Gone

Off for a weekend jaunt with my hubby..............................................

Copy Cat

Can't beat original.........some things look better on others

Around Town

Everyone knows about the Grand Canyon in Arizona but not everyone knows about the Sky Walk

This glass walk way is 4000 feet above the Colorado River and located north of Kingman, Az.

They state a warning if you have a fear of heights.......no dah!

Haven't been here yet but hope to go one day.

Nail Spa

In the past year I have decided that I would go and get a pedicure once in a while but what a time I have had to find the right place. Most of them are being run by Chinese people and I don't mind that if I can understand them when they talk to me! My first experience wasn't a good one...not good English, not friendly and had a feeling not too clean but this last place was GREAT! I even got adventurous and had acrylic nails put on!! They are a little hard to get use to but I do feel all dressed up:)

My point is...if you want something keep looking until you find it. This isn't the exact place but it looked a bit like this and let me tell you...those massage chairs are heaven:)

Cookbooks

Cookbooks everywhere!!! I love them and I no longer cook unless we are having guests.

I love to buy a little cookbook and sit and go through all the recipes and dog ear the ones that I think would be nice to try. Call me strange I guess. I had so many cookbooks that I began going through and simply making copies of the recipes I liked and then filing them and giving the book away.

Behind the Scenes

This is an ongoing post about how the book "Buckskin Bessie - Her Lost Letters" came about. It is posted every Monday and the original was posted in Jan. 2008

No part of this information may be reproduced in anyway.

Interestingly on Walking Prescott blog today she highlighted the town that I grew up in and the author who did the foreword for the book. That is information that is way out of the timeline of events as I have been sharing but couldn't resist:)
Back home from Ponca City with the letters in hand, minus the route cards, I find I have become rather attached to these letters and not sure about parting with them. Maybe this other lady who was going to write a book and I could work together..........................
I found her phone number and called...................... Yes, she had done a little research but it was some time ago and now she was married with a new baby to care for so basically writing the book was on a back burner somewhere. I was disappointed and back to square one. What do I do with these letters.........................
Jokingly I told my husband as we were driving in the car......."Well, guess I will just have to write the book myself", He didn't respond right away but then said....."Maybe you should". Up until that point I hadn't seriously thought about it. After all, I had never taken writing classes, never had dreams of writing a book and didn't have much of an imagination which I felt you would need to write a book BUT, what I did have was the LETTERS and a wiliness to research.

Hurrah!!!

Drum roll please.............................The spell checker is fixed, now we can all look smart again:)

Caption please

This picture makes me think...............

Fridays Show and Tell

Fridays Show & Tell

These are little embroidery scissors in a velvet covered holder that then looks like an owl sitting on a branch:) One of my fun finds on ebay.

Bloggerville Benefit

Sometimes it pays just to hang around!

Bloggerville

Like most of you, I have a list of bloggers I visit on a daily basis and I have noticed a decline of interest and postings. I am curious to know why. I have considered that the long winter is taking a toll with being stuck indoors or that maybe we just run out of things to say? Or that it is taking to much of our time? Your thoughts?

Around Town

One would never expect to find a monk monastery in the Wild West but............

just 12 miles from Florence, Az. you will find St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery.

It is an oasis sitting right in the middle of the desert. The monks have built chapels, two churches, fountains, sandstone walkways, and planted thousands of trees and shrubs. You can visit but there are restrictions on attire so check them out before you go.

Behind the Scenes

This is an ongoing post about how the book "Buckskin Bessie - Her Lost Letters" came about. It is posted every Monday and the original was posted in Jan. 2008
No part of this information may be reproduced in anyway.


We had to fly into Okla. city and rent a car and drive to Ponca City. It is a small town with a very old section and a newer section with newer hotels and etc. Looking at some of the old buildings down town I knew they had to be there when Bessie lived there...strange feeling. We went into a little restuarant in the old section and the people started chatting with us. We told them about the letters and the 101 Wild West Show and they didn't seem to have a clue as to what we were talking about! I thought that was so wierd because this is were it all originated from and was to have been famous.
We had talked with Jack Keathly on the phone and had made arrangements to meet him at his home. I was excited but nervous. A small man with gray hair and bushy eyebrows greeted us and welcomed us into his home. We sat in his dinning room and I showed him the letters and pictures and etc. He began to show us the things he had of Bessie but they were scattered all over the house. First in one of the spare bedrooms he had a mannequin with a gold corduroy dress, high top boots and a strange shaped black felt hat. I had seen enough pictures of Bessie to know that was not her hat but the dress may have been. Tiny waist! Then he lead us down to the basement where there were things scattered everywhere. A very large framed photo of Bessie, a huge rifle type gun and many other things but they were just there...not displayed or anything. We went back up to the dining room and he brought out some letters he had that was to have been written to Bessie from Joe Miller. We neither had enough time to really read the letters we each had but he pointed out one of the documents that was a copy of a deed of land that was owned by Joe Miller and Bessie Herberg. That seemed pretty important because there seemed to only be speculation of the hidden romance between the two.

He also began to show us a multitude of other kinds of things he collected. Many, many things.

He made it very clear that he would indeed like to have the letters but that he didn't have much money to buy them. Meantime, I was struggling with this situation...you see I believed there was a reason these letters fell into my lap and I just couldn't believe that sitting in someones basement was the answer to that. I wanted other people to have the opportunity to read them, just like I had. My husband said "Well, we have to let him have something so maybe we could let him have the route cards". I agreed to that and we offered them to him with this stipulation "We do not know the value of these route cards but we will let you set the price and you write out a check to Teen Challenge for the amount you think is fair". I will not tell you the amount of the check but I will tell you that after attending one of the collectors shows it was maybe the value of ONE card. It's okay....I don't have to sleep with it.

He told me that he knew a young woman who wanted to write a book about Bessie and that he had allowed her to make copies of the documents he had, her name was Melissa Regan (the lady that posted on the 101 site for info about Bessie).

We told him that we wanted to go to her gravesite and he tried to explain where it was located in the cemetery. We drove there and looked and looked; The ground was wet and there were bugs flying everywhere and we couldn't find it. We called back on the cell phone for more instuction and finally we found it. Bessie Blackwell 1896-1943. The other name on the stone was, Marshall Blackwell.

Movie Review

Step up to the streets 2

The original was better and you must know we were the only middle aged people in the theater. The story isn't that great but the dancing is amazing.................can't even stand on my head much less spin on it:)

Show and Tell Friday

Show and Tell Friday

Today, I am going to show you my hidden treasure.

Many years ago I went to the second hand store to try to find some old cheap picture frames for some pictures I had. I bought this frame that had a picture of a little girl holding a balloon. It looked as if it had been cut out of a magazine but of course it was the frame I wanted. After I got home and took the back off, behind the balloon picture was this painting. Written on the back of the small canvas it says "Old Iron Gate Entrance French Quarter New Orleans by Colette Pope Heldver 1933". I looked up her name and she and her husband both were known painters. It is an amazing little painting because it is so small (3 1/4 x 2 3/4) and yet so detailed.

Wary Valentine

Click on the picture to see the newsclipping of people sabotaging Valentines day. Be careful and have a Happy Valetnines Day in spite of some evil people in our world.

Dancing

Did I ever tell you that I LOVE dancing? I mean I love everything about dancing...learning, watching and doing. Check out this video called "Evolution of dance".
This guy is amazing, not only on how many different dances he can do but on how he can transition from one to another....enjoy!

Do you know?

Do you know the names of these animals when they are babies?

1. Hawk

2. Hen

3. Hippo

4. Horse

Behind the scenes

This is an ongoing post about how the book "Buckskin Bessie - Her Lost Letters" came about. It is posted every Monday and the original was posted in Jan. 2008

No part of this information may be reproduced in anyway.

Unfortunately I have misplaced my notes as to the exact timeline of how all of the different things happened so I am trying to just go by recall and trust me, that isn't always good but it's the best I can do for now.

While waiting to make the trip to Ponca City, Okla. and meet with Mr. Keathly I began searching the web for any information I could get on the 101 Wild West Show and/or Buckskin Bessie. I found the 101 web site here. On this web site there is a link called "Queries" and when I looked under (B) for Buckskin Bessie a post came up from a woman named, Melissa Ragan asking for any info on Bessie Blackwell born Bessie Herberg in Minn. She went on to say that she wanted to publish a story about her and that it would be some truth but also speculation. This post is still on this site if you are interested.

Now I had another name "Blackwell" and I then searched for any info on Bessie Blackwell. An article from the Ponca City news came up stating she had died in a fire in 1943 in Whiteagle, Okla. This article is found on page 168 of the book. Another article from the same newspaper appeared Sept. 7, 1943 giving the details about her funeral and that she was buried in the I.O.O.F. cemetery (found on page 172).

Mental note: Go to the grave site when I visit Ponca City.

How does one carry 58 letters and keep them organized and yet not hurt the old paper with a rubberband and etc. As I mentioned before, along with the old letters there were route cards. These were cards or booklets that gave the schedule for all the upcoming shows.

This is a partial one.

I speculated about this man Jack Keathly, maybe he knew Bessie personally or maybe he was related to her since he had items of clothing and etc. Maybe the letters would be of great encouragement to him and I was to give them to him......so many questions. One thing there was no doubt about........these letters were very special and needed to be handled carefully.

I carefully packed the letters in a attache case along with the pictures and route cards and carried them on the plane with me when the time came to go.

Whatever it takes

Well..............it works for Donald Trump!

Movie Review

Juno.............This was one of those movies that wasn't bad but wasn't good either. It had some funny moments in it but there were also some pretty raw scenes and the language was a bit rough for my taste. It did had a surprise ending:)

Show and Tell Friday

On top of the china cabinet sits these


pieces of glasswear from my Mom. They have all turned purple with age.

But a special peek inside reveals this dried rose from her funeral and a very old broken watch





Some things are priceless

Around Town

Oatman, Arizona was a mining town but it is now a tourist attraction. It got its name from a young girl, named Olive Oatman, who was kidnapped in 1857 by the Mojave indians.

The miners brought burro's to help with the work load and when it all ended they let them go...now they come into town daily and are fed by the tourist. See a short video here.

Picture

Do you ever see a picture and a thought immediately pops into your head?

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Aflac

Bucket List

One cowgirl has tagged me to make a bucket list. That is a list of things you would like to do before you die (kick the bucket). I must admit that I struggle with this because although I would like to do the following things, if I drop dead tomorrow I won't have any regrets, I am truly blessed right now today.

1. Go on a safari in Africa

2. Take a tour of Italy

3. Buy a motorhome and travel across the USA

4. Own a small cabin up north

5. Have some of the mysteries in my book solved


I don't like to tag other people so if you would like to join in please feel free to!

Do you know?

Do you know the name of the animal when it is a baby?

1. A baby frog is?

2. A baby goat is?

3. A baby Goose is?

4. A baby Grouse is?

Behind the Scenes

This is an ongoing post about how the book "Buckskin Bessie - Her Lost Letters" came about. It is posted every Monday and the original was posted in Jan. 2008

No part of this information may be reproduced in anyway.The return address gave me Bessie's name so that is where I started. The program "Ancestry.com" was something I had and it was perfect for my endeaver. Very quickly I found a 1920 census that gave the names of all the Jonas Herberg family members and their ages at the time the census was taken. A current phone directory found on the internet had a listing for a Dale Herberg in Ruthton, Minn. so that was my first call. I introduced myself and told the woman who answered that I had these letters and asked to speak with Dale Herberg. His widow, explained he had just recently died. I felt horrible!!! but amazingly she was very curtious and concured that Bessie was his relative and that she was sure there were some things of hers stored in their garage. She gave me the name and phone number of another cousin, ________ Stevens, that lived in South Dakota. It took some time for me to build up enough courage to call this cousin but when I did.....she was very open and shared with me all sorts of things and gave me the name of yet another living cousin that was here in Arizona! Both of these cousins were the nearest relatives of Bessie and both were in their 80's at the time.
I then looked to see if I could find a phone number for the man in Ponca City from the news article that had the collection of Bessie's clothes. Found it! A phone call revealed that he was very interested in the letters so now I was not sure what to do............................................................
The only thing I knew for sure was that I did not want to throw away these letters and old photos.
My hubby found an upcoming competition taking place near Ponca City and said through the business, we could go and then take an extra couple of days to go meet with Jack Keathly. Talk about exciting............................................I couldn't hardly wait!

ps....I apoligize for any misspellings.....the spell checker is not working.

Immigration

I am a product of immigration. My grandparents immigrated here from Norway in the early 1900's so I guess you would think I want to stay quiet about immigration right?

Wrong, the country opened the doors to immigrants in the early 1900's to better this country...they gave them the opportunity to homestead in exchange for civilizing parts of the country that were barren. In other words they were invited to come here and even then they had to meet certain critera to be able to come. Most importantly they came legally.

Immigration is a highly debated topic and there are some parts of the US that are not effected a lot by Illegal immigration like we in Arizona are but a most informative video is available here . Even I was amazed at the statistics found on this video.

Now in defense of the illegal immigrants that are here.......................It is our (USA) fault......why? We did not adhere to the laws that were already established and simply looked the other way until it has become............a problem.

Movie Review

There will be Blood

In case you didn't guess.....Hubby picked this movie:)

It was one of those movies that you just keep waiting for it to all come together and make sense and then................it ends. Do I need to say I didn't like it.

Usually I only give a review for Sat. but am a little riled about a certain issue this morning.....I was reading on Fools Rush In post (Here Kitty Kitty) and poof, there is this comment from.......ANONYMOUS. Now I ask you who cares what you think, annonymous? Why would you feel the need to make any comment because you are after all......amonymous which means....of no importance. Why would you choose to make yourself some kind of a annonymous blog patrol lurking in on others peoples posts???? My point??? If you are tempted to correct someone and can't identify yourself.........just shut up!

Next frustuaration???? My spell check isn't working when I post....any ideas? Any help?