SUBJECT: VARIOUS

Bess wants to chase targets

"I'm waiting out here."

You won’t believe this, but it appears I don’t really have anything to say right now. Oh! My mind is full of visions of sugar plums – the fabric kind – but I don’t seem to sew as much as I’d like. It’s hard to get into it if sewing is a hobby that you sandwich into everyday life. Even though I want to sew, there’s always something that seems to stand in the way. It’s mostly a mental block, I think. Some people suggest little tricks:

·       Sew for 10 minutes every day. I’m not fooled by that. If you sew for 10 minutes, you’ll likely sew for 20 minutes – or maybe two hours. So, sewing for 10 minutes IS a good suggestion.

·       “Read the directions before you quit,” my mother used to say, “and know your next step. It makes it much easier to pick it up again.” She worked much more quickly than I – and was less distracted.

Monday (Aug. 21), son Clint joined us to watch the solar eclipse from the farm yard. Directly it was over, we left for town. Over the last three days, we’ve run errands, bought supplies, kept appointments, met with friends, etc. Today Mike entered his Barracuda in the Rogers’ Motors Show and Shine.

A couple of weeks ago, Mike began to cut the stand of burned trees where the road comes into our lane at the farm. We had thought those trees belonged to our neighbor to the north, but when neighbor Pete came to see what we were doing, he offered the opinion that they were our trees anyway. So, we dug out all our farm maps and concluded that if they didn’t belong to the Jack Dobson homestead (my grandfather), then they did belong to the June Dobson homestead, also part of our farm. Having established this, we decided to cut more wood. 

So, we’ll go back to the farm tomorrow in the old Silverado and take down more of those trees. I’ll be glad to have them gone and to see some sort of renewal there. Helping with the work is not my thing, but I’ll do it.

September is right around the corner, and with September the hunting seasons begin to open – Idaho dove season, Washington dove season; Washington “old man” pheasant season (yes, I know people who qualify); regular pheasant seasons (Washington and Idaho); chukar seasons – well, you get the picture. Mike and his hunting buddy, Ken, hunt in both states, and Ken makes a chart of when the seasons open and close.

Mike and Ken have been hunting together for 20 years. Last year Mike’s Achilles’ tendon became inflamed early in the season which forced him to slow down. It was a heavy winter anyway, so they couldn’t get out much anyway. But this year, Ken’s dog Pepper is to have surgery on her leg which means she can’t hunt for six months – if ever again. We’re trying to think of viable solutions for this problem. (Bird-hunting is problematic if the hunter doesn’t have a dog.) KW