Shown here in the lighter brown, or camel color. High quality suede molds well to your body shape. The sportscoat has the right linings in the right places, so it will continue to look crisp for years.

CC Priced at Only $99.99

Model is also wearing Cumberland pull-over SS knit shirt $29.99, & Cinch White Label jeans $45.99, & Resistol Black Gold hat $299.99

Cowboy Chat:
I can't believe that it's Christmas time again. I'm not even sure what happened to 2008. I got a little longer in my teeth...in fact, I have a dental team fixing my teeth, for my wife. Thanksgiving supper proved that my teeth chew fairly well. The wife would rather just look at the way they were, a few years past. (Enough about me.) Merry Christmas.  (link to Play)

Every year, every week we learn more, don't we? Next year, we will have our Christmas Email Newsletters prepared before Thanksgiving, in series, and ready to just adjust, then punch go. Thank you for all the (close to 6000) emails and (about 3000) phone calls in the past two weeks. It has been a little overwhelming, but we brought in another couple friends, and spent three days upgrading systems to help. 

This past year, you have seen some Cultured Cowboy emphasis on cancer awareness. Several unrelated associates here have been weirdly affected by this disease. Treatments have hit them hard. We never know how much we appreciate our health, until there is a crisis. This has had us all working on your orders, and has delayed some of the web building we hoped to accomplish. Thanks for calling with questions on new stuff that you knew our manufacturers have available. You guys really make us feel like family here.

Cultured Cowboy now has a pet lizard.  Why? Well, while we were adding help, we figured why not? Cheap labor! Naw, really, we sell some Southwest home decor along with all the statues, Western, Indian and horse decor. We have most of the Trail of Painted Ponies Christmas Collectables, and most Breyer Horse Ornaments, globes, etc. in stock. (Next email will include more of these.)  Somebody, (me) thought it might be a good idea to have more "interactivity & community" in the store. We're all busy helping Santa get your orders out the doors. So, we found "Draca", our bearded dragon lizard. She's our answer to the "WallyWorld Greeter". We got a huge glass case. Filled it with lizard stuff and some samples of our rock art. Putting her in the front entry, Draca gets as much attention as our inventory! And, with her terrarium nearby, I get to think about being outside. (Working long hours at Christmas reminds me of being in grade school. Wishing I was outside.) Still, I wouldn't trade making all these Christmas dreams come true. It's in my blood.

Being outdoors this holiday time of year, we do need a good coat. Sure am glad we have them! You probably saw the dress coat that brought you here. But, our best selling coats online are the Oilskin dusters by Kakadu and Outback Trading.  Wahmaker frock coats are priced right this season too. I was wearing my Jackhammer coat this morning when I got a call from the Greenwood County Sheriff's Dept. Seems they needed some help with a couple loose horses running up the road in a nearby neighborhood. They weren't mine, like they hoped. Still, several of us helped until animal control could trailer them off. 

Christmas is a time for family. I will be thinking much about mine this season. If I could tell any advice to the younger "whippersnappers" out there, it would be to figure a way to love more. Jesus told us that the most important things are loving God and loving neighbors as ourselves. First, ya gotta love yourself to understand what this means. How can you love another if don't love yourself? All of us have been busted for something we did or didn't do. Jesus says, tell Him your sorry. He loves us all enough to want to let us into His favor. If we are sorry, and try to do better, He will enable us with a Holy Spirit to help keep us racing down the right track. You'll know what to do from there. 

Christmas is a time for joy. It is a time to share. It is a time that many people feel incredibly lonely. No need. Know that God loves you, and we love you. Find a Bible and read 1 Corinthians 12 & 13. Remarkable stuff. Not the Christmas story, but it'll mood ya. If you lost a favorite horse this year, remember the good times. Forgive the times you were thrown. If your horse is out to pasture, make sure there is plenty of feed in its manger. If it wandered off, always keep a front gate to the barn open. It might come back. If not, know it is a creature that has to roam. Love the times you have together.

More later!  CC 

Look below for "Sweet" Articles on these 3 Subjects

What is our best selling Christmas present?  Nocona Belts... we are moving thousands of dollars of affordable, high quality belts for gifts. We stock 5 full racks, and the maker can still deliver in time for Christmas too. Since you read through all this letter, reward yourself with the same S&H on 2 or 3 belts as on 1. Most will ship for $5.69 to $6.89 depending on weight and distance. Now get several belts or suspenders or wallets shipped for the same S&H charge as 1. 

God Bless, & ride safe! 

C Taylor, Jr
12/03/2008

1) We got tired of frozen spigots and installed freeze proof faucets all over. When you cut off the water, the water drains underground and pipes can't freeze. There's some work digging a hole and filling with drain rocks, but the time and money saved with frozen and busted pipes is really worth it.
2) The hardware store had a heater wire that wrapped around our pipes. Then we added insulation. Then duck tape. We plugged the heater wire cords into the receptacles that the summer fans use. 
3) Questions:  Anybody tried to use a solar powered something to heat water in a large pasture water tank? Anybody tried digging a hole to lower the pasture water tank in the ground, or to insulate and earth berm the sides?
4) Be sure to unhook and drain all water hoses the night before, and even in the day, when it's really cold. All the freeze proofing doesn't help when water hoses are frozen.
5) Locate your water buckets on a center wall of the barn if you have a hall. Our barn is kinda old. We made an insulated box to keep ours sitting in. Plywood, then insulation board, then another layer of wood. Also, we use feed bags to chink the cracks in walls that let fresh air inside the barns in hot weather. If it's really airy, you can hang tarps on outside walls. 
6) Every since my boot went through the ice in the pasture water tank, I keep a large metal ice pick near. The welder made it. He put a point on a metal pole. I punch near the center and not towards the sides. Be careful not to drop it through the tank bottom too. One of those metal tamps used for fence poles works good too. 
7) What about pouring hot water from buckets filled from the hot water heater?

Cultured Cowboy offers a portable hot water heater that is designed for warm water washing. It should work on frozen water too. If you are within reach of a regular water hose for the inlet, you have got hot water anywhere. You can get one of those power inverters and run it from your truck battery, or from any 110 wall socket. We spoke to one customer who had a water tank he could fill and let pump into his HottWash. This kept continuous water flowing way out where there was no hose to reach from a barn supply. 

8) We ran electricity underground to the watering tanks in the fields. Now we drop in a bucket heater while we feed up. By the time we finish feeding, the water is thawed. 

Any more ideas? Let us know and we'll share them.

Anybody can be a camp cook. All it takes is years and years of starvation.  

INGREDIENTS 1 teaspoon baking powder  2 cups all-purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup white sugar 1 cup packed brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 2 cups rolled oats 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1.       Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease baking sheets. Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

2.       In a large bowl, cream together the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients. Stir in the rolled oats and chocolate chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets.

Serve on Design Impressions Platter

 1) There's always some old fence with really rusty barbed-wire somewhere. We are replacing a lot of ours this year and have coils of it scattered around. When it's old, the barbs aren't so sharp & it's easy to bend. You can coil it like a round wreath. You can put 12 penny nails in 3/4 inch plywood and make a form to bend around shapes like stars, or Christmas trees, or a bell. Bend the wire around the shapes until it looks as full as you want. Use tie wires in strategic places to hold it all together, so it doesn't spring loose, then pull it off the form. Now you can embellish between the strands with greenery, and/or vines. Add some spurs, horseshoes, bandanas, pine cones, tumbleweed parts, or Montana Christmas ornaments. Strips from your old worn-out cowboy shirt can be torn into sections to tie a bow.  

2) Never throw away that first pair of boots. Bronze those cuties and make bookends. Same places that do babyshoes will do boots too. Have them mounted on wood and fill the boots with pennies for weight. This is a great Christmas gift for your kids as they approach 30...their baby boots! Add some holly, mistletoe, or other Christmas greenery for seasonal accents. 

3) Get some small diameter cedar, lodge pine, or whatever is local. Have a sawmill cut it in halves. (Take 'em a batch of those cookies in this letter as a bribe.) Nail, glue, peg, or however you like to fasten these, to some older furniture you might find at a thrift shop or used furniture store. (Scars are tattoos with better stories!) (Kids are pretty rough on new furniture anyway.) Get your farrier to sell you a pound of horseshoe nails. Put some horseshoes in the right spots. Hopefully you were able to leave some "stubble", (short branches) on the poles so you can hang hats, ropes, Craighead Chap Sets, and other cowboy gear on the finished project. 

Of course, Cultured Cowboy has almost all the stuff needed for these projects!