QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 5/30/2011

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's Party!'"

Robin Williams, American comedian and actor

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND

I awoke this morning to the sound of birds singing. I watched the sun come up over Denver. And all seems right in my little corner of the world.


This Memorial Day weekend, please be safe. And remember what Memorial Day is all about as you go about your weekend.

Remember our veterans, past and present. And fly our flag with pride! For, if not for them,we would not enjoy what we have now.

God Bless, and have a great 3 day weekend.

OLD SPURS: Part I

When they were bought new, they shined, and they jingled as you walked down the street. Now, all these years later, they are worn and tarnished, with some rust here and there. And they don't jingle quite like they used to. The leather straps are dry and the heel chains that broke off years ago were replaced with baling wire while out on the range and was never replaced with new chain.

The young fella that bought the spurs was named Joe. I never knew his last name. He started out at a young age as a cowboy. His family was large: he had four sisters who were older than he, and two brothers, one older than Joe and one younger. Seven kids was quite a handful, and there were times that there was not enough food to go around. When Joe was about 14 or so, as he remembers, his dad passed away. His Dad was stomped by a horse that he was trying to bust. The horse managed to bust out of the corral and ran off into the Texas hills.

Then it was just his mom and seven kids. They all pitched in to help make ends meet. Money was tight. The boys did the chores then would look for work on ranches. The girls would help around the house while their mother looked for work away from the ranch. There was not a lot of jobs to be had, so their mom took to doing laundry and two of the girls took up sewing. That brought in some money, but not enough to put food on the table and to buy feed for the animals, or seed for planting.

Joe, at the age of 14, found work on a ranch the other side of town. Just about all of his pay went to his mom for the rest of the kids. He put some aside for himself for things that he needed. Joe said that the ranch he was working on was a cattle outfit. That is how he became a cowboy.

He learned how to rope cows, and the other fellas taught him how to tie a bed roll and how to take care of his gear. Plus, they showed him how to roll a smoke. Joe always seemed to have a rolled cigarette in his mouth. He was working, had three meals a day, and a cot to sleep on. They also gave him a old saddle, bridle, and other tack.

Then they gave him his first horse. Joe laughed, as the horse they gave him was a wild mustang from the Texas hills. He was told that if he could break him, he could have him. Joe said that it took him over a month to break that woolly booger, what with all the other work he had to do on the ranch.

Joe worked on that ranch for over five years. In all those years, he kept on sending his mom money and he would go back and see his family whenever he could. In those five years, two of his older sisters had gotten hitched, as he liked to say, and had moved out of state. He also lost his younger brother, who had been shot and robbed while heading to town to pay a bill at the general store. They never did find the fella that shot him. And Joe still wondered about it.

At 19, Joe left the ranch he had been working on. He took his horse and what little bit of money he had saved and headed north. He worked several ranches in Montana then moved toward the Dakotas. He worked ranches there. And as he put it, he just "cowboyed around."

Texas, to Canada, and also spent time in California. Worked on a movie or two as a wrangler. But he said that he can't remember the name of the pictures. He says that he got to know a few stars back then, like Tex Ritter and some others that I can't remember.

He finally ended up here in Colorado on the ranch that my uncle ran in Kremmling, up by Steamboat. He was hired by my uncle's dad. He was really more the boss of the ranch than my uncle was.

The ranch is where I saw him for the first time. I was young and wanted to be a cowboy. I took to him like flies to molasses. He looked so much the cowboy. From his old black Stetson, right down to the old looking spurs on his worn-out boots. He had a wrinkled face that had never been out of the sun very long, and gnarled hands scarred from barbed wire and all kinds of weather. He looked as old as the hills and didn't stand very straight. And he had the bluest eyes that seemed to know everything and more.

He didn't take to me and my sister right off. He would see us coming up the road to the ranch, and would stand off to one side, as we would jump out of the car to start our vacation. He would see us every day playing around the ranch, running here and there.

Then, one day, I was bound and determined to saddle a horse on my own so I could go riding. Well, he caught me in the horse barn. I had a horse in a stall tied to a railing. I must have been about five or six. I had managed to get a saddle blanket on the horse and was trying and trying to lift a saddle and climb up high enough on the railings to get the saddle on the horse. 'Course, the horse kept moving, then I would drop the saddle, say a few choice words I had learned from some of the guys on the ranch, and pick up the saddle to try again.

Well, I think he heard me first. Then he saw me. He just stood there and watched. I must have tried 40 times to get that saddle on that horse! I heard him clear his throat and give me that blue-eyed look. He rolled a smoke and asked if I needed a hand. He put the saddle on the horse and showed me how to cinch it up. Then how to bridle the horse.

He then took the horse out of the barn,and held it for me. I told him that I needed the horse by the wood fence so I could get on. He just looked at me, smiled, and said a real cowboy does not use a wood fence to get on a horse. And a real cowboy does not use them words I heard in the barn. So he showed me how to sorta climb up into the saddle. He said, "Now if you get off your horse in a field or out on the prairie where there are no fences you can still get back in the saddle. And them words you were saying? You only use them when your with your pards out on the range. They shouldn't be used on the ranch, 'cept maybe when you smash a finger or a horse steps on you."

Joe was good that way. He taught me a lot of things that still hold true to this day. I still use some of the outdoor things he taught me. 'Course, I don't have a horse drawn wagon. But, when you make camp for the night and have unhitched the team, you point the tongue of the wagon in the direction you are traveling for the next day. Or, never drink or get your water downstream from your cows or horse.

Joe was a really great guy. The spurs he had all those years of cowboying, he gave to my cousin Steve. My cousin Steve gave them to me.

Just think of all the places, how many horses and cows and cow camps, storms, sunsets, and how many pairs of boots have seen those spurs. I myself have worn them on the ranch on many a horse. And, how about all the places that old Joe had been to? And all that he has done in his lifetime!

Joe seemed like an old man when I first saw him all those years ago. And he out lived all of his family. I remember when he decided that it was time to call it quits. He had decided that he wanted to go back home to Texas 'cause his cowboy days were about over.

I remember him packing what little bit of belongings he had, from the little bunk house that he had called home for so many years. And we took him into town to catch the train. And me, not to be a teenager for a few years yet, still playing at being a cowboy. I was wearing an old black cowboy hat, dusty jeans, with worn out boots caked with cow patties, and a pair of spurs that had been worn by a real cowboy.

As he was saying goodbye to everyone, I started to cry. He looked at me, his blue eyes just as bright as the first time I ever saw him, and he kneeled down in front of me. He gave me a huge hug, leaned back, rolled a smoke, lit it, and his eyes got a little misty. He looked at me and said, "Cowboys never really die, we just find that big ranch up yonder, and keep on riding the range." And with that, he got up, stepped onto the train, waved, and was gone.

Joe passed I don't know how many years ago. I'm in my 50's now. He went home to Texas and found some relatives down El Paso way. From what I was told, he was out with a relative, and they were on horseback checking on some cows. They stopped at a hilltop, under some trees. They ate some lunch, and his relative said that he had to make a call to mother nature. So Joe just sat there, holding the reins to the horses. When his relative came back, Joe was gone. He had a bit of a smile on his face and the reins in his hand.

It was the first time he didn't have spurs on his boots.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 5/24/2011

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it."

Yogi Berra
National Baseball Hall of Fame member

FEED YOUR FACE: Corn Tortillas

Jim is still on his break, so here I am (Kathi) posting a recipe.

My friend Ruby said she does not know how to make tortillas, and I can't believe that 'cause of how incredibly easy it is.

Speaking of "incredible," the day of the 9/11 attacks, I was at Jamba Juice in the morning and had just heard about it on the radio. When a random other customer person at Jamba asked me if I had heard about it, I said I had and that I thought it was incredible and horribly sad.

She went off on me for using the word incredible. She was yelling at me, "Incredible?!!! Are you f-ing kidding me? Incredible?" I had no idea what the heck she was all pissy about. Incredible's first definition from Merriam-Webster's site is "too extraordinary and improbable to be believed." Also, unconceivable, unthinkable, etc. I did NOT mean it as she took it, as in "wow, way cool." Dumb B! Okay, can you tell it hurt my feelings that she thought I meant it was good? Geez. . .

Okay, back to incredibly easy tortillas. Or, should I say, "unbelievably" easy tortillas.

First, buy a bag of masa. It's in the grocery store. It's a staple. You can use it for other things than tortillas, such as thickening up chili. Yum.

Here's a picture of the bag of masa I bought. The instructions for making tortillas are right on the bag. So, just put the masa and water into a bowl: 2 cups of masa, 1/4 t. salt, and 1-1/4 cups of water. Mix it up about 2 minutes until it becomes a soft dough. When I made this batch, I didn't need many tortillas, so I made half a batch. Just 1 cup of masa, 1/8 t. salt, and about 2/3 cup of water.

Then, divide the dough into little balls. Because I made a half batch, I just made 8 balls instead of the usual 16. Then cover them with a damp cloth to keep them from drying out.

The instructions say to line a tortilla press with two pieces of plastic wrap stuff, but I find it easier to just use a big plastic bag (the gallon size) and shove the dough in that to press.
Some people even use a rolling pin (old school!).

Then, just center the dough-ball in the middle of the tortilla press and smoosh it closed.

Open it back up, and you have a tortilla!

As you finish pressing and stacking them, be sure to keep that damp cloth over them still to keep them from drying out.
Once you have a little stack of tortillas, heat a skillet or griddle to medium high-ish, and flip them on for a little bit on each side -- maybe 45 seconds to a minute. This kind of finishes them up and gets them sturdier to use.
Then you can make enchiladas or tortilla chips or tostadas -- whatever you want to make. Yum.

So, as Jim might say, get some masa, smoosh it up and get ready to FEED YOUR FACE!

FEED YOUR FACE: Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Hi, Jim's wife (Kathi) here. Jim asked me to post my recipe for pineapple upside down cake. He really, really likes it, so I think he may want to know how to make it for himself in case he gets hungry for it and I'm not around to make it for him. Though pineapple upside down cake usually seems to taste better when someone makes it for you than when you make it yourself.

The ingredients you will need are:

• a box of white or yellow cake mix (plus 1/4 cup flour, if you are at altitude)


• 1/3 cup cooking oil


• 1-1/4 cups liquid (I use the juice from the pineapple rings and the juice from the cherries -- using the cherry juice can make the cake part look fluorescent pink if you use enough, which is how I really like it!)


• 3 eggs


• can of pineapple rings (my can has 10 rings)


• jar of maraschino cherries


• stick of butter


• brown sugar

First, get a skillet that can go into the oven at 350 degrees. The one I use is a 12" non-stick skillet. Jim would use a cast iron skillet if he were doing this.

Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in the skillet; then add as much brown sugar as you want. Some people like a little thin layer, I like a big thick layer. Sprinkle it over the butter.

Then lay the pineapple rings out however you want to. Add maraschino cherries, at least in the pineapple ring holes. We like more cherries, so we put them in each pineapple ring hole AND wherever else we can fit them. Yum.

Then mix up the cake batter using the dry cake mix, the eggs, oil, and liquid. I use my KitchenAid fluorescent pink stand mixer, but you can do it by hand or however you like to mix such things.

Pour the cake batter over the butter-sugar-pineapple ring-cherry stuff in the skillet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 35 minutes, more or less. Test it like you would a regular cake to check for doneness.

Let is sit on your cooling rack or stovetop or whatever you usually stick your pans on to cool for 10 minutes. Then get a big platter (a little larger in diameter than your skillet), place the platter face down on the skillet, then flip it over so the cake falls out on the platter.

Don't get overly excited and flip it too early because the pineapple rings might fall off or it might all get stuck in the skillet because you didn't let it cool enough to let the sugars set. Just ask me how I know!

Some people like to eat their pineapple upside down cake warm. I like mine really cold, like from the refrigerator. Some people like theirs garnished with whipped cream. Some like ice cream. Some like naked, like I do. Not eating it naked, just leaving the CAKE naked. (Though I guess eating it naked is fine, too, if you are like that.)

So, I guess Jim would say, "Get our your forks, tie on your bib, and get ready for cake 'cause you're going to FEED YOUR FACE!"

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 5/16/2011

"If you don't go after what you want, you'll never have it. If you don't ask, the answer is always no. If you don't step forward, you're always in the same place."

Nora Roberts,
American author

BREAK TIME

It is Friday afternoon. And I did not blog for Thursday. I almost didn't blog for today. Sorry about that. I just needed a little break. We have had a lot of things going on. And it is kind of hard to do umpteen things at one time. Since I'm such a Mega Multi Tasker (NOT!) and can do it all, I find that sometimes there are not enough hours in the day. Kathi tries to help. Plus, I have older parents and try to help them, which I enjoy doing. Other family members seem to need our help also. Things pile up pretty fast.

So, as soon as we can we may try to take some time off and run away from home. Don't know where we will go or what we will do. But Kathi and I seem to always find something that we want to do, whether it is just a road trip for a day or to go to some place to feed our faces, like, Famous Dave's for BBQ. Or to the Cracker Barrel for a meal, or to just get some candy from when we were kids. Even to a Stuckey's in Kansas. (They have LOTS of candy from my childhood!) Or (when they are ripe) picking grapes from a friend of ours. Or picking chokecherries at Red Rocks Park. And once, even going all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming, for a lunch of Mongolian BBQ.

And don't get me started on fishing trips, or camping, or metal detecting. 'Course, there are times it is nice to hunker down at home and not do a damn thing. Just hang with Kathi and Nugget.

Things just seem to run faster as you get older, and trying to keep up is getting harder also. Nothing like having the mind of a 20-year-old (okay, sometimes it is even more child-ish like), and the body of a 55-year-old. The mind is willing, but the body is saying what the **** are you doing, dummy?!

When I start writing for this blog I get going on a story, and I'm a hunt and peck typer, and the two or three fingers that I use to type with cramp up. I mean, I have even had my legs cramp up while cooking on the grill outside. And I drink plenty of water and take vitamins and all that good stuff.

So, this is going up this afternoon. Maybe we'll just take the weekend and run away.

FISHING BOAT

I want to go fishing. But with this yucky weather we are having, I can not get my boat ready. It does not take much. All I have to do is get it down from the rafters in our garage. Then it is a matter of unfolding it, putting in the seats, and the transum in the back to hold the motor. Then it is ready.

I guess I could hold off and put it together once I get to a lake, but I like to have it ready to just put it in the water. The boat I have is what's called a Porta Boat. They come in several sizes and they are unsinkable. They will float even full of water. Sorry that I don't have a picture right now, but will come up with one or two later on. They are a blast! They have several things that you can add on to them, such as a sail or folding roof, and they come in several colors.

It's a boat that is easy to haul. It floats in about four inches of water, and is a blast to fish from or to just to float on a lake.

So, check them out at www.portaboat .com and go catch some fish!

FEED YOUR FACE: Breakfast

It is cold and rainy this morning here in Denver. So, hot cereal is the order of the day. How about cornmeal mush?

Did I just hear someone go "yuck?" Have you ever had cornmeal mush?

My sister and I had cornmeal mush quite often when we were just little squirts, and living in Russellville, Arkansas. We had an African-American lady who was like a grandma to us. That was very good. The mush was also good, 'cause it was also made with love. So here you go.

1 cup cornmeal
4 cups water
1 teaspoon salt
Combine the cornmeal and water. Bring to a boil, add the salt, and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Serve with evaporated milk and sugar. Or throw in some of your favorite fruit. Or put some brown sugar on it.

You can also take any leftovers and pack it in tins. Then let it cool and put it in the fridge. Then you can slice off some, dip it in some flour, and fry it up for a bedtime snack or for your evening meal. Serve it up with some syrup.

This makes about ten 1/2 cup servings. Yum.

I used to take the bread tin with me in a cooler for camping trips. Give it a try. You just might find that it is quite good.

So, enjoy and FEED YOUR FACE!!

DID YOU KNOW: Real people's real names

Did you know that Billy the Kid's real name is William Bonney?
Black Bart - Charles E. Boles
Calamity Jane - Martha Jane Canary
Kit Carson - Christopher Houston Carson
Butch Cassidy - Robert Leroy Parker
Buffalo Bill Cody - William Fredrick Cody
Wild Bill Hickok - James Butler Hickok
Belle Starr - Myra Belle Shirley
Annie Oakley - Phoebe Ann Moses
And, Doc Holliday - John Henry Holliday

I can see how some of these people would accept a name change that seems more in line with them. And they all have a certain " ring" to them.

So, now you know!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 5/9/2011

"A man begins cutting his wisdom teeth the first time he bites off more than he can chew."

Herb Caen
Pulitzer Prize-winning American columnist

DRAGGING BUTT

Well, I missed posting Friday. About all I can do right now, is just hitting the keys. I spent the day Thursday helping my parents in Loveland. They had some things that needed to be done in their garden area.

It ended up being more than I thought it would be. At first, Mom asked me, if I could put down some ground cloth to keep weeds out. And she wanted me to put down some bark around where they used to have a garden. So, like a good son, I said sure, no problem. So away I went with Nugget to Loveland.

They had already been to Home Depot and bought like 40 bags of bark and ground cloth.

I thought that all I had to do was put down the cloth, pin it down, and spread the bark. Well, it turned out I first had to remove old bark that has been there since the dawn of time, and pull up the old ground cloth. With my dad's health not being the best in the world right now, it was Mom and I: me shoveling bark and she taking it to the back side of the shed.

I picked up all of the old bark, and I started to pull up the old ground cloth.

My dad came outside, set in a chair, and said for me to just leave the old stuff there, and " we" would put the new cloth over the old. And that was fine by me. But, putting down the new cloth was a little harder than I thought it would be, with me being such a "young" feller of 55. I do not know how many times I was standing, rolling out ground cloth, pinning it down, and making sure that there are no wrinkles in said ground cloth.

As I was doing all of this, Mom decided to start moving bags of bark to back where I am trying to lay the ground cloth. Now I have two projects going. Then I'm told that they also have a raised garden bed to put together. Third project.

Well, I had most of the ground cloth down when Dad decided that he was getting hungry. Mom had moved maybe four bags of bark to the ground cloth, as it's all she can do to move two bags at a time in the wheel barrow. And it is getting warmer out also.

After lunch, back to the yard. More up and down on my hands and knees. I got all the ground cloth down, over 150 feet long or more. Mom was trying to open bags of bark and spread it around. And we still needed to get the raised garden put together.

Well, to make a long story short, "we" managed to get all the ground cloth down and pinned got over half of the raised garden put together. And maybe dumped about six bags of bark. And then they both said that they had had enough and it was time to call it quits. So I quit.

I was stiff and a little sore and the drive back home went alright. But when I hit the driveway, I felt like I had been dragged through a knothole backwards. I suddenly hurt from head to toe. Plus, I had a bit of a sun burn, even after wearing all kinds of sun block. As soon as I sat down at home, I was done.

Friday morning it was about all I could do just to stand by the coffee pot. My butt hurts, my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my hands hurt, my feet hurt. In fact, about the only thing that does not hurt is the top of my head, and I attribute that to wearing a hat all day. I called my parents to talk to them.

Mom was already outside spreading bark, and my Dad was getting dressed so he could go out and help her. And here I am, I can hardly move, I have to drink my coffee with a straw and have no idea how I'm going to do breakfast. Nugget has already had his and is giving me that look, like, "I've had my breakfast. What are you going to eat?"

When it hurts to try to move your arms above your chest, I was amazed that I managed to get a box of cereal out, and managed to open it. I couldn't do more, so I just buried my face in the box, and pigged out. Nugget caught the overflow, what fell to the floor and even what was stuck to my face when I managed to set on the bed to try to get dressed. But I won't go there. That is a whole different story.

SCARE THE BEAR

My grandfather was a pretty funny guy sometimes. He is the same fellow from a past post about a family reunion and his barn door being open. He told me this story a bunch of years ago. I think I was about 19 or 20.

As the story goes, he was up around Aspen, Colorado, and was out hiking and checking to see how hunting season might be that fall. A lot of the forest had been cut down in the 1800s for homes, the mines, for shoring up the tunnels, and for new buildings in Aspen. A lot of the stumps from these trees were about 8 feet tall or taller because when they were chopped down during winter, the people who chopped them were standing on top of the snow (we can have snow up to 20 feet or more sometimes, in the mountains, here.)

Anyway, he was walking and checking for sign of deer and elk. As he walked, he noticed how pretty the valley looked and he wanted to get a better view. So, he decided to climb one of the big old stumps to get a better view of the valley. He said that it was a bit of work to get to the top of the stump. As he neared the top of the stump, he found out that the big old stump was hollow.

When he got to the top, he thought that if he straddled the top part of the stump and put a leg on either side that it would hold him so he could see the valley. Well, he said that just about the time he was settled on the stump. One side caved in on him and his leg went down in the stump so he tried to put all his weight on the other side. It let loose, and his other leg went in the stump! He said that he tried to stop his fall inside of the stump, but just ended up with his arms up over his head and he was worried that he was going to fall all the way down inside this stump.

He said all of a sudden he quit falling, looked up, and could see that his hands were about three feet from the top of the stump. He was stuck good and pretty tight . He hollered and hollered and started to think about how to get out of the stump. He knew that no one knew where he was, and that no one could hear him scream and holler.

Pappy said that he felt like he had been in that stump for hours and was about to give up when he heard something or someone outside of the stump. Just as he was about to shout, it dawned on him that what he was hearing was some animal. After a few minutes of listening to this animal sniff around the stump and make all kinds of noise, it started to climb the big old stump.

Pappy said that he could hear it climb up the side and, all of a sudden, the light was blocked out. It was a bear coming down inside the stump, butt first!

Figures that he would have to pick some old stump that a bear had used all winter to sleep in. Now it had been out eating whatever it could find and was wanting to take a nap!

He said that he was as quite as a mouse. As the bear was backing down the stump, Pappy lowered his arms as far as he could.

He said just as soon as he felt fur, he reached up as far as he could and grabbed as much of that bear butt fur as he could, then he screamed as loud as he could. That poor old bear didn't know what had him! The bear yanked him far enough up the stump that he could get his elbows wedged at the top of the stump.

As he raised himself up high enough, all he could see was that poor old bear running like he was on fire, down the side of the mountain! And the bear never looked back at him.

As Pappy made his way down the outside of the stump, he said that he heard someone holler his name. It was a friend of his. When he saw Pappy, he asked him why he was covered in pine bark and wanted to know what in the world he had in his hands. Pappy looked down to see that he had two big handfuls of bear butt fur. There was enough there that he could of made a real nice hair piece for someone.

After being told this story and all of the times that I have been in the mountains since then, I can't help think of this whenever I see a bear. When I watch them run off, fuzzy bear butt wiggling down the trail, I fondly think of my grandfather.

NO CAMERA

You know, I need to start carrying a camera. I have missed some really neat pictures over the years, but I never think of taking a camera along.

I used to have a little Kodak 110. Remember those? It took great pictures and I used it a lot of years, until I dropped it one day while fishing from a boat on Dillon reservoir. It now rests on the bottom of the lake in about 100 feet of water.

I also once had one of those disc cameras that came out years ago. It took pretty good pictures, but they fade over time. It also had a watery grave, in a beaver pond up on the Gore range.

As far as using a cell phone camera? Well, it just does not do the job. And some of the newer cameras are just too big to lug around my neck, along with all the other stuff that I carry with me when I go fishing or camping or metal detecting. And I can't afford to have a film crew with me.

Plus, it is really hard to take pictures while you have a fish on line. Or get that great picture of elk when you are on the side of a 60 degree angle hill in the snow. Do you know how hard it is to take a picture a gator while it is coming at you? And your wife wants to pet one of them? I DO have some pictures from that trip, but that time I was not all geared up like when I'm out fishing or camping. Road trips are easy to have a camera around.

So are family get togethers. Just about everyone has a camera except me. I seem to forget to bring one just about every time. Good thing Kathi is around. She takes some fantastic pictures. Only problem is I can't take her with me all the time and it is kind of hard to get her in a duffel bag with all my other stuff.

Also, she does not like grasshoppers. I have the beatten down grass in my yard as proof. See? There was a picture right there! Did I have a camera.? Nope.

A LITTLE CHANGE IS ON THE WAY

I have been thinking I will make a change on my blog. I'm going to start putting up some items that might be of interest to some of you to purchase. Nothing super expensive or anything.

Stuff like home made soap or hand drawn cards, or maybe little recipe books. Maybe some homemade jelly or some homemade jerky. Maybe even some little gifts.

I have also made it easier to leave a comment. I have heard from some little birdies that it has been difficult to leave a comment. So try, then let me know.

Also, I will be putting up a video every now and then. Some on smoking, grilling, and dutch oven cooking. Maybe even on some of my mistakes and bloopers of making stuff. Also will do some on neat camping and home stuff. Like building a fire in your fireplace.

There will be more stories about me, friends, and family, and more quotes and "did you know" posts.

I am also thinking of adding, thanks to a friend's suggestion, a restaurant review of some of the places here in Denver so those of you who live here, or come here, can feed your face and know where to find a good meal.

So, stick around, maybe let some of your friends know about this blog and we will have some fun. I hope that I can bring a little sunshine into your life, maybe a smile to your face, and maybe some warm fuzzys to your heart with fond memories of your past.

And remember. Strangers can be friends that you have not met yet. Smile!

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: 5/2/2011

"When someone does something good, applaud! You will make two people happy."

Samuel Goldwyn
Film producer