Old ways, new ways

 I've mentioned line shacks in some of my posts.  They are, as a rule, basic shelter for those working too far out on the range to get back to the main ranch. Unless they are in really rugged terrain that requires supply by pack horse, they are pretty well equipped.  There is no electricity of course, nor indoor plumbing, aside from a hand pump raising water from a well.  But there are kerosene space heaters, stoves, lamps and even kerosene-powered refrigerators.  Most of these appliances are many decades old, but they still work just fine.  In the old days things really were built to last.

In some of the older shacks, instead of a kerosene space heater, there is a wood or coal-fired stove. We also use the so-called pot belly stoves to heat the main ranch workshop, bunkhouse, cookhouse, school and church.  They are of different brands and vintages -- US Stove, Ball, Red Cloud, Station Master -- and most are well over 100 years old, having been bought new except for a few of the Balls, which were acquired when Ft. Keogh was disestablished after WWI and some of the Station Master and US Stoves, which were acquired from auctioned-off caboose and railroad station furnishings, I would guess probably in the 1950s and '60s.  They burn coal which we get free by occasionally driving out to where the coal trains take a curve and always spill some. We know several spots like that you can get to in a 4wd. In a couple of hours we can gather enough loose coal to fill a pickup truck bed and trailer.  
I read somewhere some guy saying he had seen a pot belly stove glowing cherry red and putting out so much heat you couldn't get close to it.  I wonder about that.  I've never seen any of these stoves glow cherry red.  I think that would shorten their life and certainly be a waste of fuel.  You can definitely get close enough to them to get toasty warm, pull up a chair and prop you feet up. Some of the stoves have a ring around the  belly where you can rest your feet or -- what I think they are designed for -- place boots or other things to dry.
You always try to burn the minimum fuel and not waste it producing excess heat.  Coal is heavy; you can fill a big old coal bucket, one of those that looks sort of like a pitcher, not round like a water bucket, with about 40 pounds of coal, enough to keep the stove going for a day, depending on how cold it is. Of course, you have to shovel that into the bucket from the coal shed and carry it into the shack, and you really don't want to do that any more often than you have to, especially in winter weather. And then you have to empty the ashes and clinkers and put them in the ash can, a tiresome, messy job you don't want to do any more often than you have to, either.  And then you have to haul the ash can away and empty it.
Coal also costs money if you buy it (duh!), as much as $200 a ton in truckloads. Of course, if you buy it in those little bags at the feed store, it's considerably more.  Fortunately, we don't have to buy it.  If we did, we'd might stop using the pot belly stoves and use kerosene space heaters like we do in most of the line shacks.  But kerosene is expensive at about $10 a gallon, and the space heaters burn about a quart or so per hour.  Plus, of course, we'd have to buy the space heaters.
A ton of coal will last a potbelly stove pretty much through the worst of the winter, a couple of tons will usually last all winter and see some left over you can use next year.  You can't keep kerosene more than a few months so you have to buy fresh every season.  We can pile up coal as we have the time to send somebody out to get a load, so we always have plenty on hand.  The main advantages of kerosene are that it is compact compared to coal and easy to transport and it is much cleaner, both to handle and to burn.  You can also use it as a solvent for cleaning paint brushes and so forth.
We do have some wood burning pot belly stoves and cook stoves in some of the remoter line shacks that can only be gotten to on horseback or foot.  The crew cuts their own firewood and stacks it.  Naturally, to avoid as much of this hard work as possible, they only burn enough wood to cook with and take the chill off the shack. A roaring fire uses too much wood. And wood for the cook stove has to be cut to a size that fits the fire box, plus you have to split kindling, and nobody wants to do that any more than absolutely needed, especially if you are dead beat from working outdoors in winter weather all day and just want to get warm, clean up, chow down and hit the hay.

A triple-wide mobile home --!

In the large acreages we added to our ranch that I mentioned in an earlier post we are putting in some new line shacks, although they are really a lot more than shacks.  One of them is a triple wide that will be trucked in in sections.  It will have a septic tank and indoor plumbing, and a deep well supplying plenty of fresh water.  It will also have electricity, supplied by solar panels, a wind turbine and a diesel generator, allowing for hot water, central heating and air conditioning.  It will also have satellite TV and internet.  The kitchen will have all-electric appliances.  In addition to the shack, or, really, house, there will be a pre-fab steel building housing a fully-equipped work shop and garage to shelter heavy equipment and other vehicles.  There will of course be a stable and corral.  There is a long-term plan to upgrade all the line shacks to modern standards, most likely by simply replacing them with prefabs or mobile homes. We'll be doing some road improving, too, especially on the newly acquired properties, which were long neglected.

It's necessary to upgrade the line shacks because, increasingly, trustworthy, reliable, hard-working men won't put up with the primitive living conditions of the old shacks.  If we want to keep such men, we have to provide decent accommodations. 

Why mention all this?  I guess for me, although I recognize the need to do this, I regret the replacing of the old with the new.  All those old line shacks, many over 100 years old, some probably almost 150 years old, but always maintained and still fit for purpose after all these years, mostly equipped with original, or certainly quite old, furnishings -- stoves, lamps, beds, tables cupboards and cabinets -- to me maintain an important link to the past and all those who have lived and worked this land for so many generations.  To see them all replaced and abandoned --they'll either be torn down or simply left to fall into ruin -- seems a crime against history.  I know progress is inevitable, but still....

A Boost For Modern Methods

In some respects the old days were perhaps ahead of these,
Before we got to wanting wealth and costly luxuries;
Perhaps the world was happier then, I'm not the one to say,
But when it's zero weather I am glad I live to-day.
Old-fashioned winters I recall—the winters of my youth—
I have no great desire for them to-day, I say in truth;
The frost upon the window panes was beautiful to see,
But the chill upon that bedroom floor was not a joy to me.
I do not now recall that it was fun in those days when
I woke to learn the water pipes were frozen tight "again."
To win once more the old-time joys, I don't believe I'd care
To have to sleep, for comfort's sake, dressed in my underwear.
Old-fashioned winters had their charms, a fact I can't deny,
But after all I'm really glad that they have wandered by;
We used to tumble out of bed, like firemen, I declare,
And grab our clothes and hike down stairs and finish dressing there.
Yes, brag about those days of old, boast of them as you will,
I sing the modern methods that have robbed them of their chill;
I sing the cheery steam pipe and the upstairs snug and warm
And a spine that's free from shivers as I robe my manly form.

~ Edgar Guest