The Ranch That Was Us

Braiding strands of earthen insight with uproarious storytelling, Texas Hill Country legendary author Becky Patterson recreates the history of the Steiler Hill Ranch in twenty-four anecdotal chapters interspersed with original artwork. The result is a mixture of memoir and montage, treasure chest and tableau vivant of a world that’s beautiful, brash, and wonderfully heartbreaking. Patterson -- the daughter of Texas folk hero and self-proclaimed mayor of Luckenbach, Hondo Crouch -- has big shoes to fill and she does so successfully in this colorful collection of Hill Country and Texas ranch vignettes.

Foreman and general cowboy guru Raymond Kuhlmann tells stories of the Goat King and German drinking songs, the buzzard traps and Mexican corridos that filled the nighttime pastures. First-person accounts and vivid historical narratives evoke the ranch’s past, overlaid with Patterson’s breathless personal histories of afternoons spent rescuing a doe in a nightgown, or saving a porcupine from a pack of dogs.

This is a book that will connect you to whatever patch of earth you hold dear. It is poignant reminder of the landscapes we’ve forgotten to keep close, of the land that does not belong to us but simply is who we are. The Ranch That Was Us is an affectionate reminder to go outside and touch the earth that is you.

Becky Crouch Patterson is the author of the Texas best seller Hondo, My Father, a memoir of life with her folk-hero father, Hondo Crouch, who was a rancher, storyteller, humorist, and self-proclaimed mayor of Luckenbach, Texas. A textile artist for more than forty years, Patterson has sewn appliquéd tapestries for many businesses and individuals. She is also a liturgical artist and designer and has created stained glass windows and furnishings for churches throughout Texas. She is the owner, with her sons Kit and Sky Patterson, of Stieler Hill Ranch, near Comfort, Texas, where Sky is an artist and Kit continues the family’s 135 years of ranching. Patterson helps out with the activities of the ranch, including the Texican Single Action Shooting Society, the hunters, art workshops, and her husband Oscar Barrales’s horse training business.

Willie Nelson is an American country music singer-songwriter and an author, poet, actor, and activist.