Patrick H Boles

Winter on the P Bar J Ranch Patrick H Boles

Publisher Marketing: Winter on the P Bar J Ranch is the second novel set on the P Bar J Ranch. It's wintertime in Northern Arizona and long time Arizona rancher Jeff Dean is looking back at his first winter on the P Bar J Ranch. The story opens in early December 1952 following Jeff Dean's first summer on the P Bar J Ranch in north-central Arizona. Jeff's 12th birthday has come and gone and along with it a lot of the time for playing. Now he is becoming a real cowboy. Jeff and the Howard's twins, Lenny and Lynda, have had to assume more of the day-to-day work on the big cattle ranch run by Jeff's dad, Roy. This is especially true after the old hired hand, Jay, suffers injuries from a fall on a horse while the boys are helping him move a small bunch of cattle. Shortly afterwards Deputy Parker encounters three members of the Owsley family just north of the P Bar J Ranch. Later Jeff thinks that he might have heard a gunshot just as Jay's horse fell. The Owsleys are back ... seeking stolen bank money and revenge. The approach of Christmas 1952 is a stressful time for Jeff since he is faced for the first time with the task of buying a present for a girl ... Lynda. Then as the New Year 1953 nears, a severe blizzard is headed for northern Arizona. As part of their cowboy chores Jeff and his friends take part in cattle drives, repair fences, pull stuck cows out of muddy water holes, and ride through snow to chop ice on troughs and tanks so cattle can get to water. After returning some stray cattle they stumble upon an abandoned cabin in an isolated part of a neighboring ranch where an unsolved multiple murder had occurred almost 20 years earlier. Jeff's dad and Jay accompany another sheriff deputy to investigate a multiple shooting on another ranch. Roy ends up taking the law into his own hands. Things won't be the same on the P Bar J Ranch after the winter of 1952-'53. Childhood is quickly coming to an end.