FROM THE EAST TO THE WEST

Chuckwagon Tales

The Chuck Wagon

Chuckwagon Tales

Mizz Tinny and Fretherne

Hat Creek BendA western biography

A Western Biography

(from Chuckwagon tales)

Miz Tinny and Fretherne

After they hanged my paw

It jus’ left me an’ maw

To live with my Granpaw down at Hat Creek Bend

‘Twarn’t really a spread

More like a homestead

But to me the land stretched on and on without end..

Granpaw would say with laughter

Shoot first ask questions after

What I got is mine and mine I will defend.

So mebbe he was right

To shoot an Injun one night

When he found him skulkin' round ol' Hat Creek Bend.

So I got the Injun’s pony

An’ I renamed him Tony

And for ten years that hoss was my only friend.

Granpaw left in forty-nine

To dig a big gold mine

With an itch to return rich to Hat Creek Bend.

He rode off with Steve and Vince

And we ain’t never seed ‘em since

He left maw and me the critters for to tend.

But poor maw she got ill

As women so often will

And we buried her right over yonder at Hat Creek Bend

An’ then we had the Civil War

But what we wuz fightin’ for

To understand I really can’t pretend

We mostly fought back east

That’s the time I liked the least

I often wished I was back at Hat Creek Bend

At Manasssis with General Lee

I got shot here in my knee

But twenty thousand other fellers met their end

When the doc let me out of bed

I went back to the old homestead

I ain't ever gonna leave old Hat Creek Bend.

Dust Bowl

DUST BOWL

MIZTINNY AND FRETHERNE

FROM CHUCKWAGON TALES

The farmer and the cowboy must both respect the earth

For growin' and for grazin' they must both know what it's worth

For fertile land

Can turn to sand

When abused, to the deserts it gives birth

God gave the sun and rain to make the prairie grow

And along with every winter he sent the gentle snow

Cattle grazed the fine green grass

For years until it came to pass

Man ripped up God's green prairie with his plow

Now the plow is idle: its share is red with rust

A monument to ignorance and to man's money lust

Wind whipped earth darkens the sky

Copper colored clouds swirl on high

And at midday it's like twilight from the coppery dust

And now the land is bad land, no good for cow or seeds

Where once it grew long waving grass it now sprouts only weeds

And now we stand and wonder why

We lost good land to the copper sky

The Dust Bowl became a memorial to man's greed.

Lonesome Luke

LONESOME LUKE

Miztinny and Fretherne 2004

Chuckwagon Tales

Now Luke he was a loner

He rode a lonely trail

His suit was black as lamp soot

His eyes were cold and pale

He made his livin' gamblin'

Ridin' from town to town

Some didn't like his dealin'

But most of those backed down

The other men that argued

Are well and truely gone,

And now they're just remembered

As notches on his gun.

He killed a cowboy up in Kansas,

Out-drew a sheriff in Cheyenne.

He was nearly lynched in Pecos

When he shot another man

He was mean and evil hearted

Cruel and wouldn't leave

A poker game when he could win

With an ace hid up his sleeve

Now, aces in your cuff are good

And beat most cards, I believe

But they don't beat a derringer

In the other player's sleeve.

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Ghostriders

GHOST RIDERS

The range is no longer open, the prairie isn’t free

But the sky 's is full of herds and riders you can’t always see

On a stormy night in Texas if you look up at the sky

You won’t just see the lightning or black clouds rollin’by

The sky is full of ghostly figures, their scout ‘way out ahead

Long dead cowboys herding cows one hundred long years dead

The thunder of their hooves echoes in the driving storm

A flash of light, a clap of thunder and a true stampede is born

Hooves go pounding, driving , thundering o'er the open plain

Amid the flash of lightning and sheets of driving rain.

Across the stormy sky they ride as fast as any bird

Ghost riders of the prairie tryin’ to turn the racin' herd

A gopher hole, a fallen steed, a wrangler dead upon the ground

And now his spirit rides across the sky without a sound

Many a wranglers’ fallen while the wild stampede raced on

But now they ride the range again though a hundred years long gone

The drumming of their hooves is the thunder that you hear

These galloping brave cowboys in their worn old ridin' gear

The lightning flashes are their campfires, the moving clouds their herds,

Wearin’ Stetsons with a halo hovering close above their head.

In lightnings flash and thunders crash I'll see them by and by,

The ghosts of long gone cowboys stormin' through the sky

The old herd is stampedin' and headin' out the downward way

Down the primrose path to face God's wrath that final round up day.

There's no rest for a cowboy even long after he's dead

While city folk relax at home or are snorin' in their bed

They'll ride the range in Heaven way up beyond the sky

And one day we'll ride it with 'em if we live right 'fore we die.

by MizTinny and Fretherne

(Lorene Poe )

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A Pony Named Tony

A PONY NAMED TONY

BY

MIZ TINNY AND FRETHERNE

FROM CHUCKWAGON TALES

When Ah was a kid

Ah always did

‘Zactly what I was told

I got a pony

I named him Tony

When I was twelve years old

I loved him like a brother

Didn’t want no other

Since he was out of the fold

Roundin’ up steers

For the next eight years

We worked the Chisholm Trail

Ridin' night and day

For not much pay

Through sun and rain and hail

Had a chuck wagon cook

Didn’t use no book

His beans and stew made us pale.

We was pardners surely

The day he felt poorly,

Hobblin' slow, his head hangin' low.

But I had no sense

Tried to jump a fence

And down fell poor old Tony

The foreman spoke

His leg is broke

Ya gotta shoot that pony

It broke mah heart to do it

And I think Tony knew it

As we looked our last good byes.

Then he pricked up his ears,
Ah shot him through the head,

And my eyes flooded with tears

Ah wept and cried

Leavin’ him where he died

On the hard trail lying dead

Lookin' back up high

Buzzards in the sky

Waitin' 'till we was gone

Then stars in the sky

Twinklin goodbye

Made them buzzards fly on

Ah walked home to the ranch

Washed my face in the branch

Then sat down and cried some more.

The old trail boss

Said he don’t need no cross

We’ll remember him evermore

So he sleeps alone

With no gravestone,

The prairie for a bed.

ButAh tell you

He still gallops through

The memories in my head

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Cowboys Christmas

Annalee 9-Inch Cowboy Santa Hugging Reindeer--New in 2006!

COWBOY'S CHRISTMAS

I ain't never seed an ocean

Nor swum in a big salt sea

Nor tried steam locomotion

Them thaangs just ain't fer me.

I spend long days in the saddle

Get weary and tired and sore

So saddle sore I waddle

But don't want to leave it no more

But I've seen a prairie sunrise

The sky turnin' bright pink

A treat for any cowboy's eyes

There's no fairer sight I think

A range of purple mountains

And purty desert skies

The sunset in the evenin'

And desert fire flies

Them purty cactus flowers in spring,

In winter kivered with snow,

And God's creation of beauty

Here on the earth below

Christmas ain't fer cowpokes

Not spent out there on the trail

Singin' carols, crackin' jokes

In the snow, the rain and hail

No turkey for our dinner

Just the normal bacon and beans

That's why we all get thinner

And can't hold up our jeans

But Christmas ain't just fer eatin'

It's fer prayin' and singin' too,

And round the fire we're meetin'

Old friends all stout and true

The sky is full of twinklin' stars

Look-there's a special one

It's bright and powerful shinin'

For the Master's little son.

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HISTORY-TRAVEL

Chuckwagon Tales

Hat Creek BendA western biography

A Western Biography

Dust Bowl

Lonesome Luke

Ghostriders

Ghostriders

A Pony Named Tony

Cowboys Christmas