Life stinks. It’s smelly. It’s filled with odoriferous scents that make us gag, hold our nose, and turn our heads! Open your olfactory senses and inhale. What do you smell? Animal poop, human poop, vomit, rotten eggs, sour milk, decaying corpses, warm blood, garlic breath, stagnant water, body odor, dirty dumpsters, garbage, sour onions…the list is […]
Summer
September in Review – A Last Hike, Grouse for Dinner, Harvesting Potatoes
Summer is always so fleeting and most often I feel I don’t do enough. The month of September created a sense of urgency to prepare for winter and do the things I wanted to do over summer, but didn’t get around to…like practicing more with my bow. Our last hike in the park before […]
Tips for Picking Cherries
“See this little bud here, don’t break it off when you pick, it’s next year’s cherries.” Oh my gosh, what responsibility! One false move and my family and I could be responsible for the ruination of next year’s cherry crop! What if I accidentally pick off a bud – or two – or three? Would […]
July in Review – Bean Harvest and Cherry Picking
In July, I seemed to be preoccupied with fruits, vegetables, and flowers. The garden had taken off and we had a decent crop of green beans for the first time since living in Montana. I pickled 6 quarts of beans and would later process a number of pint jars, as well as stock the […]
Hot Town, Summer in the City
It seems to be part of the human condition to complain about the weather. Just a couple of weeks ago, people around here were complaining about it being too cold and rainy. Now the consensus is that it is too darn hot! After a mild 4th of July where it was a pleasure to […]
A Snot Flying Good Time at the Rodeo
No sooner did we plant our butts down on the wooden bleachers did a bucking bronco, determined to throw his rider, jerk his way toward the fence that separated us from the arena. The rodeo had started off with riveting edge of your seat action and I was captivated. “You don’t even have your camera […]
Do You Stop on a Trail?
I stood looking out the window as usual, sizing up the day. It was expected to be a hot one, but by no means as hot as what some folks have been living through. As I stood there, I glanced at my garden and decided that I should pick some ripe strawberries. I also reminded […]
Glacier is in My Blood
In my article “100 years of Grandeur”, I refer to Mary Roberts Rinehart and her eloquent expressions of Glacier National Park. She said, “There is no voice in all of the world so insistent to me as the wordless call of these mountains. I shall go back. Those who go once always hope to go back. […]
This Year at the NW Montana Fair
The fairgrounds are quiet and the Northwest Montana Fair is over signaling the end of summer. Folks from miles around came to traipse around animal barns that smelled of poop and urine. White mules shine brightly in the sunshine. Youngsters paid to wrestle with pigs in sloppy wet mud. The teams competed for prizes. As […]
Memories of Grand Isle, Louisiana
Grand Isle, Louisiana is a town on a barrier island (of the same name) in the Gulf of Mexico. Located at the mouth of Barataria Bay where the bay meets the Gulf, Grand Isle is part of Jefferson Parish, as is Metairie, a suburb of New Orleans where David and I raised three of our kids. […]