A Great Idea! - Cowboy Joe

A GREAT IDEA!

How many time do you have what you thought was a great idea?  What happened?  Chances are right after you got the idea, you told a friend about it.  And chances are when you told your friend you didn’t really do a great job of explaining it.  And the friend, in a nice way said it was “half baked.”

According to Joyce Kifler, “Every success must have a time of incubation.”  Often when we get an idea, we’re so excited about it that we start sharing it with everyone.  Because the idea is still young and soft and vulnerable, it dies from the constant assault from “well meaning” friends.  An idea should be protected the way we do anything that’s young.

Ms. Kifler suggests, “We can talk the life out of an idea before it has had time to firm up.  The more we talk, the less important it becomes until if finally dwindles to a thought that is not at all what it seemed to be.”

An idea that has had time to become strong will grow and produce what we envisioned it to be.

That way you can “go the distance.”

Cowboy Slang ;)

       I'm in the middle of doing a report on recipes, and such from the 1800's-1960's and I found these terms to be rather fascinatingly colorful, and helpful, as I wasn't sure I wanted to try a Pie topped with Calf slobbers... ;)

       Below are some words used in reference to chuck, or for the non-cowboy, food, while they were on the trail. 

Calf Slobbers – Meringue on a pie. 

Fried Chicken – Bacon rolled in flour and fried.

Chuck Wagon Chicken – Fried bacon.

Charlie Taylor – A substitute for butter. A combination of molasses and bacon grease. 

“Man at the Pot!” – Term yelled at a person pouring himself a cup of coffee. A cowboy’s way of saying, “Pour me a cup too.” 

Spotted Pup – Cooking raisins in rice.

Stacked to a fill – Compliment to the chief following a great meal. 

Dry Camp – A camp that has no water available. 

Prairie or Mountain Oysters – Calf’s testicles.

Wreck pan: The pan in which cowboys placed their dirty dishes following a meal.

Squirrel can:The large can in which cowboys scraped the food scraps

before placing them in the wreck pan.

Cook’s last job of the evening:Point the tongue of the chuckwagon toward the north

so the herd could “follow the tongue” the next day.

Gut robber, greasy belly, biscuit shooter:Cowboys names for both the ranch house and trail drive cook.

Coffee recipe: A hand full of coffee for every cup of water.

Possum belly:A rawhide apron attached to the underside of the chuckwagon 

in which wood and buffalo chips are stored for the dinner fire.

Why cooks threw dirty dishwater under chuckwagon: This helped protect the cook’s domain by discouraging cowboys 

from taking a nap in the shade under the chuckwagon.