Work

April 15, 2012

Congratulations to Dan for getting all the corn planted.   So quick and so early.   You should make a bumper crop.      

(picture of 2011 corn field)

(Immature corn from that field in July 2011.)

When I was a youngster there was a farmer that had a peach orchard on the other side of the tracks from our farm.    I worked for three days for him picking peaches one fall and then I quit.   I quit to go to the county fair where I took my livestock .    (I was younger than in this picture.)

I remember this short job because he paid me for 3 days work and I think that is the only time I ever worked for anybody else.   All my other work has been for myself or for the farm or on commission.    All I can remember is the 3 days of work in my lifetime of so many years.   

(Farming involves a broad base of skills.) 

(Starting them early on the farm.)

(At the historic cash register in the Willcox Commercial)

(January 2012 at the store.)

It’s all okay with Richard on Historic Railroad Avenue 

April Fools Day Easter Party

April 1, 2012

This is Richard.   We are having an Easter dinner here.   Everyone is here including Patty and Drew,  Marty and Dan, John and Loretta, Leona and I and 5 grand children that seem like 20 kids.    We had our traditional egg hunt for Easter eggs.   It’s usually held on the patio at the back of the store.  There is usually lots of eggs outdoors and lots of places to hide.      

 

The grandkids charged out in the yard to get the Easter eggs.     There was nothing there.    It dawned on them that it was April Fools day.  April Fools!!!   So they went inside to the store and their eggs were found in the store.    That was the joke of the day.   

It hasn’t been a bad week except I was sick most all the week.    That was my unsavory feeling…….    Like my brother in law said,  I was pooped out.   So I didn’t do much all week but I am feeling better.     Now I am ready for a new week.  

 

This is Dick Seidel on historic Railroad Avenue  

Big Guys invest in Willcox, just like me

 

March 11, 2012

This time we will talk about Warren Buffet.     I am his mentor.   Every time I do something he does the same thing.    I haven’t been around Warren Buffet before but I admire him.    I meant he is my mentor… someday I will be a billionaire if I live long enough.   I think he is one of the top 3 richest persons in America or the world.    I think somebody in Mexico is richer than him.   But he still has a few extra dollars.     His son is helping to use some of his money.   They are buying a track of land south of Willcox.   And he is trying to farm in the desert without the water.   Better be good if he can, then he could take that whole dry lake  ….  60 square miles of it and farm it.     That would even be better than Dan in Central America even.      That would be a good thing to spend his dad’s money on.    

Like Dan I like to make something out of nothing too.     I am proud of family and my grandkids and I am also proud of my farm that I used to run back in Illinois.   I remember when I was a kid it wouldn’t grow anything but ticklegrass   but now, thanks to Dan it is the best farm in the county.     (picture from 2008)

I  mostly proud of the second thing I have done….   Historic Railroad Avenue.     When I first got on Historic Railroad Avenue they had a brochure telling what tourists could do in Arizona (30 – 40 years ago).   The back of the pamphlet it said that Willcox has a Historic Distinct  but it was filled drugs and derelicts .    This Week I read in the Arizona Range News…   a candidate before the city council said he was making historic downtown a priority  “without a doubt railroad park is unique and singular, beautiful, historic, patriotic, momentous, traditional, enduring, and much too small”.    They don’t call me mayor for nothing around here.   

This is Dick Seidel the honorary Mayor of Historic Railroad Avenue.  

Gun Slinging

March 4, 2012

This is Richard.    I am good at gun slinging.    Gun stories are my specialty lately,   I am always talking about murders or something.   They had a shoot out at Wilcox High School on Thursday.   They caught the shooter and have him in jail.    He had a rifle and he shot at the school from farther away.   He shot one automobiles glass out and someone was hurt by flying glass.     The whole story is in the Willcox Range News. http://www.willcoxrangenews.com/articles/2012/03/08/news/news01.txt  That was the Willcox gun slinging.     The schools were locked down for an hour and a half and someone said it was like a day and a half as she was locked down in her class with her students.    

We had Marty Robbins day here on Railroad Avenue yesterday.   It was pretty well attended and we had a good business.    Good food, good music, good singing.   Our painter got here in time to do some singing on Railroad Park.       He had gone back home to the midwest but broke down and came back to Willcox.    He is working for me again.  

Glad Emma Lou got to the mountains instead of the prairie of Illinois to avoid the tornadoes.    Lots of damage in the Midwest but I guess our family is okay huh?  

My Sister in Law, broke her hip on Thursday.   She gets surgery on it tomorrow.   

Everything else is okay that I know of.        This is Dick Seidel on Historic Railroad Avenue

100th Anniversary of Arizona Statehood

February 13, 2012

This is from Richard.   Tomorrow is Valentines Day!    And it is the 100^th year anniversary of Arizona Statehood!     Lots of things are happening and there has been a lot of history in the last 100 years.    

 I will talk about a family that came from Texas around 100 years ago.   They were known as the Wileys in Texas but they changed their name out here.    They are my neighbors and friends and I have known them for years.    They are big cattlemen.    They have a lot of the ranches for cattle between here and New Mexico.    

 Way back then a Wiley was walking down Railroad Avenue with a beautiful girl.   The girl was a sheep herder’s daughter and of course he was a cattleman.   They were walking down Railroad Avenue and they got to this building that is on the south side of the theater.   It has been several things since then…  it was Patty Jo’s ceramic shop at one time.   It was a bar at that time.   Wiley and his girl friend, the sheep herders daughter, walked past the open door and the bar tender shouted ‘baaaaaaa’ to the girl.    Since Wiley was a cattle man and he was associating with the sheep herder’s daughter he felt he must defend his girl against that derogatory remark.    So he bounded in the doorway and across the counter toward the bar keeper.    The bar keep was terrified of him and when he jumped the counter the bar keep found his pistol and shot him dead.    Wiley was dead.    The moral of that story for Valentines Day is that the Cattleman should not get too close to the sheep herders daughter.    And that is the moral of that story on Railroad Avenue in Willcox Arizona.  

Chirichua National Monument

January 4, 2011 (yes, a year ago)

 

One of our favorite places for tourist is the Chirichua National Monument.    Some folks says 'move over Grand Canyon' because the Chirichuas are more spectacular. 

I call it the cherry cows because it is so much easier to spell than Chirichuas for my scribe.    If you drive up past the Chirichua Visiter Center you go to Massai Point.   It is named after Big Foot Massai who is an Indian who stole a horse from a white man.    That was a big offense back then to steal somebody's horse.    Big Foot Massai, the Indian who stole the horse, had a wife who was pregnant and he said that is why he stole the horse, so she could ride.    So the white man chased Big Foot Massai and he apprehended him at Massai's point.   It is still one of the most scenic parts of the Chirichua Monument.  I don't know what happened to Big Foot and his pregnant wife but I suppose he went back to the reservation some way.    I haven't seen him much around the Chirichua Monument but the Massai point still remains.     

Another place of interest in the Chirichuas  is the Faraway Ranch.    It is restored now to an authentic ranch as it was.    The owner of the ranch before it was given to the Chirichua Monument was Lillian Riggs.    This was the time of President Coolidge.   Lillian Riggs was promoted in Life Magazine as the boss of the Faraway Ranch.   Even though she was blind she still rode with the Cowboys to tend the cows.   Her family said she could still shoot a rattlesnake between the eyes while riding her horse.   Lillian Riggs ended up in the nursing home in Willcox when my wife Leona was in charge there as a nurse.   The Faraway Ranch was a rambling ranch house near the entrance of the Chirichua Monument.    It was visited by numerous people including Buffalo Soldiers who stayed there for a while.    It is a must see when you are visiting at the Chirichua National Monument.   

http://www.americansouthwest.net/arizona/chiricahua/national_monument.html
http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/chiricahua-national-monument-outdoor-pp2-guide-cid8899.html

This is Dick Seidel, rambling along railroad on historic Railroad Avenue.

Phoenix Magazine

Best of all I'm not talking about murders in Willcox this time.  I'm talking about my grandkids and I, whom have been featured in Phoenix Magazine. 

The Phoenix Magazine is a nice, slick, national magazine but I'm not sure it is easy to get out of Arizona.     We are in the February 2012 issue.

This is the blurb they had concerning Willcox.

We are having our February sale today that I've had for probably 40 years.  It has always been successful.  We are confident it will do as good today as it has in the past. 

This is Dick Seidel on historic Railroad Avenue.