Beans & Biscuits

Well, the biscuits look good, the beans tasty but the cook could use a little work!    Hope you like him. 

Beans & Biscuits

I finished this carving last week.  So the next step is determining just how to present it.   As I've done a number of Chuck Wagon Cooks in the past I want to make this one unique from those.  Now I could just mount him on a base by himself but by adding another detail apart from him it creates a more complete story.  The addition of a Dutch Oven which will eventually be filled with baked biscuits does the trick.

I don't know his name, but just looking at him I can tell he is one, crusty individual.  By the looks of that belly I can also tell he's a fan of his own cooking.  Also, by his holding a kerosene lantern it must be pretty early in the morning and while I'm sure the cowboys waking up will be hungry I seriously doubt if they'll appreciate having beans for breakfast.  The circular cutout, while still a little large, will make a nice platform for the scene.  I thought about adding a coffee pot but I think that would crowd the composition. 

So, the scene and the story is complete and the only thing left is the painting and putting everything together.   Hope you like him.   And comments welcome as always. 

"Pancakes"

Here's one more.  "Pancakes"!  Cookie just whipped up a stack of flapjacks for the boys as a special treat for their hard, dusty work keeping those cows in line.  I had fun with this one, especially making that stack of hotcakes and painting them to look like the real article.  I hit it pretty close I think.   And again, with my growing Cataracts, doing the fine painting was a real chore.  Come on September!

I hope to contribute this one for the carving auction at the Dayton show this November.  If I remember correctly, it's an open theme again this year as last.  My Emmet Kelly from a few years back when for a nice sum whick benefits the Dayton club and I hope this one does even better.

There are more photos in the Gallery and I'll look forward to your comments as I always do. 

Chicken-Fricken-What?

Well, here he is.  It looks like he's not really sure just what he's supposed to prepare!  I think there is one thing we can count on though and that's that it will not rate any stars from the Michelin Guide!.

This was really a fun piece to do and as I'll probably never do another like it it will have to rate the "Classic" designation, something I don't hand out very often.   That scrawny neck on the chicken might look fragile but it's been reinforced with a metal rod so it's not as fragile as it might appear.  With the base I'd say it stands around 18-19 inches tall.

Hope you like him as much as I do.  There are more photos in the Gallery and your comments are welcome as always.

Buckaroo Breakfast

Now here is one I just might have posted before but as I'm sure the additional photos were lost in the Gallery switch I'll do it again just in case.
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This is a pretty involved scene as I wanted to get in as much of the actual detail of a Chuckwagon set up as possible. It took me about a year and a half to complete it. In the closeup photos in the Scanned Photo album you can see the details more clearly. The cowboy leaning against the front wagon wheel is me with my mouth full of beans & biscuits. And tied up next to me is my first horse Biscuit, like Boomer a true and trusted friend who left this world much too early. Biscuit hated mud puddles...he just would not cross them. I always prayed when we came upon one it was in the clear and not bordered by a bunch of poison ivy infested brush. Unfortunately it never seems to work out that way. He would cross a river ... no problem...but a mud puddle?....no way!!!
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The wagon is a copy of the one we own right down to the working breaks and chuck box. It was manufactured in Springfield, Missouri somewhere around 1900 and sold new at the C.L.Higgenbottom store in Seneca, Missouri. The reason I know this is because you can still make out the lettering on the sides. I have a photo of Seneca taken about that time and from the looks of it old C.L. owned just about the whole town as his name is on almost every building. Only one building in the photo still stands today and it houses an filthy auto repair garage. As for the wagon it's in great shape with everything being original except for the main connecting timber between the two axles. If you go to the Out West Gallery webpage you can see a photo of Judy and I cooking from the back of it. They say that cowboys had it rough but if the food they ate was anything like what we've rustled up over the fire or in a dutch oven the evening meal they had after hard day in the saddle was something to really look forward to. A plate of tasty beans, a cup of hot coffee and a warm biscuit is hard to beat.
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