Within this blog I have two blogs going on, one for western stories and one on heritage and trail cooking. You can reach either site within the other blog.
The first; For those interested in Old West short stories, click on that category. My stories are written on the spur of the moment. Nothing ticks me off more than spending $10 or more on a paperback then finding the story sucked! Now I’m not saying mine are any better than a published author gets printed, it’s just that I like endings that leave me with the feeling that the time I spent reading it was worth its while. I also love history. You’ll find that many times I place the characters or story itself in a setting that at the time was or still is real. Eg: The storm of the century involves a real storm that occurred in 1950 but I claim artistic license as to the events of the characters. My theory is that the unadulterated truth can be pretty boring, so I lie my tail off to make it a readable story…or something like that. I call it truthful fiction!
The second; My heritage cooking blog. This is a blog on Heritage cooking recipes and related stuff. I once had someone tell me that my recipe was the same as the one they found online. I do scan the cooking sites but don’t copy their recipes then claim I got it from my great grandmother on her death bed. I explained it like this. If your great grandma had a really good recipe, do you think she held it in a bank vault and left it in her will to you? Nope, she shared it with friends and family. How many times have we shared our favorite recipes with others….I bet tons of times! So a family from Idaho can have the same recipe as one in Texas because that recipe was at one time in the past shared. It’s like a family tree. So, don’t get upset if you see your own grandma’s secret recipe for Russian Borscht online under Kim Soo’s Chinese cooking secrets! In this blog, I’ll talk about cast iron ware, old recipes, cowboy beans an’ whatever else comes into my head.
About the Author; The old west has always fascinated me. As a kid in Idaho my brothers and I used to scavenge the Oregon trail that cut through our farm for junk the wagon trail folks left alongside the road. I grew up with Hoppalong Cassidy, Sheriff Spud and yodeling cowboys. As much as I wanted to write my own stories of the old west, I was too busy trying to put food on the table most times to even consider it. I’m kinda’ retired now due to a good beating I got when I fell off a tall building I was working on, so now I find myself with the time to write. Since the accident, I’ve been thinking of changing my name also to Hoppalong but accuracy would dictate I call myself instead, stumble-a-long!
When I was younger (and not so stove up) my wife and I worked on a large cattle ranch. She cooked for the hands and I bossed ’em around! My years spent in the saddle inspecting and mending fences, chasing cows out of the brush, driving cattle to new pasture and sleeping many nights under the stars gave me a new appreciation for our Lord and Creator. He sure did make some awful fine scenery to gaze at while I worked the range!
I miss the cowboy life and live it vicariously now in my writing. I’ll be soon writing from a new location soon though…moving from Florida here back out west onto a small hobby farm/ranch. This time I’ll take my boots off in Arizona. I find it a pleasant State even though I find it a bit too chilly in July and find myself throwin’ a log or two into the firebox…ONLY KIDDING! Darn heat’ll roast a pig into bacon while its busy drinkin’ water!
I was in Cave Creek Arizona one afternoon having some lunch at a local cowboy watering hole when a man and his woman road up on horseback, hitched ‘em to the rail and clunked on inside with their tall heel’d western boots clunking an’ spurs jingling on the wooden walkway. They had been riding to town and because of the days heat, decided to stop and grab a cold one at the Buffalo Chip Saloon there. Now that’s my idea of what a town should be like! I tip my hat to any town still allowing horses on their streets and to those establishments kind enough to provide hitching rails and watering troughs for thirsty Nags.
campfireshadows.wordpress.com
Contact me at; jedwardsportstlucie@gmail.com or summeru4ia@hotmail.com
campfireshadows.wordpress.com
campfireshadows 
I sent you a blog award for your creative contribution to the world! To accept your award go to: http://tbnranch.com/2012/02/13/blog-award-3/
I sent you the ABC Blog Award, http://tbnranch.com/2012/02/22/blog-award-4/
I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. Yes, it’s kind of chain letter thing, but without the negative repercussions if you opt-out… If you want to play, get more info here: http://justanotherdayoutwest.wordpress.com/2012/03/21/versatile-blogger-award-2/
I enjoyed reading about you, and I smiled when I read about you going through the stuff folks left by the side of the trail. In my current WIP, my heroine who has been left behind by the wagon train she was with, uses these items to survive. Great blog!
Ooooo, cool idea! Love the originality! I promise I won’t steal the idea 🙂
thank you for your message on my last post…a teenage girl that is like my daughter almost died yesterday…she is now recovering but they are trying to figure out what happened…so much more to the story, but that is the gist. i couldn’t put this on my blog.
Not that I know you so well, but I felt everything you were trying to say. Some things are beyond our control, that’s why I hoped you had the strength to deal with what had obviously been a serious event. Glad to hear she is doing better. I feel honored you wrote me this short note letting me into your most intimate worry. Thank you, I will pray as I do each night and add you and your teenage (almost daughter) to my list. 🙂
thank you so much! you’re such a kind soul! i truly believe in the power of prayer!
It’s my privilege 🙂
Hello,
I found you on Cowboy Express and have been curious as to what your blog was. I live in Texas and was raised around cattle, horses, and any kind of animal you can name. My husband is a truck driver and so was my Dad, after we got rid of the dairy. I was just thinking today how I wish I could ride again, but due to some health issues if I was thrown I would end up with a broke back and a broke neck. So cannot take that risk. Though I live in the country and will never leave it, no matter how hard the work is, I still also can only dream about one of the things I loved most in life, riding horses and cuttin’ cattle. Your blog helps to bring back some of those precious memories. I had one of the best cuttin’ horses in the world, when I was a kid. All you had to do was give him his head. Thanks for this blog for those of us who live in these memories and the sound of a wolf howl. God Bless, SR
Wow, how do I answer that? First off, a tip of the hat goes to the great state of Texas. If folks new the complete history and the trying times she went through during reconstruction, they’d be ashamed they haven’t applied for Texas citizenship! LOL
I think you should be around horses again. Get an old sleepy mare and the two of you plod along trail side reminiscing about the better days… that’s a lot better than riding the sofa for sure! I spent some time in Texas and revisited it just recently. I’d love to ride the breadth of it! It’s beautiful. I have two blogs, campfire shadows and the other is heritage and trail cooking. You can get to either one by clicking on the stove or campfire on the right margin. 🙂
I’m not familiar with cowboy express (other than a fellow blogger) ??
Your stories are written on the *spur* of the moment..? Was that a pun?! 😉
You have a refreshingly unique site here, Campfire, and I’m happy to have found you. 🙂
‘From the hip’ …so to speak! Thank you for lookin’ at ’em. Now if only I could make a couple dollars doing this! JW
It’s the secret wish of most of us, I think! 😉
;0
I just wanted you to know I awarded you the “Illuminating Blogger Award” You can pick up in my recent post! God Bless, SR
I’m enjoying your blog, glad I found it. I grew up in Oregon, and lived in Idaho until this year. Although I’m farther west than both in California, I’m sure not in the West anymore. I miss it.
I’ll be looking through those recipes, too!
The heritage and trail recipes are on my other blog. If you click on the old cast iron stove on the right side of my campfireshadows blog, it will transfer you to it 🙂
What part of Idaho did you live in? All our farms were in the rt 84 /86 corridor. Kind of from Boise to Pocatello.
Oh. Port St Lucie. My parents lived there 15 years. Village Green, close to Publix and fire station off US 1. I have so much mail and blogs to check in with I really have to move-a hundred blog posts per day plus responding to my own commenters. Longer posts like your do not get full due and I am cheated by not ready such quality. Have you ever considered posting just one chapter per day?A good 3-5 minute read (I read very fast) is helpful to read it all and absorb it. I am not telling you how to run your blog, but as a follower , well a reduced size content would be helpful. Regards. My posts take just a mere 10 second glance.
True! I’ll think about it. My problem is I have only a couple days a week that I can spend any amount of time posting stuff. Still, I understand the problem of trying to read a 5,000 word blog! A friend who blogs out of WV reads my stuff one chapter at a time. Maybe that would work ?
Keep on blogging! You have two great sites and so happy I stumbled upon them! I have never lived out West but have always been fascinated by Western stories and old movies. Cheers.
Thanks for the comment Ma’am! I read some of your post and left a comment on one 🙂
I don’t try to preach, I just want folks to be able to escape their pressured lives by transporting them back to a time when things were different and certain lines were drawn. Where black was black and white was white (not speaking of race here). I hope from time to time you get the chance to search through my stories to be entertained by them. A tip of the hat to ya’ Ma’am. (please take no offense if I don’t use Ms. in addressing you ecitygirl. For me to start speaking PC now would offend my sensibilities of the way I was raised and what I am .) JW
Hi 🙂 I found your blog because I noticed you commented on a blog post called “Words I Never Want to See in Your Novel. Please.” Which is, actually, MY original content. I have emailed the gentleman and commented in the same place you did, but he is ignoring me. My copyrighted blog is here: http://www.jamiechavez.com/blog/permalink/2012/05/words-i-never-want-to-see-in-your-novel-please/. I am pursuing the next level of complaint with the Pakistani man who copied my work. Thanks for listening. 🙂
I’ll be glad to add you to my ‘following’ list on FB. I wondered why his English was so bad in his ‘about’ but was so well written in his post! LOL
Thank you for following my blog!
No thanks needed. I found it interesting. The only time ya gotta thank someone is if they hate it but continue to read it! 🙂 JW
I’ve nominated you for the Beautiful Blogger Award. Read all about it in this post:
http://mycruisestories.com/2012/09/06/spotlight-award-and-beautiful-blogger-award/
Wow! thank you for the award nomination! I’ll pick it up just as soon as I have an extra minute or two. I’ve got a herd of things going on here so unfortunately I’ve been forced to limit my blog time. I am also about 1/2 way through my next short story. This story is requiring a lot of historical and language research. It should make for a good story though. Thanks again! JW
I love your stories
I love writing them…now if I can just get some bleary eyed so and so publisher to like ’em I’d be a happy man! LOL
Thanks for the comment my friend, it makes it all worth while 🙂 JW
I wish you the very best of luck that a publisher will stumble upon your blog and recognize the potential of your stories! I’ll keep my fingers crossed:) Masha
I figure if I wait for that I’ll be dead of old age! Instead, I’m going to put my stories into an MP3 format and put them on itunes. I should make enough up front to hire an editor to set up and get my stories on kindle. Thanks for the kind words on my stories. I don’t suppose there is much call for them in Austria…but who knows? 🙂 JW
That’s a great idea! I was just talking to my mom about getting a kindle 🙂 The ebook business seems promising these days. Let me know when it’s on the market. Can’t wait to listen to campfire stories while hiking in the Bavarian Alps 🙂
That’s going to be the setting. Me telling stories around the campfire. I am having a small recording studio installed to record not only my narratives but to add in campfire sounds and a lone coyote now and then. By mixing them, you wont be able to tell I’m not around a campfire on the Texas prairie. I plan to do a kindle book (it’s free if you know how to edit and format a story) and do a Youtube video around a campfire telling a story. Then I’ll say if you enjoyed this you can purchase an ebook or an itunes version.
I bet the Alps are beautiful! You are so fortunate to live there. I was raised in the mountains of Idaho. My moms side of the family is Swiss and lived in Lucerne before coming here. My Dads family is Native American (we still call ourselves Indians) a mix of Black foot and Nez Perce tribes and have always lived here… (joke). I came out looking like a German sausage maker! LOL My Indian name is Misituha (Big Oak) and my Christian name is Joseph and I am very happy to have met you. I can’t ice skate. I tried but my ankles hurt so I never tried again. I was young. I love to cook both outdoors on the trail and at home. I used to own a restaurant in the Florida Keys but sold it and moved back on the mainland. I would like to return to the west someday. 🙂 JW
Oh just one thing. You cannot format an ebook (kindle) using a kindle fire. That requires a separate type of format that few authors use. Just a regular kindle reader is used to check each downloaded page.
On the fringes of Santa Fe we still have the occasional local ride his horse over to a neighborhood convenience store for a six-pack or whatever.
And, yes – also the occasional arrest for DWI on a horse.
Then the west still ain’t dead yet!
I’ve nominated you for The Blog of the Year 2012 Award! Have a look at my post for information about it. http://wp.me/p2DnTA-uw
thank you for the award! I’ll be posting it soon. Right now I’m working on my audio book of my stories. That’s why there havn’t been any new post in the last 2 weeks. Soon as I catch up here, I’ll go post the award 🙂
You’re welcome, I love your blog it’s so unique!
Ah, when I was a kid my teachers used to tell my mother that, “Your son is so unique that I’ve decided to hold him back another year!” I never knew if that was a good or a bad thing! LOL
lol they couldn’t stand the thought of losing you!
He he, if only I had come up with that as a kid 🙂
It would be like the saying, “Bless his poor heart”. Translation; “What in tarnation is that numbskull doin’ now?”
I wrote a very short story that will be posted on another blog sometime befor Christmas! It’s a 300 word Christmas tale on my friend Carl D’Agostino’s cartoon blog at; http://carldagostino.wordpress.com
lol yeah I’m good at coming up with those optimistic translations. And thanks for sharing your link, I will have a look at that!
Hello,
I just wanted to let you know that I’ve nominated you for The Wonderful Team Member Readership Award.
Check it out http://thejennymacbookblog.wordpress.com/
Campfire I’ve read your comments at a few blogs I go to. And visited your site before. Last eighteen months just spent too much time reading about politics. Got to finally retire now and plan to read your stories. At 65 finiancial writers were saying I got to work to 70, now at that…they say got to work to 80…they must be lots younger than 65! That ain’t gonna happen. Anyway, I think I saw all of Hoppy’s movies and many other favorites. Sending this…you may have already seen, but here goes…
Thank you my friend! It brought tears to my eyes seeing my old hero’s again! Maybe it was just the memory of a simpler time when kids could not only be safe in their schools but walk the 3 miles (uphill,both coming and going LOL) without fear or maybe I just miss being a youngster. Whatever the reason, it sure was a time to keep in our hearts. JW 🙂
I did my walking in early ’50’s. And home was unlocked when I got there. Ole Shep, mixed collie was waiting, dog didn’t even need to be rewarded with dog bisquit… but got last bite of my self-made, after school boloney sandwich. Still make sandwich now, with spam sometimes, and Shep’s been gone I guess 60 years…Australian Shepard named Coco waits now and takes that bite. 🙂 Yep I cherish the memories, hate the heartaches so many now are going through. But been through similar family pain over the years (not this bad I guess, but officer knocking on door at daylite with bad news about teenage child , car wreck almost exactly 20 years ago) even with cloud cover, the sun rose and was above those clouds and eventually shone through. They do got hard days ahead. And yeah, miss being a youngster…a report that in 1950 78% of households had a couple, man and wife, in home…if they’d asked me back then, I’d’ve said…”what else is there?”
When I was a kid, men weren’t afraid to go to church. It was their way of telling the family there was a higher power than them in charge. Humility reigned, thanks was given and the family unit had order. I saw a statement on TV yesterday by a commentator. He asked no one in particular “Where was God” during the shootings. I thought, “Not in the school friend, we’ve kicked him out”.
If we give up our guns now? When you got time maybe watch Randolph Scott movie. Gunfighter. @ 1:15:16 point…”we got too many empty saddles” to quit on our country now.
On facebook, I just posted a letter from a lady who wrote, “I am Adam Lanza’s Mother” Here’s the link. It’s amazing and shows what could have been done…by taking away the mentally ill kids guns. http://www.facebook.com/jwedwardspsl
I’ll for sure watch it. I may even have it. I’ve purchased every DVD of old west movies I have found. I’ll check through my pile. If not I can watch it on youtube. Thanks for the info on this youtube site!!!!
Sorry somehow wrong movie. I don’t know. I ain’t a computer wizard. Go back to end of other link…you can click Gunfighter there. Sorry.
No problem, it’s on youtube 🙂
Think this link is right for Randolph Scott. See you’ve posted a letter from shooters mother. Not on facebook will see what I can see. Yes, keep guns from mentally distrought, how to tell is the problem, Community mental health facilities closed here in Florida 20 years ago.
Scott movie…i think…
A mother knows! It’s up to the parents (personal responsibility) to act. They are the ones who knows what the kids own in the way of weapons and if he’s too bizarre to own any.
I give up. Delete from your space I guess , in fact please do. When I click on link I get other movie. Anyway message is the same…too many empty saddles to give up on our country now.
Yeah, unable to do facebook so miss your post there. I just be Fuzzy St. John of the internet. 🙂
Hey, at least you got wordpress my friend! LOL
Yes Campfire wordpress, and Disqus too. I’m blessed. But it is a good movie that I couldn’t link you with. Randolph Scott , Sean Connery of a previous age. There aren’t any more left. Still I can send that link to my email and click and connect to Gunfighter. I think UN internet control is doing me in here. Nothing against Clint Walker, but UN if you gonna substitute on me…give me Fess Parker!!!
Don’t worry about the link, I found a few online with it. 🙂
Thanks for your kind consideration of my flub. And I did it twice! What’s that saying about doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. 🙂 Oh well maybe I’ll just watch the Clint Walker movie this weekend. Don’t plan to go to movie house or mall, where today’s shoot outs happen.
Nope, no Roy Roger mass murders in your living room!
Thanks for following. I know I will also learn many things from your experiences shared in your blog. It’s great.
Merry Christmas Campfireshadows… to you and all yours. Done watched another R. Scott movie this morning. Santa left me with a gift box of insight and knowledge. Couldn’t ask for more. Have grown daughter home, we fixin’, not turkey but cornish hens and rest of usual stuff, dressing and gravy. Wife and grown son went to Grandsma’s house, 89, in Ormond Beach, which is I think down your way, although maybe couple of hours north. And Happy New Year to you.
Merry Christmas my friend and to your family also. I spent the day yesterday recording another story for my audio book. Ugh, what a chore doing it all by yourself! If you want to hear a few of them, copy and paste this link. If you click on my picture the other stories should come up. merry Christmas!
Going there now to see what Internet Chester can do about tuning that in.
I forgot to reply about your wife’s trip to Ormond Beach. Yeah, it’s a couple hours north of me here. I’m not sure where you all rest your boots at but you’ll be happy to know it’s near 80 degrees here for her visit. I myself could do with some snow. I’ve never been much of a sun worshiper. In fact my wife just said to me this morning, “It’s too bad we’re so strapped, I’d love to rent that cabin we had the Christmas that all the kids got together with us”. It was a very snowy Christmas where we took a Christmas vacation.
Chester and Fuzzy St. John of the internet got it. I’m going ot enjoy, reminds me of CBS Radio Mystery Theater from years ago. I imagine a few organ keys held down between discussion between cowboys.
Listen closely and you’ll hear the campfire in the background. Never thought of adding an organ! LOL
Campfire sounds? Heck, with unit’s tinnitus I thought you burnin’ down Fort Apache. 🙂 Hearing doc says she got couple of aids @ about a thousand each for me. Thank you ma’mam, but I hear just fine what I want to hear. Use stethoscope @ speaker for you and most other sites.
Disavantage…can’t fall asleep listening. Oh well that’s the price one pays to become a unit.
And yeah, been going to Ormond quite a long time, Grandma been there 50 years or better. We in little panhandle town, Milton, about 36 years…generally 10 degrees colder in winter and 10 degrees warmer in summer…and more hurricanes.
If that’s the Milton off Rt 10 then I know of it. The internet said there was a campground for tent camping there but it ended up being only for RVs, not tents. We were on our way to AZ by way of Rt 10. We ended up staying in Gulf Shores AL that night at a little mosquito infested place. You got tinnitus too? dang, mine sounds like a million crickets and peepers! I fall asleep pretending I’m outside listening to them. We still want to go camping up your way sometime. Maybe you can tell us if there’s a decent out of the way place for old school tent campers like us?
I give this heads up. Nothing around Milton worth pitching at. Check about 60 miles east at Defuniak Springs. My best buddy, now deceased, grew up there, told me about Blue Springs (that’s what ole timers called it, not the one on St. Johns River). We took kids there 25 years ago, its a place that you look down at fish on bottom, looks 3 feet deep, but probably 90 feet, clear as can be, entrance to caves that divers explore…and die. I think that’s probably Morrison State Park now and no camping. But camping grounds in area you can check with. But no experience with them, as you say advertise on net…camping and Rv. That’s best I know…but that spring I saw would be worth seeing.
Thanks for the great comment. I checked out the springs online. It seems the state has made it into a concrete park now. Well, I’ll keep looking for some out of the way woodsy type plce. We ain’t too hot on tourist traps, just a place to get away and drive into a small town to the local greasy spoon for a breakfast now and then 🙂
Campfire, there is a place north of Milton hwy 87, run by Adventures Unlimited @ Tomahawk Landing. We been there on canoe trip on clear Wolfe Creek and Coldwater river, beautiful clear creek water and sandy beaches at bends, but years ago again. Called today (850-623-6197) and they do have tent camping, $25 a night for 4. It’s still pretty barren land. But don’t think area is actually on creek, seems like we were transported to canoe site with canoes. You be in the sticks…probably 10 miles from nearest greasy spoon, unless they have one on site. 🙂 And sure it’s not tourist trap. No marxists and that sort in Santa Rosa County. 🙂
Sounds like I’ll be checking it out! Thanks my friend, for calling and all. 10 miles sounds about the right distance away from the hub bub of folks.. I was talking to my cousin who owns a ranch in Oregon the other day. I asked how far his ranch is from civilization. He responded, The nearest wal-mart is four hours away, in Idaho! That sounded pretty rural in my book! Maybe too rural! LOL
Well, if you go north to Jay, Fl to the greasy spoon, you won’t find any hub bub at all. I don’t think there’s one franchise place there, but a substantial little town, had it’s oil boom years ago, now settling in the dust. Salt of the earth folks. Hank Locklin type folk, although he was from McLellan a few miles to the east in the Panhandle…he was married to a girl from Brewton AL, which was really just across town like we know space today, and spent his last few years there and died there. Most of our little west panhandle area calls our area…L.A….Lower Alabama.
I’ll keep in touch about this. I marked it down. I just got checking out new tents today. I like tents because we do gold prospecting in AZ where an RV could never go. I use my small raggedy assed (but very well maintained) 1997 Dakota pickup truck. I let the honey drive her new Chevy HHR while I prefer driving around in and taking trips in “Old Horns”. (named for the steer horns that used to adorn the hood until they fell off). I found a tent that raises in less than a minute. The coleman instant tent video records it at 28 seconds! Now I love tent camping but I hate putting one up. This just might suit me well!
[…] second; My heritage cooking blog. This is a blog on Heritage cooking recipes and related stuff. I once had someone tell me that my recipe was the same as the one they found […]
stumbled onto your blog in my search for some recipes from the old west… think I will stick around. Thank you! Cave Creek AZ is a wonderful place… have been there a couple times. DAF
DAF, I’ve decided to pull up my roots here in rural Florida and replant ’em in AZ. I do visit Cave Creek a lot but I’m afraid of all the developers drooling over it. I may look to the Payson, Strawberry or Wickenburg area instead. I’m happy you found my blog. I need to rewrite the “About” section as I got rid of the not so short stories part and just combined ’em all into one. 🙂 JW
It is a pleasure to meet you, especially this wonderful time of year.