The Home Ranch

Little Britches #3

by Ralph Moody, Edward Shenton (illustrator)

Ralph Moody turns again to Colorado, the scene of those two delightful earlier books about his boyhood, Little Britches and Man of the Family.This is an extension of Mr. Moody's recollections of his twelfth year, and fits withing the framework of Man of the Family between chapters 25 and 26.The Home Ranch has all the warm and wonderful ingredients which made his first two books such universal favorites with readers of all ages. The book teems with exciting and poignant incidents and with memorable characters, most of them good, kindly, generous people--though there is a villain. Mr. Moody is at his best in picturing a young boy's struggles with economic and other adversities, and having lived through them himself, he writes with such convincing honesty that the reader knows that this is the way things were.Highly recommended for all readers from nine to ninety.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Westerns, History, Classics, Memoir, Childrens

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1956

About the author

Ralph Moody was an American author who wrote 17 novels and autobiographies about the American West. He was born in East Rochester, New Hampshire, in 1898 but moved to Colorado with his family when he was eight in the hopes that a dry climate would improve his father Charles's tuberculosis. Moody detailed his experiences in Colorado in the first book of the Little Britches series, Father and I Were Ranchers.

After his father died, eleven-year-old Moody assumed the duties of the "man of the house." He and his sister Grace combined ingenuity with hard work in a variety of odd jobs to help their mother provide for their large family. The Moody clan returned to the East Coast some time after Charles's death, but Moody had difficulty readjusting. Following more than one ill-timed run-in with local law enforcement, he left the family home near Boston to live on his grandfather's farm in Maine. His later Little Britches books cover his time in Maine and subsequent travels through Arizona, New Mexico, Nebraska, and Kansas—including stints as a bust sculptor and a horse rider doing "horse falls" for motion pictures—as he worked his way back toward Colorado while continuing to support his family financially.

Moody's formal education was limited, but he had a lifelong interest in learning and self-education. At age 50, he enrolled in a writing class, which eventually led to the publication of Father and I Were Ranchers. In addition to the Little Britches series, Moody wrote a number of books detailing the development of the American West. His books have been described as crude in the language of the times but are highly praised by Moody's readership and have been in continuous publication since 1950.

After a period as livestock business owner in rural Kansas, Moody sent to Massachusetts for his former sweetheart, Edna. They married and moved to Kansas City. They had three children.—Source

Reviews

[Cindy Rollins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am working through this series in audio with the Cameron Bierlie recordings. I really wanted to skip this one and get on to New England with Mary Emma and Company but once I adjusted my attitude I loved hearing about Ralph's summer at the home ranch. These are expertly told stories. Virtue is illustrated in all its glory and humility without ever once watching itself in the mirror.

[Luisa Knight · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun listen! My husband and I did it together whenever we had longer car rides. We laughed quite a bit, enjoyed discussing some of the life lessons Ralph learned, and sharing the sentimental moments together.

This really was a fun story, but it’s not a favorite of the series for two overly picky reasons. Ha, ha! Hazel is kind of a brat and with the cliffhanger at the end of the second book, it was so hard going back in time for the events in this story. Ah! I can’t wait to find out what happens to Ralph and his family!!

A great family read-aloud but it’s also a good audio!

Ages: 8+

Content Considerations: “d*mn” and “h*ll” are used a decent amount. “G*dd*mn” might have been used once or twice. Mentions drinking and alcohol. Some cowhands get into a fist fight. Ralph doesn’t want to tell his mom a few things as he thinks she will worry - kind of sneaks. A girl is sometimes bratty, whiny and tries to get her own way often. A boy says he wants to kiss a girl.

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[Alexis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished reading this book to the boys (8 and 6). As a read-aloud I really can't say enough about this series. First and foremost, these are true stories, a fact that really seems to resonate with my boys. Second, Ralph Moody lives according to a moral code that is impeccable. Moody or "Little Britches" treasures hard-work, honesty, integrity, and goodness. And finally, these stories are just plain fun to read. It is easy to become absorbed in the childhood of Little Britches. Indeed it is a way of life that has long since dissolved in this country, but the need to resurrect the work ethic and values that are evident on every page is sadly evident with one glance at today's headlines. The "Little Britches" series is exceptional, and I enjoy it because the stories are great fun, but I absolutely adore it because of the conversations that it has faccilitated in our house and the emotions we share. The Home Ranch ends with a scene that involves Little Briches and Hazel thanking each other for the summer they have had together. Little Britches explains, "That was the first time I ever wanted to kiss a girl, but I didn't. Hazel whirled away and raced for the house. With my high-heeled boots and chaps on, I couldn't run fast enough to catch her." Seeing the expression on Caden's face as I read that...priceless.

[Christy Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the third book, but chronologically it takes place about 3/4 through the 2nd book. I thought it odd, while reading the second book, that his summer working for Batchlett only took a chapter. I was right, it took a whole book. :).

We really enjoyed the lessons he learned; I like to think of one of them as his Arbinger moment. He saw he was doing the same things that Hank was doing, so he couldn't be mad at Hank anymore and made the appropriate personal changes.

I love how he tries to hold to the values that his parents have taught him, even though he is surrounded by men who might not. He isn't perfect at always doing things they would be proud of, but he tries and makes needed corrections when he doesn't.

[Joseph Leskey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of those truly excellent books. Like its predecessors, the writing within it was incredible and the plot, though the story of a life (a genre which I often don't enjoy all that much), was completely intriguing. It must be said, though, that Ralph Moody had a life that was a bit more eventful than the average person's.

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Home Ranch is not the Moody's ranch but rather a spread that belonged to one of their neighbors in Littleton. Before even picking up the book, I'd decided that this wouldn't be one of my favorite titles ... a book about moving cattle/milk cows, riding horses, and living out in the weather. I've read several 'cowboy stories,' and they're all pretty much alike.

This one however turned out to be much more interesting, partly because of the characters. I liked the slow-talking, easy-going guy who more than pulled his weight on the ranch, and Hazel adds a whole new angle. She's one of the kids on the ranch and she wants to learn to do some trick-riding. Head strong and determined, she's a match for Ralph ... and the book is dedicated to her.

[Shannon Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you’re feeling the weight of the world because of all the sad things happening, read a Ralph Moody book. Reading about all the honorable and humble people from the past is comforting and when a dishonorable character comes into the story the honorable people always set them right. It’s so satisfying.

[Dwayne Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Driving milk cows on the Colorado range in the early 20th century, a young man learns about horses, cattle, and men.

This Little Britches series is delightful, descriptive, and adventurous. It paints a picture of the American West that isn't seen in the movies or television. And it rings true.

[Celeste Batchelor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I do enjoy seeing things from Little Britches point of view. Some of the phrases make me laugh out loud. I can see a young man with the desire to make his parents proud at every turn and feeling real shame when he doesn't measure up. It is a real shame that our youth of today do not have these qualities. What a better place the world would be if we all had principles to live by like they did then.

My wish is that every family would read these books together and discuss them. There is no discussion on specific religious beliefs. No clear set of how or what they followed, except there is a clear impression gained by the reader that Ralph had very clear and concise morals, as did almost all of the other characters in the book. Where did they get those morals from? How did they know how to behave? And, maybe most important of all, how did they all seem to know the same set of morals?

[ValeReads Kyriosity · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've got boys, and you're not feeding them this series, yer doin' it wrong.

[Jordan Carlson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This series has been such a blessing to my family. Listening on audio with ages 2-15, plus mom. These are shared memories and I love the stories (& narrator). Longing for Colorado.

[Adayla · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars

Read aloud to my 10yo and 8yo boys. Great experience, just like the rest of the series so far. This one was just slightly below the enjoyment level of previous ones to me. But my 10yo said it was his favorite so far.

I really admire the way Moody wraps up each book. The books just have such wonderfully written endings. It has been a terrific series to read, discuss, and bond over with my boys. They talk so much during these books.

Also: I think Ralph helps me understand boys better. I just happen to be starting the Little House series over again right now with my younger set of kids and it strikes me every time how perfectly Laura describes the feeling of being a little girl. The way Ralph describes his own experience and hearing my boys talk about it together, Ralph Moody really must do a similar job for them. It's very interesting for me to witness those things that just weren't/aren't a part of my own experience.

My boys might not have been cowhands on a Colorado ranch in the early 1900s, but they sure seem to think they understand Ralph a lot.

I really, really enjoy it.

[Kristin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Popsugar challenge 40: previous year prompt, Book recommended by a friend

A friend recommended all the Little Britches books and I'm grateful! This one features Ralph working on a ranch for a summer, for the substantial wage of a dollar a day. He combined stories of eccentric, tough cowboys with descriptions of horses and the background's rugged scenes of Colorado to make just a really good book. Maybe my favorite thing about this one, though, was the character development of Ralph and Blueboy but especially Hank.

[Lmichelleb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh, I loved this one! Ralph is growing up, learning to take responsibility for his choices and seeing what true character is. By the end of the book, he has learned to admire and love each of the other cow hands in their way, even the ones he at first found very annoying or too quiet to get to know (except for that scoundrel Trinidad who got what was coming!). The trick riding, the learning how to cut cattle, the trading adventures with Mr. Batchlett: all make for a great story! I'm glad Ralph took the time to tell his adventures from this particular summer.

[Audrey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ralph, aka Little Britches, spends his first summer away from home. As a twelve year old kid he works as cow hand on a ranch in Colorado. Ralph shares his experiences of that summer. This is an highly entertaining book.

[Dorothy Vandezande · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite book of the series! All the stories about ranching and riding and working cattle are so fascinating!

[Kris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably y my favorite of the series.

[Krisette Spangler · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adore this series. They are well written, and I am in awe of Mr. Moody's drive even as a small boy. I highly recommend these books.

[Lacey Fraser · Rating 5 out of 5]

How can all of the Little Britches books be so equally wonderful? Moody is such an excellent story-teller and this book is no exception. 5 stars yet again.

[Anna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know if I really love these books or he just writes for the season I’m in. Perfect match for what I’m looking for.

[Wil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm on a roll...so continued with number 3...I never did decide whether or not I had already read it. Although the novelty has worn off a bit, Moody still brings his youth to life and relates, in a most charming way, the difficulties of a 12-year-old, weighing 75 lbs. and doing the work of an adult cow hand.

[Elaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great installment! This kid had a fascinating life! This one focuses on the summer he worked as a cowhand away at a ranch, for a cattle trader. I think he was 12 years old, among all these older cowhands, and he really held his own! He went through some pretty scary moments-getting lost and almost starving to death, stuck in a dust storm, flash flood, witnessing a pretty bad brawl, and then riding all night for 70 miles, part of it on his own, in search of his employer. What 12-year-old kid today could find his way for 70 miles, in the dark, on horseback, searching for a herd of cows, in an area he's only been once in his life, without any trails, but just using river beds and clumps of trees and distant mountains and hills as landmarks? I thought it was a wonderful insight into how he experiences all this through the eyes of a young teen-trying to prove his worth, finding his place among grown men, developing a friendship with a girl, making mistakes and learning from them. It had a good bit of humor too, with the zany other characters in the book with whom he worked. It was definitely an interesting time period!

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

August 2016:
I appreciated it much more this time.


October 2014:
While I hated the fact that Man of the Family ended in the middle of a crisis and that this was the next book in the series (and it goes backward in time to the last 1/3rd of Man of the Family) the book itself is part of Ralph Moody's fascinating and moral childhood. I was as impressed with this book as I was with the first or second. I think that Mary Emma and Company is probably the very best of the series (closely followed by The Fields of Home) but I can see that this book is more representative of what Ralph really wanted out of life. In Man, Mary Emma and Fields of Home, Ralph is just trying to make good on tough situations. In The Home Ranch, we see Ralph really coming into his own and doing something that he passionately loves (and seems to have been made for).

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was our most recent family read aloud. I LOVE this Ralph Moody series, as does my entire family. While we enjoyed this book, we really yearned to get to the next book where the story continues. This one just went back and was about a time period during the second book that Ralph spent on a cattle ranch. We liked the book, but are way excited to get to the next one!

[Amanda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another read through. This time with the younger boys. I love these books.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

The writing transports this suburbanite right out to the American West and sets her down in the middle of cows and horses!

In this book, the third of the Little Britches series, Ralph takes us back to that summer he quickly mentioned and then passed over in his last book, the summer he left his family to go work on a ranch for Mr. Batchlett. He has been the man of his family and the star of rodeos and races in his area of Colorado, but he is smart enough to know that he doesn’t know everything about being a cowboy, and needs to pay attention to the right people and animals on his new job.

The book is dedicated “to Hazel,” and we slowly discover that Hazel, a girl with just about as much spunk and drive as Ralph, works hard in the ranch kitchen, but doubly hard as a cowgirl on the ranch. Ralph gets to teach her some of his riding tricks and she teaches Ralph about finding cows and their calves out in the scrub brush.

Ralph learns about how to deal with the other ranch hands. He sometimes finds grace wins the day, and he learns how to spot the rare man who is past being offered a second chance. He keeps meaning to write home to mother to tell all his adventures, but the letters get put on the back burner.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though it has a different feel from the previous two books in the series because Ralph's family is not a part of it, it is just as outstanding. Ralph tells of the summer he was 12 years old, away from home working as a cowhand on Mr. Batchlett's home ranch - making a man's wages.

One of my favorite characters was cowhand Zeb, who with his quiet and unassuming way teaches Ralph a lot about life. And Ralph's friendship with Mr. Bendt's spirited daughter Hazel is sweet; she teaches him about rounding up cows and he teaches her horse-riding tricks. One of the most memorable scenes for me is the bunkhouse fight - Trinidad fighting with Sid and then Zeb was intense. My boys were on the edge of their seats with excitement.

Ralph is such a great example for kids - hardworking, honest, and respectful. This series is a treasure.

"When you're looking at somethings beautiful and grand and sort of peaceful, it always seems nicer to be with someone who doesn't talk."

"nothin' worth while gets learnt easy"

"I guess I don't know much about women, but they're an awful lot harder to figure out than horses."

[Michael Berges · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best one so far, I like the story being isolated over just one summer of activities for Ralph...and what a summer it was. If these are true stories, I just can't imagine how any young teenager survives some of the exposure of the events; lost in the mountains, lost in a dust storm, horse round ups, trick riding, charging cattle, bunkhouse fights, and canyon floods...to name a few. It's all believable though by the way the story reads, except for one thing; distances. The story often refers to cattle 3 miles away or 8 miles that way or 20 miles to this such canyon and so forth; I think most his reculection on how far things were is stretched, everything seems miles and miles away when you're young. I've been around cattle my whole life and live on the western plains; there's just no way standing out here at point A and looking out even 3 miles to point B and realizing how far that would be on horseback; that cattle seperate as far as Ralph often talks about.

[Candice · Rating 4 out of 5]

These books from Ralph Moody are pure goodness. This is Ralph’s first extended time away from home as a wage-earner. He is 12. He struggles to learn some hard lessons about assuming that he is always right. The book describes complex and believable characters. We watch them grow and change through the story just as Ralph does. There are foolish people who learn some lessons. There are taciturn people who surprise you with action at just the right time. There are also cruel people who refuse to learn or change.

I like learning about the innards of a working ranch along the Colorado Front Range at the turn of the 20th century. But it is even more interesting to learn about young Ralph’s struggles to grow into a mature person while earning a man’s wage.

I hope to complete the entire series.

[Abigail · Rating 5 out of 5]

My favorite of the series so far. This one is all about Ralph's summer on the Home Ranch working for Mr. Batchlett. He has a lot to learn, picking his string of horses, learning to herd and cut cattle, learning how to find cows in the brush, learning how to fell trees to make fence posts. Then there are all the disasters: getting lost in the mountains, the dust storm, the cloudburst, this terrible hand named Trinidad who keeps whipping Ralph (literally with a whip) and fights the other hands. A girl on the ranch who is Ralph's age begs him to teach her trick riding, so after riding and working all day they practice together. So many fun parts to this book. We see Ralph grow up a little and he does a man's job at the Home Ranch.