Month: February 2021

i have been working on another roach. i have the base and the inner row of deer tail trim done. this will be a blue, 20 inches long mans roach.   i have the bulk of the hair i need but i need to sort longer front hair. i want it to be at least 8 inches long. this roach will have a double row in front.

i am putting in time every day working on roaches. i am trying to build inventory. so far i have 6 roaches done. not maybe, might, gonna. they are done. i plan on making as many roaches as i can before pow wow season starts. if there is a pow wow season. i bet the hard cores will demand a few somewhere.

i spoke with my sister. she does a lot of beadwork. we agreed we would go together on a stand at some pow wow. or more if we move our merchandise. we have shared a stand in the past a few times.  she has folding tables and an open shade tent that we used for our stand. we have pow wow chairs. i have a big tent if we have to camp on the way.

dont know when or where we will have a stand. but we will have one some where. just gotta hope we can find one where there are buyers.  at  local pow wows plenty look but hardly any buyers. some big pow wows charge steep stand prices. the price would be equivalent to the cost of a big roach. if i gotta pay that i want a pow wow where people are interested in buying my products.

i got some new hens from my nephew. they are settling down now. at first they were fighting. kinda like fort indians. there is a strict pecking order. every one has a place. they dont understand they are all chickens.  there werent any fights lately.

now that my chickens are laying i am getting 8 or 9 eggs a day. we had a surplus. i called my sister in law. she likes fresh country eggs and has bought from us the past coupla years. she came over for a coupla dozen. we will sell any extra eggs we get. i aint up for delivering if i sell them cheap.

andrew had a basketball game yesterday. i didnt get to see it. covid protocol says only two guests per game. i missed a good game. andrew scored 12 points. well they dont keep score because it is to teach sportsmanship. all the parents are aware of what their kids do and how many points they score. and who wins.

i did watch the KU game against baylor. i had a feeling that the jayhawks could beat baylor after iowa state played them close. it all depended on which jayhawk team showed up. we did beat baylor, the number two team in the country. we should get a better seeding in the ncaa tourney. we better make a good showing. i cant guess how far we are going though.

gotta get to work on my roach.

mary won at bingo the other night.  yesterday we headed to town as fast as indians with per cap in their pockets. we went to a coupla flea market places. we didnt spend much though. i bought some cds. i found 6 skeins of rug yarn for less than a buck apiece. thats cheaper than the auction sites where they go for 5 to 10 bucks each. i use the yarn to make bases for roaches.

we went to a soul food place for lunch. we ate there before. they cook whole catfish. we ordered it with a side of fries.  i also bought some seafood gumbo for supper. i ordered some red beans and rice but didnt get them. i didnt notice that until i got to lake shawnee.

we went to lake shawnee to eat. our food was still hot. i didnt want to drive all the way home to eat cold food. i drove to the south end of the lake. a bald eagle has a nest there. we seen it as we were eating our meal.  that is good mojo. i got out and took a picture even though it was on the other side of the water. my zoom lens got me a closer picture.

i had chores to do when i got home. i had to refill the metal trash can that holds my chicken feed. i learned to store feed in them after i had a problem with mice munching out on my feed. after i filled the can i fed the chickens and gathered the eggs. i found 10 eggs.

my nephew asked me if i wanted 6 more chickens. i said sure i will take them. it isnt any extra work. i gotta feed and water the ones i have every day anyway. his son brought them over. he brought 6 black chickens. they are 2 and a half years old. they are still laying. they will be soup when they quit laying.

one of those chickens must be a rooster. he squared off with my red island red rooster. later the barred rock took that black rooster on. i didnt know my barred rock was a rooster until i seen him fight like a rooster. i will have to butcher the two roosters and probably the last two hybrid hens i kept.

i now have 18 hens with the new ones that joined my flock. i am getting eggs every day. i am starting to get a surplus of eggs. i sell my eggs for $2 a dozen. that is cheap for big,  brown cage free eggs. i wont get rich but i can use the money to buy feed.

dont know if its too early to think of gardening yet. i have been anyway. i think this year i will try no till gardening. i will burn off the patch that layed fallow last two seasons. i will cut a furrow into the ground to plant seeds. i will also burn off the garden spot i had last year. i will plant a cover crop in that field.

i took off a day yesterday but will work on a roach today.

we went to a steak house in topeekie for marys birthday. i know dr. fauci says not to dine in, even if we all are vaccinated. we wore masks as did everyone else. we were seated to our selves. they have these plexiglass barriers between the tables. our family wanted to help mary celebrate her birthday.

mary had to get on a saddle after the waiter got every ones attention.  she had to holler “yeeha” while twirling a napkin as a lasso. nothing like embarrassing some one on their birthday. this wasnt like the migo place where andrew had to put on a sombrero then they pushed his face into the cake last year. good thing mary and he were good sports.

i ordered my usual 6 ounce filet mignon.  i got a top sirloin instead. i ate it anyway.  it was good. i sampled the appetizers our family ordered. i ate enough without really over doing it. we had a good time getting off the rez.

mary picks up our lunch meals at the senior citizen site every week day. yesterday our homeboys were singing with hand drums at the meal site. they sang happy birthday to her. that was nice.

i regret i didnt start working on roaches earlier while staying home during the covid thing. i could have made a bunch of roaches by now. thats alright, the important thing is i am making them now. i got two done in about 3 weeks. most of that time was sorting hair.

it was 70 degrees yesterday. quite a change from the minus 35 degrees with the wind chill we had last week. i assume that may be our last real cold snap of the winter. we will likely still get some cold weather but nothing like that.

i ordered some canvas tarps. i will get them this week. we are gonna put up a new sweat lodge this spring. we will cut poles as soon as the willows are bendable. i noticed the old tarps need replacing. they have been out in the weather for a coupla years now. no sense in putting rugged tarps on new poles. make everything new.

i havent gone into a lodge in some time. i got burned out. for awhile i was doing some almost every month. i put up a lodge for my personal use but people called on me when they knew i had one. some people took advantage of my willingness to help.

since covid started, i order lotsa stuff off the internet and have it delivered.  i will have to cut up the many card board boxes i get. i will save a few boxes for worm bedding. i feel guilty when the recycle wagon comes thru if we dont have anything. we have a water cooler so we dont have plastic water bottles like we used to. dont want the recycle people to think this indian aint doing his part to save the planet.

gotta finish sorting more porcupine hair for my latest roach.

had a good week end. we had a birthday party for andrew. he turned nine years old. it dont seem that long ago when he was born. i held him in my arms on the day he was born and fell in love with him. we bonded. at times he was called ‘mishos boy’ because he was always with me. we were close and still are. i was able to give him his indian name. an old man told me that naming your grand child was one of the highest honors. i agree.

we had four of the grand kids over. we had ice cream and cake. i am cutting down on sweets but i had some. mary made the cake. home made cakes have less calories than the commercial ones. i think i only drank one pop this month. i am giving them up. and i am down to one cup of coffee a day.

our next birthday is tomorrow. it will be marys birthday. we are planning on doing something. maybe head out for steaks. we all had our vaccine shots. we are still cautious bout going to various places. i like our chances better now than before the vaccine.

i finished the red boys roach i was working on. i like making roaches. i get satisfaction out of producing a work of art. i dont mind putting in the hours.  i work several hours every day. i take the day off when i feel like it. with roaches its not about the time, its about getting it done.

i have already started on another roach. i braided the rug yarn for the base. i also sorted some porcupine hair. this roach will be blue. i looked at the ones i have done. i have two red ones, two yellow, one orange and one purple. the purple one i said is either haskell colors or lakers colors. i want to have different colors available. i will also make a few woodland style roaches.

i donated some money to political candidates in the past election. i wanted to see changes in some races.  now i get emails, texts or calls all the time. they after me to donate more money. i only do it as a one time thing. i cant afford to give any more than that. i wish they would leave me alone. try to help and they want more.

gotta go to topeekie today. we have to have data transferred from an old phone to another newer one. no big deal. i dont like having to renew our contract for another two years. thats a big scam but its legal for businesses to do that. andrew wanted the old phone, he said i nine years old now. hmmm. the old phone aint working right though. kids cant live without a phone today. we didnt get an old dial up until i was a senior in high school.

probably will eat in town. this country indian dont make it to town that often.

we ate the rabbit i shot near our mail box. i simmered it with leeks, celery, wild onions and garlic. that took out the gamey taste and gave it a good flavor. mary fried it when it was tender. i put mustard on it. it sure tasted good. it reminded me of why i would walk all day to hunt for rabbits. it was because i love the taste of them.

we didnt hunt for sport. it was to put meat on the table. in them days you had to hunt, garden or gather things like nenwezhek and wild onions. we didnt eat rabbit until after the first snow. as soon as it snowed we would head out to hunt.

i havent been out rabbit hunting for some years.  maybe because i am older now and my eye sight aint what it used to be. i used to go for head shots. now i just shoot them. the ones i got these past few years were in our yard. they are most likely the rabbits that eat out of my garden.

i am almost done with the red boys roach. it didnt take long to get this far on it.  the only thing left to do is tie the deer tail trim for the tail piece. the crown trim is done. it wont take me long to finish tying the last trim. i will sew it on after that. then i will wrap it.

i will finish the roach while i am watching the KU game today. we played our easiest games against the bottom feeders in the league. the next three games are against ranked teams. we will find out how good this team is or could be.

when this roach is done i will have 6 finished. i will keep making them.  i want to have a stand at some pow wow this year. that is if they gonna pow wow. some hard cores are probably jonesing. and i havent been on a road trip for some time.

it isnt freezing now. we will let the wood stove fire go out. i want to clean the stove pipes.  when i smell smoke i know it is time to do that chore. i do that chore as often as needed. the fire burns more efficient when the pipes are clean. as there is less danger.

i cant get over the fad of wearing torn jeans. people pay big bucks to own a pair of pants that have holes in them. guess it is cool. back in my roaming around days i had pants with holes in them. that always drew looks from people. it wasnt cool then.

when i went on the gov’ment relocation program i took my favorite pair of bell bottomed dungarees. i was a failure at that program. after some time on the street or hitch hiking the dungarees got holes in them. i would put a patch on them. wasnt long before they were full of patches. it was my hippie costume i guess. i looked like a street person.

i gotta do my chores before game time.

went to topeekie this morning. we were almost out of bottled water. i filled up 3 five gallon jugs for bout 6 bucks. that will last us several weeks. we make our coffee and tea with it. we also drink it from our water cooler. the grand kids can help themselves at the cooler.

on the way to town i went by the buffalo pen to get a picture. i wondered what they would look like in the snow. it has been so cold that our snow hasnt melted. usually it is gone in a few days. the buffalo are strong animals. they survive in the cold. without complaints like the two leggeds.

we went early enough to eat breakfast in town. we went to a ma n pa diner. they usually serve good food. on my way out the door, the waitress said thank you for coming. megwett. i thought megwett? i guess she was married to a prairie band one time and is citizen band herself.

i had orange juice for my drink with the food. i had one cup of coffee when i woke up. i am on a new kick to cut down on my coffee intake. i am honest enough to admit i probably drink too much coffee. i am reaching the age where i need to cut down. my aunt who lived to be in her 90s didnt drink anything but water for bout 20 years.

we bought groceries while in town. i met one of my bros. i havent seen many people during this covid stuff. we got in a good visit while in the store. we were wearing our face masks.

when i got home i stoked up the wood stove. it still had coals. it didnt take long to get a fire going. the house is warm. now i have to put on that wascal wabbit i shot the other day. it has been hanging on my screened in porch for a coupla days. it should be cured out just right in this cold. i will parboil it in wild onions. then fry it. it will taste good with some mustard. hell yeah.

after i get that on i gotta get back to my red roach. i have the front row of porcupine hair done on it. i gotta tie the rest of the hair. it looks good so far. it has been wrapped on a stick. it is shaping good. i cant wait til it is done. it looks like it will be a good roach.

it was 20 degrees or lower for 10 days. the wind chill made it colder. it was minus 25 to minus 35 degrees a few nights. i am grateful our home keeps us out of the cold. some people rag on these hud houses but they are better equipped to deal with the weather than anything the rez had in my youth.

i remember the old house i grew up in. the insulation was the old blown in  kind. it would settle to the bottom. above that it would be cold. we didnt have storm windows in them days. we had board siding. needless to say, the house got cold sometimes. we would stand by the wood stove to warm up.

gotta get busy on fixing rabbit and finishing a roach.

yesterday was the coldest day in 30 years. this artic front is suppose to move out of the area eventually. it will 20 degrees tomorrow. a heat wave. at least compared to 35 degrees below zero with the wind chill.

there was a possibility of a power outage. last night i got the kerosene lamps and candles out. we didnt lose power last night. this morning our electricity was out for 2 hours. our electricity was out but not others. there are about 4 or 5 different power companies on the rez. we have the one from brown county.

i can see how we are conditioned to modern conveniences. i tried to turn on a light even when i knew we had no power. i was on my cell phone reading the news. i noticed it was low on power. i wondered what i was gonna do when the battery was dead. i was listening to music on my phone when our lights came back on.

we made coffee in one of those old percolator pots on the stove.  gotta have my morning coffee. good thing we had some ground coffee. no power to grind my coffee beans. its a good thing that we have a wood stove. we werent cold because of no power.

drinking cowboy coffee and depending on a wood stove for heat reminded me of my younger days. we didnt have electricty, running water, paved roads, a golf course or a convenience store. not many wanted to live here in them days. life on the rez has changed.

my chickens have been laying even though it has been so cold. we are getting about 8 eggs a day. nothing like fresh eggs for breakfast. i turn on the solar lights in the chicken house. chickens sometimes quit laying when there is less sun light in a day.

i got the inner trim on my latest roach done. today i will tie the porcupine hair. i will have a double row of the front hair. i dont know if i will get all the hair tied but i imagine most will be done. working on roaches while staying home has kept me busy.

a trapper was suppose to pluck all the quills off a porcupine for me. we wanted to see if we could do a deal for all the quills from 4 or 5 more. i havent gotten those quills. i am hoping i will still get them. i want to try quillwork. i have a fan i fixed. i was gonna cover the rawhide handle with a birch bark handle. i wanted quillwork on the birch bark. i gotta wait til i get enough quills to do the job.

i deactivated my face book page. it was my only contact with some people. i got tired of much of what i was reading. some people bombarded the news feed with whatever they wanted put out there. even my personal comment section was over run with spam. i decided i dont need that any more.

tomorrow i have my stress test to check out my heart. it is merely a precaution suggested by the doctor. she wanted to know what shape my heart is in. i go along with any checkups. thats why i have quarterly check ups. i want to know if there is any thing wrong with me.

gotta work on my red roach.

i drove to the mail box the other day to get our mail. it is a short distance i usually walk but that day was real cold. i always look into the brush and trees that line the ditch. i noticed a dark shape that looked like a rabbit. i backed up and looked again. it sure looked like one so i went back to the house. i got my .22 and walked down to the ditch.

i seen the rabbit and sighted in. i missed the shot. the rabbit took off across the ditch. it didnt run far, they try to blend into the back ground.  i could see its outline against the snow. i struggled to get thru the black berry bushes, wild plums and willows. i was able to shoot the rabbit after getting closer.

i wasnt out side very long but my face got cold from the wind chill. i cleaned the rabbit inside.  i hung it on the porch so it would cure out. curing a few days takes the gamey taste out.

i remember another winter i had several rabbits hanging in my garage curing out. i got home from work thinking the rabbits were ready to be cooked. they were gone. some one came to my house and glommed onto them. what a rip off. hopefully i get to eat this rabbit. i have been hungry for rabbit.

i braided rug yarn and sewed it together. it is the base for my next roach, a boys roach. it is 12 and a half inches long. the crown is 3 and a half inches across. it will have red deer tail trim with a few designs in it for added color. the trim will be on the inside and outside.

i have been putting in about 20 to 30 hours a week working on roaches. this past week i worked more hours than that. i worked all 7 days. i watch tv or listen to music while working. neither bother me, it is merely back ground noise to break the monotony.

we are gonna get the coldest weather of the year. i heard 35 degrees below zero with the wind chill. it will last until about tuesday noon. that will be cold. we are getting some snow. we are keeping the wood stove stoked up. we wont have to worry about our water pipes freezing. one year our pipes did freeze when we didnt have a fire going.

i will bundle up good when i feed the dog and chickens. that chore doesnt take long. i can be back inside in no time. i shouldnt have to worry about frost bite. i worry bout my critters more than me.

i put on a big pot of mish mot today. i dont have a secret recipe. i throw in what i think will give it taste. i use wild onions and nenewezhek flower tops. that along with other spices makes it give off a good aroma. i havent gone wrong yet with this method. i like the menudo that i make. i never have any left over.  it is eaten up every time.

gotta get to work on a roach.

the weather man said we have an artic front settled into our area. it will be 2 degrees below zero tomorrow. sunday it will be 8 below zero. monday it will be 15 below zero. that will be 36 degrees below zero with the wind chill. the other days will have a wind chill that makes them actually colder too.

its 0 degrees out now. our high today will be 8 derees. dont know bout the wind chill. i felt the cold on my face when i went out to feed the dog and chickens. i was bundled up but still felt the cold. i got that job done faster than usual.  it is so cold that i had to think of ‘its so cold’ jokes.

its a good thing that we have wood piled in the basement. we are keeping our wood stove going. we get exercise going up and down the stairs to stoke up the fire. it feels pleasant in our home. a warm fire gives a house that home feeling.

i added more straw to my dog’s house. there was already some in there but i made it thicker. dont want my dog to freeze in the coming cold. his house is in a nook on the south side of the house. it is out of a direct wind from the west and north. that is why i put it there. my dog is old. he probably dont have too many winters ahead of him.

i have been fine sorting porcupine hair for another roach. i have some presorted. i almost have enough to tie a roach. i will wait until i have enough for two rows of front hair. i also braided rug yarn for the base of a roach. i used red yarn. that means the next roach will be red.

i am scheduled to have a stress test this coming week. it is merely a check up to see how my heart is working.  my only concern is how i will keep up on that tread mill. they will make me walk at a fast pace to get my heart pumping. then they check my heart.

the test will be in holton. i usually dont go to that town often. i still remember when they would follow us indians around in the stores. that was long ago but i havent forgotten that. i know not everyone there is like that now. i have done business at a few places in recent years and they treated me okay. i dont go back to the one place that didnt.

i am gonna make another pot of mish mot (menudo). i want to try the home made hominy that i made. i got the cow gut from a migo place. it isnt bleached white like at walmarks. it is cut into smaller pieces than i like. i like bigger pieces i can chew on.

i watched KU win a game against iowa state last night. it like the k-state game isnt a thing to brag about. we will take the victory though. this team is coming around i think. how far that will take us remains to be seen. rock chalk.

i got done with the 16 inch orange roach i was working on. hell yeah. i wasnt rushing but i got on a roll. once i get started i like to finish a project. i got the second row of front hair done and sewn on.  it wasnt even noon yet so i  finished the outer deer tail trim.

now i have the roach lightly misted and wrapped on a stick. it takes a while to get it shaped just right. i checked it a coupla times and it looks good to me. i havent lost my touch.

i will go back to sorting porcupine hair. it takes more time to sort hair than it takes to finish a roach. it can take me a week to sort it. thats why i try to sort hair when ever i can. that is a never ending job.

i get asked often if i have a childs roach. i dont have any right now, i only have mens roaches.  my next roach will be a boys roach. i am not sure of the color but maybe i might make a red one.

i ordered more deer tails because i didnt care for the first tails i ordered. i used all 4 orange deer tails on this roach. i almost didnt have enough. the tails were smaller. i wont order from that place again. i will have to dye the tails i ordered. i have a pot i bought at a garage sale that i use for dyeing. i will hang the dyed tails in the basement to dry.

one time this lady asked me what the materials i had in a roach cost. i said i dont know why. she said if they didnt cost that much i shouldnt charge as much for a roach. i said ‘you aint paying for my materials. you are paying for my art’.

i admit anyone can make a roach.  by the looks of many roaches i seen at pow wows, not every one can make good roaches. you get what you pay for. buy a cheap roach and you got a cheap roach. a good roach will last for years. dont know how many times i heard some one tell me their son out grew the roach i made for them.

i havent had any luck catching rabbits. i set my live traps for the past week or so. they are set in the back yard. i know they are around. i seen their tracks in the snow. i wanna catch one to eat. i usually hang them outside to cure for a few days.

my chickens are still laying eggs. even in this cold. i go out to feed and water them every day. i turn on the solar lights in the morning. i turn them off late afternoon when i go get eggs. these are good chickens. as a bonus i get to hear my rooster crow.

gotta pick up my meds today. i called them in sunday. the tribe has been closed for two days so i couldnt get them. they are open today i think. its a good thing i dont get a reaction by not having my meds.

gotta sort hair today.