A big loud boom, another big boom shakes my tent, jolts me from my slumber, my heart is pounding. A few feet away, again boom–boom, followed by a giggle. I look at my watch its 4:15 AM, who is out there firing off high powered rounds? I'm in no hurry to find out, I'm a snug bug in a sleeping bag with a hang over. I chamber my trusty side arm just in case and roll over for forty more winks.
Just as I'm drifting back into darkness, again boom–boom. "Wakey wakey boys, hands off snakey". Thats a women voice out there! What is a woman doing out here in the middle of nowhere, in a pasture at early thirty,? Its 4 in the freak'n morning. "Y'all get your tired asses-up, the coffees on." I had to bounce out and see who this crazy lady was. What a fun way to start the day.
There she was, sitting in lawn chair with a double barrel shotgun across her lap, a cup of coffee in one hand, a cigarette in the other. From the small campfire her grin lit up, "you must be Juan Corbett". "Yes-um I am ma'am". "and you must be Sally, the unfortunate lass to have married that hairy legged beast still sacked out in his tent". We are laughing it up when Luke stumbles into the fire to join us. He introduces his new bride, she rises up out of the chair, extending a hand to shake. Wow, what a hand-shake that woman had, I'll never forget it. I've shaken hands with some pretty big boys whose grip wasn't this firm. With a grip like hers, you knew she could hang-on to any thing, for however long she wanted.
Us boys were full of coffee and starving to death. We hadn't ate last night, each of us thought the other one was gonna bring food in. Welp, the cafe opens at 6, its only 25 miles to town. "Hey Sally, you wanna run in for breakfast with us"?"Na, y'all go ahead, I wanna get an early start on them pheasants". To make a long story a little shorter. Luke and I get side tracked while in town and don't make it back to camp till noon.
When we drive up to the tents you could have knocked me over with a feather, a pheasant feather. Sally was laying out a spread in the back of her truck. Chairs, plates, napkins the whole nine yards. "Hey boys, y'all wash your hands, lunch is about ready," she says, I'll deal with you later Luke. The poor ol' boy was keeping himself on the down low, trying to blend in with the landscape with all his camo gear on, hoping Sally would forget his tardiness. She seemed sweet and salty.
"Ms Sally, what ya been doing while we were gone," I ask. "While you two knuckleheads were out wasting the morning, I shot 'em, cleaned 'em and cooked 'em." Yep, she had got her limit of birds straight away that morning, went back to the house got a few supplies and prepared this feast of pheasant for us, brown rice, gravy and homemade wine. All served-up on the tailgate of her pick-up truck in the middle of pasture on the great plains of Kansas. It was the best meal I've ever had on a tailgate.
That morning air was crispy cool, the predawn sky was navy-blue black when I first met her. Shoot-em up Sally with a ball cap on. Not easy to forget a gal like that. Uses her double barrel shotgun for an alarm clock and giggles about it. Thats how this painting came to be. A tribute to all the ladies who shoot 'em, clean 'em and cook 'em.
Artwork / imagery © - copyrighted, no usage without express written permission. (click image to enlarge.)
You may be interested in this Original painting for yourself or a friend. The paintings of the "Faces from the Places" series are very collectable and range in price from $500.00 to $950.00. These prices are a 50% savings over a traditional Gallery acquisition. Shoot me an E-mail for availability at; juancorbett@gmail.com - In the subject line please include the name of the painting or the story line that you're interested in. I try to reply within 24 hours, Monday thru Friday, excluding holidays. Hope to hear from ya.
Thanks, ~ Juan.
