Never Burn Your Moving Boxes

A memoir of a young woman struggling with marriage and motherhood on some of the most remote ranches in the American West.

Jolyn Young grew up in the “real” northern California—the forgotten area at the tip-top of the state with small towns, extreme poverty, and about forty miles to the Oregonian mountains. In a childhood defined by a subdivision, she decided she wanted to be a cowboy, and two years out of college, she saw that dream through, taking a job at a Nevada ranch in the search for a lifestyle subsisting of horses, cattle, and the wide open range. Falling in love was never part of the plan.

Jim Young was tall, strong, and could ride a bronc and rope a steer like no one's business. With long days side by side in the saddle, nights sharing a bedroll, and the deep satisfaction that came with hard physical work in a place filled with natural beauty, Jolyn built her cowboy life with Jim. But then a baby-to-be suddenly spun her wild romance into a very practical marriage. With days, sometimes weeks on her own as Jim worked the farthest reaches of whatever ranchlands they currently called home, Jolyn fought profound loneliness—while raising three young children. And when Jim's drinking became a liability, Jolyn chose to leave the cowboy life and her husband to become the responsible mother she needed to be.

With a memoir that is brave, honest, and heartbreakingly funny, Jolyn Young has written the story of every young adventure-seeker, every new mother, and every partner who has loved an alcoholic in a whole new light—that of a campfire, on the edge of the desert night, miles away from cell phone reception.