HELLS KITCHEN

I wrote this back in September of '06. It started out to be a rant against that show,"Hells Kitchen" where the Chef glorifies being an asshole, gets results by scowling , gains respect by being a big-shot Prick, and perpetuates the Myth that Chefs are Maniacs. I spent a lot of time trying to write this, and when I finished, I found that I was every bit rabid as the guy on the show. So I spent more time trying to soften it up and in the end, it wasn't even about Hells Kitchen anymore.
I never did post it, and I hope that show is off the air forever.

I was a Chef for almost 25 years. Its a great career...it demands a superior work ethic, an eye for detail, a love for food and people. You may not be Artistic; I wasn't, but in time you will develop a Visual Style.
Most people do not realize that it is a very physical job. This is why you see more male Professional Chefs than female. You move a lot of 50 pound boxes and 15 gallon pots and a large skillet with product could weigh 20-25 pounds while you are "one arming" it from the stovetop to the prep table.
Try making a 90 Yolk batch of Hollandaise and you will find yourself vigorously whisking for 15 minutes. A 50 gallon batch of Honey-Mustard is made with a 4' Whip in 60 gallon trash can.
Trays and mirrors for Buffets can weigh a couple hundred pounds. A block of Ice for carving weighs 350 pounds.
Piping out 2000 Duchess Potato's from a pastry bag will build some forearms that look like Calf muscles.
The hours are long and the pay average. There are Waitresses and Barmaids. You can fall in love with it.
You are never really hungry and you are never really cold.
You have to move your ass, which is wrapped up pretty tight all the time.
Sanitation is at the front of everything you do. I don't think there was a word one concerning proper food handling techniques on "hells Kitchen".

The kitchen is a great environment for learning what hands on management is. I did not go to School, I went to work and this is part of what I learned:
1) When your people hit the door you say 'Good Morning" and brief them on the business of the day.
2) You are present as someone starts a project so you can demonstrate and explain the particulars and the formula of the operation.
3) You check production and assist in the middle of a project in order to fine tune the procedure and insure quality is maintained.
4) You are there as a project is finished to check counts and quality and redirect the staff to the next task.
5) You de-brief your people at the end of their day to insure any issues will be addressed and to give an overview of the next days business.

You stay calm and and always say "Good Morning".
You teach, you train and you inform.
You do the opposite of what they do on "Hells Kitchen".
That guy is a Master Chef- but he is a European Master and they are quite common.
You would not believe what it takes to be an ACF Certified Master...there are not very many of them... ...the success rate for the 2-weeks of testing is 15%. Seems like a few years ago there were 60 in the world. I worked for a Chef that went for the testing and came back on the 4th day.
Anyone in charge of two or more people will find out teams are not built by humiliation and intimidation. If people are not doing what you want them to, its probably because you didn't tell them what you wanted or take the time to be involved in the Operation.

It takes intelligent planning and commitment to training people, people being your greatest asset.
It takes providing a learning and growing environment.
It takes a lot of tact and tender loving care.

Any oversights or memory lapses or inefficiencies have severe consequences.
What makes a cook sweat? It has less to do with the heat and more to do with knowing he is not ready for business.
There are no extensions, no grace periods, no coming back tomorrow to finish up the lunch for 500 people at noon today. The reality is that Lunch starts at 12:00, not 12:15 and it all has to be there.
The thrill of pulling it off is like no other and it takes everybody involved being on their best behavior.

Especially the Chef.

Thanks Grizzbabe and http://www.foryoursuccess.blogspot.com/

"HER GRACES GIVE LIFE"

Go, lovely Rose

GO, lovely Rose—
Tell her that wastes her time and me,
That now she knows,
When I resemble her to thee,
How sweet and fair she seems to be

Tell her that 's young,
And shuns to have her graces spied,
That hadst thou sprung
In deserts where no men abide,
Thou must have uncommended died.

Small is the worth
Of beauty from the light retired:
Bid her come forth,
Suffer herself to be desired,
And not blush so to be admired.

Then die—that she
The common fate of all things rare
May read in thee;
How small a part of time they share
That are so wondrous sweet and fair!

edmond waller

ENVOI

Go, dumb-born book,
Tell her that sang me once that song of Lawes:
Hadst thou but song
As thou hast subjects known,
Then were there cause in thee that should condone
Even my faults that heavy upon me lie,
And build her glories their longevity.

Tell her that sheds
Such treasure in the air,
Recking naught else but that her graces give
Life to the moment,
I would bid them live
As roses might, in magic amber laid
Red overwrought with orange and all made
One substance and one Braving time.

Tell her that goes
With song upon her lips
But sings not out the song, nor knows
The maker of it, some other mouth,
May be as fair as hers,
Might, in new ages, gain her worshippers,
When our two dusts with Waller’s shall be laid,
Siftings on siftings in oblivion,
Till change hath broken down
All things save Beauty alone.

ezra pound

GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM

INSPIRED BY MOTHER OF INVENTION

Bulletholes has been busy as snot....and worse than that, I have been somewhat uninspired lately, so uninspired that I can't even find anything in draft that seems to warrant posting... maybe its because of all the rain we are getting down here. You know you got it bad when you start blogging about the Weather.

So heres a Rose for all you ladies.

SOME CELESTIAL EVENT

Eclipse as viewed from MIR Space Station, 1999

PRIEST=AURA

We all came back from the war
I wish somebody would tell me the score
We raked old poseidon over the coals
Shook his shells, shaved his shoals

Where can a soldier fix himself a drink
Forget the noise, forget the stink
And the opium is running pretty low
'cause when the pain comes back, i don't want to know

Across yonder ocean the natives are fierce
Their ears are filled their teeth are pierced
But it's not their spears that spill your breath
They kill their enemies by loving them to death

We were on some battlefield
I felt something soft go through my shield
I felt something warm enter my guts
I was bleeding bad but there were no cuts

They captured three of us, took us back to their village
After a long long time i could decipher their language
They worshipped baal, they worshipped the sun
They worshipped the son of the evil one

They were more than voracious, they sucked our ambition
They let me go on one condition
That was when i came back to my native shore
I tell you they don't want to play with us anymore

But a part of me will never be free
And the part that's free will never be me
But a thing of love and beauty is in my head
A message from my enemies, and here's what they said





They said that love = hate
And death = fate
An enemy always = an adorer
But priest = aura

And life = time
And time = space
And space = sublime
And human = race

Oh and woman = man
And pot = pan
The fauna ought to equal the flora
But priest = aura

And beginning = the end
The end always = the start
But straight = bent
The mind sometimes = the heart

And you = me
The land = the sea
Richer = poorer
And priest = aura

title cut from 1995 release by the church

I posted another church song a while back...'Dead Man Dreaming"...they are not my favorite band by any means, but it would seem they are interesting enough that I have more of their stuff than anything else, maybe even Dylan!

The music is rather spacey, ethereal, almost hypnotic. And dark; I thought this song paired up with the big dark spot in the Photograph kinda nice. The thought of the hugeness and emptiness of space, so filled with unknowing and possibility, its infinite sameness and variety, is a little spooky.

There is mention in the song of Baal, who among a great many other things could be the Pheonician God of the sun, for your perusal here on the longest day of the year.

FLY ME TO THE MOON

Did I ever mention that I am fascinated by Astronomy?
This is from yesterday.
Check out the Archives *here* and todays Solstice.
Recent favorites are from 6/17 the "Analemma" and 6/13 "Warped Sky".

A Daylight Eclipse of Venus
Credit & Copyright: Peter Heinzen
"Explanation: Something was about to happen. Just two days ago, two of the three celestial objects easily visible during the day appeared to collide. But actually, Earth's Moon passed well in front of the distant planet Venus. The occultation was caught from Switzerland in the hours before sunset.

Moments after this image was taken, the Moon, visible as the crescent on the right of the above image, eclipsed Venus, appearing in gibbous phase on the lower left. Clouds that once threatened to obscure the whole event, were visible on the far left. About 90 minutes later, Venus re-appeared just to the right of the bright crescent."

So who can tell me the third celestial object easily visible during the day? Hint:One of three you will never see (from the Earths surface at the Equator) within the several hours before and after midnight. Two of the three are Venus and the Sun.

Here are more photos from around the world here of the occultation.

THAT SAVED A WRETCH LIKE ME

Something I learned from doing yesterdays post;
The author of the gospel Song 'Amazing Grace" had been the Captain of a Slave Boat..
And another thing:
California recognized Juneteenth as a holiday in 2000.
What I would love to hear:
Arnold Schartzenegger, the "Governator" of California, saying in his thick accent "Emancipation Proclamation". I would also like to hear him say 'Hydrogen Hum-Vee".

The question was raised as to why it took so long for the slaves in Texas to find out about the Proclamation. There are three theories:
There is the story of a messenger who was murdered on his way to Texas with the news of freedom. Another, is that the news was deliberately withheld by the enslavers to maintain the labor force on the plantations. And still another, is that federal troops actually waited for the slave owners to reap the benefits of one last cotton harvest before going to Texas to enforce the Emancipation Proclamation.

I would bet they are all true.

And here is an observation:
The following line appears throughout the Internet regarding Juneteenth.
"Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States."
Can someone please tell me what would be another Holiday commemorating the ending of Slavery in the United States? Did I miss one?

It should be noted that Slavery was not really banned in the United States until December 6, 1865 with the ratification of the 13 Amendment to the Constitution.
Mississippi did not Ratify this Amendment until 1995!

This is still not the post I wanted to do about the Emancipation Proclamation. It was a very interesting and controversial document and did much for the country without really having freed a single slave.

JUNETEENTH

This is not the Post I intended to write concerning Emancipation...but its a start!

In 1984, in the mid part of the month of June, the XMrsBulletholes and I were on our way to Toledo Bend Lake for a camping trip. We kept passing groups of Black folks on the side of the road. Their mood seemed quite festive and it was like a 100 mile long picnic on the side of the road.
She asked me :
'What are all these black folks doing all up and down this road? Is it some kind of party?"
I looked over to her and grinned and said
"I guess they are just being Black!"
It was about then that I realized that it was "Juneteenth"...the 19th of June and a holiday in Texas for many years. I believe it is now observed in 14 States as well.

After the battle of Antietam in September of 1862, Lincoln announced his Emancipation Proclamation which was to free the Slaves. It took effect on January 1st of 1863. Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April of 1865.

On June 19, 1865, the Union General Gordon Granger rode into Galveston, Texas, to announce to the inhabitants of the Civil Wars end two months earlier, and the Emancipation Proclamation from 2 and a half years earlier. It was news to the slaves in Galveston and throughout the State.

"The people of Texas are informed that in accordance with a Proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and free laborer."

"...Employer and free laborer." For a people that have been enslaved for 400 years, could there be any words more powerful than this?

Juneteenth is the oldest nationally celebrated commemoration of the ending of slavery in the United States.

FATHERS DAY

The second of two poems I found in my fathers belongings...the first was Barefoot Boy...
This one works very well for Fathers Day and I have passed it on to my son, the Rip.

If
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;


If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

RUDYARD KIPLING

STEALIN WHEN I SHOULDA BEEN BUYIN'

Tagged by my new friend Akelmalu for eight things you might not know about me....I've already done 6 things that make me Crazy and 5 things that make me weird so lets see if can't play this one straight.
And I still owe half of another tag from Gewels, I think, some kind of foursome thing....but I would'nt hold my breath.

Soooo....

1) The name of the Nursery Scholol I attended was "The Little Hoss Ranch". We got Orange Juice, Crackers and watched Felix the Cat every afternoon.

2) The street I lived on had no little boys for me to play with, so I always got to be Tarzan, or Superman or Ken. I discovered that when the girls are through playing with you, you are outta there.

3) I was in Indian Guides, a Father-Son group activity group. My Dads Indian name was "Walleye" and mine was "Yellow Perch."

4) The day I turned 11, I went to the Boy Scout meeting and fulfilled all the requirements for my Tenderfoot Badge.

4 and a Half) I am an Eagle Scout.

5) I still remember the Oath, Slogan, Laws and Motto and I still know enough knots that I could tie you up pretty darn good.

6) I used to build and launch Model Rockets and was President of the Rocket Club. My nickname was "Rocket Renfro".

7) I was also President of a Junior Acheivement Company, but my Company went belly up because I was screwing three of my Employess. Excuse me...Associates.

8) I am a Rule Breaker and Risk-Taker. But you knew that!

A LIE WITH A HALO

To this day there is a question the X will ask me from time to time., and I don’t even remember the question until I hear it...and to this day I still remember what my lie is in answer to the question...and every time we have that Q&A session, she says “You are good” meaning I am a good liar.
One of these days, when she asks that question, I am going to tell her the truth, if I can still remember what the truth is.


They say the first lie we tell is in the crib and everything is OK, but we know if we cry, someone will come ...so we cry.

The first lie I can remember telling;
I was about 3 years old and Dad had some kind of Construction Project going in the backyard. When no one was lookin’, I cut my finger on a Razor Blade I knew I shiould’nt be playing with. I took Dad on a tour of the entire backyard except for the Construction area to find where I had cut my finger. Finallly, he led me over to where the razor blades were and asked if this was where I had cut my finger. With my best 3 year-old poker face on I said "I don't remember."

The second lie I remember I was 4.
I had knocked over a glass jar in the Garage that had nails in it. It shattered on the floor and dad came out, asking what had happened to the jar of nails. I pointed out the open Garage door and claimed that a little Black boy had run through here and knocked it over. Dad could not resist a bit of a laugh before he spanked my bottom.

The third lie I remember I was 5. It was the worst one.
My older friend Don had taken my little sisters Baby Chick, which she received on Easter morning, and cut its head off on Easter Afternoon. We buried the poor bird in the front yard, which my Dad was in the procees of re-sodding. When it was noticed the Chick was missing that night, I claimed to have no knowledge of its whereabouts. The next morning, Dad discovered the headless body while he was using his rototiller in the front yard. I fessed up, but Don was not around to help absorb the punishment I took for it or to verify it had been his doing.
Dad wore me out that day.
I cried, but not nearly as hard as my sister did when that chick went missing.

I got to be a pretty good liar over the years...someone told me one time that I could tell a white lie with a halo wrapped around it.
I don't lie so much anymore.
These things will happen in time.

"MY FEAR IS MY CONCERN"

t.e.lawrencePhotograph of Auda Abu Tayeh

Tonight on PBS they will be showing "Lawrence of Arabia: The Battle for the Arab World" which I think should be very interesting.

Everything I know about Lawrence comes from the Movie 'Lawrence of Arabia" starring Peter O'Toole, Alec Guiness Omar Shariff and Anthony Quinn who all but steals the show playing a Howeitat warlord named Auda Abu Tayeh...

"Many considered Auda the real hero of the Arab revolt. Lawrence described him as the "greatest fighting man in northern Arabia". Auda could trace his roots back through many generations of great desert Howeitat warriors of the Arabian peninsula. He epitomized everything noble, powerful and proud about the Bedouin...."

From the PBS Homepage

The events of the Arab Revolt against the Turks take place during WWI and I have to believe that they shaped whatever it is thats going on there now.

If this is not interesting enough for you, then T.E. Lawrence certainly must be.

After World War I begins, Lawrence becomes an intelligence officer in the British Army. His mission is to gather information about an Arab Revolt planned against Turkish rulers. In return for a promise guaranteeing their independence, the Arabs join the war on the British side. But a secret agreement between the British and French will renege on the promise and shatter the dream. Torn by conflicting loyalties, Lawrence continues to assist the Arabs, becoming more deeply entrenched in their fight. Against all odds, he leads them in a daring attack on the Turkish port of Aqaba. It takes the Turks utterly by surprise and is a stunning success. The victory is a turning point for Lawrence, the Arabs, and the British.

From the introduction of Lawrences' historical account "The Seven pillars of Wisdom"

"Some Englishmen, of whom Kitchener was chief, believed that a rebellion of Arabs against Turks would enable England, while fighting Germany, simultaneously to defeat Turkey. Their knowledge of the nature and power and country of the Arabic-speaking peoples made them think that the issue of such a rebellion would be happy: and indicated its character and method. So they allowed it to begin... "

I suppose these "Arabic-speaking peoples" have seen it all before...

THE UNIVERSE ALONE

I've been wanting to post this for some time now...Water Baby brought it home for homework a while back...how is it that we get behind on what we want to post?

The Most Of It
He thought he kept the universe alone;
For all the voice in answer he could wake
Was but the mocking echo of his own
From some tree–hidden cliff across the lake.
Some morning from the boulder–broken beach
He would cry out on life, that what it wants
Is not its own love back in copy speech,
But counter–love, original response.
And nothing ever came of what he cried
Unless it was the embodiment that crashed
In the cliff's talus on the other side,
And then in the far distant water splashed,
But after a time allowed for it to swim,
Instead of proving human when it neared
And someone else additional to him,
As a great buck it powerfully appeared,
Pushing the crumpled water up ahead,
And landed pouring like a waterfall,
And stumbled through the rocks with horny tread,
And forced the underbrush—and that was all.
robert frost


So is it enough in this life to see a stately Buck cross a lake and crash into the underbrush?
Maybe.
Sometimes.
This weekend the Rip and I went camping and fishing.
What a weekend...I am sunburned and sore...we caught a lot of fish, but they were all small....I spent too much time hunkered over a campfire cooking, and can hardly stand up straight.
Saw many Redwing Blackbirds, which are a very pretty bird and quite rare down here.
Fed a baby Rabbit Corn on the Cob and he proceeded to do tricks for us not 5 feet away. I named him Mr. Jingles like the Mouse from "The Green Mile".
It ain't natural for a Rabbit to come up on humans that way.
Between the yearling bass, the Red Wings and the Rabbit, we had a very good time.
They were enough.

Ki-Yi-Yippee-Yippee-Yay

"In person the cowboys were mostly medium-sized men... quick and wiry, and as a rule very good-natured; in fact, it did not pay to be anything else. In character, their like never was or will be again." Teddy Blue Abbott



The Cowboy Way
Being a Cowboy is doing the right thing;
common wisdom born of simple virtues and strong ideals.
Above all, it is a strict adherence to honesty even when it is not in our best interests.
It is having an inherent sense of justice in a world where the cards are often stacked against us.
We try to hold enough common sense to recognize the value of a lost cause and the cost of lost values.
Generally speaking, we are quietly reserved in all things except freedom, fresh air and Saturday night.
We have an eye for a good horse, a good gun, and a good Cowgirl.
(Cowgirls may insert the word Cowboy here.)

Constant to friends, we are more so when friends need us, less so when they don't.
Familiar with hard work we also know hard knocks and hard roads.
Often given to tears when lesser individuals would display indifference; we are as well given to joy in a few places others would only find disdain.

We enjoy plain living, not because we relish doing without,
but because we have discovered the treasures within.
And, finally, we have that elusive emotion called
courage which is, at worst, a badly directed sense of
conceit and, at best, it is the stuff of
which dreams are made. . . .
Judge Charly Gullett--1995





Edward C. Abbott was born in Cranwich, England, and brought to the West in the 1860's by his parents as a boy. Hoping the open air would improve his frail health, his father let him help drive a herd of cattle from Texas to Nebraska when he was just 10 years old.
The experience, Abbott said later, "made a cowboy out of me. Nothing could have changed me after that."


The cowboys' average age was 24. They were paid so badly, and worked so hard, that two-thirds of them made only one trail drive before finding something better to do. They owned their saddle, but not the horse they rode -- and they rode it day and night.

After up to four straight months in the saddle, often in the same clothes every day, eating every meal at the chuck wagon, drinking nothing but coffee and water, the cowboy's job was finally done -- he was paid for his work, and turned loose in town.


"I bought some new clothes and got my picture taken... I had a new white Stetson hat that I paid ten dollars for, and new pants that cost twelve dollars, and a good shirt and fancy boots. Lord, I was proud of those clothes! When my sister saw me, she said: "Take your pants out of your boots and put your coat on. You look like an outlaw." I told her to go to hell. And I never did like her after that. "
Teddy Blue Abbott


For a man to be stove up at thirty may sound strange to some people, but many a cowboy has been so bunged up that he has to quit riding that early in life.

And so it was with Teddy.


"Then I went home. After I got home my father said to me one night: 'You can take old Morgan (a plow mule)... and plow the west ridge tomorrow."

Like hell I'd plow the west ridge.

And when he woke up next morning, Teddy was gone."
Teddy Blue Abbott

MOM, APPLE PIE AND PEACE

"Cause out on the edge of darkness,
there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country,
come take me home again"
C.STEVENS

When I was in the 5th Grade, me and my buddies were all playing 'Pile-on" in the back yard...you know where you just make a big pile of kids and as you get squirted out the bottom you take a running start and pile back on?
Anyway, my Mom came to the back porch with her Watermelon Apron on and a wooden spoon in her hand and hollered
"Stephen Bulletholes!!!"
Well, when she used my full name I knew there was trouble.
'Are you boys fighting back there?
"Yes Ma'am"
"Well ya'll stop that right now, you hear me"
"Yes Ma'am"

We stopped right away.

Annelisa is promoting a blog for peace thing and so here is my plan, based on this childhood memory:

We get all the Mothers to just go get their boys, wherever they may be and tell them not to fight.
Tell 'em to just stop "piling on".

THE PLAN

Bring 'em home and fix 'em something to eat. A bowl of Soup and some Apple pie.
There may be some Mothers out their fighting right now, but they got mothers somewhere that are not fighting, and those mothers ashould go get their girls, and even if they don't I still think there are enough Mothers in the world to just go get all these children of the world and keep them from hurting each other.
It would have worked anytime.
In Athens or Carthage.
At Sterling or Bunker Hill.
If Attila's mother had gone and gotten her boy, just think how many lives would have been saved.

Even Alexanders Ashes have a Momma somewhere.

George Patton had a Mother..."Through a Glass, Darkly"

If all those boys mothers had shown up at Gettysburg, that war would not have gone on another two years.
Along the trenches and the Siegfried line in the years of 1916-1918 we needed all the mothers just to go get their boys and make em come home.
63 Years ago today, we would not have had to storm that beach at Normandy if more mothers had gone and got their boys during the previous 5 years and kept them from listening to that Mr.. Adolph Hitler.

In Korea, at Pork Chop Hill, there should have been mothers that could have made them stop fighting.

There is no doubt in my mind that Mothers helped, and helped a lot, to get all those boys home from Vietnam. Whole families got involved in that.

Somewhere, right now there are men planning an attack, or building a bomb, or trying to buy a Rocket launcher; but if their mothers would show up in an apron with a wooden spoon and call out their full name, I bet a lot of them would be real ashamed and stop what they were doing.
Some where right now, there is a soldier ready to spend his last round of Ammunition and die for his Country. If his mother could just jump down into that foxhole with him, or behind that defilading wall, I bet she could talk him out of it.

This all may sound a little too simple and I'm sure you may be thinking it would not work...
Its got as good a chance, if not better, as increasing the troops by another 10,000 this month, and 20,000 next year, and so on and so on....
Have you ever put out a fire by pilin' on more wood?

A REAL COWBOY

I have a cousin I just talked to who is a REAL Cowboy...his house shoes are a pair of cowboy boots cutoff at the ankle. He says thats pretty handy should you have to step outside.
We used to call him K-K, short for Kevin.
When Kevin was just about 4 years old, the entire Family, all Deep South Southern Baptists too, for whom even the word "intersection" was somewhat improper, stood and watched as his father, a Veternarian, slit the belly of a large Catfish hanging from a Pine Tree. It was a good sized 35 Pounder, and to be our supper.
The guts and eggs spilled down, wet and shiny and dangling a good foot below the tail of the fish.
In whole -earnestness, young Kevin pipes up from the crowd and asks his father:
"Is them his balls Daddy?"

We knew K-K would be a Cowboy on that day.

Years back, Kevin was sent to Louisville to train Racehorses. Gonna pay a lot of money. They put him up in a fancy hotel room and he spent two days, he said, drinkin' Champagne and eating Canapes' but never saw a single horse. When he asked where the horses for him to work with were, everyone just laughed and poured him another glass of Champagne. He caught the next flight out, saying he weren't that kind of Cowboy.

Kevin is a Quarter Horse man, trains Cutting Horses, which I would have to think is a dying Art form.
I asked Kevin if he was still a cowboy; he said he weren't, and recounted this to me:

"Last year I was out in a field trying to catch this ol' Boys Bull for 'im, and it was a bad SOB too, and he was gonna pay me $150 and I jus' got to thinkin' about my 5 year old girl and how I'd got busted up pretty good last year doin' the same thing... so I told that Ol' Boy that "$150 didn't pay for enough doctorin'" and he needed to find hisself a new cowboy to catch that SOB, cuz this 'ol cowboy's gonna find hisself a new job. I hauled my butt to the shop and give my girl a hug."

He works now building barns, saying that "you are still up in the air, but ol' barns not tryin' to throw ya".

WATER BABY GRADUATES

Its been a very busy week down here. No time to post or get around to my friends. Heres a picture of my sister Lisa and my niece Jen flanking the Water Baby in her cap and gown. Jen is "Dave Mows Grass" sister. She is wearing the light green sweater.

My sister is the one that looks like Jane Fonda ; she and I have little in common but our laugh...

...My god that laugh! It starts from the toes and builds up its force in the gut and when at last unloosed it bellows...its like a cross between a Donkey and some kind of Farm Equipment in need of lubrication.

Of course my daughter has graduated High school and is on her way to College.

I love them all so.

I love them all so!

my little sister

Nice post davy;
Man, lisa has me quite worried...
she says she has a mild form of MS but i have had to help her from the car to bed twice this week...
she wears all the way out in about 2 hours...
she and I hardly get along, but I just can't lose her davy
its been a tough week
somebody help
anybody
p-please



It just seems to be worse than what she's lettin' on and that's whats got me so upset.
She keeps repeating how blessed she is...thats a little unnerving too.
Hopefully, its not as bad as it seems.