Thursday, March 31, 2011

Central City Mission Ranch

At age 15 i was sent to a boys home. CCM Ranch in Haney BC.
While I was there I began building a dam on a small crick that ran threw the ranch. T he crick was in the bottom of a small valley with steep hills on both sides and the bottom was spread out about 100 feet. The crick ran mostly on one side of the bottom up againest the bank. The water wasnt running very fast so i just started shoveling dirt off the bank into the creek.
I didnt really think it would work but to my surprise the water started to back up. Then I got serious about it and really started throwing in the dirt.
It took me a couple of weeks but finally the water started to back up over the bottom and really spred out.
I got a small pick and started digging dirt out of the bank and soon was useing a wheelbarrel to get the dirt where i wanted it. I got some advice from some of the other guys, Bob Hamelton helpt me most. and i built a wooden culvert for the water to run over top of the dam. Everybody got interested in it but nobody wanted to help me move that dirt :)
Anyway , i got the water up to about 6 feet deep at the dam and it spred over most of the bottom. I had a preety good size pond by the time I got finished. Even had ducks come in and land on the pound.
Oneday while i was sitting on the bank a few wood ducks came in for a lading. They didnt see me and i had my 22 rifle with me.
I took ame and as that beatiful woodduck lifted out of the water I fired, hitting him in the brest, he went down in the under brush ,not more than fifty feet away from me. I searched for almost an hour and never did find that duck. I remmber feeling guilty about shooting him. He was so pretty and I wanted him to hang around on my pound.
A few weeks after that there was a big rainstorm and when i went down to the pound in the morning ,the pound, the dam, everything was gone, i remmber wishing i could have seen it all wash away
That was also were i trapped my first racoon, and he tore a hole in the homemade trap and got away :)

Wide awake

Spring of 1967. I was liveing with Williy Velair, Tony Hawks, and Otto in a place we rented from Doc in Edmonton Alberta.
Tony and I decided we would take a trip to Vancouver BC, I wanted to visit my Mom and Tony wanted to see his Dad which he hadnt seen since his Mom and Dad had divorced when Tony was a kid.
We got to Vancouver and did what we came for and started back to Edmonton. But we figured we may as well take the sienic route and enjoy the trip home.
Somehow , we got across the boarder and ended up in Seaattle Washington. We drove by the space needle and then on to Edmonton.
That night we kept on driveing as long as we could as we didnt have money left for a motel or anyplace decent to sleep.
I was driveing about 2 AM and starting to fall asleep at the wheel. I asked Tony if he wanted to drive and he said " no ,lets pull over and sleep in the car.
i drove till we found a truckstop , then pulled up behind a 18 wheeler in the parking lot, Tony got in the back seat and i just leaned over on the front seat and we went to sleep, booth of us very tired and in a very deep sleep.
All of a sudden i hear Tony yelling at the top of his lungs"Groves, a truck" I jerked up out of the seat and saw a truck in front of us, and I was in shock as i jumped on the brake and pushed for all I was worth.
It all happened in a matter of seconds, and as i realized we were parked behind a big truck I said, We are parked, go back to sleeep. Tony said "O" and we both laid back down on the seats and went back to sleep.
In the morning we woke up and had coffe and carried on like nothing had happened.
We drove on and neither one of us even remember the incident until about 3pm the next day, when i said " heyyyyyy do you remmber last nite" Toney said " O yaaaa" and we both laughed like hell

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Toejoe

When we were kids, well i guess when we learned to speak, my brother and i were taught to say Toejoe instead of poop or poo or shit, or whatever the word was at that time.
As we grew up we always said " mom I have to go Toejoe" whenever we wanted to go to the bathroom or whatever. To us Toejoe was just a natuale word for poop or shit. We used that word all of our childhood.
When I was about 60 years old I lived with Miny, she was a chineese lady from Bejing China.
While i was with Miny i happened to use the word Toegoe, She asked why was I talking about Toejoe. I explained that Toejoe was what we called shit when we were kids.
Miny then explained to me that Toejoe was a Japeneese general in the war and everybody hated him.
I then realised that my dad had been in the war, fighting the japeneese and had taught his children to be prgidus without us even knowing it.
I guess it reminded him of the war every time we had to go to the bathroom and he thoutht Toejoe was shit.
I never new my dad to be a prejustis person but i guess he was against the Japeneese. I rememeber him telling war stories and I was always afraid that someday would have to go to war
Ooo, he also didnt like hindos, but I think that was just because hindos were his compeditors at work.

Speedsew

1968. I went to the chinaman (corner store) to buy cigarets for my wife and a few things to eat. i walked around the store for awhile picked up what i needed , paid for it and went home.
When i got home i found a tube of Speedsew (glue) in my pocket. I had put it in my pocket accidently while i was looking around the store. This was in January In edmonton Alberta, proberly 30 below zero outside, I sure wasnt going to walk back to that store that night.
I didnt have a car at that time as I had my drivers lience taken away.
I had only been married a month or so and I was determand that I was not going to be a bad guy and end up in jail again.
The next day I went back to the chinaman , explained what had happened and paid him for the speedsew.
After i paid him i felt kind of silly, cuz there was no need for it, afterall , I had been a shoplifter for most of my life. But I did feel good about paying him and i do beleave that was was the last time I ever lifted anything out of a store. I guess it was my wife that changed my ways, seems to me i didnt get in much trouble whenever I had a wife. Proberly it was something to do with me being alone. I always thought cicaligy ( however the hell u spell it with no spellcheck) was interesting

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Makes me feel young

I started going to the sale barn back in the early 90s. I had been interested in sale barns and animals all my life but never really had a chance to have my own untill I married Punkin.
We went to the sales form time to time for several years.
For some reason everytime i bought a cow or a goat or pig i always expected the auctioneer to say " Sold, to the young man in the third row" But he never did say it
Then one day at the sale i started looking around at the people around me and i thought "Hollyshit, I, am as old as some of these old people"
For some reason it makes me feel young to be at the salebarn
Even now at age 65 i sometimes feel like a dam kid when i go to the sale
I guess its because that was what i loved most when i was a kid, When im at the sale i always think about things that happened on Elbert and Walters farm when i was a kid. They milked jersy cows by hand, and had work horses to work the fields, evenafter they had tractors and trucks they still kept those clidsdales. They kept them untill the horses died of old age. I even remember my brother and I rideing on their old steel wheeled tractor with big steel kleets on the iron wheels
when i was a little older i would run away from home and climb over the fence at the "Pacific Nationl Exabition" and stay there all day and part of the night,spending most of the time in the livestock barns, just walking around looking at all the animals. And sometimes when the first circus show of the day was over i would sneek in as the crouds were comeing out. then hide inside untill the next show started.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Skunk in a box

I was about 11 or 12 years old. Dad had taken me to the farm for the weekend.
When we arrived at the farm, Elbert and Walter had a big story about how they had lured a skunk to eat a porkchop out of there hand and then threw the porkchop into a milkcan. when the skunk went in the milkcan after the porkchop they slamed the lid on the can and caught the skunk, then they put the can up to the exhaust pipe on the farm truck and gassed the skunk.
A week or so after that Dad received a parcel in the mail. The parcel was wrapped in a shoebox just about the size it would take to hold a skunk, and it was from,Elber and Walter Forsland in Langley
My dad wa sure the boys had caught another skunk and mailed it to him as a joke. Of course Dad was afraid to open the box because of the smell it would make. So he waited till the next day and when he got to work at the mill he took the box into the burner and was ready to throw it in the fire and run like hell if it was a skunk.
he very carfully unwrapped the box, ready to throw it, ttok the lid off, and no smell. The box was stuffed full of newspaper and when he got it all unwrapped he found, a few rocks for weight, and a tiny pair of glass slippers ornements about one inch long.
The Fosland Boys had sure fooled him that time, I remember how they all laughed about it next time we went to the farm :
)
Elbert and Walter were friends of my dads, I dont know how they met but The Forstland Boys and there farm were a big influounce on my life, even today at almost age 65 i think of them often and wish i could tell them about the farm I now have. Of course they are long gone and i dought if i will ever get back to Canada to see the farm that they left for a park to the city of Langly

Almost shot as a kid

I guess I was 7 or 8 years old. Seems like i was prettey small
I remember walking throu the woods with my dad and Elbert. At Elbert and Walters farm in Langly BC Canada.
We were walking along a trail in the woods looking for ducks in the nearby pounds.
I was walking along a trail, beside my Dad holding his hand. Elbert was following about 4 feet behind us. I remember a few ducks flying up out of the water but nobody could get a clear shot. i remember the trees being burn where Elbert and Walter burnt the underbrush the year before.
As we walked down the trail,all of a sudden there was a hudge "BANG"
Dad and i turned around to see Elbert with his mouth wide open and his eyes wee big as soccers
Elbert had been walking along ,carrying his doublebarrel shotgun in his hand, down by his side, with the gunbarrel faceing forword. He had been swinging it back and forth a little bit as he walked.
He had it cocked and ready to shoot, and a twig had caught the trigger and fired the gun. Luckily only one barrel had fired.
The buckshot had gone between my Dad and I and had taken the pocket off of my dads pants. I remember seeing his bare leg thro the hole where the pocket used to be. It was a 12 gauge shotgun, loaded with buckshot, and not one pellet had even scratched my Dads leg or touched me.
I remember seeing that pair of pants with the pocket gone, hanging in the basement for many years afterwords. Dad would take people down stairs to show them the pants and of course there were many stories of that almost tragic day. I always enjoyed hereing Dad tell the story over and over

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Brickjob from hell

2011, Friday, Larry calls me and asked me to meet him in denton Monday morning.
I meet him in Denton and he takes me to look at a job in Corinth.
We look at the job, i figured about 200 bricks to cover the sidewalk by the front door.
I tell the lady $700.00 and she says go ahead and do it. she wanted to use up the bricks she had in her garage that were left over from building the house. I wasnt sure if there were enough to do the job but said i would supply and more that were needed. And agree to start the job thursday.
THrusday I head for the job, I figured i would stop at the brickyard and get a strap of bricks on the way. Althou I wasnt sure if i needed them or not, i figured it would save an etra trip to get bricks if i did need them.
at the brickyard i find out i can get pavers for 25 cents each, and the bricks she wanted to use were face bricks, face bricks are not good for flatwork.
So i fugured I could get pavers to do the intire job for 53 bucks, a strap of face bricks were 47 bucks, I thought.
But I cant change the plan without talking to Lynn (the custmer) . So I take a sample of the pavers and go to the job, Explain to lynn that the pavers would be better bricks for the job, and i would take the bricks out of her garage and do the job for the same price with pavers.
She agrees and i head back to the brickyard to get the pavers, Then come back to the job and lay about half of the pavers before quiting time. had to saw a lot of bricks to fit all the angles and across the doorway. Then i loaded all tthe facebricks from her garage on my truck, took them home, and threw them off the truck into the bucket of my tractor so i could dump them were i wanted latter
That night about 9:30 pm, Larry calls, Lynn had called him and was all in tears because her hubby didnt like the color of the pavers, and i needed take out the pavers and do it with the face brick. She was a special custmer and had lots of conections in real estate so we had to do whatever it took to make her happy.
At this point i would normally walk away from the job and be done with it, but Larry is a good custmer of mine and a hell of a nice guy, so i agree to got back to the job and remove the pavers and do it with face bricks
Friday morning I arive at the job and lynn says " now that i can see it in daylight i think it will be ok, just go ahead and finish it in with pavers.
I told her I would finish one small patch so hubby could see what it was going to look like when finished and she could let me know monday morning.
I finished one small patch and left.
That night about 9:30 pm larry calls, the woman has called him and is again in tears cuz huddy dont like the colore of the pavers, we better just take the pavers out and use facebrick. Ounce again i agreed to start over on monday.
So on sunday I take the facebricks out of the tractor bucket and pile them back on my pickup.
Monday morning i get back to the job, take out the pavers, load the pavers back on my truck and unload the facebricks and get it about halfway done with facebricks, and lynn is happy as hell with the way its going.
Tuesday i get back to the job and when im nearly finished i realize I need about 15 more facebricks to finish the job. Would have had plenty but many broke when i threw them off the truck into the bucket.
So, back to the brickyard to get 15 facebricks, To save time i got directly to the brickplant instead of to the sales office.
they asked if i had gotten a price from the sales office and again to save time i said no. So in order to get 15 bricks i had to buy a strap of bricks, 113 bricks, and instead of the price i would have gotton from the office 47 cents, they charded me 95 cents a brick
Finnaly got back to the job ot it finished and lynn was happy as hell.
SHe asked if i wanted some money and ofcourse i said yes, she figure it was 750 but i told her it was 700. she started telling me she was sure it was 750. I said: it wasnt, but u sure as hell can write the check for 750 if you like. SHe did, and i was to hell out of there.
NOw, this mornig, thursday again i am off to do the same job for her neibour, hope it goes a lot better. :)

J.C. , A little embareassment

Several years back I was sitting in the third row of seats at the salebarn. JC was sitting directly in front of me in the first row. JC is one of the buyers at the goat sale. JC wieghs something close to 350 or 400 lbs.
This day he was sitting in onee of the theater chairs that are nailed or otherwise attached the the bleachers.
The biggest goatsale in north Texas has the most rundown, diriest,most uncomforable dam show ring I have ever seen. Personly I think they should be ashamed of it.
Anyway, there was big ole JC wedged into that chair in the front row. And i was sitting behind him.
About halfway throu the sales JC decides to get up, Guess he couldnt stand that chair hanging onto him any longer.
He reaches out and grabs the steal rail in front of him and slowly pulls himself up out of that chair.
Problem is, the chair hung onto his pants, their he stood, no shorts, just his big fat red ass hanging there for all to see.
I turned my head to the side so i wouldnt have to see it and when i did i saw everybodyelse was looking the other way also, lol . Nobody wanted to see that bare ass.
Ole JC just pulled up his pants and walked off like nothing had happened.

Cure for ant bites

Its real simple. When you get bittin by a fireant, simpley rub or pour some amnonia over the skin.
Bite will stop iching in minutes and will not leave a bump or red mark on your skin the next day.

If anybody knows a cure for chiggers , please let me know.
Best thing i know for chiggers is hydracordazone. but isnt a real great cure.

What the hell happened to my spell checker ??????

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Was I a coward ???

At age 21 I married my first wife Funny. She was from a family of long standing fighters. She had 13 brothers and sisters and was raised in a situation where you had to be tough to survie.
Her brother Ed was the top gun of the family, he was a real fighter, he had been taut to box professionaly and had the guts and wantto to back it up.
When we first got married and i got to know the family, it didnt take me long to figure out that someday I was going to have a runin with Ed. I wasnt a fighter but I knew if I backed away from a fight i would be considered a coward. And that wouldnt go over good with my wife, or the rest of the family.
One night Funny and I, and ed and his wife Pam were at a bar. After a few beers, quite a few beers, Ed and I started argueing about something, it wasnt long before ED was asking me if i wanted to step outside.
I had seen this day comeing for some time and I new I didnt have a hope in hell of winning a fight with ED. But I also new I couldnt back down. I was scared as hell but I figured as long as I tried and didnt back down nobody could say i was a coward.
So outside we went. And of course half the bar came out to see the fight. We faced each other with our fists up and threw a few punches. we went at each other a few times, neither one doing any real damage. Then i ducted and ran at him, pushing him back a little but not knocking him down, we came out of it swinging and really going at it.
After what seemed like a long time Ed started to back off a little and to my surprise he said " lets quit " I fugured he could drop me anytime but I went at him again, still not doing any damage. He siad several times he didnt want to hurt me, but I wouldnt quit.
Finnaly he droped his hands to his side and said " I could drop you, but i dont want to"
Trying not to act releved, I dropped my hands.
We turned to walk back to the bar and our wives were standiing there in the crowd. some guy was trying to talk to Eds wife. I could see that Pam was trying to ignore the guy, cus she new what was going to happen.
ED walked up to the guy and said "Are you talking to my wife" and out of nowhere Eds fist hit the guy in the mouth. he went realing back into the crowd with his mouth wide open and blood spewing everywhere. seemed to me like he was spitting out his teeth.
My first thought was Wholly fuck, that could have been me. I felt i was very lucky to be in one peace.
I grabed ED and said lets get out of here before the cops come. We grabed our wives and ran for our cars and got the hell out of there.
Ed and i were real good friends after that. He even told the rest of the family "If you want John you have to go thou me first" and they all respected me because of that.
Funny latter told me she had heard a guy in the crowd say" they are both keeping there dukes up pretty good "
I guess i really did prove something to everybody and most importantly to myself.
I even feel kind of prod writeing this letter some 44 years latter. :)

i wounder what happened to spellcheck :(