The Great New Year's Eve Evergreen Massacree

As is tradition, a number of us get together each New Year's Eve at a friend's isolated South Texas Ranch to spend a (relatively) safe couple of days. This year was no exception. Faye and Bobby have a great place almost 100 years old with a wonderful wrap around porch. When we got there it was empty, waiting...

After dark fell, the festivities began in earnest, including a porch jam with a few musician types and a lot of audience:

Of course, there was the whole rally round the campfire as the temperature fell through the 40's. It was plenty warm against the night:

Closeup of what warm looked like:

Then, the main event - the annual sacrifice of the Hanukkah Bush. These things burn incredibly hot and fast! Makes you think twice about having one in your house:

Dinner consisted of a a large table of goodies: veggies, queso, chips, pickled asparagus, and other things, followed with wild hog, chicken wings, brisket, and fresh Polish sausage from Kosciusko, Texas, all hot off the smoker. Pinto beans, macaroni salad, deviled eggs and many other goodies abounded to fill in the blank spots

Anyway, the revelry went on throughout the night. I understand that there was a great deal of alcohol consumed, but I have no independent recollection of it. I know everyone seemed to have a great time and there were no accidents. There were several incidents, including things like handcuffs, a half-butchered deer, and 8 dogs. But those are stories for another time.

We thought that this ugly guy had way too much to drink, until we were awake enough to realize what we were seeing:

They have a lot of cats, and all but one live under the house to keep safe from the dogs. But here is this one odd fellow that actually lived in a tree. He had easy enough access to the roof, but I don't think he was all that smart. He'd climb the tree to get up there, but when he wanted down, he just let go and fell. They said that's how he always dismounts. You can tell by looking that there's just something not right about him:

Anyway, about 11:00 AM enough people were up to declare it time for breakfast. It consisted of chopped smoked wild pork from last night, bacon and onions, all cooked in Bobby's disco, seen in the middle of the pic below and in the subsequent image. Also on the menu was a big pot of sausage ranchera. There was a lot of food, and no one went away hungry. Hung over maybe, but not hungry!

Here's Bobby doing the bacon and onions prior to adding the pork. He made my disco, and he made his as well. A great tool! I did contribute the burner, however.

A good time was had by all, no one was injured, and we all dissipated through promises of seeing each other well before next New Year's eve. Chances are pretty good....