My wife has said on more than one occasion that I was born a century too late.  She is probably right.  I like wooden cooking tools better than stainless steel, cast iron skillets better than the non=stick, and I like to dream about it would have been like to have been the first person to travel across my native state of Texas.  I like the “good ole days”.

A recent article in our newspaper caught my attention.  It concerned the Coyote.  Guadalupe is considering calling a halt to the $ 15.00 bounty on coyotes.  Until February, 2002 I probably would not have given much thought to such an article but things do change as I get older and hopefully a bit wiser.

Traveling to west Texas to hunt reminds me of my youth.  The sunsets are clear, as are the sunrises and people are far outnumbered by the local fauna.  Without straining my aging eyes, I can see into the mountains of Mexico and have spent many a night by the camp fire wondering what kind of things were going on across the river.  With no city lights, the stars are so clear that they look like diamonds in the sky.  However, there is something missing.  Never have we heard the howl of a coyote.  As any hunter will tell you, the sound of coyotes in the evening or early in the morning can send chills down your spine.  Your imagination runs wild.  What are they doing and why are they doing it.

I know that coyotes are responsible for the deaths of some animals such as calves, lambs and kids.  They kill an occasional chicken and have even been known to kill a dog or other type pet, but, none of these are their natural prey.  They prefer mice, rabbits and ground squirrels.  We have seen a plethora of these animals so can only surmise that man has somehow caused this little imbalance in the natural order of things.

One of the aspects of the good ole days that I want to again experience is the sound of a pack of coyotes yipping in the early morning hours.  I want to sit by a camp fire late at night and hear one howl.  I promise I wont care why the are doing it, just that they are.

Chuy the conservator

Until recently, I would have never been so presumptious as to give a President advice.  With this one, well I have no qualms. 

If he really wants to do something about the health care in America, he should only have to pass a law stating that dentists must maintain a practice that is open 7 days a week, 365 days a year.  If this gets around dentists are going to pitch a bitch but I have a solution for that also. In each community where there are one or more dentists then one of them should be open at all times on a rotating basis.  This radical approach could be paid for by a simple tax of $ 10.00 on each man, woman and child in the USA.  I would personally pay my share in advance.

This weekend, Dorothy and I both had toothaches.  Is there anything that hurts worse than a toothache. I have been shot (self-inflicted), have been hit in the nose on more than one occasion, have cut myself on numerous occasions, and been hit by a train.  I have not had a child but have been backed up a couple of times that required some deep breathing and I swear that I know of nothing that surpasses the pain involved in a toothache.  Oh, just dab on a bit of orajel.  Orajel, my aching butt, that stuff is about as worthless as rubbing lard on a tooth. Well then, can you see me on the second thursday of next month?  Hell no, I am about a block from your home and will be there in about 3 minutes.  You had better have some opiates, preferably something that causes me to go into a temporary coma, or things are going to get ugly. I once had a dental procedure that required the use of percodan.  Now that is a wonder drug.  That stuff ought to be issued to a new born infant and the perscription ought to be for a lifetime supply. 

I know, it sounds like I am wussie but if your toes curl everytime you take a deep breath and cold air runs across your tooth, well, then you know how I feel. 

We need the President to get the hell out of Afganistan, where the people have learned to live with tooth pain, and get on track for curing some problems around here. 

Chuy the toothless

I dont go to a lot of movies for a lot of reasons.  Too loud, other movie goers are bothersome, etc.  However, I went to a doozie yesterday.  My brother-in-law advised Dorothy to run, not walk to see “LINCOLN”.  I concur, it was the best movie I have seen in 20 Years.   If Daniel Day-Lewis doesnt win an oscar for best actor, then they should discontinue giving the award.  He was mesmerizikng.

It was about the civil war era and there was a battle scene, but it was about more than that.  It showed politics as it was, as it is, and as it will probably always be.  It shows the art of the deal that probably has to be utilized in order to get anything done.  It shows the lobbyists as a necessary evil.  There was sublety in almost every phase of the movie so you have to keep your mind open.  You have to pay attention.  The writer, and I do not know who it was, was brilliant in his use of  scenes that allowed us to go back to our school book knowledge of Lincoln.  Lincoln reading books by the light of a wood fire in the fireplace.  Hint.  Euclid.

I have no idea whether the wordage used by the actors is genuine but they words they used and they way they spoke was as believable to me as if I had been there.  You could hear brilliance, you could feel torment and anguish, all through the way the actors, well, acted.

So, my advice to each of you is for you to spend 3 hrs in a movie theatre and see how our nation was reunited.  It will give you a completely different feeling about the times than you might have previously had.  It did me.

Chuy the Movie Critic

Sunrise over ole Mexico

This is sunrise at the ranch.  Looking southeast back in to ole Mexico.  It is my favorite time of day, animals just heading home after a night of prowling.  Birds begin to sing and the day is still cool.  It sure beats looking at my neighbors fence.

I bought a smaller turkey this year, simply because there are only to be 4 of us nibblin on the bird.  I took it out of the freezer on Sunday as I have always done and put it in the fridge. Hard as a ho’s heart this morning.  I immediately submersed the thing in water, which by the way is exactly what they tell you not to do, on penalty of contacting a disease that will make your pin feathers fall out, and I am jittery as a cat passing peach seeds that the thing wont thaw by oven time tomorrow.  I have about 4 slices of salami as back up so I guess things wont be a total loss.  However, salami, sweet taters, and greenbean casserole just doesnt do much for me.  Ya’ll send out a small prayer request to butterball that this thing does its thing at the appropriate time. 

If everything goes right we will be dining on the bird around one oclock.  Around 1:25 I will have consumed all I am allowed to eat and will be full as a tick.  It will be time to watch some football.  I assume the Cowboys are going to play.  Or not play as the case may be.  Ya’ll did hear that they found a suicide note from “Big Tex”.  He said he was ending it all because he just couldnt stand watching the cowboys anymore.  If I ever go postal I am going to blame that on them also.

I do hope that each and everyone of you have a great Thanksgiving day.  We all have more to be thankful for than we own up to.  We have good friends, old friends and we have forever friends.  What more could you ask for?

Chuy

It is almost here, another year has gone by and My favorite meal of all time is just a few days away.  There is nothing I have ever been served on this day that I didnt like and could not have had a second helping of.  I have even eaten and liked mincedmeat pie.  Herein lies my current problem.  Having recently been diagnosed with the dreaded type 2 diabetes I have been watching my diet rather closely.  I have been doing rather well on all things except sodium.  You cannot believe the sodium contained in the food we eat.  I have come to the conclusion that you cannot eat anything that is in a can.  If it isnt picked by your own hands and cooked with in the hour, well sodium attaches itself to the item and multiplies. 

My menu for thursday will consist of the usual, with the exception of mashed potatoes.  Those things just have too much of the bad carbs.

                                 calories        carbs             fats         sodium

    turkey dinner           1161            164               35.1          1451

I guess for breakfast and supper I will just have to have a glass of water and maybe stew up some cabbage.

I was asked to try uploading some pictures so I was able to upload one.  So far.  The new picture at the header of my blog is of the canyon that lies to the west of where our trailer sat.  I know, it looks rugged as hell, but, yep, thats why we liked it out there.

Hope ya’ll enjoy as I bring video into the picture, so to speak.

Chuy

We made a fast trip to the river to clean out our possessions from the ranchette.  I was saddened by the prospect of doing that chore, however, after taking 2 and 1/2 hours to drive 16 miles, well, my buttocks commented that its cheeks had about all this western living it could stand. 

We have always been fastidious about our trailer and its contents.  We cleaned after each use and arranged things for the next visit.  We were very surprised when we arrived and found that the new owner’s were either a band of gypsies or a herd of hogs.  Either way, they had already trashed the place.  We were very disappointed.  We naturally put on our aprons and grabbed the broom.  We swept and mopped and straightened as best we could while maintaining some degree of manly hunter prowess.  It is extremely difficult to have a pistol on your hip and be able to fast draw when an apron is around your middle.  It takes a great degree of dexterity to drop a broom or mop and whip it out. 

Well those days are over.  I think my next project will be fishing.  If it would only rain, where the lake would fill up, then I would find me a place to sit under a tree and fish.  I mean cane pole fish, none of that fly fishing cause that is way too much work.  Cane pole fishing allows you time to nap and only move when the shade moves and you are subjected to the sun.

Chuy the fisherman

My friend and I have been going to Sanderson Texas for 13 years, hunting and camping.  We have gone several times each year except for the last couple and we had to get involved in working for a living.  He has sold the place and we are going there this weekend to vacate the premises.  I am too big to cry or I would.

Over the years I have equipped my ranch kitchen with everything that I didnt absolutely need here at the house and have built a rather nice collection of kitchen tools and gadgets.  I have a couple of things out there that I am bringing back home but really dont have the room to bring it all.  I am hoping that some passing immigrant might find some use for a sautee skillet or a slotted spoon, among other things.  Not sure whether the new owner is a cooker or just that type of hunter that opens a can of spam and eats from the can.  I have prepared many a gourmet meals over the years and even received an  indecent proposal after making a batch of peach cobbler.  I advised the man making the proposal that hunting camp, with guns available, was no place to show affection.  It will be a good trip as havent been able to go in a while so will get to see a couple of more sunrises across the mountains of ole Mexico.

Vaya Con Dios

Chuy