lot of love

This is our wedding photo at home on the secound of october 1967

Lot of love

This is a true story of love. The date was Wednesday July 26 1967 a round 1PM mountain daylight time, at 26^th and Washington Boulevard Ogden, Utah. Cliff and I were walking home from the auto parts store with the parts to get his 1952 Oldsmobile back on the road. As we approach the intersection, cliff spotted a girl friend of his coming across the intersection, Cliff called out to her. She was with another girl that cliff also knew. It was hot and Cliff and I want to talk to the girls about going to a movie or a date of some kind so we invited them to have a milkshake at Dick’s café about a half block away.  Cliff and Shana had not seen each other in a little over a year so they were catching up. I was with Ellie, Shana’s girl friend and roommate, she was a cute blond but a little shy, or maybe it was that I could not take my eyes off Shana. We drank our milkshakes and made a date for the coming Friday night, we got the girls address and phone number. The girls lived on 26^th just above Washington and Cliff and I were staying at my folks place. Cliff and I had some work to do to get his car running for Friday night so we had it to go to the movie with the girls. The girls left for home and Cliff and I headed to home to work on the car.

As Cliff and I walk home I ask a lot of questions about Shana trying not to let him know I was interested in her, which was hard.  It was quite obvious Cliff was excited about getting back with Shana and he was making plans. Being he was my best friend I tried to put my feeling some where else.  We worked on the car the rest of the day and got it running about ten that night. I was working the eleven to seven shift at the railroad roundhouse, so I had to go to work. Friday night came and we went to pickup the girls to go to the movie. When we got there my date Ellie had to work. I saw a sign from above there in the girl’s apartment, a rosary hanging on the wall. I ask who it belonged to. Shana said it was hers. But no more comments were made about it. Shana called around to find me a data, with no luck. So we decided to cruse the boulevard to see if we could find me a date. As we cruse the boulevard we got to talking about my horse Ebony, Cliff was driving. Shana wanted to see him so we drove out the pasture where I kept him.

ebony star my horse

Have you ever look for a black horse at midnight in a dark pastures?  Well it was not a real problem all I had to do was call him and he came running at a full gallop. That made Cliff and Shana get on the other side of the fence.  I saddled ebb, and let Shana ride him and Cliff went for a ride also. It was around two am so we took her home and made plans for the next Friday. Later that day I went out to work ebb and clean his stall, after giving ebb a work out I took him down to the river and gave him a bath and cool him out. I was a little tired after the late night and little sleep. So I decided to ride ebb back to the barn, I swung up on his bare back which was wet and slippery. Well I slid right on over his back hitting the ground head first with a out stretched arm to break my fall, and dislocated my elbow and shoulder.  I led ebb back to the barn and the people who I rented the pasture from called the ambulance. Now it is a week in the hospital in traction, and the girls move to a different apartment, and we lost contact with them.

The month of august I spent healing and went on a date or two with another friend and some girl he set me up with. I could not get Shana out of my head and she was Cliff’s girl and we did not know where she had move to. Then on September 4 Labor Day Cliff and I ran into Ellie and Shana downtown at the city park just about where we met in July.  We went to Dick’s again and had a milkshake and we made a date for Friday. Cliff and I had an arrangement he would pay the way on Friday his payday and I would pay the next Friday my payday.  Cliff work from noon to eight, I was on day shift seven to three, when I got off work I went up to Shana’s and Ellie’s place. Shana and I played cards and listen to records till Cliff got off work. Then we waited for Ellie to get off at nine. Ellie called at nine and said she had to work over and would not be getting off till one AM. Shana called around and found me a date for the night her name was Susan we picked her up and we all went to the drive inn movie. Susan was alright but we did not click and we just watch the movie, one of the few times I watch the show. The next Friday we planed to go bowling and again Ellie was a no show and Shana and I played cards and listen to records till Cliff got there. Shana call her friend Gay and we went to pick her up but when we got there she had went with her boy friend Roy before we got there. Well we spent another night dragging the boulevard looking for me a date.  The next Friday a friend of Cliff and I, rick had got a case of beer and want us to go up to ant flats to spotlight rabbits and raise hell, so we loaded up our guns and stop to see if Shana and Ellie want to go rabbit hunting with us. Ellie was not around but Shana came along, we pick up Rick’s sister Barbara, who was my date. The next Friday was the 29 and my pay day, the movie Grand Prix with James Garner was play that night, and I want to see it.  I got off work and went home and cleaned up for the date that night. On my way to Shana’s and Ellie’s I bought a rose and chocolates for both girls. Cliff had got off at six; they had a breakdown at work and sent his shift home. I gave the rose and candy to Shana and Cliff told her that I needed a kiss for that. Wow there was more fire works going off than at Washington DC on the fourth and Times Square on new years. I did not want to stop, Cliff said that enough.  Shana told us the Ellie had move in with her boy friend, and she had set me up a date with her friend Janis. Well we head out two pick up Janis who lived on the way to the drive inn. The car broke down about a half mile from Janis’s house. Cliff and I pushed the car out of the street with Shana behind the wheel. Cliff was very piss off at the car and when we got it off the road he put his fist through the back window behind Shana. He cut up his hand pretty bad and scared Shana to boot. We decided to walk back into town and watch the movie at the walk-in. Cliff was still very upset and walk a head of Shana and I. Shana and I stop at a pay phone and called Janis and told her what had happen, and Cliff had stormed off a head of us.  It was a three mile walk back to the downtown area and the theater. As we walk in a group, Cliff had cooled down a bit; we pass a place call the Mecca, pool hall and beer joint. Cliff spotted a friend that owed Cliff some money in there playing pinball so Cliff went in to collect. Shana was only eighteen and could not go in so she and I waited out side on the street. Now everybody had been pick on my Stetson hat and it was in ruff shape, and we were standing next to the Cross western wear store, so I had Shana help me pick out a new hat while we waited for Cliff. Being I had a pocket full of dough I bought Shana a dark blue hat like mine also. We went back out to see if Cliff was ready to go, but he was playing pinball now and I told him Shana and I would go on down to the show and I would leave his ticket at the box office.

  Shana and I went to the show and watch it for the most part. I was in haven and hell my mine was on all that had happen and I wanted Shana for my own, but she was Cliff’s girl and he was my best friend. How could I tell her how I felt; what if she did not have any feeling for me and what would I tell Cliff?  The show was over and Shana just lived up the hill three block away. As we walk to her place it was sprinkling a light mist, we were holding hands as we walk and made small talk about the show. When we got the corner of her street and a hundred yards from her apartment, I stop her and face her and said “Shana if it were not for Cliff I would ask you to marry me. To hell with Cliff, will you marry me?”  She shouted YES before I could finish and we stood there kissing and hugging till the rain drove us inside her apartment, we were both soak to the skin. Shana made some coffee and got us a towels to dry off. We started to make plans to get married. We were both very excited. I got out my wallet and count what I had there was 97 dollars, I told her we could catch the train to Elko and get married, there was no waiting in Elko and no blood test to get. We had some coffee and tried to go to bed, the time was three thirty and the train left at five. So we decided to walk down to the china night restaurant a block from the train station, and had breakfast. We got on the train and Shana was excited as this was her first train ride and the first time she been out of Utah. As we rode the train we she told me she had the same feeling that first day we met and she was trying to find a way to dump Cliff and still see me. We got to Elko around noon. We took our picture at the Elko train station in one of them photo booths.

we were a little weathered from the rain

Then went to find out where we could get married. As we walk down the street we ran into some people we knew, but we did not know that we were both known by them, and they were the parents of a friend of both of us who was the Roy that Gay had the date with, two weeks earlier. Now this is the third Roy in this story he was the farther of the other Roy. He and his wife stood up for us as best man and bride’s maid.  Shana and I needed some clean clothes and we went to a store and bought matching western shirts.  Then got us a hotel room we registered as husband and wife. The next morning we went to the court house and got married, on October first 1967.

Growing up here in Utah it was hard to find a girl to date that was of my faith as my mother wished, so when I saw the rosary on Shana wall I took it as a sign that she was the girl my mother wanted me to marry. There are many more funny or strange happening to this story.  Shana and I had been in the same place at the same time and had never met many times before we met for the first time. She had been in a photo that was taken of me and some friends when I was about ten years old she had just skated into the picture at the local ice rink. We live less than a mile from each other, and knew many of the same people. Some of my friends became my nieces and nephews when Shana and I got married.

Shana died on the 24 of July but she lives on inside of me and we will be together some day. I hope it won’t be a long wait. He said what god has put together let no man put asunder. God did bless us with each other and his eternal love we share.

This is true as it happened to the best of my memory, there a few things I have left out, but nothing of this story is fiction or a fabrication.

Thank you for hearing our story of love. Your question and comments are welcome I will answer all if I can. I pray that you are blessed by god as I have. Thank you and god bless.

Where have all the flowers gone

Memory lane how do you travel it? Do you walk or stroll, careful now there may be a toll or maybe a troll. Do you flash back like a time traveler, or drift back on a cloud.  What takes you there, a sound, a smell, a word, something you saw or just a thought? Did you go there willingly? Did you have a choice? Did you see black and white still picture or full color movies with sounds and smells? Well I did the other night, it all started with a click of the mouse and I was on a page of a group that were remembering growing up in my home town. There were the ghostly images of places that have long gone away to the wrecking ball and age has made the faces unfamiliar, but I know the some of names of the people. In a black and white picture I saw a face I remembered and the memories were fun. Made a comment and someone commented back.  Back then that person was someone I wanted to get to know, but they were at work and they had a friend already. Needless to say I had a crush on that carhop at the A&W. As we commented online I mention my feeling for her back then, and she said that she wished she knew that then. It’s funny because I did my best to get her to go out with me but I was just another customer out of the hundreds she served each day. It’s been said that you can never go home again. In some ways that is right the buildings are gone the people have moved away but the memories still ride the epoch of time. There is a song by Peter Paul, and Mary that fits this post.

It is easy to get lost down memory lane, I had a hard time finding my way back to the here and now, but it was a fantastic trip, some of my old friends are anew can’t wait till we can have a get to gather and remember the good old days.

Thank you for stopping by and your comments God Bless

lot not

Nothing Arizona

This post is about nothing, and I have nothing to say on the matter.  Now kids know a lot about nothing, just ask them “what are they doing” and they will say “nothing”. Jerry Seinfeld had a show about nothing.  Then there was Sergeant Schultz he saw nothing and he knew nothing. I bought a book once that was all about nothing, it cost nothing and the pages were filled with nothing not even a page number.  Now I have heard that people talk about nothing but they had really nothing to say. Nothing counts for nothing one comma nothing nothing nothing comma nothing nothing nothing stop and take a breath, now that’s a lot of nothing I wished I had that much of nothing. Some people make a lot of nothing out of nothing but it’s nothing. There are a lot of people who have nothing but they have nothing to share. There is the town of nothing in Arizona but here is nothing there.  I wonder if it is like boring that’s in Oregon, I’ve been there and I have drove threw nothing once. Some people do nothing, I don’t know how to do nothing, it may be a dance but I don’t know nothing. There is nothing out there, or up there, or over there, or down there, there in nothing there, I know it’s nothing. Well!  Here goes nothing. I hope you like nothing because there is nothing more.

Thank you for coming by and your comments God bless

Red Alert

SCAM Alert, SCAM alert. I just got off the phone from someone, who claimed to be from Microsoft windows calling to help me remove virus from my computer. He was not too convincing to me; however he may fool someone. He claimed that he was in Dallas Texas. Sorry his accent was not of Texas unless Dallas has move to New Delhi. Microsoft offices are in Seattle Washington. He did not know that. LoL. He wanted access to my computer. Not on your best day with stack of bibles and at gun point am I going to let someone out of the blue have access to my computer. I did not call him and I do not have a problem with virus on my computers I have more than one. So be warned. Sorry folks but that guy must be some kind of a nut case he sure did not do his homework. LoL. (For more on the scam click here)

I wonder it’s the hat or do people think cowboys don't know anything. Now I will admit I don't know a lot of things but I can spot a carpetbagging dude a mile off. Now, unlike a former vice president I did help build the internet and I did have a little to do with the first pc computer. I have built one of many myself from scratch, done a little programming too. Now if I ever get to talk with Bill Gates again, have not seen him since 1986 and he probably doesn't remember me, I will see what he thinks of a customer support service like this. Now on the other hand Steve Jobs, RIP, might think it’s a good idea, but he is not here anymore. Lets face it folks the Cavalry not coming and we will just have to shoot it out with these idiots.  (Pc pointing devices at twenty clicks)

Con artist has been around for a very long, long time. Their biggest victim themselves, believes that they can fool everyone. Once their con is exposed they go back under the carpet to dream up another scam. It’s the old west out there on the internet no law and order, no courts to try the felons. So what can be done about these spammers and scammers? Well here is one thing we can do is pulling the rug out from under them, by reporting on the net every time they show the ugly head. As long as we let these con’s fish they will catch someone or something. (I hope it’s a room with bar on the windows)

Salesman are not much different, I had one the other day try to tell me he could save me half my phone bill if I took his service. Now let us say my bill is a hundred dollars and his service is fifty dollars, so according to him he is going to save me fifty dollars. So he save me fifty dollars on my phone bill and I pay him fifty dollars sorry I must have missed something here I am still pay hundred dollars for phone service, fifty to him and fifty to the phone company. Where is the fifty dollars saving? By the way he was trying to sale me a push button “help I have fallen and can't get up” system. Now I have already put 911 on speed dial on my cell phone. I guess I just save me fifty dollars and if I had five bucks I could go buy a whiskey to celebrate.  Darn I sure miss the days it was just ten cents a shot. Oh well!!!

Thank you for dropping by and your comments God Bless 

lot aliens and more

Aliens and more aliens they just keep coming. The long knives, the hair faces, the white eyes, they come a take our land and kill our buffalo. This was the cry of the Native Americans. Today we are making the same cry only it the illegal aliens the ones from south of the border, the Hispanic, wetbacks, Chicano, Mexicans, whatever you want to call them, that are taking our way of life. 21 billion dollars are sent to Mexico by the illegals and migrant workers each year and they don't pay one dime in tax .Yet we don't have an immigration reform bill, congress is afraid of offending the Hispanic vote. Which only show just how bad the problem is.

When I drive down town I can see the signs, I just can't read them but they're all over. I don't read Spanish. All the places I used to go for a good meal are gone replaced with some El something or other, and then there are those refried beans. They look bad, smell bad, taste bad and belong in the outhouse, could be where they came from.  I turned on the TV and half the local station are how in Spanish. When I go to the store the signs are written in English and Spanish. If I wanted to live in Mexico I would have learned  to read and write in Spanish but I don't I live here and I don't want to learn another language just to live in my hometown. Securing our borders is an almost impossible task; there have been the Great Wall of China as well as the Berlin wall but people found ways around them.  If Mexico were to become the land of milk and honey with gold paved streets, how many would be headed back downstream?

Here is an idea to solve the problem. First we take over the Mexican government and make Mexico a US territory, later we will make it the fifty first state or give it back to Texas after we have it all under control. Then we round up all the indigenous people and put them on reservations. Where they will be schooled in English and social edict like putting the shopping back in the racks when they are threw shoplifting. We could let them off the res to work in the fields then return them to the reservation when the work is done. Those that are already here would be rounded up too and put on the res.  Only those that can prove they are us citizens would be allowed to live off the reservation.  After they have learned English and some manners we will grant them citizenship in five to ten years. Then we could put the drug cartel in control of the reservation and they could and would shoot anyone trying to leave.

If I have offended anyone with this post I am sorry, however I have been offended for years by the words and actions of illegals.  Go home you are not wanted or welcome here. There is no “mi casa es tu casa” we do not believe in it. This is my home and you are not welcome.

Thank you for coming by and your comments God Bless.

lot the Ogden Pioneers Days Rodeo

It’s getting closer just a couple of weeks more and it will start. The Ogden Pioneer Days Rodeo is the event of the summer around here. It’s more than a rodeo there is are art show, craft fairs, farmers market, custom car shows, parades and more. I have not ridden in a rodeo since 1967 but I have not missed many rodeos. I go to watch and remember when. You don’t have to be a top hand to get in the rodeo just be foolish or drunk enough to pay the entry fee. There is one thing about it you will remember it for the rest of your life. I remember my first rodeo; some friends that I was hanging out with were going to one of the small town rodeo in “Corinne, Utah June of 1965”. Chris, one of my friends had entered the rodeo and he kind of talked the rest of us into joining him.  

At this point I had not rode in any rodeo but I had rode a number of green broke  horses and a few wild pony and they did buck a bit. So I was not overly worried about paying the ten dollar entry plus the five per event fee you just had to be in the top four to get your money back. I sign up for the saddle bronco and the bareback events. Now my wallet was twenty buck lighter, and I was starting to be concerned about the missing weight, but they gave me a piece of paper with a number on it and a pair of safety pin to put it on my back. We help each other pin on our numbers then we walk around the stock pin and look them over then went and looked around the vender booths. Now! Those numbers on our back were targets all the girls around there came running like a swarm of bee. We bought a lot of cotton candy and soda pop.

 Then came the call to boots and saddles and the lineup for the grand entry, I was all deck out with girls hair ribbons on both arms, this was starting to be fun. We rode around the arena smiling and waving to the crowd. We left the arena and are back of the chutes get ready to ride. The first rider is out and we all climb the fence to watch, he gets a 63, not bad but not that good the stock are rank and he made the buzzer. Eight second is sure a long time. I am getting second thought about this but Chris gets me ready taping my wrist and boots tops, you do that to keep them from fly off, the boots that is,  he done this a time or two and is good at it. He tells me I can do it. I empty my pockets and take off my watch, it time to get on that beast. Chris is in my ear telling me just what to do but I can't hear him, my mind is screaming “what the hell are you doing”.  The horse I drew was Sun Devil, a golden colored buckskin. I climb up on the bucking chute stall and start to mount. That critter is a snorting and blowing, kicking the heck out of the stall. He settles down a bit and I get on and got screw down. I give them the nod and they turn us out. Where is that pick up rider, where in that buzzer, it’s been over an hour hasn't it, I see the crowd, I see the sky. I see the ground, and then I hear that wonderful sound and see an arm with a way off this thing. The announcer says great ride folks a 78 for Roy from Ogden give him a big hand.

My head is buzzes and every bone in my body hurts, I did not know whether I was up side right or what, I could hear the crowd yelling, maybe I had done something good, I wave to the crowd and smile, I found my way to the fence. And climb over. Then it hit me I got one more ride coming. Oh shit, one was enough.

When the night was over I had won the saddle bronco and got 100 dollar and a silver plated belt buckle and the name and numbers to a dozen girls. Chris won the all around and got 500 dollars and a silver belt buckle, he never said how many number he got. I rode in a few more rodeos over the next two years and only won one more time at Elko Nevada in the summer of 1966.  In 1967 I rode demonstration saddle bronco at the Ogden Pioneers Days Rodeo, you can’t win any money but you get in the rodeo free this was my last Rodeo.  Chris went on to become the NFR national bareback champ in 1976 and a great singer and song writer. Me I just went on.  Every time I hear of a rodeo I want to go and rodeo I guess you could say that I'm hooked on that eight second ride.

 This my friend Chris

Thank you for coming by and your comments God Bless

lot words

“Stick and stone will break my bones but words can never hurt Me.” but words can hurt and do at times. Words can heal, I have heard of healing words. Good words and bad word, cuss words, and love words, well there are a lot of words. Just what are words?

Form the dictionary:

1. A sound or a combination of sounds, or its representation in writing or printing, that symbolizes and communicates a meaning and may consist of a single morpheme or of a combination of morphemes.

2. Something said; an utterance, remark, or comment: May I say a word about that?

3. Computer Science A set of bits constituting the smallest unit of addressable memory.

4. words Discourse or talk; speech: Actions speak louder than words.

5. words Music The text of a vocal composition; lyrics.

6. An assurance or promise; sworn intention: She has kept her word.

7.

a. A command or direction; an order: gave the word to retreat.

b. A verbal signal; a password or watchword.

8.

a. News: Any word on your promotion? See Synonyms at news.

b. Rumor: Word has it they're divorcing.

9. words Hostile or angry remarks made back and forth.

10. Used euphemistically in combination with the initial letter of a term that is considered offensive or taboo or that one does not want to utter: "Although economists here will not call it a recession yet, the dreaded 'R' word is beginning to pop up in the media" (Francine S. Kiefer).

11. Word

a. See Logos.

b. The Scriptures; the Bible.

tr.v. word·ed, word·ing, words

To express in words: worded the petition carefully.

interj.

Slang Used to express approval or an affirmative response to something. Sometimes used with up.

Idioms:

at a word

In immediate response.

good word

1. A favorable comment: She put in a good word for me.

2. Favorable news.

have no words for

To be unable to describe or talk about.

in a word

In short; in summary: In a word, the situation is serious.

in so many words

1. In precisely those words; exactly: hinted at impending indictments but did not say it in so many words.

2. Speaking candidly and straightforwardly: In so many words, the weather has been beastly.

of few words

Not conversational or loquacious; laconic: a person of few words.

of (one's) word

Displaying personal dependability: a woman of her word.

take at (one's) word

To be convinced of another's sincerity and act in accord with his or her statement: We took them at their word that the job would be done on time.

upon my word

Indeed; really.

Well! That may have help, somewhat, maybe. I don’t know. Now back when I was a young man about four or five, I was taught that there were words that I was not to use. If you did you just might find out what lye soap taste like. One of those words that were forbidden was “dam”. For years every time I heard someone say it, I was looking around for ma or grandma to come running with the soap. I wonder if they call that operation a soap opera, kind of sounded that way.  We move to a town where there was a dam and people were all the time saying “let’s go to the dam”.  I had great concern for them say such a thing till I went. When I got old enough to read and look up words in the dictionary, I found no good reason that “dam” should be forbidden. Now some people say “darn” as if that cleans things up a bit, but darn is what you do to socks and knitted things. Dam is to contain or confined the flow of water or something. It is also what you call the mother of a horse. Well now I have driven a few nails in my day and missed the nail once or twice, and got my thumb. When I did I said “God Dam it” and he did. It only took a split second for a blister to form, and some people say God dose not listen or answers prayers. Well they got that one wrong anyway.

 In the news there has been a lot of talk about someone saying an “N word” now I don’t know this Paula Deen other than some pies she got her name on, I have ate better. I don’t know just what all she has said. All this politically correct stuff I am not sure of. I am not a Politician and would run and hide if someone tried to make into one. Now I am a racist to the point that I hate racism.

However I do think we all need to take and learn the real meaning of the words and the context they are use in. Just because someone calls you an “A word or a B word” does not make you one till you react to it and then you may become the dictionary. If we all went around talking or writing with the “___ words, A word, B word, C word, N word, R word, or XYZ words” it might look like this (I C U R 2Ys, 2Ys I C  U R 4 (ME)) or (C U M (L 8 OR)) “1940’s texting” and the kids think they started something new, LOL. It did mean lots of love, and lots of luck, and now laugh out loud, oh! well things change.   

Thank you for coming by and for your comments God bless.

lot cowboy rules

Just a few Cowboy rules or the code of the west, well maybe something like that or something you should know. Now if you are out riding and you come across a steer or cow maybe a bull that does not have a brand on it, throw a rope on it you can start your own heard that way, but if it has a brand and you don’t work for the brand  don’t do it, they will hang you. Now the same thing goes for horses too. Well if you're out running around the barn and corrals it’s a good idea to walk around in some tail grass before going to the bunkhouse you never know what you may have stepped in. Now if you're going to hit the hay take off your boot and if the air smells bad,  and everybody is choking put them back on, we will all, might breathe a little better. If you are out riding the trails and you hear a buzzing sound shoot it, it is better to be safe than sorry, besides it taste like chicken and make a great hat band. Now when the cook ring that bell you had better get there or he will feed it to the hogs, and don’t ask for second you might get it, whatever it was, live or dead. That’s another thing you need to learn is to like beans morning, noon and night, just be sure that you are downwind of the campfire for a while after eating. On Saturday night, walk your horse in town and don’t shoot at the stars or you be behind bars instead of in them. Oh! Be sure you tip your hat to the ladies, don’t call them madam, just mam will work and you will stay healthy.  If you got to go to the out house take along something to read your may need it. Don't mess with a feller hat, drink, girl, cards, gun or horse, you might wake up dead.  Don't feed the bears one of you won't enjoy it. Ride upwind of the hog pin it works better. You need to know where town is, its over yonder up the trail a piece, when payday is, when it gets here,  when it’s time to eat, well if you don’t know that you won’t be a cowboy for long. Well! I guess that about it for now.

Thank you for coming by your comments and god bless

lot buffalo curse

There are many symbols of the old west, cowboys, Indians, buffalo and long horn cattle, and of coarse the horse.  There numbers are fewer now than they were a hundred fifty years ago, but the spirit of the old west live on. The mouse and I were out on the spring round up when we stop to visit with an old Indian sitting on a blanket looking out on the prairie. He kept saying Ta-Tonka and pointing at a dust cloud moving our way. Will! The first word that came to my mind was stampede. I was just about to yell stampede when the old Indian said “buffalo spirit”. I took another look, it was hard to see with the wind blowing in my face making my eyes water, but I could some humps in that cloud of dust. Now! I know there are no free ranging buffaloes in this part of the country.  So it had to be something else.  It sure was not horses or cows or the lone ranger and as I said “there ain’t no buffaloes in this part of the country.”

Mouse pop up and said “he is talking about that old legend of white buffalo woman and the curse of the buffalo.” Will! I said “Oh” not knowing what the heck they were talking about. So; I ask just what the heck they were talking about. The old Indian stood up and told the story of the buffalo’s curse. It seem that the spirit of the buffalo cannot go to the happy hunting ground because of the way there killed by the white buffalo hunter so the buffaloes spirit have to roam the plans  forever and punish the white eye. Just then the wind pickup and mouse and I pulled up our bandannas and cinched down our hats, the old Indian pull the blanket up around him and put his back to the wind. The dust cloud was getting closer. With all the dust it was hard to see but it could be a buffalo stampede, but one brush me as it few over old paint. It was a darn tumbleweed blown by the wind.

Now I don’t give much stock to these old stories but then again the tumbleweed showed up about the same time the buffalo disappeared and there numbers are the same as the buffaloes once were, so there maybe something to this. So when you see the tumbleweeds roam the prairie just remember the spirit of the slain buffaloes are roaming the land. Will mouse it’s going to a long day in the saddle those beef have scattered all over after the spirit buffalo stampede, so let round-em-up, head-em-up, and move-em-out..

 See you all back at the ranch.

Thank you for stopping by and your comment god bless

ghost town

The ghost town

John AKA (doggie) cliff AKA (the nose) and I AKA (the squirrelly Englishman) were out in the west desert the other or west side of the Great Salt Lake looking for geodes and other rocks of value. It was a hot August day; the alkali dust was all most too much to take. The directions we had seem simple enough but I think we were lost but we knew where we were, if you know what I mean.  We came across a trail that took off from the main trail/road we were on and fit the directions we had. It look like it had not been travel in quite some time. There was a bit of a stream along the trail but the water look bad.  Rust and sulfur deposit were along the banks and the all present alkali.

 We decided to take a chance and go up the trail and maybe fine fresh water and the geode we were looking for. We had gone about a mile over a very ruff trail into a canyon in the foothills of the Newfoundland mountain range. The trail was getting a little hard to fallow but there was no place to turn around we would have to back up about a half mile to turn around. So we press on up the trail. It kept getting worse till we came to an old wooden bridge. The bridge was in no shape to support the old dodge truck we were in so we stop and got out to find a way across the stream, it was about three foot across and maybe 6 inches deep. The banks were about a foot high. We end up breaking down the banks with a rock pick and a GI shovel so we could ford the stream. We could see that there was a wide spot up the trail about a hundred yards. It was up hill so we were not sure what we would find up there.

As we got to the wide spot we could see the metal roof of a building so we push on. After a half mile or so, we had the building in sight but there were five buildings. We pulled up to the middle of the buildings or courtyard and got out to look around. The first building look like it had been and office/home it was vary dusty and look like no one had been there in years. There was something strange about this place that gave me the willies. Things were just laying there like someone had just left. We found a ledger but it was not to legible and we think was written in German. The last date we found in it was 4/18/1906. It looks like we were the first people to be here in sixty years. As we looked around there was a lot of stuff there clothing, books, and thing that people just don’t up and leave behind.  We look in the other building it was equipment shed with a steam donkey engine and air compressor and air drills stuff for mining.  Across from it was what looks to be a cook shack or mess hall with pots sitting on the stove and whatever dry up and decayed in them. Bottles of caned food were still on shelves. There was a table where card were dealt out an about a dollar fifty in change on the table, it looked like three people were playing. Empty glass sat on the table you could see where what ever was in them had evaporated. Again we got the felling that the people just up and left. The other building was a bunk house and again it was like the other building thing just left. The last building was a barn and coral.  Our best guess was there had been eight to ten people living there.

About fifty yards up the canyon we found some rails for an ore car heading into a rock slide. We started to think that we knew what had happen here. There had been a mine cave-in and those that were not in the mine came to help then whole mountain side came down trapping them all inside, our best guess.  

The one thing that kept coming to mind was the safe in the first building that we found. We tried to get it open with no luck, and we could not move it. Our wildest dreams were lock up in that safe. We decided to pack all we could of value in the truck and leave then come back with a bigger truck and tools to get the safe open. We had not plan to do an overnight-er and we really did not want to stay there. It was spooky. 

We had fifty miles of bad dirt roads plus another hundred to get home. After we got back home we did some research and found there had been a German settlement in the area about twenty miles to the north around the late 1800. The date we found was the date of the big San Franco earthquake. The pieces of the puzzle were coming together. We went back three week later but could not get there because of three day of heavy rain and it was to muddy. We plan another trip for the next summer. Believe or not when we tried we could not find our way back to it.  After all it was a Ghost town. 

some more to read about the area that give some in site to the problem we had in finding it again http://www.expeditionutah.com/2013/01/the-mines-camps-of-the-newfoundland-mountains/

Thank you for stopping by and your comments god bless

lot of hair

Lot of hair

I guess people have been using hair pieces since the beginning of time. Now most of us have hair on our heads, I think. At one time in history it was a status symbol to ware a wig, maybe that where the term “hot head” or “don’t flip your wig” came from, I don’t know. Toupees, wigs and others hair pieces, that I do not know the name of; have been the source of many a good laugh over the years. From a toupee falling in to a man soup to it being cot on a branch, or something.

Here are a few funny hair moments I have had:

I was at a late night picnic party and enjoying a young ladies attention when my little brother decided that all the kissing was to much for him so he grab a hand full of our hair to pull us apart. Will; she was wearing a wig and it came off much to his surprise. It did liven up the party.

Then there was the war dance, we were at a bar waiting for a friend to close up the place so we could go party up the canyon. Ed a full blooded Ute Indian was arguing with a Navajo girl we pick up at the Pow-wow. In the mix of the conversation Ed tried to give her a kiss and pulled off the wig she was wearing and began to dance around the bar with it. Before the weekend was over they got married, hard to believe but it’s true.

 A pony tail mystery . Back in the day of the poodle skirt, I was at a bar called the old mill. They had a live band and a nice hardwood dance floor. There was this girl that had cot my attention, she was wearing a blue poodle skirt, but it had white horses on it, and a white angle blouse and a long pony tail. I ask her to dance and we did. We stayed on the dance floor for three or four songs, then they played a good fast jitter bug tune and we started to dance I spun her around and the pony tail came off and few into the drummer. She screamed and ran off. I retrieved her pony tail and looked for her she was gone and so were her friends she came with.  I never got her name as we dance most of the time and had little conversation. I kept the pony tail for sometime but I never came across her again. I guess I’m just not a prince charming.

Then there was Ralph a guy I work with. We were working the graveyard shift and waiting for the go ahead to continue with the testing we were doing. Ralph leaned back in the office chair with his feet on the desk and his toupee got cot on the wall. Just then the boss came in to check on us. Ralph sat up and the boss had to laugh at what we saw. We had work with Ralph for years and did not know he was bald. Ralph was trying hard to put that thing back on his head.

 It was a year or so after my wife and I got married we were in Yuma Arizona at my aunt house. I had gone to town to get some stuff from the store. When I got back I came in with the groceries and sat at the table with a cold drink. After about ten minuets I ask my aunt where my wife was. Then they all started to giggle she was setting across the table from me. They had put a wig and makeup on her and I did not recognize her. She did look good.

I hope you liked these bad hair moments, and I would love to hear about some of yours.

Thank you for stopping by and your comments god bless

lot of summer fun

Back about 1966 a friend of mine and I made some home brew root beer; this is how it was done. I don't know why or I don't remember the why he made such a large batch. It started out like this he had a twenty gallon metal garbage can new unused and washed. A bottle of hires root beer extract, five pounds of sugar, five gallons of water, and a couple of pound of dry ice. You mix the sugar and water first in the garbage can. Then add the bottle of root beer extract stirring with a wooden paddle, he made for this purpose. Now the fun part you add the dry ice.  Then put the lid on loosely for sure.  Warnings have you ever shaken up a warm soda pop bottle then open it?  Now if you put the lid on too tight it will come off with a bang and root beer foam everywhere. This had happen at least once or twice that I know of.  Adding the dry ice is how you get the carbonation in the mix. You keep adding dry ice a little at a time till the mix has the desired level of carbonation. If you add too much dry ice or too fast it will freeze. After about two hours it’s time to put it in the bottles i.e. clear gallon glass jugs. 

With all this hard hard work it’s time to have a party and enjoy our labors, and we did. We loaded the five jugs in the trunk of my buddy’s 55 yellow Buick convertible. 

You know that trunk was so big you could hide a little league team in there with room left over. Anyway we probably look like Alabama moonshiners loading that stuff. We put in some hot dogs, you could get a package for 49 cents back then and they were all beef, still had the skin on them. Eight to the package the buns came six to the package and were 10 cents and were always smaller or larger than the dogs. Next came marshmallows, and a water melon of unknown origin; Heck we had enough food to feed an army for a week in there. Will we call around and found some girls that wanted to go on a picnic up the canyon, some how my younger brother crashed the party. Anyway we all, head up the canyon with the sun setting at our back, and sing or maybe screaming to this beatles song. 

My buddy’s name is Richard 

and we all called his ride the yellow submarine. 

Thank you for stopping by and your comments god bless

Lot of shooting

Yesterday at my church someone came to church to kill someone.  A shot rang out and one man down, and all went for cover.

 Here is the news story:

http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=25619666&title=man-shot-at-ogden-church-suspect-arrested-after-manhunt&fm=home_page&s_cid=featured-1

I am glad he did not get the job done, and I want to say thank you to all who prayed for the victim Jim. It was his son-in-law that did the shooting. For those who may think this had something to do with religion, will you are wrong. It was a family problem, which I do not know the details of. I know both victim and shooter from our social meeting at church. Prayers are needed for both. No law could have stopped this, if not a gun, it could have been a knife or club.  It is the unresolved problem that rages in a person mind that they and we cannot resolve or control. It something we all have to learn to do, that is to solve our differences in a peaceful manner.  Someday we may have the ability to read a persons mind and what a person is thinking of or planning to do, and then maybe we can do something about the problem. We already have laws and a commandment “thou shalt not kill” and a number of gun control laws on the books, not one of them have stop the killings.

Here is something to think about, the shooter could have been any one of us. How many times have we been so mad that we could have done this? Have you ever said I will kill you or wish you could kill someone? If we got rid of all the guns in the world, the knifes, and then the rocks at which point we would not have a place to live. We could stop these kind of thing from happening with a lot more understand one another. Please don't think that I am defending the shooter because I  am not. I just know but for the grace of god this could have been me shooter or victim. 

Thank you for your prayers and god bless.

Farther

On this day we honor our fathers. Mine passed in 2000. At his service we all said the Lord’s Prayer as I have said most everyday of my life. It has a new meaning to me now. My dad did give me this day, and I never went without food, he did forgive me when I did wrong, and taught me to forgive others. He never led me into temptation, and he did deliver me from evil. What more could ask of a father?

Dad  I do miss you.

The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father who art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done

On earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread,

And forgive us our trespasses,

As we forgive those who trespass against us,

And lead us not into temptation,

But deliver us from evil.

Thank you for stopping by and god bless

lot of roof to deck

Lot roof to deck

Will it’s taken me a week to do it. Some years back it would have only taken a day or two. But I got-er done.  Will almost; need another bucket of red barn paint, and some more timbers to put the roof on it, a tarp and some two bys work for now. Anyway we now have an 8ft by 10ft deck. The old steps are still there under the deck, they had sunk because back when the built this place they did not have a compactor like they have today, and they just push in the back fill, and build the forms for the concrete steps and a 3ft square porch.  So after fifty years it sank about three inches and tilted about twenty degrees, making that first step about  a ten inches step down to a downhill slant. Good place to go for a wild ride, if you don’t watch your step.  

Meanwhile; back at the ranch Mouse

has been feeling poorly. Don’t know just what has been ailing him, but can't get a lick of work out of him. I called the vet and he said he up hartsgravel way some folks are fighting some kind of bug, so I would have to call doc Adams, he is a good old sawbones, I gave Doc Adams a call about a day ago so he should be getting here anytime,

Will I will be here he is, howdy Doc! Welcome to spilt milk ranch, ok where that belly aching rodent at? Out in the bunkhouse. Now, Doc you shouldn't talk like that about Mouse you know how he gets all riled up.   Has he got them dam nine shooters? No doc I took and put the in the strong box till he is better. Will let me take a look at him, how long has he been like this?

Will he started to say he could hear a slapping sound on the first of June, and his eyes got glass and wild looking, and then his right arm started to jerk, he mumbled something about being bitten and salmon flies. Will this is the worst case I have seen in a long time.

He going to be alright Doc isn't he. Sure he will be right as rain just get him up there on the scare creek with his fly rod. He got the worst case of trout fiver I have seen. Say Doc I have a couple of pullets you can have, we got some beeves to sale on the first, and I can pay you then. I got a baby to deliver over at the Johnson, so I will see you later. Bring me back some trout.

Will boys let’s get saddle up it looks like we are going fishing.

Thank you for stopping and god bless

Morning lot

Morning

The mountains’ echoes sound of a new day. The sun has not yet crests the mountains top, but the saws and hammers, birds, and dogs greet the rising sun. The smell of coffee and bacon on the cook compete with the blooms of roses and lilacs.  A ghostly whisper from the melting snow atop the mountain kisses the morning air.

Does it remember it was here not long ago? Amongst this chaotic clamor of sounds and smells things are missing. Are they like the snow to return someday?

Not to be heard in this call to arms, the bugle of a steam whistle of an out bound freight train.

The smell of bread baking from the Wonder bread bakery, I cry; no more red, yellow, and blue balloons.

What else is missing from this breaking day? No toast with my bacon and eggs, but I will hoist a toast to this day and wonder why they went away.

Thank you for stopping by and god bless

lot hard work

Just plan tired.

Just a late Friday moment. have been out back for the passed two days, building a 10X8 foot deck on the back of my house. I am using the lumber we salvaged  from when roof that blow off.
I'm tired and headed to the shower the bed.
Thank you for stopping by and god bless.

lot of a friend

A friend

“A friend” that does not say a lot, but it says everything. You cannot make a friend or someone would be making them and you could find them for sale at the local department store. So you cannot buy or make one.

This story is true, back there sum fifty plus years, I meet a friend, I cannot remember the day, month or year that we met. It is kind a like Jim and Spock of star trek “I have always been and will be your friend”. As things go in life we moved around and lost touch a couple of times, but we would get back together and are still friends. In 1984 I move to California, my job took me there. Sometime in 1985 I got a letter from my mom with a news paper clipping in it. The news was not good; my friend was killed when a camper he was loading on a truck fell on him. The days of home made root beer made in garbage can (that’s another story) and watermelon cooled in the river, marshmallows roasted on the camp fire, and the drives up the canyon, and all the conversations were gone and so was my friend.  I think this was the cause of the flooding in California at the time I cried a lot.

A week and a half ago I was out front mowing my lawn, when a car pull up in front of my place. A man got out, as he walks toward me, I tough I know that face but it cannot be who my eyes were telling me. He spoke “you don’t remember me” the second he spoke I knew it was Richard. My mine was in a million pieces and the tears would not be held back. We hug each other for a great five minuets in a man made rain storm of joy and talked  little about the things we did back when but it was here and now, not 1984 the last time we were together. He was here for two or three hours and we just picked up where we had left off those many years ago. 

My friend Richard Crawford.

The news paper clipping was of someone with the same name living in the same area. not my friend thank god.

Thank you for hearing my story and god bless, he did bless me with a friend.