Trent Kleppen up on the Hi Line asked about my ranch neighbors, and in answering I realized we are still a wild bunch here, for whatever reason. It is no accident that songwriter Tom Russell lived here, in el Paso and Santa Fe, for years. I wanted to send some photos of my ranch friends …
Month: December 2016
Merry Christmas!
Apparently, according to Gerry Cox, a lot of our friends have been worried because our mailbox was “full” and messages were bouncing. After messing around with it a lot, it seems to be working normally, at least for now. But whatever the problems, be assured that we are well, despite the puppy’s eating the house*, …
A Mongolian Jingle Bells…
…complete with throat singing! From Chas Clifton…
Wolf hunt with Berkut
Absolutely the best movie of hunting with eagles in Olgii I have ever seen. This is exactly how it is.. And it is the first time that filmmakers have caught an actual successful hunt for a wolf with eagles. All the others are “bagged”, and I can’t watch them. This is also exactly where we …
Bobo
Yes, we have the new pup, and she is everything we wanted. Even ATAIKA likes her- perhaps she can smell familiar genes. (She is her great aunt). Of course she shreds everything, but she wouldn’t be a tazi if she didn’t… Thanks to Lane Batot, and especially to Philip Bailey and Kerry Cooper, who kept …
Rockabilly Poetry!
I finally got Effigies II, the London- published collection of five Native female poets that includes Ungie Davila; Most are dutiful to OK, but Ungelbah’s are brilliant, partially because she draws upon the cultural history of New Mexico as seen through the rhinestone – studded red sunglasses and sensibilties of a talented cowpunk artist and …
Tom Cade
The oldest by a bit of the four Peregrine Fund founders, and the only man among them to be born poor (in the Depression era New Mexico Bootheel), my old friend Dr Tom Cade is still going strong at nearly ninety, Tim Gallagher caught up to him at the Irish Falconers meet, accompanied by a …
The Artist’s Son and his Discontents
I published a piece in the Angler’s Journal a way back, on the perils of your father’s being, or wanting in his heart to be, a sportsman and artist when you are one yourself. The published version is available. It is milder and more anodyne than my preferred version, which is as hard as my …
Fran Hamerstrom
Experimental cut and paste here, from a yet- unfinished autobiographical essay called “A Braid of Memory” If it works, there will be more, This one refers directly to the one below, and explains Dr Frances Flint Hamerstrom’s connection to my old grammar school… The Letterman video runs long.Turn it on and jump to her segment. …
Domenic “Doc” Conca, DDS- 1925- 2016, R.I.P.: on Conca’s Lawn.
One of my unmentioned mentors died at 91 a couple of days ago: Dr Domenic Conca of Randolph, Massachusetts. “Doc” was the father of my oldest friend, Michael Conca, who was my schoolmate from first grade through my first year in college (BC: I dropped out), as well as my housemate and partner in a …