{"product_id":"rough-breaks-a-wyoming-high-country-memoir-9780806143750","title":"Rough Breaks: A Wyoming High Country Memoir","description":"When twenty-eight-year-old Laurie Wagner hired on at the O Bar Y Ranch in western Wyoming, she was a novice to ranching life but no stranger to isolated locations. As revealed in her celebrated memoir \u003ci\u003eWhen I Came West, \u003c\/i\u003e Laurie had already spent years living in a rustic cabin in the Montana wilderness with a troubled Vietnam veteran. \u003ci\u003eRough Breaks\u003c\/i\u003e recounts the next chapter in her life, beginning with her painful break from Bill Atkinson, and unfolding into a modern-day saga of life on a remote cattle ranch. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Written in the author's trademark lyrical style, \u003ci\u003eRough Breaks\u003c\/i\u003e is based on the diaries Laurie kept for nearly six years as she lived and worked on the O Bar Y. Central to the story is Mick Buyer, a cowman stubbornly committed to holding onto his beautiful piece of land in the Wyoming high country and continuing the way of life he learned from his father and grandfather. As his marriage begins to fail, Mick and Laurie develop an increasing affection for each other, even as she also becomes close to his wife, their children, and neighboring ranchers. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e With grace and wit, Buyer evokes the joys and travails of life on a ranch--cutting and baling hay, repairing old vehicles and machinery, fixing fences, birthing calves, tending to beaver dams and elk herds, and struggling to pay the mortgage and endless veterinary bills. In the spirited tradition of Teresa Jordan and Mary Clearman Blew, \u003ci\u003eRough Breaks\u003c\/i\u003e is a uniquely honest and heartfelt contribution to the realm of memoir by contemporary women ranchers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eBuyer, Laurie Wagner:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cb\u003eLaurie Wagner Buyer\u003c\/b\u003e, an award-winning poet, memoirist, and novelist, spent more than thirty years living in the backwoods and working on remote ranches in the Rocky Mountain West. The author of \u003ci\u003eWhen I Came West, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eAcross the High Divide, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eSide Canyons, \u003c\/i\u003e and\u003ci\u003e Spring's Edge, \u003c\/i\u003eshe currently resides in Llano, Texas.","brand":"University of Oklahoma Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50413121437970,"sku":"9780806143750","price":24.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_b94b8688-4b76-4ecb-935c-9af121dead1c.jpg?v=1729347832","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/rough-breaks-a-wyoming-high-country-memoir-9780806143750","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}