The cowboy way...

The  cowboy way...

My father was a cowboy as was his father before him...both claimed that vocation til their dying days...

I grew up on ranches in California, we went to rodeos, my parents went square dancing...my father played the harmonica...we listened to western music, watched the first westerns on TV religiously-Gunsmoke, the Lone Ranger, Roy Rogers, Paladin, The Lone Ranger....my dad always carried a red or blue handkerchief, we rode horses, gathered cattle, fixed fences, raised our own beef, chickens, gardens, canned and froze our own food...

Organic was not a common word, but looking back, we ate that way ....we drove by fields where weeds were cultivated out rather than sprayed out, geese were in the cotton fields for bug control, chickens were in large yards or free range...we made ice cream or egg nog with raw eggs not cooked ....that was just ordinary life...

This week is rodeo week in the town where I presently live..all week long...we had the Cowgirl court at church yesterday, we sang accompanied by a banjo, guitars, and fiddle- old time songs which had a western twang and beat...

It brought tears of good memories, longings for those who have passed these last few years...I am now a widow and an orphan, a matriarch of the family...my father’s cowboy boots and shirts distributed to family members along with my husband’s...no more in “our”closest ...

Each family member have some wonderful memories of those “cowboy “ times...laughter, stories, music, pictures...but,  now we are moving on with our lives in new directions with our feet planted solidly on the ground which was plowed and grazed before us...thank YOU for the faith that was passed down...songs of faith, country Sunday schools and churches, teachers and preachers that have passed through our lives...the opportunity to have eternal life through Jesus...good old time gospel...simple and true...

0By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word...

1 Corinthians 15:2a

10 And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.

Mark 13:10 

I’ll Fly Away”

“Some glad morning when this life is o'er

I'll fly away

To a home on God's celestial shore

I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh Glory I'll fly away when I die

Hallelujah by and by I'll fly away

When the shadows of this life have flown

I'll fly away

Like a bird from prison bars has flown

I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh Glory I'll fly away when I die

Hallelujah by and by I'll fly away

Just a few more weary days and then

I'll fly away

To a land where joy shall never end

I'll fly away

I'll fly away, oh Glory yes I'll fly away when I die

Hallelujah by and by I'll fly away