I don’t normally share fundraisers but this one I wanted to share with my followers. This happened in a neighborhood near my home & I drove by the crime scene the night it happened. I knew something bad happened but just found out the gravity of it recently. See link below.
@RogerSeheult I’m glad I didn’t even think about giving in to them, I might be the only unvaccinated cath lab personnel in California 😎.
Love the content you put on here, thank you.
The Texas Quote of the Day is the best thing you'll read today:
"I was born twenty miles below Austin and grew up to the beginning of my tenth year working cattle, and it was in the year of '71 when I was but 12 years old that I went with my first trail herd to Abilene, Kan. Tid and Kinney Murchison owned the cattle, 2,800 head there were, and their brother, Pete was herd boss. Cal Young, Pincher Stahl. a fellow named Butler and a big Swede who, because we never could pronounce his name, went by the 'handle' of 'Peter Swede,' and a few others I cannot now recall, were on that drive. It was a long and hard one, too, on account of hail and stampedes. One storm broke all records for the size of hail stones and it pretty nearly broke up Murchison's herd, too. The cattle ran hog wild and such a time we did have rounding ‘em up again. That storm impressed me so, boy as I was, that I determined, if I ever got home again, I would stay. But when we got to Abilene and I had seen the sights and started on the back trip, I lined up for the next drive Murchison was to make, which was as soon as it could be started. We had the same boss and bunch of cowboys and drove to the same market. But there was 2,700 cattle in that herd.
"Murchison Brothers seemed satisfied with my work and wanted me to make another drive with them. By this time I felt at home with their outfit and also on the trail and was glad of the chance to go again. We started that time with 2,900 head, making the total of the three drives amount to 4,800. That drive was exciting from start to finish, first one thing and another out of the ordinary happened all the way. But the climax came one afternoon as we were striking camp for the night. Bang! bang! bang! went the six guns in quick succession over the hill from our camp, followed by more rapid firing. Leaving the cook in full charge, we jumped our mounts and were off to see what it was all about, When we got there we saw one cowboy after another fire his gun and fall until nine of them lay piled up together dead as Heck. Nobody was left of that outfit but the cook was boss.
"They said it all started over one of the boys finding a stake pin and when he began tying his horse to it another rode up and claimed he'd seen it first. They got to fightin' and first one and another of the outfit joined in until it was a free for all and shootin to kill. We stayed and helped dig a grave big enough to bury ‘em all in and without ceremony or coffin we wrapped each one in his blanket and planted him, that was all. But do you know, it sort of struck me then, and does now, that something like that maybe caused the fellow to write the song that was so popular on range and trail. 'Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie.’ Not altogether the thought of loneliness surrounding it, though God knows it was bad enough, but knowing that coyotes would scratch up the body and with the buzzards' help, pick the bones clean, you know that sort of makes a fellow feel like he would like to have a coffin and a weepin' willow over his grave.
"Somehow that buryin' sort of put a damper on all of us for the rest of the drive up. Then, when we started back and began to feel kind of natural again, came a day when Tom Hamilton, one of our own outfit, got sick. It was on the border line of Kansas and the Indian Territory, and what I mean he was sure sick. We tried to get a doctor, but of course, it ended with tryin'. Tom got to sufferin' so that he begged me hour after hour to shoot him. But I never could just raise my six-gun and shoot a fellow lyin' helpless and sufferin' like he was even if he would have considered it a favor, and when he could not stand it any longer he just up and died. We buried him as best we could, and when I got back to Cedar Creek, in Bastrop County. and told his brothers George and Andrew about it, they asked me to go with ‘em and help to bring his body back and I went. I felt a whole lot better, too, when we buried the bones near his old home.
"I made my fourth drive in the year of '74 from Williamson County to Abilene, Kan., with a herd of 2,000 owned by Tom Daly and John Snyder, Al Boyce bossed the herd. The trip was tiresome and uneventful excepting for severe thunderstorms and stampedes. I couldn't blame the cattle for runnin' either, for lightning just played tag all over them. It sure made a good boy out of me whenever it began forking out from their horns, I always stopped cussin' and went to singin' good ol' religious songs."
---- Ben Drake, old-time trail cowboy, as told to Cora Melton Cross in Frontier Times magazine, 1928
Please visit and support my friend who was just widowed. She has a great place and offers wonderful things. Many of us widowed women keep the homestead going on our own. It's much harder without a partner so we must support each other. 🙏
June is recognized as a time to celebrate the History of Independence Day and What It Means.
On July 4, 1776, the United States declared its independence, breaking free from British rule and marking the birth of a nation built on freedom, unity, and resilience. Independence Day serves as an opportunity to honor this important chapter in our country’s history and those who made it happen. As we celebrate almost two and a half centuries of freedom, we reflect on the ideals that have shaped America ever since.
Update: Anyone who has left LA and headed south. You are welcome at our restaurant, 16600 Pacific Coast Highway, 92649. We have a large parking lot, you can stay as long as you need and camp out. We will provide free meals for all of those affected. If anyone has any coordination in process for meals, supplies, etc for LA, reach out to me, we will provide as much food to deliver and arrange supplies as well.