RichJ207 wrote:
One old cowboy told me that the first thing he did with a new pair of boots was to wade in the river to get them to fit just right.
Most working trucks in Texas have a pair of heavy black rubber boots pinned between the passenger side seat and the rear window. Two or three rifles in a rifle rack set 'hanging' in a rifle rack (the 22 is always on top*) then usually a 30/30 and maybe a scatter gun.
Now, more cowboy information. *22 riffle, The 22 rifle is used to kill rattle snakes. Here is how it works, prod the rattler to coil, then after the snake is coiled you bring the rifle barrel close to it's head. Move it side to side slowly, then come to a gradual stop and squeeze the trigger. The snake will have lined it's head up on the rifle barrel as the predator so you can't really miss!
The proper and manly way of killing a rattler or any snake is called 'cracking the whip'. Yank the snake by the tail (the head of the snake is raised, rattlers, so you snake them with a bitch slap and grab it by the tail hard. Pull it by the tail, uncoiling it, then step or run it out like a length of rope. You then pull hard and swing the snake in the air, usually above your head, finally you give the tail a sharp pull, away from the direction of the head. The force will travel down the length of the snake and energy will transfer to the head which pops off.
The 30/30 is for big varmits (varmit's are anything that is not productive to the ranch).
My friend JD Burk (he just passed short of his hundredth birthday), built the main buildings out at Big Bend National Park. They call it Panther Junction because Black Panther would cross there from Mexico into Texas on the Rio Grand. JD told me that he was down there working on the buildings and that he went to the site and found 7 laborers (yes, he called them wet backs, old school) all pile togeather, windows rolled up, 108F, in a single pick up truck, there was a panther on the cab roof and two on the ground sunning themselves.
JD got pout of his truck, pulled down his 30/30 rifle and walked up to the truck and the two on the ground ran but the cat on the roof just looed at him. JD is a hard, hard man, you just don't mess with JD Burke, but he is a complete push over when it come to cats, big or small. He fired the rifle in the air and the cat stood up and growled at him. JD starred him in the eyes and put down the rifle and growled back at the cat (a kitty, about 300 pounds of it!). He would kill a man but he was a push over with cats and good looking women. Well the cat turned away and looped away.
Later that day, JD shot a deer and dragged it over to where the cats could be seen. The cats started to visit that location every other day for fresh meet because JD Burk killed them a deer every other day.
Now it is true, the world is a small place, even in Texas. I was in the other day getting treatment for my legs with Venus Insufficiency. Had a wait and started a conversation with a woman my age name Vivian. As we talked it came out that her family owned most of the area that became Big Bend Park. I asked her if she ever meet ol' JD Burk? That began a fun series of stories about JD.
Toda I saw her and had to tell her that JD had passed last Saturday. She just laughed, and told another story about JD and her daddy gone hunting outside Marfa; but JD broke off the hunt with her father and said JD shot a big dear from the top of the pick up and then popped one just in front of a big panther. The panther saw JD and ambled over toward JD and layed down a few dozen yards from JD and rolled over a few times then sat watching the boys drive away and then the cat went to the kill.
I'm gona miss ol' JD Burk, a good hard man from Texas. JD would have liked VADA, Vada would have loved JD and his house cat!
I did cheat on this shoot, there is a bubble machine behind the car making bubbles! But the really big ones VADA blew with the Wall Mart dildo shaped bubble wand! Bubbles are air born Polka Dots and VADA loves Polka Dots so the bubble machine went home to VADA's house!