Grace

A ranch girl married an alcoholic at sixteen. She was thrust into big city life, a life filled with depression and courage. What she wanted most was to be someones beloved wife and a stay-at-home mom. Women worked in mens trades during WWII then returned to raising families and what was accepted as womens work. Grace began crossing over as a girl; ranch work was gender neutral. In the late 1960s, trying to support five children, she learned how to paint houses inside and out. The early 1970s found her skidding logstwo hundred logs a day with a Pettibone Skidder. When this stopped, she tried for a job with a paint contractor. Working for someone else was scary. Could she meet the standards expected in a trade filled with men? Grace went on to become a journeyman painter, a contractor, a foreman, a supervisor, an addiction counselor, horse breeder, sales, and in retirement, an author. From racing bareback on her favorite horse over the hills and valleys in Western Montana to the Twin Cities and back to her beloved Montana, Graces path was not easy. So many decisions ended up being mistakes. Grace places seventy-six years of life in this book. Her life was controlled by circumstances throughout those years. Because of this, she wore many different hats as she struggled to survive. Eleanor Roosevelt said, You do the things you think you cannot do.