Preachers Come A-Callin'

If you stay around a church long enough there comes a time when the current pastor retires or moves on and a new one is sought from a crowd of wannabe enthusiasts.

It used to be a pretty simple thing to get a new one as the Denomination would just put the names in a hat and draw one out. Nowadays with the advent of technology, the nominating committee is inundated with DVD's of the candidate and can hear just exactly what they will have to endure for the next several years.

Read More

Too Fat to Fly

Two years ago when Trixie and I were in the beginning throes of our harmonious adventure, we took an ATV ride up to a high mountain meadow.

On this particular trip we were alone and for once Ol' Dutch could sneak a kiss out of sight of her ever-present-mother who thought her 47-year-old daughter still too young to date.

Driving into the meadow we saw an eagle on the ground and were able to drive within 5 feet of it. Now Trixie is the sort that rescues poor animals in distress and some people would say that's how she ended up with Ol' Dutch. But that’s a story for another day.

Read More

Been to Center

The older I get the more I learn about life and the difference between what's really important and what to just let slide.

The lists are probably endless but as most of you have come to realize, such things as fishing, hunting, ATV'ing and hiking come pretty high on the priority list while soup suppers, social events, craft fairs and watching sports just has to take a backseat.

Read More

Free Heat

Like the old fable of the Ant and the Grasshopper, if you head up to high country these days you’ll see lots of “ants” preparing for the winter by cutting firewood – lots of firewood.

It seems every year about this time, as soon as the roads into the high country have opened up and the snow has receded from mountain slopes and valleys, pickup trucks carrying chain saw wielding guys show up in large numbers fulfilling their childhood dream of being a lumberjack.

Read More

Riding My Way To Happiness

Having vacationed here in the Valley for some 50 odd years, when the opportunity to move here arose, I jumped on it like a flea on a dog's back.

 It didn't take me long to realize that having an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) would open up the back country to these tired old Kansas legs. Watching others zoom past me as I trudged along on some logging road only whetted my appetite for a machine of my own

Read More

Bingo!

To be honest with you, Reader, earlier in my life I had judgments about people who played bingo night after night.  

Sitting for hours at a time in close proximity to overly-perfumed ladies and farting old men who yelled out the news of their win like some country auctioneer selling farm equipment never appealed to me. That is until Trixie taught me the finer points of life.

Read More

Going to pot

There has been a lot of discussion over the past five years concerning the legalization of marijuana. I don't know who came up with the word “pot” to describe marijuana, but they should have considered that the saying “going to pot” is not a positive one.

Love it or hate the use of pot, it looks like it’s here to stay until people get tired of the associated problems it brings and once again decide we want a sober population. Someone once said, “too much of anything ain't good” and I think they were right about food, rain, drought, booze, pot and even church. Everything in moderation.

Read More

The Big Valley

Researchers say that a person always returns to the place they were conceived. My father decided to share that little bit of information with me and let me tell you that’s just not something you need to hear from your dad. A definite example of TMI - too much information. We all know that our parents never had sex. That’s just way too painful to even think about.

 

Having said all that, South Fork, Colorado has always seemed like home to me so maybe he is right. Again, TMI. Having taken on a nomadic lifestyle, I have had the opportunity to live for months at a time in different locales and enjoy the sights, sounds and food offered by each. I never do feel quite at home however and always long for the familiarity of our mountains.

Read More