Collections

Time for another collections post.
First I am going to show you the culprit that created this collection

This is a thimble of sorts that belonged to my Mother. I thought it was cute and didn't want to part with it but where to put it.........

Some of these I bought just because they were different and others I bought from places we visited.

We had a competition here in Virginia City, Nev.

The Lords prayer wraps around this one and it is pewter.

From my trip to Graceland

From one of our tips to Hawaii

Easter basket

Love is a invitation to dance

A trip to New Hampshire

Trip to Mount Rushmore

This is a Swedish word that my Grandmother often said. It is my understanding it is slang word and similar to us saying something like "crap"

Trip from Savannah, Georgia

Trip from Australia. This has a clay texture.

Couldn't ignore my home state.

Hand Painted ones

A leather one

Trip to New Orleans

Trip to South Dakota

Trip to Maderia, Portugal. This is a island and similar to our Hawaii.

More Christmas

(to be continued)

Forever relationship

No matter how you choose to celebrate Easter the point of the celebration is the forever relationship with God provided to us through Jesus Christ, God's son. It is beyond our comprehension and even a glimpse of a worldly example like  this couple leaving hand in hand from Easter brunch is a special blessing.

My find

Yesterday I went to my favorite used store and look what I found

I just thought this would be a great take along knitting bag ..... it is unique

has zippered inside pockets

and magnetic snaps

I see that there is a little  paint coming off and one snap needs to be sewed back down but hey....it was a deal:) Now I'll be styling as well as knitting.

A new interest

May 2011



Last month Meghan Sarr Editor-in-Chief from True West Magazine contacted me because she was covering the auction that was held in Ponca City March12th.  I sent her a book in pdf and she used it for some quotes and to get a overview of Bessie. The article appeared in the May issue and she did a great job, here is a little bit of it....
I don't think it would be fair to post the whole article and lose a sale for the magazine.

"Spose Ma will think I am crazy
but this is a circus anyone need
not be ashamed of.

"All nice girls, no swearing or
anything rough, we are not allowed to
monkey with the boys at all. It could
not be stricter."

Bettie Herberg wrote this to her sister
Esther on April 29, 1911, in the same
month she began working for the 101
Ranch Real Wild West Show and two
days after she had written: "I do not
think I will stay as it is too hard for the
money there is in it, but will have to stick
with it for a while to pay back my fare."

Yet stay she did. A century later, almost
to the month, on March 12, "Buckskin
Bessie" spoke through her letters and
photographs to collectors gathered in
Ponca City, Oklahoma to bid on the 101
Ranch collection of Jack Keathly.
Letters written to Bessie from 101
Ranch showman J.C. Miller were
purchased by an International Fast
Draw Champion with the SASS alias
"Buckskin Bessie." Monica James, of
Glendale, Arizona, had rescued other
letters by Bessie before they were
almost carelessly disposed of after an
estate sale; inspired by what she read,
she wrote the historical biography of
the showgirl, Buckskin Bessie: Her
Lost Letters, in 2006.

It is hard to believe it has been six years since I published the book

 (see side bar) and amazing the coincide that the auction was held almost to the day 100 years from when Bessie joined the show. I did indeed purchase 10 letters Joe wrote to Bessie as well as letters that were written to Bessie's family from Marshall Blackwell (with the help of a friend). They did not reveal anything earth shaking but did shed a different light in a few situations. I have not decided yet as how to share this info as I do not intend on rewriting the book. I have had a influx of orders for the book and assume the auction has created a new interest.  I  just wished they would order them from my web site so I could personally sign them but I am glad to continue to share Bessie's story.

Gone but not forgotten

View from the throne

A while back Nancy over a Wyoming Breeze did this post on words to live by and I loved it so I thought I would post one that  I have and read often.....

To avoid having to write them all I am going to post some close up and hope they show enough..

Oh and what is that in the corner?

It's a CD hold but

T-paper is what is called for here:) Yes, this is in our Master bathroom.

Week-end

Hubby was competing in Tombstone this past week-end and asked me to come along. I knew it was to be cold on Sat. so planned on staying in the motel and not risk a relapse with the pneumonia but Fri. was cold with hard winds as well so spent most of that day in the room as well. Not really a problem as HBO was free and I had brought knitting and a book on tape:) We did go a day earlier so that we could stop at the Rooster Cogburn Ostrick Ranch that is located between Phoenix and Tucson and at the base of Picaho Peak Mountain.

I had never been up close and personal with a ostrich before and let me tell you they are very big (up to 9ft. tall and 350 lb.) and aggressive.  They gave us cups of food for them but trying to feed them was like becoming a target. The goats on the other hand, could not be resisted.

Back to the ostrich

 it is the only bird that does not fly but it can run at over 43 mph for up to 30 minutes. Their wing span is over 6 feet and are used for mating displays and to shade chicks. Their skin is used for leather, meat for food and feathers for those famous feather dusters that I just had to have

The most shocking thing to see up close was their feet!

Ugly and deadly

They have just two toes on each foot (most birds have four), with the nail on the larger, inner toe resembling a hoof. The outer toe has no nail. A kick by one of these can kill a lion.

The ostrich egg is 20 times the chicken egg and can weigh 3 lb. It  requires 40 min to hard boil and amazingly, a female ostrich can determine her own eggs amongst others in a communal nest
We had only one cup of food to feed the deer, ostrich, and the goats and no one told us there were donkeys at the end...

They got the short end of the stick and this one was telling us all about it.
It was a fun time and they have a monster truck ride you can take...racing across the desert.
Our next stop was at the Casino Del Sol

This is the pretties casino I have ever been in. They do not allow you to take pictures so will have to use one from the web site...

It is like being in an Italian village with the buildings and sky. They have a restaurant called the Tequila Factory with a taco bar....mmmm that was lunch. If you have followed my blog you know that Hubby likes to gamble but not me so much...however....I have discovered the penny machines....I won $240.00 on a penny machine...can you believe it. For the first time I won and hubby lost so I bailed him out instead of him bailing me out...now that was fun!

Tombstone is a subject within itself ....you know the town too tough to die and the OK corral shoot-out and etc. We have been there many times and saloon girls strolling the streets is a common sight

but it was always a trick to get something decent to eat but this year was different...a new place has opened up called the Depot and the food was delicious. Of course it still had all the old west features like the deer head  behind the bar and they had old railroad pictures and items to support their name.

There is a lot of history in Tombstone and a lot of windy tales as well. Along with the old bars and famous gun fight areas there  is the oldest rose bush in the world.  A restored home, the Rose Tree Inn Museum, is home to a rose bush that  is over 100 years old and covers an 8,000 square foot arbor. The rose tree of Tombstone blooms during April of each year.

Mary Katherine Horony Cummings (November 7, 1850 – November 2, 1940), known as Big Nose Kate, was the long-time companion/common law wife of fabled gunfighter Doc Holliday in the American Old West

Big Nose Kate's saloon was originally a bordello that was suppose to have been run by Big Nose Kate herself. You may be surprised to know that Prostitution was legal in Tombstone back then,  as long as the proper city license for the business of "House of Ill Fame" was purchased. Revenue collected from the sale of these licenses was, for many years, the sole source of financial support for Tombstone's schools. Although considered to be a profession of sin, large contributions helped to build area churches, and during times of illness a place of care.

Gotta love this one.......

A favorite thing to do is just walk the wooden boardwalk and look in all the shops but not this past week-end with the cold, rain and wind.

A Survey

Okay, I have taken a razing from my kids for pronouncing naked with a long a and they say it is suppose to be  pronounced more like neck-ed ........so what say you?

Baby Giraffe

Nothing, I mean nothing is more beautiful than a Rothschild giraffe. The EYES have it!!!

Her eyes are beautiful. Most babies measuring 5 ft would be considered big, but newborn giraffe, Margaret, at Chester Zoo, UK is seen as unusually small for her species. She is one of the smallest giraffes ever born at Chester Zoo but pint-sized Margaret will soon be an animal to look up to.

Little Margaret, who is the first female Rothschild giraffe born at the zoo, is being hand-reared by her dedicated keepers. The first calf for six-year-old mum Fay, Margaret, who was born two weeks early,

tipped the scales at just 34 kilos (75 lbs) and is a mere 5 ft tall.

Tim Rowland's, team leader of the Giraffes section, said, 'Margaret is one of the smallest giraffe calves we have ever seen. Fay isn't the largest of giraffes and Margaret was also early which might go some way to explaining her size. 'Margaret was having difficulty suckling so our keeping team are now hand-rearing her.