Spent today logging with Grandpa. I had chainsaw duty. He pulled the trees out with his four-wheeler.

Got word from Shawn Goodall that he's ready to hire me again. We take a load to Calgary tomorrow evening. Eighteen wheels and 10,000 pounds of live fish.

Smells good. Smells like money.

Last night my parents invited my girlfriend and me to a Killdeer Mountain feast that included roasted chicken, bison, and wild juneberry pie with ice cream. Grandpa and Grandma also joined us, as did Father James from the Assumption Abbey in Richardton.

Gramps has recently been recovering from a bout of diverticulitis. Our conversation went something like this:

Grandpa: (enthusiastically) Do you know what diverticulitis is?

Me: No.

Grandpa: It's when your diverticulosis flares up.

Me: What's diverticulosis?

Grandpa: It's when the diverticula in your entrails bulge.

Me: What are diverticula?

Grandpa: That's when you have many, many diverticulum.

Me: What's a diverticulum?

Grandpa: It's one of my bulging diverticula. That's why my diverticulosis flared up.

I'm an internet entrepreneur now.

First item up for auction is a Budweiser shirt.

After seven weeks without, I have wheels again. Pearl Drop, is up and running.

100 F.

Swam in the coal pit.

Apparently, I own a co-share of Dunn Center's mineral rights. Marathon Oil sent a representative to my house today who wrote me out a check for $100. The check number is 6669.

If they strike oil, I may receive monthly checks of $13.01 over the course of the next year.

Spent my last $2000 on this '78 Pace Arrow RV:

I call it the "Bunk House." It has a sweet 8-track player and a small microwave. It smells like the Brady Bunch and gets 5 mpg.

I arrived home yesterday--North Dakota!

Life has taken me on a pleasant roller-coaster ride during these last few weeks. I'm glad to be back on home turf for a while. Will attempt to play catch-up soon.

Three freaky, close-to-home occurrences recently happened in quick succession that make me wonder if a hellhound might not be on my trail:

1. Lightning struck a tree in the backyard of where I was staying and shredded it like raw chicken. It also traumatized two dogs and destroyed the house's wireless router.

2. While driving south from Tacoma on the I-5, a wheel off the big rig in front of me zinged off its axle and zanged downhill at 80 mph, across four lanes of traffic. It broke off a highway sign in the median as it went and barely avoided causing multiple wrecks. The last thing I saw of this satanic tire was when it hit the northbound's outside guard rail and popped fifty feet into the sky over some trees and into the void.

3. Dickinson, ND, the nearest sizable town to where I live, got hammered by a tornado on July 8th. Damage is estimated at $20 million. To see a YouTube video of the twister's aftermath (featuring an odd Michael Jackson soundtrack) click here.

I'm still in Washington state. I play my last gig here tomorrow night in Bremerton. Here's an article that came out today in the North Kitsap Herald to promote the show.

Next week I drive west to Ronan, MT, for my 20-year high school reunion!

Though I miss North Dakota terribly, I've been having a relaxing time here swimming, recording, visiting, and eating.

My new black hat--the one I bought in Dallas last February--was used in a photo shoot last week. See it here. I don't know who the model is. The photographer is Scott Areman. He wants to do a photo shoot with me on Saturday. I'll post a pic then.

My Northwest Tour is goin' well: Portland, Seattle, and Tacoma were all fun. Here's an article: http://www.weeklyvolcano.com/2009-07-09/music-main/3979/

Concrete, WA, tonight!

Today is almost over, which is good, 'cause today was gnarly.

My fully packed warrior-Subaru "Pearl Drop" could not take me the 700 miles across Montana to celebrate Independence Day with my Herak/Sullivan relatives. In fact, she barely made it the 45 miles to Dickinson to visit a mechanic. After a six-hour wait, she was diagnosed as "not worth saving." I will sadly have to skip the Montana family reunion and begin my search for a new vehicle.

At least it happened close to home and not somewhere near Terry or Rosebud.

Dad was my hero today, a common occurrence. This time he spent 10 hours chauffeuring me to car lots to look for something decent for under $1500, but no luck.

On the bright side, juneberries on the Mountain are getting fat and ripe. After 10 years of poor crops, this year looks like a winner.

Please have a listen to the title track from my very first CD (1995): "Roll Out, Cowboy."

I reference MJ, wild berries, Bob Dylan, my dad's bus, and my love of the open prairie.

My appreciations haven't changed much.

If you'd like to hear a cut from my latest CD, All the Things I Done Wrong, here's a timely one: "Michael Jackson."

"Michael Jackson" was produced in 2007, by Shawn Parke, as a demo--as were all the songs off of All the Things I Done Wrong. This CD may, now, due to lack of funds, be released in a more raw form. Shawn made the funky beats.

Death came knockin'. Sad times in Dunn County.

My upcoming CD has a song called "Michael Jackson," dedicated to him:

"Michael Jackson it's a long ride back home
Chi-town, Motown, I found your crown
In the middle of a Montana pasture
And that sound was the sound of rapture . . ."

MJ RIP.

It's country livin' these days for old Sandman. Rhubarb's thick. Summer has arrived.

Thursday I went to the Dunn County Historical Society meeting. Helen McMahen retired as secretary. In honor of her thirty years of service, they served Koolaid and cake and gave her a plaque.

Friday I partook in a Burnin' Daylight Adventure at Ted and Dawn Kupper's ranch. After a meal of burgers and beans, Shawn Goodall, with his girlfriend Laci's help, loaded sixteen of us into a sturdy wagon hitched to his Belgian draft horses, Ram and Rod. We rode for two hours through some of western North Dakota's most breathtaking breaks and badlands. Laci got the gates. Upon return to camp, I sang songs such as "Home on the Range" and "She'll Be Comin' Around the Mountain" next to the campfire, while the little kids made s'mores. [Plug: you should join us on one of these adventures--they are very affordable. A wagon ride alone is priceless. Click on the above link for more info.]

Yesterday I performed at the annual Pit Barbeque in Manning in exchange for supper and a rugby-sized chunk of buffalo meat. The meat was wrapped in denim and bound in wire. It was dragged out of a dirt pit full of dozens of other denim-wrapped, wire-bound hunks of cooked pork, beef, and bison. A highlight of the event for me was having Grandpa join me with his harmonica on "I Ride an Old Paint."

Happy Father's Day, Dad (pictured), and Happy Solstice, everyone!

Yesterday morning Mom and I walked the Lake Ilo trail and marveled at its lushness.

Lake Ilo--only a mile from my house--is a prehistoric paradise this month. Blue herons, like neutered pterodactyls, honk from their high perches in the cottonwoods, while looming buzzards, like teratorns, attempt to snatch fuzzy chicks from under them.

Decomposing carp, like coelacanth fossils, line the shore below. The air is humid and dank. Large white toadstools populate the forest edge. Turtles, like children of Egyptian pharaohs, sun themselves on naked logs next to half-baked frogs.

Lake Ilo is well-maintained but rarely visited. In my eyes, it's a hidden treasure as precious as Manhattan's Central Park Lake.

This is my kitchen. I eat salads with cheese here.

Cheddar.

I don't know what to write about anymore.

I watered the grass? I ate a salad with cheese? I petted the horse?

Lots of action in Sand Land with a week of family fun. Grandpa's 90th birthday party went swimmingly. He drank a few, then sang a few, and then he danced a few, too.

The snow has melted.

My first nonagenarian grandparent:

Happy 90th, Grandpa! I wrote you a song.

Sandy Bob

It's cloudy in the west and it's lookin' like rain
Your durned ol' slicker's in the wagon again
Sandy Bob

On a ten-dollar horse and a forty-dollar saddle
You set out punchin' them Wolf Point cattle
Sandy Bob

There's a lot of things a lot of people might not know about you
You don't like to brag, you just don't seem to need to

Sandy Bob, you're a good grandpa
Sandy Bob, you're a great grandpa, Sandy Bob
You built you a cabin with your own two hands
You found you a woman who would share your brand, Sandy Bob

There's a lot of things a lot of people might not know about you
You seek the truth and you just don't like to be lied to

Sandy Bob, you're a good grandpa
Sandy Bob, you're a great grandpa, Sandy Bob
You built you a cabin with your own two hands
You found you a woman who would share your brand, Sandy Bob

Sandy Bob, you're a good grandpa
Sandy Bob, you're a great grandpa
Cowboy, boxer, horseman, carpenter
First lieutenant and a parole officer
You're good with leather and you're good with words
You walk with God and you talk to birds, Sandy Bob
Oh Sandy, Sandy

(whistle outro)

Notes: Cousin Jenny took the above picture. Yesterday, Grandpa and Grandma were given an honorary plaque in the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame. Tonight there will be a birthday bash at the Buckskin Bar in Killdeer--everyone's welcome. It's currently snowing outside and the ground is white!

My back is recovering. I think my daily exercises are starting to work. (Thanks for the drugs, Emily--I'll save 'em for an emergency.)

I've been scraping flaky lead paint off my bedroom walls the last two days. Dad helped me texture my bedroom and bathroom ceilings yesterday. Now I'm ready to prime and paint those two rooms.
************************************
A white horse and a white pony have recently appeared in the small, tree-filled pasture across from my house. They wind through the branches like phantom pegasuses. They pace through the weeds like bored unicorns.

"Well, my love is a flower just beginning to bloom

Like those things from [under my parents' deck] that spring from the gloom. . ."

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad!!

As of May 23rd--forty years married and going strong.

************CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*************

News from Sand Land:

I haven't had a trucking run since December.

My new CD, All the Things I Done Wrong, will be pressed by October, granted the grant I applied for gets granted.

Boss Goodall tells me that I might be driving again by midsummer. I can last that long by playing some shows and working for the Dunn County Historical Society.

Banjo picker Billy Faier is still in the neighborhood. He's been staying with my folks. He and I spent Memorial Day weekend performing at the 23rd Annual Dakota Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Medora. Billy fired up the audience like no one I've seen and sold twenty CDs in a matter of minutes. He backed me up on two songs, and I backed him up on "The Great Assembly." Now I can say that I've played music and traveled with someone who's played music and traveled with both Guthrie and Van Zandt! Billy quit performing with Townes after only ten shows, because Townes would get drunk and then insist on driving the van after the show.

As for me, I'm bored with being a ragged rambler. I 'm ready for a more balanced life. I want a strong body, a green garden, and a hard-headed woman. My life as a troubadour is not over, but in the future I plan to travel in style like J.D. Salinger or Harry Belafonte or John Lennon.

Bought a used lawn mower yesterday for $120.

Runs good.
Honda.

A friend asked if I look more like my ma or pa.

Survey sez:


Speakin' o' the 'rents, their 40th wedding anniversary is this weekend!

New neighbor.

Roger Hall bought the empty lot north of mine.
Yesterday, he rolled his mobile home into place.
Soon he will add three-car garage.

Legendary banjo player Billy Faier, whom I met in Marathon, TX, in February and visited in Woodstock, NY, a couple weeks ago, coasted into Dunn Center, ND, today.

He's snoring soundly at the moment.

Billy's an extraordinarily talented folk singer. I mentioned in an earlier blog that he and Ramblin' Jack Elliot once traveled and performed with Woody Guthrie from New York to San Francisco. Woody was beginning to struggle with Huntington's disease at the time, but he could still rock a crowd.

Billy has a website where anyone can freely download albums he's cut over the last 52 years.