Category: FYI

today i have to head to wichita. there is a health clinic there that has a gardening program. they are under the same grant as we are. i will help them in whatever way i can. so i am working with 4 different gardens. i think more people should get into gardening. i remember back when our people were poor (we didnt always have casinos) they had to garden.

some people kind of amaze me. they view gardening as a no win situation. they are sure it will fail so they wont even bother to try. gardening is a gamble but it can pay off in fresh vegetables. some think that modern methods are the only way to grow, that you have to irrigate. they dont understand that things can grow naturally. irrigating is nice but history has shown it leeches the ground and wears it out faster.

i got an email warning about the heat. i agreed with most of it. i do drink plenty of water when i am working outside. i have to since i have alot of water loss thru sweating. the heat advisory said to wear a hat or use an umbrella. i always wear a hat but the umbrella thing is a bit out there. i can imagine trying to weed a garden holding an umbrella. i think if you are outside alot you get used to it. on the other hand i dont push it when it is real hot.

i meet people that dont know who i am but know my kids. they say oh so you are their dad. either they get around or i dont. maybe a little of both. lately i just go to work and then home. when i venture out it is to the casinos. i do get my walking in though.

i got my first batch of sema finished. looks like i will have enough to last me. i notice that some people had sema that is either lime green or yellow in color. they must fix it different. i just do it the way i was told by the old guy that got me started.

i am ready to travel this weekend. i am not a fanatic about pow wows. i dont sit there from friday evening til sunday afternoon. i try to catch an afternoon and evening performance, thats usually enough. and check out the stands. pow wowing is just an excuse to travel. i remember a mall along the way that gave great massages.  i am up to take a little side trip whenever they come up. if i see something that catches my attention i will pull off the road and check it out.

should be a good weekend..

now i kinda know how they felt on gilligans island. they left for a three hour tour and got stranded on some island. i went to a pow wow where our royal valley kids were dancing this past weekend. it was only 3 hours down the road. that little adventure took me all weekend to get home. other family members were staying in bartlesville oklahoma. i decided to go visit my southern kin in prague. i used to go down there for dances they had. i missed the place and the people there. i have another mother that lives there so i went to visit her.  we stayed up late talking and laughing. then we had breakfast and visited and laughed a few more hours. i am fortunate in that i have a big family and lotsa friends. i can always see them when i travel.

we headed north to where the pow wow was to be held. thing is there are a number of indians casinos that you gotta pass by. we popped in and checked out a few. i added to my player card collection. probably have too damn many of them now. we were late to the pow wow. which is okay. they stand too long at grand entries for me. it causes my back to hurt. it was a good pow wow. our kids from royal valley dance group sure danced good. or do i say they were goot wuns.  i am related to most of them so i had to go watch them perform. i took a few pictures and taped some dancing.

after we left we checked out some more indian casinos. missed a few and hit a few. by the time we were done it was late so we stayed at some small town out in the boonies. next day we headed out again. we had breakfast at some tribes complex. service there was lousy. the employees had to be related to someone on council.  we waited about 45 minutes for a simple breakfast. we made it to newkirk to play bingo. i havent played bingo in a long time. i missed playing. didnt win but had fun. we hit a coupla more casinos on the way home. the ones at the state border are pretty nice. i can see why our state is afraid of competition with them. they are everywhere down there.

we got home late last night. as soon as we hit topeka it started snowing and was a bit chilly. that was a change from the 58 degrees we enjoyed down south. my dog konugish was happy to see me. cant beat friends like him.

i missed the k u game saturday. tonite should make up for that. we play missouri. and then k state this week also. great rivalries. we will smoke them both. watching the games will be fun. it was nice to get away for awhile but it is even better to be home. like dorothy said ‘theres no place like home….theres no place like home.

my computor went tribal. it quit working. got it in da shop now. got a friend looking at it. he will add more ram and an external hard drive. he will also add all the newest updates that i need. drivers etc. my videos are starting to fill it up so i need more space. the external hard drive will allow me to take my songs, pictures and videos with me when i travel.  i have over 4 thousand songs that i listen to. i have been known to hit the road now and then. i may be zapping on up to michigan to see one of my bros soon. he is on sick leave for a month. so i may go visit with him. i probablywill camp on the way up. it is one sleep then there.

i came over to the tribal office. they have a computer lab in the basement. i guess it is for tribal members or sumthin. i am a tribal member so i am here checking my mail and clearing the spam out of my website. i get lots of it daily. some real sleaze bags send some trashy stuff to my site. i just delete it. they try to glom on to websites for free advertising. i use to come to the computer lab when it first opened back when. i remember that i was surfing and check out something that was on a site called dicks hovel. the people here checked the site out. they thought it was porn. that was back when many people were using computers for that purpose.

the general council is this saturday. i kinda plan on going to it if nothing comes up. i heard someone saying we will hate each other during that time. then the gathering is coming up in a few weeks, then we will all love each other. that made me chuckle. it is hitting on the truth somewhat. not everyone here is into the hating trip. just a few. they make enough noise that you would think everyone is like that. on the contrary. we have alot of people that dont get into that sort of trip. that is good. maybe someday the haters will just stop.

i went to the fiesta the other nite. i like hot food but the sauce they gave me wasnt very hot. the crowd wasnt all that big yet. maybe the weather people scared people off saying it was going to be the hottest day of the fiesta. it wasnt all that bad. some people are just wimps. i had a shrmp cocktail there once. i havent seen that stand since. i keep hoping that it will come back. maybe i will just have to make some myself.

my computer should be back tomorrow. cant wait. i do lotsa business on my machine. and visiting etc. i have other things to keep me busy though. i will have to go see who is in their office today while i am here. then head home.

seen two young beaver while walking my two miles. they are under the bridge i walk over on my route. it is fun to watch them. the other day i even seen two coyotes. some people freak when they see them. dont know where they get that. the way i heard is that they are messengers. you will hear something. it doesnt necessarily imply bad news.  i was walking the other evening. our neighbors were out too. they had their dogs with them. one attacked ko nu gish while he was held back on a leash. that aint cool. then ko nu gish got loose by slipping out of the collar and leash. he went after that dog and smoked him. my dog aint mean, but he defended himself. thats cool.

i wrote a coupla blogs last year about our billboards advertising our casino. i said that they should use some brown people on them. when i was coming home the other day from town i seen a new billboard. i was amazed that one of our home girls had her picture on it. i applaud whoever is responsible for that. it is about time. hope to see more.

when we had a ceremony last week we had a buncha politicians there. we usually dont see many unless it is an election year. they are some pretty bright fellows. i wonder if any of them noticed that our ceremonial building aint done. they promised us they were gonna fix it. well the way it was put to us was ”if they dont get together we will spend the money somewhere else.” we didnt ask for that, they came to us. anywho they started work on our building. we had our spring ceremonies so work stopped. it hasnt picked up since. our roof leaked. our outside dance ring needs work. the cook shack could use some work. our benches inside were taken out but not put back. our parking lot got smaller. the dirt inside was going to be replaced. so we are left wondering is anyone gonna finish the job they promised us would get done. did indians speak with forked tongue? the work they did was great. just wish they would finish the job.

we had a good rain early this morning. the garden should grow this week. my rain barrels filled up again. i will have water to give to my plants. everything is growing great now. the weather has been kind to us. and for that i am grateful.

anutha week. i will head to the fiesta mexicana this week. gotta sample some of the great food they have. and i got lots of other things to keep me busy.

went over to prairie people’s park last nite. kinda like that name. it reminds me of berkeley in da sixties. ‘cept it was jimi playing last nite. it was my homeboys.  i like to hear them guys sing. they are good. i have known them most of their lives.

it was a warm up for the home folks before the pow wow starts today. they served food but our family just ate at our camp. we have 9 tents set up and a few more are coming. i like camping. it makes it more fun. we will have a cookout every day. i already had my cowboy coffee going. it tastes the best.

last nite they had the princess contest. and other contests like whooping contests for women and trilling contests for men. they also had a street clothes dance contest. i woulda joined but i didnt want anyone to be stealing my moves. everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves. our people need that. gotta enjoy life.

called my bank before i got out of bed. per cap is in my account. i gotta head to town to buy some things for the pow wow. and get some cash to check out the stands. i thought someone said we had 30 stands and more wanted to get in. i gotta make sure i have everything i need or they will charge me 3 bucks everytime i drive in. wtf. oh well its per cap i will just pay them the 3 bucks if they desperate for cash. help my tribe out.

i dont know where our pow wow ranks compared to others around the country. it is my favorite pow wow though. i know so many people here. i get to visit with most of them. i continue to take pictures. i want my own scrapbook of pictures of people i know or have met. it is stored on my computer. i even backed up copies to save.

our prize money draws real good singers and dancers. i like to hear them sing and watch them dance. i tape so i can watch it again. i even got some stage time myself. i have to give the invocation tonite. im not into street theater but i think it is nice that we can show we still have our language left. it is a real beautiful language if one could understand it.

i know i will enjoy myself. i always do. gotta get ready to pow wow…..

a coupla weeks ago my ground was turned over by a tribal program. they did a good job in turning it over in deep furrows. been waitin for them to either disc it or till it under. hadnt heard anything from them, communication is not a strong suit of the tribe. the hills of clods were too big to handle with my tiller. my brother gary said a neighbor of ours offered to disc his under. so i went over there to ask our neighbor if he would mind doing my also. he agreed. gary offered to pay the guy but he refused to accept any money. it was his dad that plowed my garden up several years ago. his dad knew i gardened so he just came over and plowed it up. i didnt ask, he just did it out of the goodness of his heart. i always remembered that. this family has lived on the rez all their lives. they are good people that help others. they had pulled many cars out of the ditch with their tractors when the rez roads were bad. they never ask for anything in return.

so my neighbor came over to disc the ground up. he asked what they turned the ground with, “a bulldozer”?  he said that because the ground was packed. that is the drawback of using such a huge tractor. it is so heavy it packs the ground, but the benefit of turning the ground so deep offsets this. the disc broke the ground up real good. at my brothers house our neighbor had mentioned he like indian corn. so i gave him enough for a meal to cook. he did take that. we were both happy. i see this neighbor when i am walking. he always waves, once he even stopped to talk.

after my neighbor left this big indian showed up with the tribal tractor to till the ground. after the discing it was ready to be tilled. the tiller attachment really churned the ground and leveled it. some guy said it was too early. guess they dont know anything about early crops. someone will always tell you how to garden. even if they dont have a garden themselves. i kinda tune people out. i have had a garden for the past 24 years. i dont know as much as the experts but i eat things that i grow all year long.

so today i planted 2 1/2 rows of potatoes and 3 rows of onions. my rows are 90 feet long. i also put in a dozen cabbage plants and half a dozen spinach plants. i planted carrots, bunch onions, lettuce and radishes from seed. i doubt i put in any more early crops. i will just wait now til its time to plant warm weather crops. my tiller needs work. i scored a ride to take it to the shop. it should be ready to till the ground in time for warm weather.  

first thing i got with my per cap was a remote for my bose wave radio/cd player. the old one got misplaced. so now i can listen to some jams on my bose system. i listen to music all day while i am working.  after i ordered my remote, the next thing i ordered was some colombian supremo coffee beans. that first cup of coffee i made with them was righteous. nothing beats fresh ground bean. i have to cut back on coffee tho. my lab tests said my cholesterol level is high. i gave up the cigars for the same reason. getting old means you gotta give up stuff you like.

i filled out my ncaa tourney brackets.  kinda hard to find pools around here in injun land. someone ripped people off in a pool once. so now no one trusts anyone with a pool. ignorant people. not everyone is a ripoff. thats why i quit running pools. i got tired of hearing that bullshit. i would tell people if you dont trust me dont get in, its that simple. cant judge me by what someone else did 10 years ago.  a few bucks down on a game makes it more interesting. at any rate i am pulling for the jayhawks. rock chalk.

it was fun going to watch my nephew zach wrestle in the regionals. he ended up with a 4-1 record in the 285 pound class to finish 3rd in the toughest 4-A region. all  of zach’s wins were by pins. one was in 42 seconds, another was in 1 minute and 28 seconds. the top 4 finishers advance to state next week in salina. i plan on being there.

other members of my family are also going to support zach. i wish there will be alot of indians there.

i havent gone to many wrestling meets. a few when mishan and william wrestled back in junior high. i kinda got into this regional after awhile. had to see how they scored points etc. i ended up hollering for my nephew when he pinned his opponents. i knew a pin was good. they had alot of good wrestlers in this regional. it was a long 2 days. i had a book that i was reading in between matches. it is called winter count, written from the  native american perspective. not many books out there by indian authors.

i got a kick out of the mascot at the host school. it was the cowboys. even seen a little guy dressed up like a cowboy. had a cowboy hat, jeans and spurs on. so there were cowboys and indians there. we checked each other out. my nephew was the only indian wrestling, though some little kids asked me if i wrestled. i laughed. and they did too.

i checked out the town of abilene while there. ate at the kirby house. their specialty was the country fried steak, so i had that. i toured the old cow town. it is just a tourist trap. the buildings were all closed. so i just walked thru and took some pictures. i had breakfast at a cafe across from it. the locals said it used to be the biggest tourist attraction in town. now it is closed. they were hoping to get a liquor license for the saloon, but some of the board members were church goers. they are against that.

i went to the chocolate factory in town. they had samples, so i tried one. and they had many boxes of chocolates for sale. they had a special called bloopers. it is candy that wasnt perfect. so they sold a 3 pound box for 5 bucks. i scored one of them. getting my chocolate fix all this week.

some fly by night operators are spamming the hell out of my site. so far in the past week i have had 200 spam sent to my comments section. its a good thing that i have to approve them before they get posted. maybe they will see their spam is not posted and leave me the hell alone. i doubt it. the vermin will just keep it up. trying to scab on to any site that will give them free advertising. i wont give it to them. and i was concerned i would get the hateful comments that some sites had. spam is worse. it takes time to delete that crap.

i have been logging the miles this month. even walked when it was 26 degrees out. so far i have walked 38 miles. the rest of the week is supposed to be warm. i will walk every chance i get. sooner or later i will lose some weight. i know i am healthier because i walk. my back is stronger. just gotta keep on walking. i walk for the health of it, i guess.