SONG CHALLENGE WINNER!

The Song Challenge:   Digging herself in deeper and deeper -- Yep, it's your one and only Giver-uppper of the Golden Cow Chips, back from the 'moving' wars and ready to test your little gray cells once again!! I'll just take this opportunity to let all you wonderful Challenge!rs know how much I've missed you -- and I hope we won't ever be parted for so long again . . . This Challenge! will be sorta personal, if y'all don't mind too much ;-) . . . I do think, however, that it will test your collective imagination and rhyming capabilities satisfactorily . . . Here's a picture of the new homestead, perched appropriately on a high sandstone hill in the Post Oak Savannah of Texas (the East Cross Timbers, to be exact). Please note the sandstone wall on the left . . . behind that wall is a curious little patch of broken stones, buried in a sandy clay loam, quite different from the rest of the grounds (you can't 'dig' here -- there's one inch of dirt, then rock, then THICK wet (not damp) clay).  I've been digging and breaking rocks with my trusty spade and pickaxe for two weeks now, and I still haven't reached the bottom of this strange plot of earth. However, I have discovered a few interesting things buried under the first layer of dirt and rock . . . your Challenge! is to write a song about what I found buried beneath the red-tipped photinias, honeysuckle and asian jasmine . . . let your minds run wild and let your collective freak flags fly, my dear Challenge!rs and GO FOT IT!  Hugs and snogs to each and every one of you -- and two kisses on each of your cheeks (hahaha) -- Áine (songtress, chef, chief bottle washer and now Mad Gardener)


The Blue China Jug by Lonesome EJ

When Vernon and Katy had said their goodbyes
They turned to the West with a dream in their eyes
With one yoke of oxen, a bed and a rug
a shotgun, a rocker, and a blue china jug

They crossed to St Louis where they joined with a train
And set out for Texas in a cold, driving rain
In West Oklahoma with its dust and its bugs
They dipped clear creek water in the blue china jug

Where the plains of West Texas met the trees of the East
They finally declared that their searching had ceased
They built them a soddy, not pretty, but snug
And a pine corner shelf held the blue china jug

In those first years of farming they struggled for life
And the babies were sick, and Vernon said to his wife
"We've only this dollar for all the dirt that I've dug"
But Kate dropped the coin in the blue china jug

"This is a place where our fortune can grow
We'll start with this dollar and add as we go"
And as the years passed, and their work turned to wealth
The jug grew quite heavy on the old pinewood shelf

In the summer of 61, Tom rode off with a force
Of Texas Militia in a company of horse
From Mill Springs to Shiloh his letters he sent
Until at Resaca his young life was spent

And Vernon took money from the blue china jar
To bring Thomas home from the fields of the war
But the people were hungry, and the farm prospered well
In the spring of 72 they decided to sell.

They bought a frame house and a business in town
And they loaded the wagons on the hard clay ground
It was while Kate was loading the jug at the last
That it slipped from her hands and shattered like glass

She gathered the pieces in an old cloth of gray
And dug out a place in the layer of clay
For one hundred thirty years the china jug laid
until it was troubled by the touch of a spade

She said to her husband "Quick, look what I've found
Lying just under that piece of clay ground!"
And he laughed and he said "what a fine piece of junk
You can stick it in the shed by the old cardboard trunk"

But she washed it and cleaned it til the jar shone like new
And she brought it to life with patience and glue
And she said as she placed it on the mantle of stone
"Here's a place to put dreams. Welcome back home."

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