Never Burn Your Moving Boxes: A True Tale of a Real-Life Cowboy Wife

Never Burn Your Moving Boxes: A True Tale of a Real-Life Cowboy Wife

A young woman's struggle with marriage and motherhood on some of the most remote ranches in the American West. Jolyn Young grew up in the “real” northern California — the forgotten area at the tip-top of the state with small towns, extreme poverty, and about 40 miles to the Oregonian mountains. In a childhood defined by a subdivision, she decided she wanted to be a cowboy, and two years out of college, she saw that dream through, taking a job at a Nevada ranch in the search for a lifestyle subsisting of horses, cattle, and the wide open range. Falling in love was never part of the plan. Jim Young was tall, strong, and could ride a bronc and rope a steer like no one's business. And before she knew it Jolyn found her cowboyin' dreams overtaken by a new and intoxicating cowboy reality. With long days side by side in the saddle, nights sharing a bedroll, and the deep satisfaction that came with hard physical work in a place filled with natural beauty, it seemed life was all a strong-willed young woman might want it to be. But when a baby-to-be suddenly spun her wild romance into a very practical marriage, and one decrepit ranch trailer home led to the next, Jolyn found her young family desperately seeking stability in what is by definition a transient lifestyle that moves with the seasons. Often hours from the nearest grocery store and half-a-day from the closest hospital, pregnancy, childbirth, and illness required a do-it-yourself mentality. With days, sometimes weeks on her own as Jim worked the farthest reaches of whatever ranchlands they currently called home — and first with one child to care for — and eventually with three — Jolyn fought profound loneliness, finding comfort in writing and company in her camera. As the cowboy lifestyle pulled them further toward the brink of civilization and Jim's drinking became a liability, losing him jobs and sending them packing, again, to yet another, different, distant cow camp, Jolyn struggled with the knowledge that she was choosing a life of scrubbing filthy mobile home floors and bunkhouse bathrooms in order to keep her family together. It would take leaving it, and Jim, for her to determine whether a world built on risk could coexist with the responsible mother she had needed to become. With a memoir that is brave, honest, and heartbreakingly funny, Jolyn Young has written the story of every young adventure-seeker, every new mother, and every partner who has loved an alcoholic in a whole new light — that of a campfire, on the edge of the desert night, miles away from cell phone reception. “ Never Burn Your Moving Boxes is an inspiring story of a woman's strength and determination in the midst of a frontier lifestyle known to few. The book gives an intimate look into Jolyn Young's life as a wife and mother living hours from civilization on some of America's largest cattle ranches. Peppered with humor and heartache, Young paints a brutally honest picture of loneliness, alcoholism, family love, and redemption. It's a narrative told from an unsung hero of the American West—the cowboy's wife.” — Bud Force, Cinematographer and Co-Director of the film Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait “Jolyn tells her unique story with humor, heartache and brave transparency. With authentic descriptions of cowboy life and straightforward accounts of her marriage to Jim, her narrative takes readers on an adventurous journey as unpredictable as roping steers in rocky, sage-infested rangeland.”  —Ross Hecox, former editor-in-chief of Western Horseman Magazine "A comical and unapologetically real story from a woman who not only has saddled the horse but wrangled the crew too—whether it be tough cowboys or kids. You’ll enjoy Jolyn’s adventures down dusty ranch roads!" — Shannon Rollins, Coauthor of A Taste of Cowboy and Comfort Food the Cowboy Way “This book is simply irresistible, refreshing and impossible to put down. Jolyn Young, a mother of three, wife of a true cowboy, takes us on a memorable and deeply authentic journey into her remote and beautiful world and boy, is it a ride! The author is armed with a wicked sense of humor, a strong sense of survival and purpose, and a big, bright, strong, and ultra-fresh female Western voice. Don’t miss this book—it is the real-life experience of a cowboy wife, and a refreshing antidote to the glittery and drama-driven world of ‘Yellowstone’.”  —Feli Funke, Creative Producer of the film Cowboys: A Documentary Portrait “Jolyn Young cleverly paints genuine pictures of ranch life from the perspective of a young woman trying to fulfill her dream of being a respected ranch hand in northern Nevada to unexpectedly becoming a mother and wife to an undomesticated ranch cowboy. Candidly written from the heart, Jolyn’s book is a contemporary Western love story with moments of doubt, strife, humor, and plot twists and turns…. An entertaining read that will take you far from the blacktop and introduce you to a lifestyle few ever truly get to know.” —Jen