Who Do You Call When. . . .

Who do you call when there isn't much to choose from?  Well you call Slim Pickens, of course.  And what if you have a concrete slab to break up?  You call Jack Hammer.  And how WW2 ended with Japan, Adam Baum.  Yep, there are a lot of peoples' names that could mean other things, like the ones above.  Want some more?  OK, here is a short list:

Ian Hale . . . said the guy who died and didn't go to heaven.

Ilona Buck . . . But will you lona me more than one buck?

Sal E. Vate . . . Tasty looking food does that to me, too.

Scot Frei . . . He got away with it and no one found out.

Hope Leslie . .Would rather have some hope than none at all.

Rusty Nale . . . Stepped on one of those, had a tetanus shot.

Heidi Hoe . . . Now where did you hide that prostitute?

Tex Huss . . . I wonder if he lived here in Texas?

Wes Virginia . Take me home, country roads, to the place. . .

Penny Lofer . . . A pair, maybe, two cents worth?

Olive Pitt . . . My Mom's name was Olive, without the Pitt.

OK, that is enough for now.  If you want more, go to http://www.lingerandlook.com/Names/FunWithNames.htm , that is where I found them.

Now grin some and have a great day, you hear?

Tried To Cut Grass.

With all the rain we have been having, the grass has really been growing.  I decided it had dried out enough to start cutting today.  I fired up the lawn tractor and drove it out to the front lot to start cutting out there.  I had to take it real slow to get the high grass cut and then I heard clank and the mower deck quit cutting.  I shut it off and took a look and it had thrown the long belt that wrapped around all the pulleys that drove the multiple blades and it also wrapped around some idling pulleys and of course the drive pulley.

I drove it back to the storage shed where I keep it when it is not in use but just parked outside in the sunlight.  Went and got the jack out of my Jeep and jacked the front of the tractor up so as to get the most clearance between the bottom of the tractor and the top of the deck.  I tried to get that long square belt back on all the pulleys but ended up with more belt than pulleys.  I couldn't see anyplace where a pulley was missing.  By that time I was getting over heated and my back was hurting from bending over trying to see under the tractor, so I put it back in the shed, shut the doors, and went back into house to suck up some of that AC.  I did put the jack back into the Jeep in the place where it should be.  I may look at it again tomorrow if it don't rain. . . or not.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Little Mushrooms.

I have posted many pictures of wild mushrooms and fungi on my blog.  I just never get tired of seeing them and taking pictures of them.  Today was no exception.

I carried a bag of trash out to the front lot where the dumpster is located and I noticed a bunch of little mushrooms blooming along the driveway.  Yes, the main mushroom plant is the mycelium that spreads out under ground and the part we see as a mushroom is just the fruiting body of the plant.  So, what we see could be called the bloom, even though few people call it that.

OK, here are the photos that I took this evening:

And also, some fungus growing out of some old wood: 

In a couple of the above pictures, I put a penny in among the small mushrooms to give you some idea of their size.  Now, keep looking for the great sights that Mother Nature wants to show you and have a great day, you hear?

A Strange Cave.

There is a mine in Chihuahua, Mexico, where lead, zinc, and silver are mined.  While digging in this mine, a cave was discovered that held some mighty strange crystals.  In fact, this mine (Naica Mine), is best known, not for its lead, zinc, and silver, but for its extraordinary selenite crystals.  These are not small crystals, but very huge, impressive ones.  They can be as large as 3 to 4 feet in diameter and 45 or so feet long.  Don't believe me?  I got some pictures.

Now, that is what I call huge crystals.  I wonder how many eons it took them to form?  I have heard of them before and they are really awesome.  What do you think?  Now, you all have a great day, you hear?

Outlaws of the Old West.

There were just so many outlaws in the old west that there is now way that I want to list all of them on my blog.  Instead, I am just going to randomly pick a few.  Some you have heard of and maybe some you have never heard of.  If you want to add any information on the following, please feel free to do so.

OK, if you have seen any Wyatt Earp TV shows or movies, like the Gun Fight at the OK Coral, I am sure you have heard about this first one:

William B. "Curly Bill" Brocious (1845-1882) - An outlaw leader of the Clanton Gang of Arizona, Curly Bill was a vicious, drunken gunman, cattle rustler and murderer  After the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Brocious attempted to kill Virgil Earp and succeeded in assassinating Morgan Earp.  Wyatt soon caught up with him and killed him on March 24th of 1882. 

Seaborn Barnes, aka: "Nubbin's Colt" (1849-1878) - Barnes joined the Sam Bass Gang in 1878.  He was killed with Bass at Round Rock, Texas in 1878.

Samuel "Sam" Bass (1851-1878) - The leader of the Sam Bass Gang, Bass robbed stages in South Dakota and trains in Texas.  He and another gang member, Seaborn Barnes, were killed at Round Rock, Texas in 1878.

Charles E. Bolton, aka: Black Bart, Charles E. Boles, T.Z. Spalding (1830-1917?) - Best known as Black Bart, this old west outlaw was noted for his poetic messages left after his robberies.  He was a gentleman bandit, and one of the most notorious stagecoach robbers to operate in and around Northern California and Southern Oregon.

Butch Cassidy, aka: Robert Leroy Parker, Hiram Bebee (1867-?) - Leader of the Wild Bunch, the gang robbed trains and banks in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and other states.  He and Harry Longbaugh, the Sundance Kid, were allegedly killed in Bolivia or Argentina in 1908.

James "Jim" Younger (1848-1902) - Member of the James-Younger Gang, was sent to prison and killed himself shortly after paroled.

Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (1844-1916) - Member of the James-Younger Gang, he was sent to prison, paroled, and spent the rest of his life as an honest man.

See, a leopard can change his spots. . .

OK, the famous outlaws of the old west were not all men.  Some were women.  Here are a couple of examples:

 Anne Basset (1878-1956) - The daughter of ranch owners at Brown's Hole, near the Wyoming, Colorado and Utah border, Basset became a "member" of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch.

Ellen Watson, dubbed by local newspapers in the late 1880's, as "Cattle Kate," has long been thought of as an outlaw.  Watson along with James Averell were hanged by vigilantes near the Sweetwater River in Wyoming on July 20, 1889 for the accused crime of cattle rustling.  However, there is a mystery surrounding the hangings and it appears that their deaths were unjustified, perpetrated by powerful land and cattle owners of the time.

All of the above information came from: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-outlawindex.html

Now, I will put on my ten gallon hat and ride off into the sunset. . . have a great evening, you hear?

An Old Western.

I love to watch the old western shows on TV.  You know, the ones that are in black and white.  There are a lot of them, even Gunmoke was on TV in black and white before color took over the TV networks.  Some others that I like are Wagon Train, The Tall Man, Tombstone Territory, Restless Gun, and a lot more.  This all brings me to the one old western show that I am going to talk about, it was called Whispering Smith.

Whispering Smith was a western that starred the WW2 hero turned actor, Audie Murphy.  Do any of you remember that show?  Here are some pictures of that show that may refresh your memory.

      

Yes, I watch that old show GET TV on the Western Channel and really enjoy it.  It was well done and all the actors did a great job.

OK, just in case you didn't know that Audie Murphy was a war hero, here is a picture of him in uniform with some of his medals:

 And of course his medals:

This just goes to show you that looks are deceiving.  This war hero, who may have single handedly killed more enemy soldiers than any other single foot soldier, was not real tall (5'-8").  He was not mean and scary looking, but soft spoken.  But yes, he was the most decorated American combat soldier of that war and received every military combat award for valor available from the U.S. Army.  He also received French and Belgian awards for heroism.

He was only nineteen years old when he single-handedly held off a whole company of German soldiers for an hour, and then led a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition.  Now if that doesn't make a person a hero, nothing will.  Audie didn't live a long life, though.  He passed away at the age of 46, but he sure did pack a lot living in those 46 years.  Now, you all have a great day, you hear? 

Wondering, How did they do that?

Sometimes I come across some old pictures on the internet that make me ask, "How did they do that?" or even, "Why?".  For example, this next picture taken back in 1924:

"Witness the tower of booze. Unfortunately, this picture was taken in 1924, near the beginning of Prohibition. What followed could only be described as a crime against (drunk) humanity. The entire stash was set ablaze to rid the world of this alcoholic scourge."

From:

http://detonate.com/shocking-historical-photos

This next picture is of Albert Einstein's desk the way he left it on his last day on earth.  He passed away that night.

He had to be a genius to remember where everything was. . . I have heard people say that a neat desk is the sign of sick mind, so the opposite must be true and if it is, he had a very, very healthy mind.  Of course, now we know that he did, for sure.

Now, you all have great day, you hear?