Jeremiah Watt

Have Crust will conquer,
this is for my friend Ed Blackwell ,a cook, a cowboy, an Engineer, but more than anything a Christian man who exudes good character. Thanks Ed for the generous portions of your Dutch Oven Cobbler back in Tennesee. I hope you enjoy.

-Called Get Even Bread-I added 1 cup Rye flour in place of 3 regular flour. I also added 1/2 cup chopped Walnuts and a 1/2 cup of Flax Seed that my Budgie wouldn't eat, then I replaced my Budgie with a Cat.

There is an old adage that says: man does not live by bread alone!

Now in my own never be humble opinion, this is totally bogus statement, and I am really close to being living proof……..someday you can ask my young friend Jordie. Jeremiah indeed loves his bread. And of all the things I really love to cook, its bread and biscuits. My bread and biscuits will cure marital troubles, and make a wife go GA-GA over an otherwise useless husband. So men pay close attention, I shall reveal here the secrets to an incredible married life.
#1- Keep your britches on and maybe if it gets warm, ya can roll up your sleeves. Remember to wear an ample Flour Sack about your “waste” to keep your Levi’s from showing any FLOUR to your roping buddies.
#2- Remember men, Bread is so simple WOMEN can make it.

Okay, we got the real serious stuff out of the way, and the wives are mad enough now to split my head with a clever……. We can get on with the actual fun of making bread and biscuits my way. Forget all those darned measuring spoons, cups and tablespoons. I am a cook looking for a firm European Crust and as few dishes to do as is possible. Success is measured by dishes to be done after wards, and true success is a BOWL and SPOON. Remember keep the bowl as small as possible, it takes a long time to lick out a large bowl.

BISCUITS FIRST,
2 Cups of Bread Flour
2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder
½ Teaspoon of Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon of Sugar
¾ Teaspoon Salt
Mix the above dry ingredients together well
Then grate in an 8oz stick of almost frozen butter, use a coarse grater. Grate a little then mix it in, then grate some more and mix that in, until the 8oz stick is coarsely mixed in. Remember that we do not stand around mixing this stuff for any length of time……….there’s always the NFR, Nascar and a football game to be watched and mixing takes time.
Lastly we can add a cup of cold butter milk, none of it, then grab the rotten stuff at the back of the fridge if you happen to be a Bachelor……….still none, then add 1 tablespoon of Lemon juice to the cup of fresh milk. Allow that to stand for 15 minutes and then add to the mixture above. If you do this right the concoction will appear to be to wet and runny……..that is just perfect. Now absolutely do not listen to yer mother-in-law and her instructions about adding more flour and kneading this stuff. She would be flat wrong with this recipe. Have a hot oven, already up to 475.
Spoon the wet dough out onto a Ford 150 hubcap or a cooking sheet will work I suppose. About 1 scooping tablespoon is fine. Place them with about ¾ inch between the wet dough balls and slide in the oven to cook for approx 15 minutes till the tops are golden brown. Now with all the love in the world, set yer wife down and feed her and her mother one each of these golden crusty gems, if they get up and leave these babies……….well, be thankful I guess. She can always be replaced with a good bird-dog!

Cranberry Prostate Loaf- lets face it. Most men think prostate is that act of lying flat on your belly on the ground..........till they hit 50, then the whole world tells them about the other meaning for the same word. Well good health tells us Cranberries are good for ol'Prostate,here is a loaf loaded with the goodness to keep ya healthy. 1 full cup of dried Cranberries, and 3/4 cup of south Texas Walnuts barely chopped, and the trick is a 1/4 cup Olive oil which gives you a Artisan style Rustic loaf.

BREAD COMES NEXT-
If by chance you like that bread that sticks to the roof of your mouth, having a crust like a dish rag ………this may not be your style of bread. This is a sour dough type bread with a real hearty crust not for the denture challenged folks out there. So beware. A good sized #14 Dutch Oven is the real secret here, along with a bottle of beer.

3 Cups Bread Flour
¼ Teaspoon of Dry Active Yeast………if the born on date goes back to the sixties toss it.
1 ½ Teaspoons Table Salt
Mix these dry ingredients well……..yes, round and round, over and over that’s mixing
Now for liquids, we add ¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons of room temp water
Then add ¼ cup mild flavored Lager Bear……..oops Beer
Lastly add 1 full tablespoon of white Vinegar
Mix the liquids well, and pour over the dry ingredients.
If you do it all about correct, you will have what appears to be a very loosely mixed, somewhat floured fuzzy ball of dough. It is just barely mixed, and definatly not KNEADED like a textbook dough would be.
Next step, place the mixing bowl and contents in a warm but not hot place, and just cover it so it stays warm and LEAVE IT ALONE FOR 12-18 HOURS. YES, leave it alone, no peeking, no prodding just time and the wonderful gift of atmospheric autolyzation taking place.
After the set upon time, you can roll the now risen dough ball out on a floured board and very quickly and somewhat lazily KNEAD the bread………..do not strain your self in the kneading process, just a good 12-15 strokes is all. Remember, save your strength, you may have to open another Beer later.
Place the dough ball on a sheet of cooking parchment paper so that it can be lifted and placed in into a hot dutch over before it is then placed in the VERY HOT OVEN. SO, sitting the dough on parchment, the bread is covered once again, and returned to that warm spot to rise for maybe 1.5 to 2 hours.
About 15 minutes before it is time to set the bread in an oven, turn the oven up to 500 degrees and place the Dutch oven inside so it gets darned good and hot. Then lift the loaf of risen dough by the corners of the parchment and settle it down into the very hot dutch oven. Put the lid on the Dutch Oven, and close the oven for 15 minutes. Once that 15 minutes of cooking time is over, we can turn the oven down to 375 and cook for another 18 – 20 minutes.
When this bread is cooked thru, you can lift the loaf and tap on the bottom, you should hear a deep hollow, empty sound………thud,thud,thud....very similar to the hollow sound you here when you rap on a teenagers head these days. The bread will have a dense heavy crust, with a mildly yeasty taste. The shape of the risen loaf will be rather squat with a golden brown top, the inside texture will be earthy smelling and have a open airy structure, it stores well and is good hot or cold. Combine it withe some hearty cheeses like Gruyere of Taler, Pazzosa and maybe a little Cabernet in a tin coffee cup...........this is truly cowboy " Horse de Hoofers"

It’s high time you got courageous, you’ve made a few loaves and had success. Now is the time to let the creator that has been locked inside of you all these many years, now is the time to let him loose. Try adding some nuts, maybe some dried fruit, try cutting it with Muesli, roll it in Oats, or sprinkle it with flour. Son, there’s a whole nother world inside that oven………..but only the bravest will ever see it, let alone taste it. Cooking is supposed to be fun, and recipe rules are ment to be broken.

Yes we are all tongue in cheek here, and you ladies don’t bother sending me hate mail about my chauvinistic comments, I will make it fair in due time……….I will be sure to pick on women next week……….. okay?

Rustic Raisin Bread, it will bring over a nieghbor quicker than a new bottle of Rye. Just add 1 full cup of CALIFORNIA raisins, and if you like a little sweet try a 1/3 cup of Sorghum. For those of you who are Sorghum Intolerant, you can try a 1/3 cup of Demar Brown Sugar. Cinnamon is entirely optional, so just dont add it.

I have done both of these recipes in Dutch Ovens using briquettes and/or coals from Oak. The results were the same no matter if I used coals or an inside oven. Delicious.
Bon Appetite, Good night and God Bless

Posted by Jeremiah Watt at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The big one is gone, what does the future hold??

If you have ever saved and scrimped in order to add a new piece of equipment to your workshop then you can realize my apprehension at letting my green machine go. What am I talking about, give me a moment and I will explain.

About 15 years ago, my wife and I decided that we would buy a multi-spindle carving machine. This is the sort of thing that replicates parts in wood, and is used in a bunch of different industrial applications, for our needs it would be applied in the production of our saddle trees. And so the research began, I remind you this was prior to much being available on the web, so letters had to be written, and brochures found and books read about the whole subject of carving machines.

Then JW headed to the Carolina’s for a little over a week, after all the center of furniture carving in USA is in the North Carolina area. While touring that area, JW took in the IWF Show in Atlanta, which is the largest wood working equipment Show in the USA. While there I of course stopped and asked every stupid question possible to any one who would listen and who had equipment to sell. Then I toured every production carving shop that would allow me through the doors, and again I asked a barrage of questions.

When I arrived home, the resulting information was put into play and we began to search for an Italian made carving machine, for these were the most highly thought of machines out on the production lines. We found an 8 place machine, made by Las Scolpatrice of Bove Cunea,Italy. For 28K it was a beauty and very intimidating to be sure. When it arrived we had to remove the roof from the tree shop so that a crane truck could lower it down into the building. The set-up went easy enough, but the power requirements proved to be a challenge. After many attempts at the infamous homemade 3 phase converter we finally settled on a factory product that produced 3 equal legs of power……….and our machine ran smoothly. Prior to the addition of true power supply, we could not even get the machine to attempt to start.

For many years we used this machine, it worked and produced faithfully for us. But the realization of it being to big finally came into play for our shop. The machine was capable of producing 8 bars per hour for us, but the problem was still that of customization and its constant demand for minor changes in tree dimensions etc. So, it was decided to sell the big green machine and replace it with something smaller and a little more fitting to our capacity and need for easy changes.

The green machine was sold to the good folks at Timberline Saddle Tree. It will be replaced soon with something but we are not just to sure what the replacement will be. But whatever it is, we will let you know right here. We will also share with you what it was that made us choose the machine we did, but for now I have to settle with a hole in my shop where a very nice piece of equipment used to sit.

Good Night and God Bless

Posted by Jeremiah Watt at 8:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah on his new Canon S3-IS, then into Photo Shop 7.0 for a little selective Polarizing

Morning light peeks thru the shop windows as I enter my shop at 6:45am, anyone who knows me also knows that Jeremiah very rarely sees that time of day...............but boy howdy do I ever see alot of 2am's. I just couldn't resist taking a picture of all these trees with thier last coat of Varnish drying in that great light.

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah Watt shot with new Canon S3-IS
It has been so cold here in California the last few weeks that getting trees dried and Varnish cured has meant that everything had to come indoors. Even getting the glue ups for forks, cantles and tree bars had to be set in a warmed room so the glue joints would be strong and solid. Not sure if you all can hear the weeping, but there has been no rain and folks with cattle are getting very uneasy about the rainfall situation. So if by chance any of you are into dancing NUDE under thunderclouds........ then I suggest ya knock yer'self out dancin! No thanks, but thanks for asking, I think I will just sit this dance out if'in ya don't mind.

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah, this shows a group of saddle trees ready for some BULL HIDE

Another reason for taking this tree picture was to allow me a chance to move on a little more with the whole issue of stirrup hangers in tree bars. You will notice that the tree in the lower forground is our Hamley Hanger tree, she is all dry and ready to build on for a very good 3rd time customer. But wait I say, I have other information in here that I will share with you as well.

There have been several posts placed in regards to the HANGER ISSUE, and I hope that all of you have taken time to read them. There were also about 4 other emails sent directly to my mail box and I am just not enough of a GEEK to figure out how to place them over in the POST LIST of commentors. That is an issue to try and remedy this week if possible. To a man we all feel that the whole idea of a hanger has great appeal, and by God it should work. But it just doesn't seem to live up to the expectations that we all have. There have been several convincing posts that support the notion that it cannot wear out stirrup leathers any faster than say an English Saddle, since it is virtually the same concept that they have been using now for some 200 years.............right? Well, yes and no. Firstly the English version is on a slightly narrower steel bar than is ours, and secondly the English Leathers are narrower. This might lead us to believe that the wear problem would or should be worse, but ther are two other important factors to consider here.

The key difference in the leather is first, the English version of a stirrup leather is plumper and a softer tannage than is the American Skirting that we use. Our skirting is tanned in an Oak bark filled pit, where it sits immersed for some 3-9 months depending on the tannery. all the while our English counterpart is a Chrome tannage that has a short tanning life but a long life cycle. Becasue there is no stamping done on the English Saddles they have no need for the leather to hold an EMBOSSING or tool impression, where as we do and must have leather that will hold an impression of a tool applied to it.

A second factor is one of care and conditioning. Lets face it and take the consequences as they come. The folks who ride English are just fastidious about keeping there gear cleaned and conditioned. Saddles get wiped down after almost every ridinh, they get soaped regularily which is usually followed by a conditioner. So it goes without saying that the leathers on an English saddle would last a lot longer than do the average cowboy saddle. Cowboys are inherently lazy in the care and maintenance of thier gear. I have like many others tore apart saddles that are many years of age adn found that the leathers have never even been rolled over the bars and cleaned nor oiled. The rest of the saddle may well have been cleaned and oiled..........(if it was a lucky one)...........but the harder to reach areas never seen a drop of oil or dressing that could and would extend the life of the leather. If the attitude of care and maintenance were to change, that factor alone would play inot the acceptance of bar hangers I think!

Most of you seemed to also think that a larger diameter bar over which the leathers ran, would make for a better product with less liklyhood of serious leather fatique in the area that the leathers wrap over the stirrup bars. I will continue on with more about the second tree that I had shown earlier, you remember, the one in-which we used a 3" wide web saddle dee to build the stirrup bar. We will be rawhiding this tree in with a group of 5 others, that will start next week and so it will not be dry till into Feb some time. At that point I will revisit that tree, and maybe I can show you some pictures of the Hamley Hanger tree if all goes well............but then don't count on it because there are several saddles and shows coming up that will most likley screw plans up.

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah Watt
Now into this whole mix I have to interject my saddle making friend, Brock Lynch who resides in Grand Junction Colorado. Brock has been a custom saddler for many years now, and hails from Australia. During one period of his saddle making career Brock had a Saddle Shop in Florida, and it was while he lived in this southern Region that he had chance to meet a quite famous saddler in his day who had designed a quite unique stirrup bar idea. Now I had never seen this version, no real surprise I guess. And my friend Brock tells me they were indeed quite locally popular with nary a complaint that Brock can recall hearing of. The whole design is quite ingenious really, it manages to have the leathers sit within a loop and swing over a common center or pivot thus eliminating the rocking type wear that gets the leather over a standard fixed style hanger. From a tree makers perspective they are much less bulky than all other hangers that have hit the market place of ideas.

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah Watt of the LINGLE FREE SWING when it is in place and the rider's feet hanging strait down.

The saddle maker that we will give credit too here is one Floyd Lingle of Kissimmee Florida. I have done a search in Google for info on this Floyd fella but came up with ZILCH.............(which is a Republicans measurement of the amount of expierience Barack Obama has)..............on to more details of Floyd. He made Palmetto swamp country cowboy rigs says my friend Brock. Funny thing about Floyds saddles says Brock, they were always rough out at least the ones I had a chance too see and they were really short seated like 14.5 or 15 inch saddles. Of course at the time I was building mostly riening saddles quotes Brock, so I was used to looking at a different breed of saddle, but none-the-less says Brock, they were very unique saddles that had a loyal following for sure.

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah, this is the free swing in motion and riders feet now nearthe cinch.

The hanger which we will call the "Lingle Free-Swing" is a very simple but effective design. It encompasses a thick plate with a perfect tight fit circle in its center. To the central circle a retainer of lighter Galvanized is folded and riveted to capture the center circle from both sides. Meanwhile within the fold of the retainer portion of the whoel unit there is a long narrow shaped dee ring through which passes the stirrup leathers once they are put in place. It would appear to me that the entire unit is placed on the surface of the saddle tree after the rawhide has been cured and the tree is ready to go. The entire "Lingle Free Swing" is held onto the tree by way of two screws and that is it. Now in talking to Brock, he tells me that he had never seen the swings come loose nor heard of such an event taking place. That of course is not to say that it didn't or couldn't, just that we have not heard of the method of attachment being a problem.

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah with the Free Swing and riders feet well in front of the shoulder at this point.

The whole design is very intriguing to me, and I think that I will have to build a few in order to try it out and give it an honest and true test. This is one of those unusual products or items that had aa very quite life of perfect service and function.................and now eyars later we turn one up and wonder how the heck it could possibly have worked. Our highly skilled overly critical minds will cast doubt on the most promising of ideas..................especially if it was not our idea. I have no doubt that Floyd Lingle has a great design here, and I don't doubt my friend Brock. BUt I do want to put the design to test with the whole world watching, and we will all see together what happens. If you have any ideas, or comments we invite them.
Good night and God Bless
Jeremiah

PHOTO BY: Jeremiah, ya just had to do it didn't ya. Just had to know how far a head ya could git yer feet..........well know what er'ya gonna do with yer rowelks stuck in his mane like that there....................

Posted by Jeremiah Watt at 10:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

My vision in regards to the saddle that I propose building for the Western Folklife Center - a saddle that brings into perspective the time frame of the curatorial endeavor underway at the Western Folklife Center. Thus far the collection has been built from living contemporary makers with a modernized viewpoint or application of their skills. That is great, and also to be expected, but the epic story of the West that we gather to celebrate takes place from the earliest times of cattle on the western plains to the modern and contemporary cowboy of today. Although I am not known as one of the makers who delves into the re-creation of vintage items, I see it as an opportunity to let the creative juices flow. The Western Folklife Center has offered me an open canvas, if you will, to paint and create my own masterpiece, to express my skills as a saddler/silversmith in whatever way I think suits the project best.

Continue reading "My vision for the new saddle" »

Posted by Jeremiah Watt at 4:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)