Penitas, TX – Feb. 2-8, 2025

It is not often that a song has its own website, but “Night Rider’s Lament” is one of those. nightriderslament.com Michael Burton, a rancher in Arizona, wrote the song based on a true life experience. It has been recorded by artists from Garth Brooks to Nancy Griffith. I’ve never worked as a cowboy, but I’ve enjoyed “after midnight” experiences in some rugged areas, including hiking in southern Colorado by the light of a near-full moon.

One night while I was out a ridin’    The graveyard shift, midnight ’til dawn The moon was bright as a readin’ light For a letter from an old friend back home And he asked me

Why do you ride for your money       Tell me why do you rope for short pay You ain’t a’gettin’ nowhere                       And you’re losin’ your share
Boy, you must have gone crazy out there

MDS volunteers typically enjoy experiences similar to those shared by cowboys on ranches and cattle drives. Those include working together, shared bunk rooms, eating meals together, telling stories (some of which might be true) and sharing free time. Regardless of where a volunteer has served with MDS, the pay is the same and the sense of being away from regular family and friends is shared. People who have never served may not understand and could ask questions similar to those found in the song.

Almost the entire family of short term and long term volunteers was new as February began in Penitas, Texas. Long term volunteers from Ohio and Michigan arrived to join a few holdovers, also from Ohio and Michigan. The short term volunteers came from Upstate New York.  Several are experienced MDS “Hands & Feet” who’ve served as many as 13 different times. Conversations around the tables at Monday morning breakfast revealed some were related and many shared common acquaintances.

As the work day began, our third house was started on a clear, open site. While the foundation was being laid and sub-floor framing set, part of the team put a first coat of paint on all of the exterior siding and trim. Setting up the exterior and interior walls soon followed, along with the placement oftrusses, laying underlayment, and installing windows and doors.

At the two houses started in January, the hanging of drywall was the task for Monday and Tuesday. By the end of the week, the taping, floating and finishing work was well underway. Several volunteers can check off a higher experience rating the next time they serve with MDS.

Ah but they’ve never seen the Northern Lights

They’ve never seen a hawk on the wing

They’ve never spent spring on the Great Divide

And they’ve never heard ole’ camp cookie sing

In the hard work of being a cowboy, there is an opportunity to be in the wide expanses of the outdoors. This gives access to sights and sounds whose joy exceeds the difficulties experienced in the job. As an MDS volunteer here in south Texas, along with building houses, we have the opportunity to see the parade of planets in the night sky; observe Hawks, Chachalacas, and Mockingbirds, take part in some great singing and meet the people living in this near desert landscape.

Well I read up the last of my letter And I tore off the stamp for black Jim And when Billy rode up to relieve me He just looked at my letter and grinned

At the end of next week, MDS will celebrate the 75th year of its existence. The people who gather there will greet each other and grin at their shared knowledge. Just like old-time cowboys, they all know how to answer these MDS variations of the questions in the song.

Why do they work for no money?    Why did they travel all that way? They’re in the middle of nowhere,          And losin’ out on fun here,
Boy, they must’ve gone crazy out there.

Some people might call us crazy, but I call us blessed.

From the MDS Penitas Response in Hidalgo County, Texas

Brenda, Bernice, Joanna, Melissa, Jay, Jason, Layne, Ryan, Kraig, Ben, Laura, and Carl