Vote For The Dog!

No! Not Hillary "Wild Dog" Clinton, I'm talking about another candidate altogether.

Blue Ballot Box the Unbribable. He's running on a popular "steaks for all" platform. 

I like that.

God bless,

LSP

Country Life

I file this picture, from the local Walmart, under "country life in Texas." The same goes for these venison sausages, Rifle to skillet and thank you very much. I think they go well with farm fresh eggs.

Heavy Metal

And you know what? I'm not complaining.

God bless Texas,

LSP 

Are You Ready For The Country?

Good question. Maybe you are, maybe you're not, but one thing's certain, the hat most certainly is. Speaking of which, no one's attempted to vandalize or remove this statue.

Sensible townsfolk.

All for the Cause,

LSP

Texas Winter Paradise

It's a beautiful sunny morning in rural Texas. Squirrels gambol, birds sing, roosters are crowing and crazed peacocks shriek and scream.

Blue Scallywag takes this as his cue to gallop, romp and play. I throw him a tennis ball, which causes great joy in the canine world. But, in this vale of tears, all good things must come to end, which means I have to leave this bucolic paradise and drive to Dallas.

To buy Christmas presents. And that's just the way it is on the front lines of the War.

On Weather.

LSP

Now We're Getting Serious

It was sunny yesterday afternoon, and Blue Metaphysic took the opportunity to roll about on the ground while reflecting on the evils of Bogomil Catharism. 

Catharism

Then clouds rolled in from the South and it began to rain, and thunder and lightning. Blue Epistemology took it all in his stride and fell asleep. I stood on the front porch and watched the rain.

Liturgist

It was a good moment, unlike Catharism and 1970s liturgical reform, which were bad moments.

God bless,

LSP

Rural Ministry #1

For some clergypersons, rural ministry is all about Morris dancers, medieval churches and these picture-postcard villages. 

You get cottages.

And big old houses.

But make sure you have a sturdy vehicle, the roads can be a bit primitive.

Also, where I live, you find abandoned hair extensions in the gutter. Well, it beats needles, I guess.

Blue Apocalypse killed a neighbor's chicken yesterday. I'm not sure what to make of that, but the neighbors, Maria and Pedro, don't care. It was one of many and they ate it.

I'm also thinking that open carry might not be a bad idea for when you take the dog for a walk.

Cheers,

LSP

I Name This Dog

It's not every day that a Blue Heeler tips up on your porch and makes it his home for a couple of days. What can you do? You can ignore him and/or send him to animal jail or you can reward his loyalty by taking him in. That's what I did, and he's gnawing on a pig's ear this very moment.

Good Dog

But that's all very well. What should I call this beast? I wasn't sure, so I appealed to the readership and got a lot of help and some great names.

Bad Dog

In the end I went for Blue. Thanks LL, but that's just a first name; I have a good mind to cycle through the other names as the mood suits. Blue Banjo one day, Blue Rustler the next and so on. When he's been bad? Blue Welby springs to mind, or simply "Justin."

In other news, a church person just donated some tamales to the cause. I'm all for that.

Cheers,

LSP

Country Life in Texas

Country life in Texas is alright. Sometimes it means doing a little bit of porch 'smithing to fix a recalcitrant trigger on a Marlin 981T. Fortunately the job was simple; tighten the screw, LSP.

Add caption

At other times it's all about cleaning some rimfires after Evening Prayer. I use a bore snake, or "pull-through," as we used to call them in what was once Great Britain. 

Ruger American

Don't get me wrong, I love England, even if it is a pathetic comsymp nanny state run by a crew of corrupt and sinister Old Etonians. Good luck with that.

Justsin

Speaking of England, a recent survey (via Breitbart) reveals that 2% of CofE clergy don't believe in God and another 9% think that it's impossible to know what God's like.

White Chicken

How many of those are bishops?

Big white roosters have setup in my yard. Make of that what you will and God bless Texas.

Shoot straight,

LSP

Country Life in Texas

"So what's it like, LSP?" you ask, meaning, "Country life in Texas." Well I'll tell you. You go out on the front porch to clean some guns and five, yes, five, chickens fly out of the front hedge, around the compound and back from whence they came.

A shotgun would've come in handy.

That's what it's like. And Wendy Davis is not wanted here.

LSP

Walking in Texas? Take a Gun.

They say that walking's good for you but in Texas you don't know what you'll find. 

Some Crew, All Wigged-Out In The Woods

Packs of wild dogs, turkeys, fierce hogs, maybe a dove or two and the occasional wigged-out crew of freaks, holed up in the brush, trying to "find the gig" and get back to Austin.

Mind How You Go

So I like to take a 12 gauge. 

Be safe,

LSP

Boss Hogg

Boss Hogg

The tires on my truck need replacing, so I went to Walmart to look at the Wrangler all-terrains. A kid moves in and stares real intently at the speakers on the rack next to the tires. There we are, I'm checking out the tires and he's dreaming, in Realtree, of audio power. 

car park carry-on

The kid picks up a "roll-back" woofer, holding it up to me in its box like an offering. He looks me in the eye, pauses for courage, and says, "That's what I'm talkin' about," and  I like him for that. He wants powerful sounds in his ride. I have all the approval in the world.

"Oh yeah," I say, with a nod, and we go about our separate ways.

I file this tale under "country life in Texas."

LSP

Skunk

SBW's Crossbow

There's a skunk in my house. It must have crept in through the basement and made its way to the downstairs bathroom, where it's made itself a kind of den. Animal Control has put a trap enclosed in a black plastic bag at the entrance of its den. 

Skunk Den

So far the skunk has resisted this ploy. It has also resisted the temptation to spray, for which I thank God. Church people have urged me to shoot the skunk with a crossbow. But I won't; I am a man of peace.

The Egg

In other exciting news, I was sitting on the front porch with some of the team, when a chicken ran into an adjacent hedge, squawked loudly, laid an egg, then strutted off quickly from whence it came.

The egg is now in my fridge.

That is all.

LSP

Parking Lot Cowboys

fix that truck

There I am at the drive-in bank, bailing myself out, when a kid in a ball cap comes into view dragging some kind of cart. I thought he might be collecting cans to recycle or shifting his things from one setup to the next.

rope that steer

But no, this cart had a bull head on it and the kid had a lariat; he parked the cart and proceeded to rope the bull head, right there in the car park. Beats collecting cans.

what a load of bull

It's harder, by the way, to rope a bull head than it looks. 

I've tried.

LSP

Country Life, Horsing About

I love Texas

There's been a bit here about God, guns and church but not much  about country life. Lately that mostly means climbing into the pickup and driving off to ride JB. I've been careful on her, not asking for too much all at once, because she hadn't been ridden for a awhile. 

rocky paths

So we've been practicing the slower gaits, walk, trot. Fine, I thought, she's doing well enough at those, nicely cadenced, attentive, I'll ask for a canter. Nothing that JB hadn't done many hundreds of times before. Easy. No. Not easy. 

bad mischief

The horse decided that was a perfect opportunity to perform a neat sideways up in the air buck. I stayed on, fortunately, and she was very nearly sent back from whence she came, harming no one... Happily for all concerned, the animal redeemed herself the following week with a decent controlled canter; I must start galloping her again. A whole lot of fun and fast as you like.

Norma's Car Park. Result!

Still, bearing in mind the time I have to ride, I'd like a horse that wasn't such a project animal and it'd be good to have another creature in case anyone else wanted to ride. Two's company, sort of thing. Maybe a Foundation Quarter Horse gelding? Trained for trails? Well, we'll see.

nice shades, LSP

In the meanwhile, here's one of my parishioners riding her horse Randy around a barrel. Verdict? Outstanding.

TM on Randy, outstanding

I've been fortunate enough to ride Randy in the arena and fear I charged about foolishly. Beautiful horse and a joy to ride. 

Ride on,

LSP