EXCERPT: The U.S. Forest Service took aim at an icon of the Old West and shot itself in the foot…The feds want to round up and eliminate horses living wild on the lower Salt River in the Tonto National Forest. Not surprisingly, this misguided plan was greeted with public anger. The horses are beloved and far more attractive than many of the people you see in bathing suits along Arizona waterways.

Click HERE to Read More:

http://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/editorial/2015/08/04/forest-service-horses/31120771/

Excerpt:

When Eph got to the ranch he found the lady cook was gone and wouldn’t be back for a few more days. None of the cowboys was willing to volunteer for midwife duty. The young man was stuck. There was no doctor, no hospital, no midwife, no woman, no relative, and no friend to come to his aid and help him deliver his sister’s baby. Panic overwhelmed him as the reality set in.

As the boy turned to go back to his sister’s cabin with his heart in his throat, one of the cowboys handed him a doctor book. “The part about delivering babies is on page twenty-three. Good luck, kid.”…

To read more from Tom McCourt’s book on Bill Tibbetts, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/08/02/an-excerpt-from-last-of-the-robbers-roost-outlaws-moabs-bill-tibbetts-part-1-by-tom-mccourt/

EXCERPT: ‘Participation sounds egalitarian, but it leads to some interesting contradictions. The most elaborate camps and spectacles tend to be brought by the rich because they have the time, the money, or both, to do so. Wealthier attendees often pay laborers to build and plan their own massive (and often exclusive) camps. If you scan San Francisco’s Craigslist in the month of August, you’ll start to see ads for part-time service labor gigs to plump the metaphorical pillows of wealthy Burners.

‘The rich also hire sherpas to guide them around the festival and wait on them at the camp. Some burners derogatorily refer to these rich person camps as “turnkey camps.”’

Click Here to Read More

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/08/burning-man-one-percent-silicon-valley-tech/

Excerpt:

I love to see horses out in the fields. I hardly ever see more than a handful at a time, grazing among the tall grasses, and pawing the ground. Occasionally one starts and prances toward the fence line, for reasons left unknown. But I have never seen a horse at work in those fields. I have never seen a horse engaged in industry, and I doubt that I’m the only one. The population of horses in this country, which was enormous in the 19^th century, fell off by nearly half in the first 30 years of the 20^th century, and then by 90% by the 1950s. Their services were rendered useless, in a span of 50 years, by technological innovation.

And that brings me to why I am thinking about the horse today. I am thinking about the horse because it was once essential, and thanks to technology, now it is only lovely. The horse is now only a reminder of a less efficient time. And soon the average worker will be the same…

To read more of Tonya’s article, click the image below:

http://www.canyoncountryzephyr.com/2015/08/02/sowing-clover-the-end-of-work-by-tonya-stiles/