When coming up with the idea for the Mighty and McGriff series, the idea for the story taking place on a ranch seemed automatic, but upon reflection, my background and desires both played into my decision. After all, where we come from motivates and determines who we want to become and the stories we want to tell.
My dad was born at the same time his dad was completing basic training for Vietnam. He and four of his brothers grew up on a quarter horse ranch between Circle and Wolf Point. As you can imagine, those boys most likely ran a muck out there on the prairie. My Grandpa Rex Taylor was raised on the same ranch and his mother, Daisy, was also born on the ranch in the early 1900’s. What’s crazy to me when hearing about my dad’s upbringing is that only a generation ago, he and his brothers rode horseback to Prairie Elk School-a one room schoolhouse practically in the middle of nowhere, Montana. Most days my Grandma Onie kicked the boys outside and they would spend all day exploring the ranch. It’d take a woman of strong faith to release her kids out onto a landscape full of rattlesnakes and whatever other dangers could be lurking in the wild. It could have also been my grandma at wits end being bottled up with five boys and needing a little space. Can you blame her? But I admire that type of freedom parents gave their kids back in those days. They let their kids be kids and do much of their learning through adventure, and helping out on the ranch of course. My dad spent many summers with his Grandpa Leo racing horses at the fairgrounds in Great Falls. Growing up around horses and the hard work it takes breaking and training them was like second nature. It takes a certain level of toughness to live that lifestyle out on a ranch.
My mom grew up on a sheep farm in Sheridan, Montana. She was one of seven siblings. My Grandma Betty Bieler had a large garden and much of what they ate came from that garden and whatever tags they filled during the hunting season. How empowering it would be to live off the land and be able to feed a family of 9, certainly not without a lot of hard work and sacrifices, but still just as admirable. My Grandpa Art was in the army stationed in Italy and was honorably discharged just before the start of the Vietnam war. After that, he worked many years with the forest service. Grandma Betty spent her days caring for her children, cooking meals, working in the garden, taking care of the sheep, irrigating, and the other endless tasks that are required on a ranch, not to mention the stress of keeping track of seven kids running wild.
Today in the world of social media the “ranch lifestyle” often gets glorified, but I do think there has been a shift in recent years that has drawn people back to wanting that type of lifestyle and upbringing for their own family. There’s something about the idea of having a little slice of God’s creation to call your own, long days spent caring for and tending to the land and livestock that provides for your family, and putting down roots and establishing values that last from one generation to the next.
A lot of the values I want to pass on to my kids come from the values of my family and the difficult, but rewarding lives they lived growing up on farms and ranches. Though I didn’t get to grow up on a ranch, hearing the stories and the adventures of my parents' childhood has given me a desire to one day give that opportunity to my children. I felt inspired to write The Adventures of Mighty and McGriff so kids could imagine and experience a little bit of what it would be like to grow up on a ranch and have a world of adventures right out their front door.
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