All the Pretty Horses, and there was a three part series on that, and one of those wound up also being converted to a screenplay and major motion picture. But I've read several of his books. He's one of my favorite fiction authors. And The Road was definitely a post apocalyptic fiction novel that if you haven't read, you know, it's definitely something that's worth checking out. But one of the first introductions I had to Cormack McCarthy was a book that he wrote called Blood Meridian. And this book was I don't know how to put it. It was. It was a violent, dystopian historical fiction novel about a boy and his journey from the East coast, traveling through Texas, parts of the Southwest like Arizona, Mexico, and finally to California, and it was about this kid who left home basically, and it was about his journey along the way and what he had to do to survive. Pretty much, the only skill he had was that he was able to he was he was an excellent shot, and in his in his actions and activities and his scenarios along the way, he came across someone named the Judge. The Judge was essentially kind of a big man. I think it was bald, if I remember right, and he always wore black, and he was just known as the Judge. That was his name, and the Boy never had a name. He was just known as the Boy. And the Judge was kind of known or admired for his intelligence, and he was kind of led parties of you know, cowboys and vigilantes to collect you know, scalps or you know, whatever it was that was needed to get from one village to the next. Tons of shootouts, tons of craziness and violence and all in all a pretty good book. But one of my favorite parts about this book was a scene where the Judge was with his guys and they were on some sort of a rock quarry of some kind, and he was able to create gunpowder by hand by you know, collecting some materials that were around the area, so he knew what chemical compounds were required to create gunpowder. And all of his guys had run out of powder, and at the time, I mean, there's and we'll get into black powder down the road, but Carter jammunition hadn't been around, so they were all using or you know, it might have been around for a short time, but there was this kind of inner twined section of the West or time period in the Old West when Carter je ammunition was relatively new and people were still using black powder and Paul ammo. So to me, it was really interesting to see that and understand how he could create gunpowder by hand in kind of this surreal cliffhanger of a fight scene because all of his guys had run out of They had plenty of AMMO, but no black powder, and you know, a gun without AMMA was pretty much worthless. So here these guys were stuck up on Corey and their attackers were coming down hard on them. And one of the things that it demonstrated were some of the harshest realities and the unfiltered violence that was common in the Old West. But it also demonstrated the power of perseverance and the skills needed to survive. Now, this was just a novel, and it's it is what it is. I mean, it's nonfiction. It it's called a historical fiction novel, but it was historically it was historically riveting in several ways to me personally anyway. I don't really need to get into all the ways that Western cultures have influenced movies and literature and and like that. But what I wanted to point out was, oh, yeah, nonfiction being is a real story. Yeah, that's right, or supposedly anyway. But one of the things that that I wanted to get into with the idea of the Old West and how it today is this idea that now that we're several, several generations separated from this era, what have we learned from it all? And what can we learn from those who have survived. You know, skill building is a critical part of preparing or prepping, but much of what we learned to get to this point of tech savvy, industrial prowess where we can cross an entire nation in a matter of hours instead of months, you know, much of what it took to endure life in the West has been lost, or it's been forgotten, or it's been disregarded as a token of the past that we never have to go back to. Well. On today's show, Colin and I are going to explore some of the ways that cowboys survived harsh environments in a world without the rule of law and constant threats to life and their pursuit of happiness. But first before we get to heading them up and moving them out on this topic, Colin, can you share your fun fact of the week? You have to unmute yourself, buddy, I think I got you U mute. Go ahead, all right, yo yo yo, fellow listeners, I am the co host of the Next Generation show, Colin Buford, speaking with my father and the host of the show Ryan Today, we're talking about the. Old fashioned cowboys of the wild West. But before we get too fonn of that, I'd like to quickly cover the Crafty Call and Fun Fact of the Week. For those of you who aren't. Aware of the Crafty Call and Fun Fack to the week, it's a segment on our show that gives you a fun tid bit of information of something that's usually related to the show topic. Some of you might have already known, and some of you might have had no clue. So without any further ado, let's get right into it. Today's craft calling fun fact of the week is there are cowboys in Canada as well. That's right. The cowboys are an iconic figure in the American West. Canada two house cowboys, including Quebec and Alberta. In fact, you'll find a whole heck of a lot of them at the Alberta Calgary Stampede, which is a Western festival held in July every year. Very cool, and I think I want to say that July eleventh is the National Cowboy Day or something like that, Catolin's Day, something to that effect. I wonder if it revolves around that and the uh there's a lot of stampedes out there that are still going strong, and these these festivals are kind of designed to highlight that lifestyle and kind of keep that alive, keep that spirit alive. And that's kind of what I wanted to get into today is you know, what was it about the West for one, that is so intriguing that it still infiltrates you know, a big part of our social lives, whether it be by uh, you know, writing and fiction, non fiction, historical, uh, you know, avenues, movies, theater, music, everything. Uh, there's there's quite a bit that this idea of the Old West and cowboys has retained within American culture. Well, for those of you who don't know, a cowboy or a cowgirl as defined is essentially a ranch hand. Traditionally, cowboys were folks that were animal herders. Herders h e R d e r. Not herders like they caused pain, but they heard. They herded animals traditionally cattle and traditionally on horseback, and they performed all the duties as needed for the safe transport of those herds. Now, you might think that would be an easy task, but during the time, they had some significant challenges. You know. They they had specific methods of you know, and and tools that they would use and keep with them at all times, like firearms, knives, all weather gear. You know, they typically had lariats which they would use to you know, obviously rope cattle or sheep or whatever they were and get them pulled out of whatever messes they got in or or get them rain back to the herd. Spurs on their boots and you know, all the attack at equipment that they needed on an everyday basis. Well, there was also some some driving threats and outside factors that were constantly uh, how do you say they were? They were constantly facing these these things like adverse terrain of horrible weather conditions. Obviously, you know, if you're following a team of animals on horseback, you're not gonna have shelter every time you stop. It's not like you can go to a you know, a what do you call it, like a bed and breakfast in the middle of nowhere. They also had you know, livelihood dangers like just the act of working, you know, getting bucked off of a horse, or you know, health concerns. You know, they had to be careful of what kind of water they drank. All this kind of stuff, and you know family feuds which would sometimes create even greater tensions when cattle would be stolen from one family to another and rebranded and all sorts of things started, you know, happening as a result of that plot. So you have the human threats, and then you've also got animal threats with regard to predators like you know, bears or mountain lions, wolves, all that kind of stuff. And one of the main things that we'll get into a little bit later in the show is the way that they managed a lot of these threats, and part of that was known as the Code of Conduct or the Cowboy Code, and the importance of having that code of conduct conduct in a world without rule of law. So today Colin and I are going to go back and forth. Obviously we can't go through every skill that these guys had, but we wanted to highlight at least a few of them so that we can each go back and forth and have a conversation of why certain aspects of that lifestyle were important then and kind of how they still apply today and why it's important to try and retain some of those skills. So we'll probably go back and forth on this, and if anyone in chat wants to chime in with anything in particular, just mention something and we'll see if we can't address it. But Colin, why don't you go ahead and let us know about your first topic and kind of how it falls into play. As far as skill or. Yeah, either which whichever one you whichever one you decided to go with, We're gonna be just kind of kind of across the board, so whatever however it applies. All right, Well, I guess first we'll just I'll just start with their shelter as sort of a threat, or the fact that they don't have a shelter, because without homes, it will you know, if they have cabins or they have wagons, which are just their homes on wheels pretty much, but without those wagons or cabins, they're pretty much camping twenty four to seven, and it means that they're always outside and if they don't have any place to go indoors during the cold weather, then they can get sick and stuff like that, and that can also be a problem because of the time period that that it was. Yeah, and there wasn't a whole lot of medical care facilities available. You know. In some cases, a traditional I want to say a traditional migration would be from Texas to parts of North Dakota or Montana or you know, even the Chicago area places like that, to where they would actually be raising these cattle and taking them up north. In other cases, they'd be raising them in one region of the country and delivering them to another region, or you know, they'd be following land and or not land, but they'd be following resources, so you're you're kind of you're kind of tied to the land in a very significant way because you're constantly looking for water and you're constantly looking for green grass to feed all these animals. But in doing that, like was saying, I mean, you're pretty much outside all the time. You know, you don't really have a whole lot of room, even on a couple of saddle bags too, to keep much more than your regular belongings and gear. So that's that's a great point, Buddy. Shelter was a pretty big deal back then, and the ability to to string them up is pretty critical. Did you find out any cool things on like some of the shelters that they would put together or or do you want to save that for later in the in the project? No, I mean, as far as shelters, I didn't realize. I thought wagons were more for people who would travel in groups, But apparently, like even loan cowboys just take wagons as their homes pretty much everywhere they go. But another kind of thing that I thought was cool to stay out of the rain was called They had what was called rain slickers. Do you know what those are? I want to say, is that the jacket you're talking about. Right? Well, like, is rain slicker a type of jacket? Uh? Yeah in some cases? Yeah, oh, but I mean unless you're talking about something different. Uh yeah. So the rain slicker that I was kind of thinking of is the it's kind of like a poncho, but you don't keep it on your body. You tie it to the back of your horse, and then you stake it on the ground to keep yourself from rain. So it's just basically a tarp, but it's meant to keep you dry and stuff. Wow, that's kind of cool. Or your horse or your wagon. But I mean, if you have your wagon, you might as well just stay in it. So that's kind of like one of those tents that you can get for the back of a pickup truck these days. Yeah, like the hangs off the back end or on the top. I guess, yeah, So I guess you could say that's something that's gone down through time. Yeah, that's pretty cool evolved. Yeah. So one of the things that I thought, especially you know, in honor of the giveaway, and I think I might even drop that back in the chat at the end of the show for those of you who stick around, But in honor of the Henry Survival Rifle giveaway, I figured this show would be a great opportunity to share the twenty two Guns that Won the West. Now, firearms, for those of you who are familiar with Western culture, it's pretty much the signature. It's the symbol of you know, vigilantes, and you know justice, and you know law and everything when it comes to movies and books and like that. But what few people realize is that firearms were a very important part of Western culture and you know, westward expansion and just flat out survival in the West. Now, I don't have time to go through all of them on the show. I only have a few minutes to chat about it. But I did drop a link to an article that I found and I wanted to share it to you. It's for those of you who want to look it up. It's on True Westmagazine dot com and the title is twenty two Guns that Won the West. And this article's pretty thorough and it's actually pretty accurate, and they've got some great information on the types of guns and the era that these guns were about and why they were important. And again, like I said, we don't have time to go through all of them, but it is important to note that this area of cartridge ammunition changed the way firearms were perceived and handled and transferred throughout that time period. The cartridge ammunition made the West a very a different place, I would argue, and a big part of that is because your ability to load your firearm chan changed to where. And for those of you out here out there who have ever loaded black powder pistols or black powder rifles, you know exactly what I'm talking about. The time it takes for you to add your powder charge, add your wad, add your round, add your cap, and be ready to go for a single shot is pretty long. And I mean I think, you know, if you're really good at it, you might be able to load a a six shooter or a rifle in maybe a minute, maybe just to load it. You know, fast forward to where we have cartridge ammunition and quick you know, quick release clips, magazines and you know like that, you know, it's totally different and it really makes you appreciate what they had to endure just for a single shot. So with that in mind, you know, to keep in mind that you know, a single shot was something that would you could never waste. You really had to be mindful of that, and you really had to make sure that you were accurate. Now, firearms were obviously a tool for survival. They were a tool for self defense against you know, man or beast, and a tool for peacekeeping. So you had folks that were you know, the law you know, sheriffs and oh what do you call them? Rangers and things like that, and you know, they were equipped with the best that the state could handle at the time, but that may not have been the best that was out there. One important thing to note was during that time period, more often than not, travelers or strangers who had firearms that were coming into a town often surrendered their firearms to the law or the law official upon entering those townships, and then they were returned upon leaving. So if you look at this, I mean, it's kind of an interesting way that they handled law and peace within communities. You know, when you have a single sheriff in town of unarmed citizens or citizens who were armed only for self defense with regard to making sure that you know, their animals are kept safe, it caught. It was pretty much the go to method for keeping peace in town. Something like that would be unheard of today. I mean, you couldn't just I mean, it's not like you would just go up to well, I mean, you guys, some people surrender their weapons, you know, with some of the stuff that's going on now in New York and California, but you know there, you wouldn't go into a typical small town and realize that, you know, oh, I need to surrender my weapon, and you know, here you go. I'll take it back when I get done with my business in town. So definitely a different outlook and viewpoint of firearms back then, and a big part was because they weren't seen as violent weapons as much as they are today, and in many cases they were saying more as a survival tool that was meant to be kept safe and was kind of a two way street when it came to that. So Colin, do you do you want to comment on any of that or all or do you want to go to your next one? All right, So, since you were kind of talking about the guns and stuff, I think I kind of continue with. My side of it. So as far as guns and hunting go, Hunting was definitely a big thing because you would pretty much catch every meal you ate unless it was just like har attack or something like that. But it's disgusting, that's just disgusting. But since you were outside all the time pretty much, you kind of have to know your way around that. So that's definitely a skill for them. But another thing that I read up on is that they didn't very commonly carry pistols as much as rifles, and they would get these rifles when they were discharged from the Civil War and they just took their weapons. And in some cases, these weapons may save your life because you know, like you said, there are many purposes like self defense from man or beast and things like that. And you when you put it like you. Do, with the fact that if you're really good with one of these, you can maybe load your gun. In a minute, you know, one round in a minute. That's sixty to one sixty seconds, loading it up in one second shooting it, so you've got to get really accurate with it. But yeah, so like it's not as much as a thing to carry pistols and stuff like that. Yeah, And if if anybody, if anybody's ever shot black powder pistols is compared to black powder rifles, you'll notice there's a marked difference with how accurate they are, and when it comes to your ability to you know, feed yourself, you learn pretty quick on how to be accurate and how close you need to be and and like that. So oh yeah, and you know there's actually the saddle gun was a very important part of uh, you know, Western culture and especially cowboy culture because of the ability for you to have one or even two rounds sometimes even more with a lever action rifle, so you know, as cartridge ammunition and things made it easier to reload faster. It made life in the West, you know, a little bit more sustained. Hole So so yeah, hunting and trapping was a pretty big deal. Uh are you going to talk about trapping as part of that or do you have a different one on trapping? Not particularly, I mean there was I didn't want to make a note about trapping though, because that was a huge I mean, you had obviously cowboys in the West, and. You know some of the other you know, mining and things like that that were going on. But trapping was actually a very big in portion of livelihood in the West, and a lot of trappers were often by themselves and in fact, right not not too far from where I am. There's a legend of a famous trapper who was murdered along his trail going back and forth from Missoula to Elk City in Idaho, and uh, you know, there's it's he was a mark, you know, a merchant and trapper, and his routine was known, and he hires some folks to help him out, and they turned out to be the wrong folks, and they wound up taking him out and looting him for everything he had. And that was kind of the the way some things were back then without a rule of law. There's and you're in the middle of the woods, you know, it kind of lends itself to criminal behavior. So a lot of times, you know, having a firearm was more than just you know, just having a firearm. It was for real life self defense in a lot of cases. So one of the things that didn't they didn't always have it on them, which I mean when they only carry those big, heavy rifles around them, and that makes sense, but like I said, they may save your life and looking at that example you just gave, but they didn't always leave their wagon with their rifle, right, they would go out without it. Yep, So that could be a problem. No, Yeah, well, let's let's take a quick moment. I want to take a break and give some time to the Prepper dot Org and some of our other show hosts. But when we come back, we'll hit a couple more of these and then we'll kind of share the pinsize Prepper project of the week. So hold on, everybody, and we'll be right back. As Prepper Broadcasting lists, you already know that the more self reliant people we have around, the better off will be in a disaster. 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And we're back, Ladies and gentlemen. Great sponsors, great shows, and great audience. Thank you everyone for staying tuned, and don't forget to keep our sponsors and our other show hosts in mind on your path toward preparedness. One quick reminder for tomorrow night, don't miss out on Medical Mondays here where we dig through the archives at Prepper Broadcasting to bring you some of the best metal tips for preppers. Live shows kick off this week with James Walton over at I Am Liberty on Wednesday nights. James is also in the chat room, so if you want to check him out and send him a note over there. Also Dain De with the Gun Metal Armory on Thursday nights, Morgan with Rogue Preparedness on Friday nights, and Bring It All Home is Jay Fergie with a Family Affair on Saturday nights. We've got great shows every night this week, so don't miss out. And with that, let's continue on. So before we went to the break, we were talking about some of the survival skills and tools that helped win over the West, I guess you could say. And we were talking about firearms, a little bit hunting, and uh, I think I think it was my turn to go next. So one of this, the next one that I wanted to talk about was barter. You know, obviously in some of these small towns and little communities, there's you know, there's there's no there's an understanding that there wasn't a bunch of banking available, but that didn't stop progress. In many cases, services rendered were the source of currency. Whether you were a barber or a seamstress, or a blacksmith, or you know, a leather worker or a ferrier, whatever it may be, all of those things required some sort of exchange. Well, in many ways, wealth was measured in livestock, or it was measured on cash on hand, or it was measured in skills. So you had to have one of those three to be able to sustain, or you were chances are you were working for someone else who did as an apprentice or learning a trade or skill something like that. So when it comes to bartering, people had to learn to accept other forms of currency, and in some cases, like bags of wheat or sugar or coffee, those things were often paid for with livestock like pigs or something like that, and that exchange was rooted in honor and a handshake. You know, someone might write a name down on a ledger, and in fact, I've seen old ledgers in some antique stores here in the region from that time period showing payments to jewelers or universities or general stores, landowners, et cetera. And it was just it was simply a list of livestock and the promise to provide more on a set schedule in the months to come, similar to like a modern day mortgage or payment agreement. Now, paper currency was available, but in extremely limited quantities. And you know, obviously you had the search for gold, which was another form of currency that wound up being used. But for the most people out for most of the people out there, your your currency was your abilities, and you know, really your word was was worth everything that you had. So if you defaulted on your local general store for food, or resources even once it meant that the next time you would be pretty much sol And as a result of that, people maintained a high level of honor and integrity because if their word or their character were coming to question, that could also be a survival threat. Basically, So bartering was very important during that time period, and it's something that we've kind of gotten away from, but you know, there are ways that you can integrate that into your life by doing, you know, just practicing simple things like you know, asking for a better deal when you work out in arrangements with somebody, or finding out if like even on craigslist, if you go on Craigslist and you say, hey, you know, I don't have enough cash for something, would you be up for you know, exchanging kind or something like that. So definitely something worth practicing and putting into practice. And you know, something that came out of the survival needs of the Old West that really kind of kept it alive and allowed life to sustain until ill modern banking worked its way westward. So so so is bartering and banking, I mean bargaining and banking, I mean bargaining and bartering the same thing. They're close I mean, a bargain would be considered something that would be, you know, a good deal. You know, you know, if you could buy twelve bags of potatoes for the same price from one vendor that someone else might be only giving you ten, then the twelve bag option for the same price would be a bargain. But bartered, on the other hand, would be you know, if the guy who had ten bags of potatoes wanted cash only, but the guy with twelve bags would be willing to exchange something that you had, like fresh eggs or you know, a livestock or seamstress, you know, work or something like that in exchange for the potatoes. That would be considered a barter because it's it's an exchanging something with a false monetary value that's agreed upon between the two people. So it's not exactly cash, it's something different. So okay, all right. So why don't you go ahead and buddy, and we'll do your next one. All right. So my next one is kind of an everyday carry item for cowboys, but with it comes a lot of good skills to know and things that could either you know, save your life or give you just keep you happy in general. And that's just a simple good knife, not too big, not you know, a tiny little whittling knife. But as far as I know, cowboys kept a good knife on them everywhere they went, even when they didn't bring their rifles anywhere. And this was because it was like a multitude for them. They could. Skin, which was one of you know, an important thing because you know, you got your hunting and you got to know how to retrieve the meat from it. You don't know how to make your hunting. So yeah, all that. So skinning is a good skill that comes with having a knife, but you can also practice self defense and like any pretty much anything that we do with our multitools today. And since these it's kind of like, if you think about it, this a knife was a multitool for cowboys in their time period, but nowadays the leatherman that you walk around with your pocket in your pocket every day would be your multitools. So in a sense, we still is that you know, good knife that the cowboys used. It's just more evolved. It's just more like innovated. Yeah, and you know that I will say that, you know, because of some of the innovations to knives and some of the laws regarding knives. You know, you're you know, a typical hunting knife was something that you know, everybody used to carry and it you know, it might have a six or eight inch blade on it on average. And one of the things about it is that you know that the knife evolution, like you mentioned, has actually reduced the size, reduced the quality and reout not entirely. I mean they're but I guess what I'm getting at is that some knives are they're not as versatile as what they would have used back then, And partially it's because of the laws that have been enacted to prevent you know, large knives being carried around and you know, large, largually populated areas. So I mean, yeah, you've got your multi tool, but I can guarantee you you're not going to be able to do as much with your leatherman as you would with, for example, you know, an eight inch buck knife out in the woods. I mean it, it's just. Not going to cut out, yeah, for sure. I mean they didn't carry like hatchets and axes and things like that. They had their knife, right, and the knife can be used the same way a hatchet could. I mean, you've seen those videos where they take, you know, split rounds of wood and turn it into kindling by just simply putting that eight inch knife on top of it and pounding down with another piece of wood like that was their hatchet, yep. And you know, it's a really important tool, and it's one of the things that came out of of the Old West that in some ways it's it's still very important, but it has been restricted in a lot of ways. So definitely good to try and recover some of those skills to a lot of bushcraft and stuff that happens as a result of trying to salvage that kind of lifestyle and skill set is pretty important. So I think the next one, the last one that I had was on horsemanship. So obviously because of what cowboys were doing, and because of what people were doing out west and the value of livestock, cowboys were the defenders of the flocks. Their responsibilities and their livelihood were directly tied to keeping livestock fed, watered, and transported from point A to point B. And this included all of the dangers along the way and defending the herd against all this. So horsemanship and being able to perform your duties on horseback was critical. It was a critical skill. Fast forward to today, horsemanship is almost lost upon the general public, But back then it was one of the keys to survival. So as a cattle hand, horsemanship was a skill that was not only common, but it was, you know, something that nowadays would probably be similar to like if you were an armored truck driver, where you're always watching, you're always vigilant, and you've got a payload of something that you have to be able to protect and move from one location to another. One of the other things about horsemanship is it allowed for travel through these harsh environments. You know, it was a form of escape and invasion tracking in some cases when people were you know, when like federal officials were tracking vigilantes or people who were escaping law or criminals or whatever. And in some instances it helped people to secure employment by just by being able to handle a horse. And horses, especially in this region, I don't think people realize how critical horses were with regard to farming. Small farms required exceptional care of horses to be able to till the soil, run supplies, perform worked erect structures, and communicate from one region to another. Maybe one of the greatest influences of horses, especially when it comes to communication, was that of the pony Express. And for those of you who don't know what the pony express was, this is where writers would coury your messages on short sprints and it was one of the most effective methods to relay a message from one part of the country to another. And yeah, go ahead. Did you say horses were required to build structures. Yeah, actually so you would use a horse and rope and pulley system to lift wall structures up. So a lot of the barns and stuff. Yeah, so they were used. Go ahead, I was picturing a horse and a hard hat holding a hand. Oh not quite, not quite, well, the guys, it depends on the size of the guy who's wearing the hard hat, I guess. But anyways, yeah, the pony Express. You know, one of the ways that they were able to courier messages was by taking short sprints and running several horses. But even then it took ten days to get a message from New York to San Francisco, and that was fast at the time. So no satellites, no internet, no phone lines, no phones. Your only lines of communication was an ink pen and a piece of paper and the Pony Express. I'm gonna drop a link into the chat room just kind of for those of you who are interested in this kind of stuff. And while I do, Colin, why don't you go ahead and make mention of your last point and then we'll get into the pinite sized prepper project. All right, So my last point is, and I'll just say this before state our last point, is that I've kind of noticed a pattern a little bit. So we've talked about horsemanship and guns, and guns led to precision of hunting and trapping and trapping to knives and skinning, but we don't have any way to actually cook the meat that we've retrieved from hunting. So I figured we'd talk about the skill of fire starting. And one thing that I had no idea that cowboys usually kept on them was a tinder box. So it's just like. A regular box, I'm assuming probably the size are, you know, similar to the size of a cigar box, maybe a little smaller, that just had a bunch of dry tinder that cowboys would pick up during their travels and would just throw it in there, and inside they would keep a book of matches and that was that was it. That's pretty much what they had for fire starting at the time, because I don't even know if flint and steel was around. But this is like the the og fire starting kit that you know we buy at Walmart or offline or whatever that has your like the pellet material and fancy lighters and things like that. So this was like what they had. It's just tinder and matches. And if I had a box that I kept on me all the time and I picked up anything dry that I might be able to light on fire, then we might actually start a fire sometime, you know, be able to get one going in the winter. But I didn't know that. I just assumed they carried their their revolvers, their lassos and their cowboy hat. But fairly they're a little bit more resourceful than I assumed. Well yeah, and you know, the the culture of the campfire stories when it comes to Western legends and lores is actually it's pretty it's pretty interesting, you know, the ability to go through and create a fire at a moment's notice, when you know you might have almost nothing for a shelter, but you know you've got to be able to at least boil some water, or get some sort of meat heated up, or just get enough warmth to where you don't freeze to death at night. I mean, fire starting is probably I got to say, that's a great way to wrap up that skill set portion of the show. So before we get into the pinsized Prepper of Project of the Week, I wanted to share with everybody something that I identified as probably the number one thing that helped when it came to stabilizing the West. And I'm going to drop a couple of links in the chat room. One of them is an image and the other is let's see if that came through. Okay, maybe I can't see if that worked or not. One of them is an image and the other one is an article on the prens the ten excuse me, the ten principles of the Cowboy Code and how they apply today. So I just wanted to take a second and read to everybody what this code was. And for those of you who aren't familiar with this, the Cowboy Code of the West, or the Code of the West is it sometimes known, was a way for people to get along even without the rule of law, and it allowed people from all over the country essentially to be able to come in contact with each other and either exchange goods or services, or you perform work or do whatever needed to be done to keep things going and to keep society afloat. So in no particular order, I wanted to share with you, there's ten of them, and I'll just go ahead and read through these for those of you who don't have access to the chat. But one is live each day with honesty and courage. Two is take pride in your work. Three is always finish what you start. Four, do what has to be done. Five, be tough but fair. Six When you make a promise, keep it. Seven, ride for the brand. Eight, talk less and say more. Nine remember that some things aren't for sale. And ten know where to draw the line. And there was a couple of other ones out there that I found, such as, you know, be a good steward for the land and its animals, put the welfare of your family above your own. Study hard and learn all you can, stay curious and open minded things like that. Essentially, be a good person. Colin, did you have something you want to add to that? No, I just it's funny because those about five out of those ten that you just listed that are pretty much the core of a few of Gibbs rules. I don't know if there's any of you guys watching CIS out there, but oh, Gibbs guy said of a bunch of rules and the like at least five that you just mentioned, we're a lot like a few of Gibbs right well. And there's actually there's been a recent uptick and interest and in this Code of the West because of ethical problems that are happening around the world. And at what point do you step up and take the Code of the West and own it as a person in an environment where there is no rule of law. You know, for most people, if they don't have a code, if they don't have rules, or they don't have a set of conduct that they stick to and adhere to and live by, a lot of times things can go farther south instead of in the right direction. So with that, let's take a few minutes and we'll talk about the pint sized Prepper project of the week. And I'm gonna go ahead and call on once you go ahead and take this away. We're running short on time, so let's go ahead and let us know kind of what this project is and how it worked out for you and how people can make this at home. All right, Yeah, so I just want to start off by saying I haven't got it up to the Instagram yet, but I will. I just finished this project ten minutes prior to uh, you know, airtime, so I will get it up there after the show. But anyway, we made a I put together a cowboy a wintertime cowboy bedroll, and basically what it is is a sleeping bag. But because they didn't have under you know, freezing temperature degree sleeping bags, they had blankets and that's that's pretty much it. So if when you see those blankets that are rolled up and stuck to the saddle of your of their course, then they probably used this method that I found online and I'll put the link. In the chat. But it's just it's basically a sleeping bag, and it's all in the way you fold it, because depending on how you fold it depends on how layer you are and how warm you're gonna stay. So first you're. Gonna want to round up. You're gonna want to round up like an inflatable one person mattress of any kind. You can either use the I mean, I know they didn't have these during that time, but you can use the memory foam ones that only come off like one to two inches off the ground. And you're gonna want to lay that on the ground and then have. You're gonna want to round up one of those mattresses, a large, heavy comforter of some kind and preferably smaller in size and weight. We'll blanket that you're gonna put on the inside so that'll keep you nice and snug. So you put this mattress on the ground, and then on top of that, you're gonna put the larger comforter, and you're gonna want the comforter to be. Either twisted so that the. Top and bottom of the mattress are at the corners of the blanket, because when you end up folding it, you're gonna start with the corner of each woolen and comforter folding over your feet. So once you have the mattress laid down, you're gonna lay the woolen blanket on top of the comforter and then just lay on your mattress pretty much. And since your feet are pointing at the corner, you take the corner of the woolen blanket because that's on the very top and fold it over your feet. Then you can take either side of the bottom and fold it over yourself. And then once you have both sides, since you have had the corner of the blanket, that's one layer, fold one side over. That's an extra two layers, so you got three layers, and then you fold up the other side over, and then you have five layers. So that's five layers alone covering your feet and the rest of your body. And then you just repeat the same exact thing with the comforter, and by the end of it, you just made a giant sleeping bag. Yeah, you're kind of concooned in there. And. Yeah, and the best way I can describe it. Is a like a taco but one side is open, yeah, because you kind of fold one side in and then roll it up. So if any of you out that top part, that top part open, the top open part just goes right over your body. And this is better than a sleeping bag because often you're sleeping inside your sleep and you're breathing inside of it, and it can often get sweaty, and not only bacteria build up, but you can get wet, and you can get pneumonia. So the blank is better because it doesn't get wet. Right. Well, this is for those of you who are having hard time visualizing this. If you've ever had to swaddle a baby, it's almost identical to doing that. So it's kind of a neat way of to demonstrate, you know, this method of basic shelter and survival with minimal gear. That a little bit of connection with our ancestors of the West for those of you who are out this way and understanding how layers impact body heat. So that's a great project, buddy. I'm glad you're able to do that and kind of show folks how that worked. Yeah, it was actually pretty fun. Yeah one like my brothers and I work. Grab those blankets and just roll Yeah, just roll roll. Up in a blanket. Well, for the final takeaway, I think it's important to recognize a few of the unspoken truths about the Old West. The fact that westward expansion had its moments of violence and disturbing tales is one that can't be overlooked. But on the over But on the other hand, in my opinion, what held true as the greatest survival skill was adherence to a simple code even in a world without rule of law. The Old West has an overarching theme that mankind has an opportunity to prevail with the help of communities, common decency, and maybe a little help from a cult. Modern conveniences have put us a far distance from that lifestyle and what some deem bushcraft today was everyday life back then. But there's always a chance that an event, or a situation or an environment could send us back several hundred years. At that point, we as preppers around the world, must recognize the power of integrity, hard work, honesty, and living a life of honor, especially during phases of anarchy. Lastly, in case you missed it, we had a great show with James Walton teaching kids to Phish Survival for a Lifetime where he came on and talked about the life lessons of fishing. It was a great show and remember if you miss out, you can always check on our previous episodes by going to the show page or on your favorite streaming service, and while you're there, be sure to leave us a five star review. It helps to boost our presence and allow us to share this message with other people out there. Next week, we're going to be balancing out today's show with some survival skills of the Native American cultures that help them survive for centuries across the continent. Well that's it for today everyone. Thanks for joining us on the Next Generation Show, and don't forget to tune in next Sunday where we explore another aspect of the little things in life that make all the difference in the world. This is your host, Ryan Buford and your co host reminding you to stay informed, get involved, and be prepared. Have a great night, everybody, and make it a great week.