I asked our webmaster Sue to add a page to our site to display the Code of the West and some other advice I have gathered. All of them good rules to live by.
Let me know what you think.


Mike

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Code of the West

1. Live each day with courage.

2. Take pride in your work.

3. Always finish what you start.

4. Do what has to be done.

5. Be tough, but fair.

6. When you make a promise, keep it.

7. Ride for the brand.

8. Talk less and say more.

9. Remember that some things aren’t for sale.

10. Know where to draw the line.

Brent and Janet can be seen in the last part of the video.  Congratulations to them and the organization

Here’s the link to the NDOC presentation:
 
https://vimeo.com/45099474


National Day of the Cowboy –in perpetuity
4th Sat of July – Hats off to the Cowboy
 

Last week I journeyed to Porterville and dropped off the two rear wheels to our chuck wagon.  The repaired one was taken to match when rebuilding the bad wheel, since this builder is a different person and the bad wheel has two different size spokes from an earlier repair...I would guess.  The man seems very competent and most of the parts will come from the Amish as before.  The estimate for repair is somewhere around 6-8 weeks.  He and our wheel wright for the other wheels knew each other and I suppose that is no surprise since this is a small community of craftsman.  

His residence and shops were/are very interesting.  He is a tool collector among other things and I could have spent days in his display room.  His oldest tool dates to 1808.  

Our wagon is resting in a new two car garage I built over the winter.  It will likely remain in there even after the wheels are done to make it easier to access. The space was intended for my other projects but I made some adjustments and besides, there was no way to jack up the wagon inside the container.  As part of the project, I added a craft room for Rosa and this will be another space for visitors to stay over if we have a work party here.

I noticed a couple boards were loose under the bed and more hardware is dropping off the shrinking wood.  After we have the wheels back, I intend to complete an assessment of what we need to repair first with remaining funds.  

On another note, I was approached by a fellow who is organizing a large group of vets to conduct summer, one or two week horseback tours of the mountains and gold rush areas next year.  The short story is that he may wish to use our wagon as a model for building possibly four others that will be used in various positions thruout the forest to provide chuck wagon meals for the participants.  He is familiar with dutch oven cooking but not with our type of cooking and not with a chuck wagon.  He seems to think he will come up with equipment from local ranchers and I had to tell him what to expect...if you get my drift.  This is a worthy effort intended to help our returning troops who are damaged physically and mentally and I promised him my support but not our wagon and equipment on a continuing basis.  Labor will come from veterans and we may be needed to train them how to prepare and cook in dutch ovens and care for them.  The other positive aspect is that we would gain about 150 members to our ranks, at least in name at first and then possibly more later.  

Well that's about it fer now.  Been warmin' up here and I'm fightin' the weeds ever day.  Weed whacking and mowin' ain't fun but it needs doin and thar ain't no one else on the place to do it.  

Yer foreman,

Mariposa Mike