Saturday, January 21, 2012

2012 Sheepherders' Party-Open Mike

 Last night was the open mike part of the Sheepherders' Party, hosted at the Border Inn. It was a grand old time, with lots of entertaining stories, poems, and music.
 Kenning from the Mountain West Digital Library mentioned that they are willing to archive photographs, videos, and documents that help capture the spirit of the West. You can already find some great information there, like some oral histories collected by the Great Basin National Heritage Area, a co-sponsor of the Sheepherder's Party.
 Hank Vogler was an outstanding emcee once again.
 Dave entertained us with some excellent guitar playing and singing.
 Now he's got some helpers!
 Kelly recited an entertaining poem.
 Jack had a couple of poems, including one that was written decades ago about Garrison.
 John's humor spread through the crowd.
 Scott told stories about nearby Tule Valley.
 Melanie sang a song for us.
 Lane shared a story about a bad winter. I can't imagine how lonely it must be to be out in the middle of the desert with only the sheep to keep you company!
 Lee recalled a story of pulling a VW through Snake Valley.
 Lois gave us a taste of what life was like with a family out in the desert. Her story of wash day, with the need to split the wood, warm the water, wash the kids, wash the dirty cloth diapers, string a line up somewhere for them to dry, hang up the diapers, unfreeze the diapers, wash some more diapers, hang up more diapers, then find the horses all tangled up in the line and all the freshly washed diapers down in the manure so the whole process had to be repeated, brought tears to my eyes. I don't think I would be that tough to do all that!
 Andy had a poem to share and also invited everyone to the new Great Basin Visitor Center. Although it's usually closed in winter, it will be open from 10-2 on Saturday.
Denys, who started this wonderful tradition, made some closing remarks and then reminded everyone of the schedule for Saturday, which includes a sourdough pancake breakfast, documentary, music, dinner, and more music. It should be a great day!

To see photos and video from past years at the Sheepherders' Party, click here.

2 comments:

  1. It wouldn't be complete if I didn't share at least one sheep joke:

    Sheep are kind of like crabs--
    you only have 'em one day,
    and then they have you.

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