We’ve returned to our homestead after spending five days in Phoenix attending Festival of the West. Again, this year it was a jammed-packed event. We were fortunate to have our booth close to one of the stages, and got to hear some outstanding cowboy entertainment. I think we heard Bill Barwick three times. That man sure has an unbelievable voice.

You’ll be hearing our interview with him in the near future on our weekly radio show. If you’re not in an area where the show is heard, I’ll make sure and put it as a highlighted segment. Incidentally, we have a highlighted segment each week. To hear them just click on “The Radio Show” plank.

We have a number of other interviews that we will be airing in the next few weeks.

Although we enjoyed Festival of the West, as always, we’re glad to be safely home.

We’re on our way to Phoenix for Festival of the West. This great event covers all aspects of the Old West, including film stars.

We’ll be doing a lot of interviewing for our weekly radio show. You can look forward to hearing these interviews in the near future…Even if you’re not in an area where our weekly show is aired, you’ll be able to hear some of the interviews on our web site.

Incidentally, the last couple of days have been warm, and much of the snow is gone.

In our March 11, 2006 entry below, we talked about the “Desert Cowboys.” Here’s a picture of SSG Anderson over in Iraq reading Chronicle of the Old West.

I understand a copy of Chronicle of the Old West has been passed upstairs to the generals, so they can get pointers on how the Old West lawmen took care of the bad guys.

We made it home from Phoenix. All the way up Sunny was calling friends in Show Low, and they were advising us to not come because of the depth of the snow. But, according to Sunny, I’m “bull headed”…I prefer the word “determined”…and we continued. Using 4-wheel drive, we had no great problem until we reached our driveway, which is about a ¼ mile long. No one had been up the drive, and I was driving our Ford Explorer. So, I parked the Explorer and walked up to the house. I got my ¾-ton Dodge diesel with big bumper, and snowplowed my way back to the Explorer. We were then able to drive both cars to the garage.

This was the deepest snow that I have walked in since I was in grade school when I had to walk to school in four feet of snow. And, incidentally, it was uphill both ways.

The picture is from our front porch. It may not look like it, but the snow is over three feet deep.

Thanks God, for the gift.

When I interviewed Bethany Braley with the “National Day of the Cowboy” she talked about a group of soldiers in Iraq called the “Desert Cowboys.” They’re headed by Russell Anderson.

Knowing that any cowboy would be interested in the Old West, we sent them some copies of Chronicle of the Old West.

Today we received the following email from Russell. Obviously, we were correct.

We’re sending him another shipment of Chronicle of the Old West, along with CD’s of Old West stories.


"Hello Dakota:

I was glad to hear that the "Chronicle of the Old West" was heading our way. It was a great change from the "Stars and Stripes" newspaper that we read around here. I have updated our website (www.CowboyCrew.com) and included a link back to your website, look under: Desert Cowboys Earn War Patch. Dakota I also added a Thank You note on it.

Our guys really were excited to see them, I don't think less than 4 people read each one of those papers, we also had other Cowboys not with us come by and ask if they could have one. A lot of them were comparing notes on some of the older stories and making up stories of there own about robbing the train and going back in time and knowing what we know now. I think the Desert Cowboys could have been bandits.

Living in Cochise County, Arizona, I think was the greatest experience of my life so I know how it is for you living down there. I cannot wait to get back down there and continue my work. I managed The Thomas Ranch for 10 years. They are located between Tombstone (the Town Too Tough to Die) and Bisbee, Arizona. So to see you guys from our own area starting to support us was extra special to me personally.

Thanks again Dakota.

Sincerely,
Russell J. Anderson"

Yesterday we attended Winter Range. Got some interviews, but we were unable to get pictures…Strong winds and blowing dust.

It started raining last night, and has continued all day. The rain closed down Winter Range. I feel sorry for the competitors and vendors who have looked forward to this event all year.

Our plans were to head up the hill this afternoon. But, that was called off when we called friends and found there was almost two feet of snow at our place. To add to that, all the roads heading north are closed…We’re excited about the moisture, but sure wish we were home with a fire in the stove instead of a motel room.

We’ll try to make it up the hill tomorrow.

On our weekly show aired the week of March 6 - 12, our Old West expert, Bill O'Neal, shares his top ten western novels. Below are the top five. If anyone wants the whole list, just send us an email.

THE VIRGINIAN, Owen Wister. Landmark novel about Wyoming cattle country lifted Western fiction to a new level of quality, beyond dime novels, and public acceptance. Wister produced the most famous line of dialogue in Western fiction: "When you call me that, smile!"

RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE, Zane Grey. Best novel of the phenomenally popular Zane Grey features high romance and memorable character in the gunfighter Lasiter. Has been fimed five times.

THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY, Tom Lea. The U.S. Cavalry, Texas Rangers, Indian warriors, good and bad men on both sides of the border, and those masterful chapter illustrations--what more could you want from a Western novel?

HONDO, Louis L'Amour. First and best Western novel of all-time best-seller L'Amour was made into an exciting John Wayne movie.

THE TALL MEN, Clay Fisher (AKA Henry W. Allen and Will Henry). The story of one of the West's greatest adventures, Nelson Story's epic cattle drive from Texas to Montana--and the dialogue is a joy to read.

We’ve had “Living the Code” certificates returned because of incorrect addresses. Assuming that everyone requesting a certificate would give us a legitimate address, evidentially, somewhere the address became corrupted.

If you requested a “Living the Code” and didn’t receive it, it may have been returned to us. So, go to our “Contact Us” plank and confirm your address

We don’t want to overlook anyone willing to live their life according to the “Code of the West.” There aren’t that many of us.