Greetings fellow cowpunchers and rounders. Can you believe the weather lately? The Farmer's Almanac says nothing about climate change but I like the warming. Turkeys and deer are beginning to show themselves around the ranch and it should be a mild spring which bodes well for the upcoming round up. A few of the boys have been out back limbering up the six guns and Winchesters. I spent the beautiful day gathering up all of the tumbleweeds that have blown up against the west side of the out buildings and in the fences. The next talkie showing in town this Wednesday will be "Shootout at the OK Corral." Great opportunity to relieve a case of cabin fever. Grab some grub and plan to attend. Wednesday's showing begins at 6:30 PM.

This 1957 classic starring Burt Lancaster, Kirk Douglas, Rhonda Flemming, Jo Van Fleet and John Ireland depicts the running feud between Doc Holiday, the Earp brothers and the Clanton-McLaury gang in Tombstone, Arizona. The feud reaches a climax at the end of Fremont Street at the OK Corral. The result is the legendary shootout on October 26, 1881. All hell breaks loose at 3:00 PM and only lasts 30 seconds, but of course, the movie makers draw it out a little longer. Tom and Frank McLaury are killed, along with Billy Clanton. Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp and Doc Holiday are wounded. Ike Clanton and Billy Clairborne run for the hills. Nominated for two Academy Awards, this film plays loose with history but is still considered one of the best westerns ever made.

Directed by John Sturgis.
Running time: 122 minutes

Grab a snack and a cowboy hat and join me and few of the boys at 6:30 PM Wednesday evening this week. Cowgirls and kids always welcome.

Life around the ranch has been a little messy; what with all the melting ice and snow turning the area around the ranch a quagmire interspersed with islands of ice and melting snow. The farm wagons are leaving huge ruts in what passes for a road and common area around the corals and bunk house. Keeping the mud from boots off the bunk house floor is a big problem. The one saving grace of the mild weather is that we don't have to venture out to bust the ice off of the water troughs. A few of the hands are planning to ride into town and catch this week's talkie, Lawman, playing Wednesday evening at the SRPC movie house. This week's feature is a classic Burt Lancaster film released in 1971.

Burt Lancaster plays the part of a hard nosed, by the book lawman who sees the world as black or white and does not compromise his principles. A group of drunken cowboys shoot up a town but accidentally shoot a bystander. Marshal Jared Maddox sees it as his duty bound mission to return the cowboys to face a judge. Marshal Maddox tracks the cowboys back to their town and makes it known that he plans to take them back for trial or kill them where they stand. Wealthy ranch owner, Vincent Bronson, can't talk his cowboys into going back to stand trial so offers Marshal Maddox a deal. The no nonsense lawman refuses and the lead flies.

"Lawman" is a 1971 classic written by Gerald Wilson and is directed by Michael Winner. The movie stars Burt Lancaster, Robert Ryan, Lee J. Cobb, Robert Duvall and Sheree North. Running time is 99 minutes.

Grab a snack and a cowboy hat and join me and few of the boys at 6:30 PM Wednesday evening this week. Cowgirls and kids always welcome.

Greetings all you bored drovers and wranglers. I was just sitting around the bunk house wondering what I could do outside in this mild January weather. I got the idea of hitting up cookie, over at the cook shack, for some number 10 bean cans and going out to the gully behind the barn and burning some powder in the old colt plow handle with a few of my bunkies. The noise attracted the foreman and he came around wanting to know what all the noise was about. When he saw we were just lolly gagging around, he decided to put us to work. "Saddle up your semi-retired cow ponies and get out and scout the fence lines for any breaks in the wire." After riding fence all day we ate chow and retired to the bunk house dead tired. I happened to pick up a dime novel from the stack of old reading material and hit upon a story about Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett. Then I got to wondering what would be playing at the Rifle and Pistil Club Cowboy Movie Night. Lo and behold, this week's feature is going to be "Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid."

"Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid" a movie written by Randy Wurlitzer and directed by Sam Peckinpah will be playing. The movie was released in 1973 and runs 155 minutes. The story is about two well known characters of western lore who were not only acquaintances but friends at one time. Pat Garret is made sheriff and hired by the New Mexico Governor and some cattle barons to bring Billy to justice. Pat warns Billy to head to Mexico but Billy ignores the advice and Pat is forced to track him down. History is made at Fort Sumner, New Mexico when Pat catches up to Billy. Pat Garrett, himself, is shot under mysterious circumstances many years later.

The movie is classic Sam Peckinpah with plenty of shoot outs and spurting blood. The cast is classic western starring James Coburn, Kris Kristopherson, Richard Jaeckol, Bob Dylan and a host of familiar character actors such as, Chill Wills, Jack Elam, Jason Robards, Rita Coolidge, Slim Pickens, Barry Sullivan, and Katy Jurado. The sound track was written and performed by Bob Dylan.

Bring something to chew on (no spitting on the floor) and enjoy this classic, Wednesday, January 8th, 6:30 PM.

Greeting fellow Caballeros. This weekend finds me hold up in the town of Knox Crossing waiting for suitable transportation back to the ranch. I ventured north for a quiet week of game hunting but 20 inches of snow put the kibosh on any real hope of success. I really need to get back to the spread in Sheboygan and the old bunkhouse. Another reason to get back is for Cowboy Movie Night. The next Cowboy Movie Night is scheduled for December 4th at 6:30 PM, same old movie house.

This week's feature film "Purgatory," is entertaining and has all of the usual characteristics of a western movie. That is, horses, guns, shootouts, good guys, bad guys, an Indian, gals and, yes, a little romance. If you are a fan of the western movie genre and the old "Twilight Zone" series then you will like this film. Some familiar names grace the screen in the form of Wild Bill Hickok, Billy the Kid, Doc Holiday, and Jesse James. Also, a plot tickler; Purgatory is the place where souls are believed to be kept until Judgement Day when they will be judged and either thrown into the fires of hell or taken by angels to heaven.

The movie stars Sam Shepard, Eric Roberts, Randy Quaid, Donnie Wahlberg, Brad Rowe, Amelia Heinle and Shannon Kenny.
Directed by Uli Edel
Written by Gordon Dawson
Released in 1999
Running Time - 94 minutes

Now, if the Overland can make it through the snow clogged passes, I should see you all Wednesday.

To all my bunkies and fellow cowboys and cowgirls, I am currently off the ranch anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Overland Stage next Tuesday. I will hop the stage and hopefully be back in time for Cowboy Movie Night. While I am enjoying the warm sun here in Florida I hope you can get your chores done, lay in a supply of firewood for the bunk house stove and clear a path through the snow to the Rifle Pistol Club on Wednesday, November 6th.

A 1973 John Wayne talkie will be showing at 6:30 PM. The film is entitled, "The Train Robbers" and stars John Wayne, Ann-Margret, Ben Johnson, Rod Taylor and Ricardo Montalban. Written and directed by Burt Kennedy the story line is about a widow whose husband robbed half a million dollars in gold from a train and buried it somewhere in the desert. The widow hires Wayne and his little band to help her recover the gold so she can return it to the railroad and clear her name. Wayne and his band are working for the $50,000 reward. Another bunch of outlaws also want to find the gold so they trail and dog Wayne and his group.

Running time is 92 minutes.

As I sit here removing my boots and spurs, it dawned on me that the cowboy summer is almost over. It's difficult to notice the change in season when the cacti and sage brush don't change color or lose leaves to indicate the fall. We took a break from Cowboy Movie Night beginning in spring when we all had to fall out for the round up of winter strays, the summer of grazing and fattening up the cattle and the late summer cattle drive to market. Now it's time to turn our attention to late fall and winter activities.

You don't have to spend those long, cold winter nights sitting in the bunk house making hand shadows in front of a lantern on a sheet hung on the bunk house wall. No sir! You can amble or mosey out to your local gun club on the first Wednesday evening of every month and take in one of them there talking motion pictures.

This Wednesday, October 2nd will be our first showing of the season. This month's feature film is
"The Missouri Breaks." Staring in this 1976 feature film directed by Arthur Penn (Little Big Man, Bonnie and Clyde, Night Moves) is Marlon Brando, Jack Nicholson, Randy Quaid, Kathleen Lloyd, and John Mcliam.

The story line follows Jack Nicholson as a leader of a gang of horse thieves who purchase a farm next to their next target, a wealthy landowner. The land owner hires a gunman or "regulator" played by Marlon Brando, to get rid of the rustlers. This is the first and last movie that Nicholson and Brando made together. Brando is just coming off of making "The Godfather" and Nicholson from making "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Rated 3 1/2 stars on Rotten Tomatoes. Running time 2 hrs, 6 min.

Grab a snack and a side kick and join us at 6:30 PM Wednesday evening at the SRPC Club House,