I really like looking at the knife pictures! I think the ebony handled one is my favorite, It reminds of ivory.

Howdy,

Thanx for the kind words.

Glad to see you are still alive and kikkin'

ya!

GWB

I was beginning to worry Geedubya. Good to see you navigated the storm.

10/4. Appreciate the sentiment.

July was a crazy month what with the hurricane and then less than two weeks later in Galveston for "Brown Beach Week", a family tradition the third week of July since 1969. In fact I watched Neil Armstrong walk on the moon on July 20th 1969.



Solid work is all I know!



Ya!

Luckily I invested in a natural gas whole house generator three years or so ago. Power was off in my neighborhood from early Monday morning when the storm hit until late Thursday afternoon. Generator did not miss a beat.......

I've managed to come out on top since Carla in '61.




BTW, I learned early on to stock up on essential hurricane supplies so as to be able to weather the storm.

ya!

GWB

Ah good beer and smokes. Flor de Olivas are my go-to.

Yup!

I am a fan of 5" or 6" x 50.


52 Ring Gauge is about my personal max.


Anywho, don't know if you are a Rudyard Kipling fan, but what the hey!


"You must choose between me and your cigar."
-- BREACH OF PROMISE CASE, CIRCA 1885.



Open the old cigar-box, get me a Cuba stout,
For things are running crossways, and Maggie and I are out.

We quarrelled about Havanas -- we fought o'er a good cheroot,
And I knew she is exacting, and she says I am a brute.



Open the old cigar-box -- let me consider a space;
In the soft blue veil of the vapour musing on Maggie's face.

Maggie is pretty to look at -- Maggie's a loving lass,
But the prettiest cheeks must wrinkle, the truest of loves must pass.



There's peace in a Larranaga, there's calm in a Henry Clay;
But the best cigar in an hour is finished and thrown away --

Thrown away for another as perfect and ripe and brown --
But I could not throw away Maggie for fear o' the talk o' the town!




Maggie, my wife at fifty -- grey and dour and old --
With never another Maggie to purchase for love or gold!

And the light of Days that have Been the dark of the Days that Are,
And Love's torch stinking and stale, like the butt of a dead cigar --

The butt of a dead cigar you are bound to keep in your pocket --
With never a new one to light tho' it's charred and black to the socket!



Open the old cigar-box -- let me consider a while.
Here is a mild Manila -- there is a wifely smile.

Which is the better portion -- bondage bought with a ring,
Or a harem of dusky beauties, fifty tied in a string?

Counsellors cunning and silent -- comforters true and tried,
And never a one of the fifty to sneer at a rival bride?



Thought in the early morning, solace in time of woes,
Peace in the hush of the twilight, balm ere my eyelids close,

This will the fifty give me, asking nought in return,
With only a Suttee's passion -- to do their duty and burn.

This will the fifty give me. When they are spent and dead,
Five times other fifties shall be my servants instead.



The furrows of far-off Java, the isles of the Spanish Main,
When they hear my harem is empty will send me my brides again.

I will take no heed to their raiment, nor food for their mouths withal,
So long as the gulls are nesting, so long as the showers fall.

I will scent 'em with best vanilla, with tea will I temper their hides,
And the Moor and the Mormon shall envy who read of the tale of my brides.

For Maggie has written a letter to give me my choice between
The wee little whimpering Love and the great god Nick o' Teen.




And I have been servant of Love for barely a twelvemonth clear,
But I have been Priest of Cabanas a matter of seven year;

And the gloom of my bachelor days is flecked with the cheery light
Of stums that I burned to Friendship and Pleasure and Work and Fight.



And I turn my eyes to the future that Maggie and I must prove,
But the only light on the marshes is the Will-o'-the-Wisp of Love.

Will it see me safe through my journey or leave me bogged in the mire?
Since a puff of tobacco can cloud it, shall I follow the fitful fire?



Open the old cigar-box -- let me consider anew --
Old friends, and who is Maggie that I should abandon you?

A million surplus Maggies are willing to bear the yoke;
And a woman is only a woman, but a good Cigar is a Smoke.

Light me another Cuba -- I hold to my first-sworn vows.
If Maggie will have no rival, I'll have no Maggie for Spouse!

Y,

and

Best,

GWB

Classic

Kipling was a great one. Were he still alive I bet he would be amazed and awed by your tribute.

Good to see new posts on this thread! I, too, was getting a little worried.
Some great beers here, including two from back home in Oregon, the Deschutes Black Butte Porter and the Rogue Mocha. Many years ago when the microbrew industry was young, I used to visit the original Rogue Brewery in a small building on the creek in Ashland, Oregon. Their brews were very good, and very consistent, and they made an incredible cheddar cheese soup that was sent by God for winter days in Oregon when the wind was up and there was ice on those Southern Oregon mountain sidewalks. I lived several years near Bend on the east side of the Cascades, where the Deschutes Brewery got its start. Love their Pinedrops IPA. Black Butte is a beautiful volcanic cone near Sisters, Oregon.
Here's a lame attempt to honor the style of your images, Geedub. I traded for that crude knife (yes, that is telephone wire and duct tape on the sheath) from the skinner who used it to deftly quarter a Hartmann's zebra I shot in Namibia back in 2007.

MIghty fine. I luv knowing the provenance of a knife or gun.

Anwho............

I do believe it was Yogi Berra to whom the following quote was attributed.....

"When you come to a fork in the road, take it!"

Well, my darling bride of soon to be 46 years and I don't travel out of state much but we recently flew/drove about 2,500 miles from Pearland, Tx. to Albany, Oregon, to come to a "fork in the road"



Upon her insistence, I left it there, and only took a pix.

I fell in love with Oregon. For someone who enjoys outdoor activities it would seem to be heaven. I texted a couple friends......I've been here less than 24 hours and I'm already turning into a tree-hugger. LOL



Since my wife is the designated driver and I am the designated drinker, I could not turn down the opportunity to visit Deschutes, buy some Swag, a few Brews and show off some pix of knives w/ different Deschutes libations.....





Had to snap a couple pix while sampling the wares......





Bill, you mention Sisters Oregon. Ate one of the best burgers I ever ate at a bar there at the Gallery Bar and grill in Sisters after we got back from the Deschutes Brewery.



and as you know.......



Black Butte



Three Sisters.

ya!

GWB

Geedubya, y'all are making me homesick. Just thrilled to know you have been to Oregon, and especially Bend and Sisters.
I occasionally attended the Episcopal Church in Sisters, not because I am Anglican but because the sanctuary was oriented so that the huge window behind the pulpit frames the Three Sisters. Can't fall asleep during a sermon when you have such magnificence to ponder.
In addition to very good beer, there is some decent grouse hunting, fly fishing, and trolling/jigging for kokanee salmon in that country.
If only the progressives in Portland hadn't ruined it politically ...
Grateful for the photos you posted.
Bill

I am from that part of the world, Klamath Falls. My cousin still works at Deschutes Brewery, my aunt and uncle still live there in Bend. Wife and I raised our family here in Texas and will live out our days here but I do miss the mountains, trout fishing in cold streams, and the cool, dry air...

ya!

GWB

So glad you and the wifey are out and about having fun!

I am, too!

Thanx for the kind sentiments guys!

Appreciate ya!


Got to spend a week in Montana in the recent past........


Menefee made hunter/skinner set. A2 steel, Westinghouse Micarta


“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans”
― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America


ya,

GWB

Down right Deplorable........



ya,

GWB

Delirium takes the prize for most interesting packaging.

Ahhhh me. God's in His Heaven and Glenn is posting regularly. All is well on Planet Earth.

It's only the "Sixth Glass"



Tim Olt "Michigan Slim".........



one half of a combo including a "Bully Bob" bull nose skinner.......

Both S35VN, Rosewood Burl

ya!

GWB

Gotta luv it when a plan comes together........



Mike Miller, one-off Small Santoku, Etched A2 Steel, Aspen scales.



ya,

GWB

Hope that beer can was empty.

For some reason that stout has a nutty taste to it.

Yowsir!

GWB

Congrats on a super nice buck!!