Whiskey Bent, Dog Bed Bound

So Randy Crouch spent the night the other night after playing Science. You know the old joke...

Q. How do you know Randy Crouch stayed at your house last night?

A. He's still there!

No, I jest, he isn't still here... and thats a good thing because I might have killed him by now. The whole thing started, well because he came up, but it was also Dougs birthday and Donnie got the wise idea to get him a bottle of honey whiskey that Chuck Dunlap turned him onto. So... of course Doug (who became the Thing about midway into the bottle) came over after the gig and there was some sort of jam that went on. This included alot of playing with the cat with Randy being very into communication on a very spiritual level with Scraggles.... (who fetches)

Also Randy's handler, Mike, was there and he is super cool (who is really into cats too, BTW, he and Grant have 9!). He pretty much chilled and made little noise compared to Randy, who was crawling on the floor with the cat playing fiddle and making up Scraggle songs. (Yes, I had my Zoom out that night too, lol) Doug played guitar, sort of, Donnie played the Bass too loud and I drummed when I wasn't laughing. It was all pretty bad... until I decided to go to bed at about 4. Ok, so I tried. Finally around 5 I had to go out there and tell them all to shut the hell up.

Which thankfully, they did.

The next morning I got up and found Randy asleep not in the hide a bed I expected to see, but on the floor in the dog bed with the cat bed as a pillow, along with a mostly empty bottle of whiskey on it's side and instruments everywhere. I had a long day ahead of me and my kids were going to be home later that afternoon so I made breakfest and sent them out the door by 1. I thought I did pretty good with minimal damage and a fresh Crouch story.

Beware the creepy ice cream dude

I thought I was just being paranoid the other day about the ice cream man... Until today when he came by and Donnie, Sarah, Dustin and Jessie were all hanging out in the camper with me. Turns out they were super creeped out by him too.. the music is all in minor key and very goth. I took a picture of the kids getting ice cream a few days ago which I think is reasonable and the weirdo took his camera out and took a picture of me.... but not in a "taking friendly pictures of happy customers way".. more of a " I might come back and chop her up later kind of way"

FREAKY!

Thad @ Madison... with his favorite teechur (lol) and the kids with the art teacher that they all 3 had and loved.

For entertainment purposes I thought I would add a very rare photo of me... when I graduated from the 8th grade at the very same school.

Thad's graduation

Ok, so I guess I am really old now.. I have 2 kids in high school and one only a few years from going off to college. Of course this totaly does not go with the image of self that I have... That I am perpetually young and not far from high school myself... but maybe by the time I hit 40 I will have figured out that I am not a kid anymore. Maybe.

Anyway, now Thad is headed to high school and he is going in with a big name. A few weeks ago Thad really got everyones attention at school by accidently breaking a HUGE plate glass window at the school by trying to kill a wasp with a textbook...why he thought it needed killing I have no idea, but since no one got injured (including the wasp) I guess it isn't the end of the world. The school called thads dad to ask him to pay for the window ($700) and he told them to call me that I would take care of it. (Very funny, asshole) I told the school to send me half the bill... so far nothing.

At the graduation ceremony they mentioned Thads incident in the "Remember when" section and Thad was very proud to be included.

Images from The Farm

This was a gathering to honor Bob Childers life...

for those who lived and played there to go back to the birthplace of Red Dirt Music and commune...

and to play the songs that were written in that spot so they could be heard by the trees and land once again.

There is no picture with this post.

This is the time I took no pictures because it was 3 in the morning and Donnie had just gotten to the Farm from his Mayfest gigs in Tulsa. I had gone to the camper because there was no campfire action. About 1 minute into our conversation a tour bus pulls up and starts to try to park, being that this is a rural setting there is no tour bus parking out there as many of you know from when other buses have tried unsuccessfully to park at weird hours and all three different jurisdiction cops come out to hassle them.

Anyway, the bus doors open and several guys come hooping and hollering "The Farm! Wake up motherfuckers, we are here... WOOOHOOOO" lol

About 2 minutes later the camper door slams open and in total darkness someone climbs in the bed... it is Steve Littleton who hugs on Donnie, says hi to me and climbs out... Next in is Stoney, who body slams himself into the bed and starts in with a million questions to "Woodhead" He tells him to get out of bed and come to the fire with him and Donnie says " I am not in bed, I'm here talking to my wife, I just got here"

"Who?" Stoney
"My Wife." Donnie
"Who?" Stoney
"My Wife." Donnie
"Who?" Stoney
"Bridget Wood, my wife." Says Donnie.
"Oh, I didn't know she had a name" Stoney.

REALLY?

Climb in bed with me and you had better say my name.

"SAY MY NAME BITCH!"

(While irritated at the butthead for being a butthead, "say my name bitch" does not refer to him as a bitch. It just fits right here and I can't resist.)

Lol

(but)

That's why he doesn't get a picture.

We stayed at the fire until the sun came up. Stoney had the singular purpose of coming all that way to sing some Bob Songs at the campfire and giving him some respect which is what he did. It honestly was one of the more pure moments at the Farm and as much as he rubs me the wrong way sometimes I appreciated the genuine emotion that he expressed.

I don't know how I stayed up all night, all I can say is the energy at The Farm is really something special.

The Land Commander

Elizabeth came to visit during nap-time. Here she is telling me a story.

Mauser-matic arrived at The Farm with no chops. Not as in "he couldn't play music, because we know he can, no chops....it was more of a a baby faced, we can't call him schnauzer-mauser until he grows some more chops, no chops.

This took everyone by suprise and we had a very long discussion about his future plans for his next growth. He brought his girlfriend NANCE who was a hoot... I hope I get to see her again soon. We went and had a visit over at Thor and I pretty much instructed Cory on how I felt about white trash trucker facial hair on well established musicians. :) "Because I know, I used to live in Wynona"

Don found his shady spot.

Coop, B-Jam and D-mo from the other side of the gypsy cafe.

Keep it simple

4 t shirts. I asked.

No this is not some long abandoned vehicle left on the farm like the old medicine show bus... it is what Brad James drives every day.

We love Dustin so much... sometimes we feel like parents to him, but we are not quite old enough to be that, so Donnie calls him our favorite nephew...

There was alot of this going on last weekend.

Farm TV

As the afternoon went on it it was time to get some rest for the upcoming night so Donnie and I went to relax in the camper. We left the door open and layed in bed watching everyone, dozing off, listening to the music (while trying to block out the guy who had been playing the same bongo rythmn to EVERY SONG since 9 that morning_ HOLY CRAP, knock that shit off...)

The ultimate in comfort... we lounged in our own bed folks came to visit, sipping their beers and they sat in the door while we layed around and farted.

(we farted in the bongo players general direction)

We called it farm TV and it was pretty fun.

The Girls

They were so pretty in their summer dresses.

Elizabeth

Lee

Piccalo and Miss Ruby Starr. With a name like that she is destined to be an outlaw or a stripper. I can't imagine her daddy will let her fall into the latter!

This was the first time I got to meet Arron even though I have been aware of him and a fan of his work for quite some time. He was really fun to visit with and ended up hanging with Kenyon and Katie most of the night. Who knows what they talked about, but they seemed to have a really good time. Poor Arron suffered the wrath of the cabbage and bean soup I ate. Who knows what he thinks of me now.

The kids ran around the farm all weekend and Kenyon sat on that swing all day chatting with anyone who came within a 15 foot radius of her.

Lee, Donnie and Elibum

Roger Dustin and Donnie. This is when the bluegrassers ran the Red Dirt guys away from their own circle at the very birthplace of their own genrea of music.

This photo was simply documentation of Rogers first appearance at the farm in 10 years.

The last time I was in this spot was when everyone got together for the Red Dirt legends photo shoot. I took lots of candids from the photography session which are some of my very favorites. I was unable to wander over there to where bob was sitting and look around now that it has been cleaned up. Every time I looked that it when it hit me really hard that Bob was gone and my throat would get tight and tears started to well up in my eyes. I knew during the shoot that this was going to be a time I looked back on with sadness (and love) and it wasn't long before that came true.

Thor

Elizabeth's Thor. She lives in him on the river while looking for a more permanent home.

Scraggles and her catnip

Scraggles loves catnip, every day I catch her going wild in it. I will be the first to admit that I grow catnip every year for the cats and thoughly expect that it gets abused, I have never really had a cat go as wild for it as Scraggles does. As a matter of fact, I had to buy another plant this week because she is never going to let this one grow and it needs some backup.

Check out the wind in the video, it was crazy all day like that.. this was just about the time that the tornado devastated Picher about an hour away from us.

Walter goes to the Farmers Market

Walter came to the Farmers Market today and really enjoyed himself. He gave everyone kisses whether they wanted them or not and peed on a lot of things that maybe he shouldn't have peed on. (like every pole we passed) Besides that he was a huge hit at the market and everyone gave him bits of their Cinnamon rolls and lots of pats. Persia's Dave was there and he rubbed all over Walter and told him "you feel just like a dog, only smoother" over and over again. I'm not sure I understand, but Walter seemed like he did or that he didn't mind the rubbing that went along with it. After a while Walter decided he was in a state of pure bliss and began to writhe in the grass and snort for quite a while which caused even more attention his way.

Bunny was glad to see him when he got home... Sleeping in bed with the kids made it easier for her to go without her best friend for a few hours though.

Farmers Market

The second farmers market had less produce to sell this week, but that will get better as the season progresses.

This week we had the Tulsa International Folk Dancers come and do the entertainment and they came in traditional folk dance garb and danced the whole time. They brought a May pole and had the folks join in and everyone thought it was lots of fun. Lashawn (I bet I spelled her name wrong) held the May pole up and she flipped me off while she was doing it, so don't think she is as sweet as she looks!

Thad came with me, the other two stayed in bed because they are bad children. Thad dug me up a plant by the railroad tracks that I am particularly fond of and I am glad to say he recognized it and grabbed it for me. Most people think it is a weed, but it is all how you look at things, isn't it?