Tuesday, May 21, 2013

So it is...



On Sunday our immediate family drove in strong wind and rain to Bowman to attend Harrison Homelvig's graduation from high school.  When the celebrating ended, Brandon and Lindsey took off to spend the night in Spearfish and then tour, a first for her, the Black Hills area.  Clint, Robyn, and kids took off for Medora, as did we.  Mary and I spent the night at a small, new motel in Medora, The Amble Inn.  The owners also run the next door Western Edge bookstore and we have become well-acquainted with Doug and Mary.  When we checked in, we were given the key to room # 4.  Upon entering the room I looked around for a place to hang our coats and spotted the above pictured coat rack.  I looked at it, thinking it looked nice, then I looked again doing a double take thinking that looks like my carving.  It was!  I think the owners planned it that way, that is giving us that room.  Wife Mary made fun of me and the way I did the double-take. The Amble Inn soon will include a bed and breakfast operation we were told.  I will definitely stay and eat there;  they are very gracious hosts.  Doug and I are cohorts in that we are interested in the same regional history and both write about the frontier days. 
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It will be very interesting how the two US Senators from Oklahoma will react when it comes to federal disaster relief for the huge tornado damage bill that will come to their state.  Both Inhofe and Coburn have been vocal opponents of lending relief.  The most recent opposition came to recent Hurricane Sandy damage.  Coburn really stuck his foot in his mouth when he objected to "$12.9 billion for future disaster mitigation activities..."  Anyone want to speculate on a two-faced politician?
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The new book is proving fun and interesting.  Another activity taking place in livery stables would have been horse-trading, and I've found some good sources to flesh this out.  One of them had to do with something I found in a Sheldon history book.  It had to do with the name of Fowler, a man who owned the stable at one time.  The narrative stated he was like David Harum, but a bigger operator.  Now I wondered who was David Harum?  After googling the name, I found out it was the name of a million best seller book in 1899.  Harum was a country doctor who also loved to trade horses.  Harum's version of the Golden Rule:Do unto the other fellow the way he'd like to do unto you, and do it first." It seems during this time that the dubious practice associated with horse trading was morally justified by the expectation that similar practices would be employed by his adversary.  I've begun reading the book now.  Some other sources I've found told of crooked practices employed by traders to fool their intended buyers.

A good trick fooled one young man just starting out in the horse business.  He bought a very gentle, good looking horse thinking he could not go wrong and should be able to use the horse himself or resell him at a profit.  He got the horse home in good shape, but then things started going bad.  From then until the next morning that horse came unglued and kicked and broke most of the boards in the gates and fence.  The next morning he consulted with an old time horseman as to what could be wrong.  He said he'd bet that if you'd look around the ground in the corral you'd find some wadded up cotton balls.  He added that the trick was to soak them in formaldehyde and stuff them in the horse's nostrils.  Result: one quiet, gentle horse (for only a little while).

A horse trading math problem showed up on Ohiorc.org in Stella's Problems.  "Frank sells Sue a horse for $60.  Then he decides he wants it back, but Sue makes him pay $70 for it.  Then Sue changes her mind and buys it back from Frank, but for $80 (Frank is no dummy).  Finally, Frank buys it back from Sue for - you guessed it - $90 (Sue is no dummy, either).  At this point, who comes out ahead?"  The answer comes next week.  Good-bye.