I have this thing about Mexican skeletons. I am not alone in this, fortunately. Marilyn has a sugar skull pop socket on her cell phone and a sugar skull sticker on her Hydroflask. There is a Day of the Dead banner on the wall looking out on our barbecue deck. It is not lost on me that it is a fine thing indeed that we are simpatico in this … [Read more...] about Skeletons Coming Out Of The Closet

When the last rose of summer pricks my finger, And the hot sun chills me to the bone, When I can’t hear the song for the singer, And I can’t tell my pillow from a stone, I will walk alone by the black muddy river, And sing me a song of my own, I will walk alone by the black muddy river, And sing me a song of my own. — Robert Hunter/Jerry … [Read more...] about Black Muddy River, Roll On Forever

Recently stumbled across a couple of True West Magazine pieces on the artist Ron Lesser, who is best known in Western circles for his iconic movie poster for the dark Clint Eastwood movie High Plains Drifter. Lesser is a well-known artist for paperback novels and movie posters, with a flair for Western iconography. He has a series of paintings … [Read more...] about Smokin’ Wimmin Smokin’

By Rick Schwertfeger, Captain, Frontier Partisans Southern Command Austin, Texas, May 2018 The trail begins down a gentle slope. You’re walking easily, strolling. After a quarter mile the footing gets tougher, with looser rock. The trail descends more sharply. You’re picking your way down unstable rocks, stepping very carefully. Steeper, … [Read more...] about Cosmic, Mythic, Mystical Rock Art Of The Lower Pecos Peoples In The Texas-Mexico Borderlands

• How you know you married the right woman: Marilyn propositioned me with a suggestion for a romantic interlude for a predicted rainy weekend. Fire in the woodstove; Celtic music; “peasant food”; a Saturday night re-watch of Last of the Mohicans (which was a date movie when we got started in 1992). Yep. • Pascual Orozco is one of the … [Read more...] about Working The Trapline — April 2018

  …Demonstrators should seek more effective and more lasting reform. They should demand a repeal of the Second Amendment. — Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens   I have been naïve. My temperament has always bent toward seeking common ground — the Willie Nelson ethic of bringing the cowboys and the hippies together. … [Read more...] about A Relic Of The 18th Century

By Lane Batot, Scout, Frontier Partisans, North Carolina Sector I It’s hard for me to know just where to begin on this subject — SO MANY potential discussions, including actual historical Frontier Dogs, beloved fictional Frontier Dogs (in both books and movies), what makes for an ideal Frontier Dog (and lots of various angles there!), and … [Read more...] about The Dog’s Life Of A Frontier Partisan

A lot of people love animals. A lot of people hate trophy hunting. I get it. I really do. For many people, the idea of paying thousands of dollars to kill a magnificent African animal, then pose beside it, is grotesque, immoral — sick even. It’s a completely understandable emotional response. It’s also wrong. Hunting is vital to the survival … [Read more...] about ‘Trophy’