(And Annie D-- recognize these creatures?)
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Teaser
Would you consider these cats the same species?
Thoughts on this and much more starting tomorrow. Returning soon to full service-- the books go slowly, but too many good things to share...
(And Annie D-- recognize these creatures?)
(And Annie D-- recognize these creatures?)
Friday, November 29, 2013
Annie Oakley's Parker
Tim Gallagher at Living Bird just sent me this note on the sale of Annie Oakley's 16 gauge Parker hammergun. As you can see it is a nice little gun-- but for $293,000, you could damn near buy my village, let alone house!
Tuesday, November 26, 2013
Three gurus and three guns: a silly photo post
I haven't gone far. I have gotten several notes from friends who seem to think I am in some kind of death spiral. Not at all-- just trying to get some work done under physiological conditions that make it difficult. I will post more pics and short stuff -- and keep trying to master new technology and schedules that will allow me to write (at least two more books, especially, for much needed money as well as fun).
In this spirit: three gurus in Nepal? Well the city is right-- Katmandu last week-- but on the left is Jean Louis Lassez, French- born proprietor of Muleshoe Ranch on the west side of the Magdalenas, for more than 20 years now. Libby says he is an inspired combination of Yosemite Sam and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Hmmmm.
Three guns? Jim Caldwell took this perfectly but unintentionally arranged pic of my three favorite firearms in Laramie last week. With these three and a .22 you could hit the ground running anywhere and not worry...
Double or right- click for big image. NONE are for sale (though some others are! )
UPDATE: Jim, whose house this photo was taken at, blogs on these guns at Old Gunkie in Wyoming : A Sportsman's Working Battery.
And for something completely different (you do now Monty Python is touring again in their seventies?): JL and Catherine Lassez as Soixante - Huitards in Paris ca.-- what else?-- 1968. They do emanate a certain post- apocalyptic chic here...
In this spirit: three gurus in Nepal? Well the city is right-- Katmandu last week-- but on the left is Jean Louis Lassez, French- born proprietor of Muleshoe Ranch on the west side of the Magdalenas, for more than 20 years now. Libby says he is an inspired combination of Yosemite Sam and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. Hmmmm.
Double or right- click for big image. NONE are for sale (though some others are! )
UPDATE: Jim, whose house this photo was taken at, blogs on these guns at Old Gunkie in Wyoming : A Sportsman's Working Battery.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
New Addition to Dog Family
Bodie and Lyndsay have picked up a new Scottish deerhound pup-- and met Miranda! More news when blogging resumes...
Can't quit!
I will bribe somebody to drag me away from this computer soon, but a few things like this last (?) bunch of Laramie photos by Malcolm Brooks (click to embiggen) keep coming in.
 |
| Artist Katrina van Grouw of The Unfeathered Bird, and me, in Laramie bar |
 |
| Carlos's incredible library-- I am holding a Spanish first ed of Linnaeus |
 |
| Carlos with a book from the 1500's. That dial spins! |
 | |
| Nate Heineke's rifle works |
 |
| Me & Old Gunkie with dead eagle |
Sunday, November 17, 2013
Neuro blog post
My blog for the UNM Health Services site should be up soon here-- perhaps in a day or two. It begins with my detststion of the term "progressive" as in "progressive disease":
"
It is part of the proper definition of PD: Parkinson’s is a
“progressive” neurological disease. as I am a writer and work with words every
day, I know exactly what the sentence means and why it is phrased that way; it
describes the progress of the disease. It is not meant to offend.
"And I still hate the phrase. Parkinson’s is the enemy of
progress Every day, you lie in bed after waking wondering if you will have a
good day, a bad day, or be worse; you don’t expect better. When you walk
on one of the days when tremor or rigidity is stronger than usual, “progress”
becomes a measure of how far you can go, how long you can last; this driveway,
that street light. It seems just yesterday that you never measured at all..."
Read the rest at UNM later this week.
Still one more for game...
Eileen Clarke's new book, Sausage Season, is the best on sausage making I have ever read, and I want to get out a review early enough that you can use it (or give it for Christmas). I have tried my hand making cased sausages, and so have friends in town. Almost always, the results are too hard and dry, without what Eileen calls the "creamy" texture of good sausage. The secret is fat (just as the secret of most, say, French cooking, is butter-- read Anthony Bourdain).
To quote her:
"To figure out much fat you like, try the Easy Breakfast Patties master recipe... I would start with the 1:1 fat ratio some morning with eggs and toast. If that's a bit fatty, make it again in the2:1 lean to fat ratio... My guess is you'll like the 2:1 for patties or bulk and the 1:1 for casing."
In a letter to me, she added: "you see the problem with cased sausage. It took me two years to figure it all out, and we ate a lot of bad sausage."
If you know anything about Eileen, you will know she persisted, and that this basic stuff is just the beginning. She and her husband, John Barsness, have eaten nothing but wild meat at home for decades, and because they are serious cooks-- Eileen unapologetically calls herself a "foodie"-- they know how to cook in a gloriously varied manner, unlike some friends here, who burgerize everything. Even in what might seem like a good but narrowly focused book, her choices range from Polish Dill Sausage to Goosewurst and even Ginger Potsticker Sausage (one I am eager to try). Her detailed descriptions of technique, always a strong point, are particularly useful in this specialized area. She even tells you how to make your own salami and bologna.
This one goes on my permanent cooking shelf. It is available from Rifles and Recipes for $28 postpaid. You will never have to eat dry hard crumbly sausage again.
To quote her:
"To figure out much fat you like, try the Easy Breakfast Patties master recipe... I would start with the 1:1 fat ratio some morning with eggs and toast. If that's a bit fatty, make it again in the2:1 lean to fat ratio... My guess is you'll like the 2:1 for patties or bulk and the 1:1 for casing."
In a letter to me, she added: "you see the problem with cased sausage. It took me two years to figure it all out, and we ate a lot of bad sausage."
If you know anything about Eileen, you will know she persisted, and that this basic stuff is just the beginning. She and her husband, John Barsness, have eaten nothing but wild meat at home for decades, and because they are serious cooks-- Eileen unapologetically calls herself a "foodie"-- they know how to cook in a gloriously varied manner, unlike some friends here, who burgerize everything. Even in what might seem like a good but narrowly focused book, her choices range from Polish Dill Sausage to Goosewurst and even Ginger Potsticker Sausage (one I am eager to try). Her detailed descriptions of technique, always a strong point, are particularly useful in this specialized area. She even tells you how to make your own salami and bologna.
This one goes on my permanent cooking shelf. It is available from Rifles and Recipes for $28 postpaid. You will never have to eat dry hard crumbly sausage again.
Hiatus?
I am (probably) going to take a break. I have no desire to stop blogging, but my energies are finite, and I NEED to get at least one and possibly two books going. It has become apparent that I am not getting enough done, and that I am often exhausted by end of day while having accomplished very little. Parkinson's and the medicines used to treat it both have subtle (subtle?!) effects on me mentally as well as physically; lack of sleep, compulsions, and ADD all play a part.
I have no plan to give up the blog, which I enjoy almost more than working, partially becuse I have made so many friends through it, but I may save it by getting my "real" work up to a better- paying level. Right now the compulsions and other neurological factors mean that if I start doing stuff for the blog when I begin work I stay on it until energy runs out and I plant my face in the keyboard.
I also promise four subjects I will blog on if they come up before my self- imposed silence is over: last pics from Laramie; Lauren's visit; one more gun; dog evo.
Bear with me-- if all goes well it won't be long. The last long string of posts was made with the idea of leaving you with a little food for thought. And I WILL continue to answer emails.
I have no plan to give up the blog, which I enjoy almost more than working, partially becuse I have made so many friends through it, but I may save it by getting my "real" work up to a better- paying level. Right now the compulsions and other neurological factors mean that if I start doing stuff for the blog when I begin work I stay on it until energy runs out and I plant my face in the keyboard.
I also promise four subjects I will blog on if they come up before my self- imposed silence is over: last pics from Laramie; Lauren's visit; one more gun; dog evo.
Bear with me-- if all goes well it won't be long. The last long string of posts was made with the idea of leaving you with a little food for thought. And I WILL continue to answer emails.
Almaty Pigeons
Most readers will know that I love pigeons; some may know I am particularly interested in where domestic species come from, with emphasis on dogs and pigeons. The most pigeon - mad country I know is Turkey, which could be seen as a major source for western breeds. But the Turks say their breeds came down from the interior of Asia with the nomads.
I was delighted when Dennis Keene, our young scholar friend in Kazakhstan, told us he had discovered a pigeon culture there. We hope he will discover things like flight sports there, and other breeds. The first photo is him with a muffed bird; second a type I think he may encounter; third is of carriers in my loft. In the ancestral "Bagdad" type they came out of the Middle East, but it is said they too originated in Asia. I would love to find some there!
I was delighted when Dennis Keene, our young scholar friend in Kazakhstan, told us he had discovered a pigeon culture there. We hope he will discover things like flight sports there, and other breeds. The first photo is him with a muffed bird; second a type I think he may encounter; third is of carriers in my loft. In the ancestral "Bagdad" type they came out of the Middle East, but it is said they too originated in Asia. I would love to find some there!
Then and Now
Nothing makes you feel old as finding a photo from, oh, twenty years ago that resembles a recent one. The first pic fell out of a box a few weeks ago, and shows me and Annie P in our first year of teaching writing at the Wildbranch workshop at Sterling College in Vermont ; the second was taken in my yard this past May. I think Anne has the best of it!
Penelope
Penelope Caldwell is an artist with a striking visual style She paints larger- than- life portraits with mythological, sometimes erotic elements (not all the images on her site are "safe" for work!) In our room when we stayed with her and her husband Jim, the Old Gunkie , was this painting, towering over us. We referred to it the Goddess, as it evoked something out of classical myth; she calls it, with deadpan humor, "Mail order brides come with baggage".
She took this photo of me with Mima as a base for a painting. I can't wait to see it-- and admit I was relieved she let me keep my clothes on.
 |
| Penelope with Libby |
Saturday, November 16, 2013
My Bar
A very nice quote from Matt Mullenix on the Golden Spur:
"A man's watering hole is sacred. There should be some international treaty to protect places like that. "
I had been here five or six years when this 1985 photo was taken for the Albuquerque Journal.
"A man's watering hole is sacred. There should be some international treaty to protect places like that. "
Feathered Tyrants
It is almost 30 years since Robert Bakker referred to Tyrannosaurus rex as the "roadrunner from Hell". Some of us, like John McLaughlin, got the message right away. After all the intervening years, as the lines between "bird" and "dinosaur" have become blurrier and blurrier, the Zeitgeist is finally catching up. The first big "bird", below, is a recently discovered predecessor of T. rex, and definitely had feathers. The dramatic rendition below it reasonably shows the monster herself, as she might well have been. I suspect someone from the 1950s, when dinosaurs were lizards, would see these big birds as something out of science fiction.
First image from Science; second here.
Disaster averted
We usually have her on the screen perch in the kitchen or a bow perch outside. If we go too long before a meal she gets restless and may bate, so I put her in the box, which she enters happily and voluntarily. She also sleeps in it at night, so she remains accustomed to it. A friend was an hour overdue to fly her what might have been her last flight tethered on the creance (line) before I hunted her.
The phone rang and I went outside to talk on it. Lashyn, our old blind diabetic Kazakh tazi, who is 13, was asleep in her chair by the door. Suddenly Lashyn started screaming as though she had been hit by a car. I came in to find that Mima had popped out of the box, snapping the carabiner on it, and was on a death grip on Lashyn's muzzle, jaw, and tongue with both feet. I literally could not pry her off of Lashyn because of all the blood and slime. When I finally levered her hind talon off Lashyn's jaw she shifted to my left hand. I was able to get the cell phone and punch in a call to Libby at the PO a half mile away. Mima stayed locked on. It took both of us and rehooding to get her free of human and dog flesh. My sister from Boston. who was on the phone for the whole thing, was understandably upset.
I repeat, she was not low on weight at all. Afterwards, when I put her out on the bow perch she first attacked me, then ate a quail without further mantling at all, calmly as though nothing had happened. She then stepped to my fist with no further ado and roused!
I don't really understand what happened; I only know that it has never happened to me [in 50 years of hawking] before. She had shown a bit of aggression toward both me and the dogs in the house, but never anything like this. The only thing I've ever seen act this way was one Golden eagle (not mine), and a badly treated imprint at that. She does not act like an imprint and generally has good manners.
I was disappointed because she is a very nice hawk. Given the aggression towards my dog, I dare not trust her around dogs. I still really want to fly a shortwing this winter, and am perfectly amenable to any bird that doesn't burst out of a box and attack a sleeping blind hound.
My friend generously took her back, and almost instantly placed her in a household with two male Harrises for her to push around -- that is, her natural social order. To add insult to injury, she took a rabbit the first day after I gave her back. Which was the first day I planned to take her out.
 |
| Better days |
Brave Friends and "Progressive" Diseases
As some know, it makes me irrritable when I hear degenerative diseases like Parkinson's described as "progessive"-- only for the disease, as my friend Emily says.
Yet progress still does happen. My friend Dutch Salmon has had our mutual condition for about two years longer than I have, and he has had a hard time of it lately, though I never heard him complain.
When your Parkinson's gets worse, it is possible to have a battery-powered brain implant that can have good results or even nearly miraculous ones. Yesterday, Dutch's wife Cherie sent me this report. I will cut to the heart of the matter and past details more of interest to a "Parky" person.
"... we went in this morning and the neurologist tried some different
settings. There are two wires in his brain and each one has four
electrodes. Also, during the surgery last week, they tested how much
electricity Dutch could 'stand', and it was quite a lot. There is also
a pulsing setting for each of the electrodes as well as a 'width' of the
pulse. So the combination of possibilities if almost endless. She
started with a low setting and tried first with only one electrode on
each wire, and then two. Almost immediately, his arms and legs loosened
up from their normal Parkinson's stiffness. The tremors in his hands,
always there, even with meds, stopped when she electrified the second
electrode on each wire. He also quickly noticed more strength in both
of his arms and was able to lift himself out of the chair without any
help. Bud (he skipped class this morning to go with us) and I noticed
that his voice was stronger and clearer. The neurologist kept
commenting on how much better his face looked...evidently the muscle
stiffening gives Parkinson's patients something called the Parkinson's
'mask'. I'd never noticed that, but he does look more relaxed now. We
took a break at that point and walked over to the hospital cafe and had
a cup of coffee. The difference in his gait was amazing. His
'shuffling' was greatly reduced. Even his back, twisted from the
secondary dystonia, is much less painful. He noticed the decrease in
back pain last week after the electrode implantation...BEFORE the second
surgery and the electricity was turned on! The dystonia was the one
thing that he was warned might not be improved by the DBS. At best, it
will take the longest (perhaps months) to see improvement. But the fact
that the pain is decreased is a very good sign."
There is a big learning curve, and so far, there IS no cure. But modern medicine and science can sometimes make real progress. For anyone whose life is shadowed by a neurological disease it is more than a little comfort that some things can be done to reverse the entropic curve downward, and it should still be a long time before my last day in the field. Thanks to Dutch and Cherie for being both friends and pilots on this strange journey.
Yet progress still does happen. My friend Dutch Salmon has had our mutual condition for about two years longer than I have, and he has had a hard time of it lately, though I never heard him complain.
When your Parkinson's gets worse, it is possible to have a battery-powered brain implant that can have good results or even nearly miraculous ones. Yesterday, Dutch's wife Cherie sent me this report. I will cut to the heart of the matter and past details more of interest to a "Parky" person.
"... we went in this morning and the neurologist tried some different
settings. There are two wires in his brain and each one has four
electrodes. Also, during the surgery last week, they tested how much
electricity Dutch could 'stand', and it was quite a lot. There is also
a pulsing setting for each of the electrodes as well as a 'width' of the
pulse. So the combination of possibilities if almost endless. She
started with a low setting and tried first with only one electrode on
each wire, and then two. Almost immediately, his arms and legs loosened
up from their normal Parkinson's stiffness. The tremors in his hands,
always there, even with meds, stopped when she electrified the second
electrode on each wire. He also quickly noticed more strength in both
of his arms and was able to lift himself out of the chair without any
help. Bud (he skipped class this morning to go with us) and I noticed
that his voice was stronger and clearer. The neurologist kept
commenting on how much better his face looked...evidently the muscle
stiffening gives Parkinson's patients something called the Parkinson's
'mask'. I'd never noticed that, but he does look more relaxed now. We
took a break at that point and walked over to the hospital cafe and had
a cup of coffee. The difference in his gait was amazing. His
'shuffling' was greatly reduced. Even his back, twisted from the
secondary dystonia, is much less painful. He noticed the decrease in
back pain last week after the electrode implantation...BEFORE the second
surgery and the electricity was turned on! The dystonia was the one
thing that he was warned might not be improved by the DBS. At best, it
will take the longest (perhaps months) to see improvement. But the fact
that the pain is decreased is a very good sign."
There is a big learning curve, and so far, there IS no cure. But modern medicine and science can sometimes make real progress. For anyone whose life is shadowed by a neurological disease it is more than a little comfort that some things can be done to reverse the entropic curve downward, and it should still be a long time before my last day in the field. Thanks to Dutch and Cherie for being both friends and pilots on this strange journey.
 |
| Dutch and me at Owl Bar last season |
 |
| Libby left with Ataika; me in leather jacket & cowboy hat; Dutch to right with black dog |
La Loca
First there were my old friend John Davila, Catron County rancher, world traveler, jack of all trades... in the old days and today.
and his then wife Becky...
They were among the first friends I made in New Mexico. They are in Querencia- the- book in several places, and came up to Albuuquerque to comfort me with a bottle of Jack Daniels the day Betsy died.
Their daughter Ungie (Ungelbah Davila ), the complete New Mexico kid--Spanish, Navajo, Scots Mormon-- is as good looking as her folks, and also a multimedia talent in art, poetry, photography, and now as editor of her new Albuquerque- based glossy magazine La Loca, which covers our local tricultural version of the Fifties- revival- rockabilly- punk- western- hotrods- motorcycles- pinup- and whatever else can be thrown in arts and visual culture. If some of it bemuses those of us who lived in the REAL fifties, it is still pure fun and a visual treat, and our version has a real local flavor.
Apparently, the style is more widespread than I thought. I just bought the excellent new album by Alberta's rising star Corb Lund, Cabin Fever. He can sing about cows, oil rigs, and .44 Russian antique revolvers, but when I heard the lyrics below, to "Gothest girl I can", I knew I had to send them to Ungie.
I emailed Ungie, half seriously suggesting that she lure Lund down to Albuquerque for a show and an interview. I am gratified to report that she loved the album. Stay tuned!
Their daughter Ungie (Ungelbah Davila ), the complete New Mexico kid--Spanish, Navajo, Scots Mormon-- is as good looking as her folks, and also a multimedia talent in art, poetry, photography, and now as editor of her new Albuquerque- based glossy magazine La Loca, which covers our local tricultural version of the Fifties- revival- rockabilly- punk- western- hotrods- motorcycles- pinup- and whatever else can be thrown in arts and visual culture. If some of it bemuses those of us who lived in the REAL fifties, it is still pure fun and a visual treat, and our version has a real local flavor.
Apparently, the style is more widespread than I thought. I just bought the excellent new album by Alberta's rising star Corb Lund, Cabin Fever. He can sing about cows, oil rigs, and .44 Russian antique revolvers, but when I heard the lyrics below, to "Gothest girl I can", I knew I had to send them to Ungie.
I’m gonna get the gothest girl I can. With the pale white
Rockabilly tan. You know the kind, the ones you find in the
Country metal punk rock band.
She might be into hot rod cars. Or leather fetish bondage
Bars. She’s dirty, pretty, the hippest in the city. She’s
the gothest girl I can.
The gothest girl I can, the gothest girl I can. The gothest
girl
I, the gothest girl I can. I’m gonna lose these
country blues With the gothest girl I can.
I’m gonna get the gothest girl I can. Black lips and Bettie
Page bangs Horn rimmed glasses and an ass that’ll pass
For a glimpse at the promised land.
She’s kinda into all things noir. Wants me to get a
Pompadour. Well, maybe baby, but she ain’t no
lady She’s the gothest girl I canI emailed Ungie, half seriously suggesting that she lure Lund down to Albuquerque for a show and an interview. I am gratified to report that she loved the album. Stay tuned!
.JPG)
Good Book Quotes
From Joe Queenan's One For The Books:
"I love to pull my books down off the shelf and read striking passages to baffled dimwits who have turned up at my house."
And:
""Great writers say things that are so beautiful, the very act of repeating them makes life itself more beautiful."
"I love to pull my books down off the shelf and read striking passages to baffled dimwits who have turned up at my house."
And:
""Great writers say things that are so beautiful, the very act of repeating them makes life itself more beautiful."
New Darnes!
Jacques Bollelli has revived the nearly dead Darne company, and is planning to make a few very high grade guns. Although these are beyond my reach I am delighted to see the old design going into its third century with renewed vision and originality.
Jacques writes:"As you know we are starting to reorganize the team and the factory, with a view to starting again production on a regular basis, though in very limited quantities and only for made to measure very high luxury guns, including express double side by side rifles in all calibers (including African) on which we want to put a particular focus.
The aim is to come back quickly to a production of 10 to 20 pieces a year (but no more to preserve the highest standard of quality), and rebuild a notoriety and a clientele on Darne's past history…
"Hervé Bruchet and I work hand in hand towards that aim , and we are determined to do the necessary investment to do that together (but with no mechanization as we intend to carry on with all production by hand and no machine tool…)
"I'll send you a few photos and info on mails to follow so that you have a bit of fresh material and a basic image database on our products."
On looks alone these may be the finest Darnes ever. Right or double click for incredible detail.
Jacques writes:"As you know we are starting to reorganize the team and the factory, with a view to starting again production on a regular basis, though in very limited quantities and only for made to measure very high luxury guns, including express double side by side rifles in all calibers (including African) on which we want to put a particular focus.
The aim is to come back quickly to a production of 10 to 20 pieces a year (but no more to preserve the highest standard of quality), and rebuild a notoriety and a clientele on Darne's past history…
"Hervé Bruchet and I work hand in hand towards that aim , and we are determined to do the necessary investment to do that together (but with no mechanization as we intend to carry on with all production by hand and no machine tool…)
"I'll send you a few photos and info on mails to follow so that you have a bit of fresh material and a basic image database on our products."
On looks alone these may be the finest Darnes ever. Right or double click for incredible detail.
 |
| Double rifle |
 |
| notice the almost Rigby- like rising bite for extra strength |
 |
| Ultra or post- modern? This one is as stark as a Ducros custom gun. |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)