The race is on….ELK Season

The race is on….ELK Season

Today is the day of opening season for either sex. For those of you who are living on the East Coast…  Elk is like a large deer. Meat wise it is compared to a cow size. And taste..  Which is ironic as the elk sexes are BULL AND COW..   When the season starts it is bulls only… which was last week..  so here we are about 7 days in.. and it is cow season and that is when it gets serious… meaning you can kill either one of them..  a really open season… It is kind of figured if you don’t get one during cow season..  you are not in a good position..  See there is more of the season.. about week..  /cow season is only 3 days if I recall right.  But there is that week after.. and then there is black powder season, about a week.… But come Nov… it is over.. there is still deer season.. but deer is poor man’s elk.   Elk is more like beef and it is BIG..   Deer is small, and well, it doesn’t taste like anything but venison… if not cooked right, it taste like liver. I like the roast better..  Ken cooks the steaks as he can do it just right.  Me it is a 50-50 deal. But I make a great roast.

So today is the big day..  it is up at 2am.. (NOT ME) so he can get up there with his buddies who camped out.. He comes home at night for a warm bed and shower…  Then they leave camp, and head into the woods..  Because Ken is the senior guy now.. he gets to take the guys and drop them off at the top of the hill or mountain..  and goes down to the bottom and pick them up when they walk thru.. The young guys.. (The under 65 guys.)  Also while waiting for them to come out.. he sits there with his rifle.. and if they scare one his way… He gets to take it down..   the good news is that is near the road…  just about ¼ of a block from the road. So carrying it is not bad.  It is the ones who shoot near mid way.. who have the long haul..  That takes cutting it up in quarters. Load it on your back and head for the truck. Or nearest road so a truck can come get you.   Last year the guys did not get any elk.. only deer. So we are hoping for at least one Elk.   It is split between all he                                      who are hunting with you…  That is the rules of the hunt.  He who helps pack it out, and helps with the processing the meat.. gets a share.

And we women, most of us don’t hunt.. Use to.. when younger..  but now we get to stay home and keep the home fires burning. AND  we get to do as we DARN WELL WANT TO DO..  Some of us read books and drink tea.. watch the shows on tv WE LIKE.. and then there are some, it is party time with the girls..  Either at one’s home or the bars.  Go to shows their husbands wouldn’t be caught dead in..   So you see there is benefits to both sides. 

So here is to a great hunt and all the guys get their tags filled. 

 

Honor your Pastor month...... bears repeating...

I wrote this about 2 years ago... it bears repeating..  

HAPPY PASTOR MONTH... 

Being a Pastor.

As each of us religious persons, head to the church of our choice.. be it to see our Pastor, or Priest, Rabbi, or what ever else the head person is called… many of us take them for granted.

Many think that the night before he sat at his dining room table and wrote out notes or even .. word for word what he plans on saying the next morning at the Sunday (or Saturday) service.  Words of wisdom.  And then he goes home at the end of the day with his family or fellow Priest.

Never giving a thought of what the job actually entails.

Maybe if we were to sit around talking and having coffee and the subject would come up .. of what exactly does that person do..  maybe some of the other things would come up. Like running the church, of what he has in mind that is good for those who show up for services each week.  Good for the children. And the teens.. the elderly…

Maybe we would remember that they go to the hospital when one of the people ends up in the hospital.. due to sickness, or the pending death.   Some might even mention that maybe he goes to the jail to talk to jail mates.   They might think of those as some of the job description.. 

But what about the toll it puts on that man .. oh, I guess I should be a disclaimer, as there are some that are women.

But what does it mean to the clergy person?  And most of all.. his family.

Do we call only from 9am to 5pm on week days?  No. there are calls at dinner time.. asking for help, or to tell of a tragedy in our families, and he/she leaves the family and rushes to the place to be of help… be it something physical or prayers.. or words of comfort.   Some call on weekends.  Not even Dr’s have these hours that the clergy person has.  See they are available 24/7… where Dr. (unless they are the  small town only dr.) have back ups.. Other drs. that cover for each of ours at any certain time.  As they also cover for other doctors.  But it is rarely that there is a back up for the clergy. Yes there is jr. clergy at some churches so they can fill in for a service..  but it is the main guy who gets the call in the middle of the night or in the middle of dinner.. and etc. 

Being there really is no time off.. days off… they are available 24/7… what about the days, they head to the hospital in the afternoon, and visit with the family… sits with the person who is ill… hours of it.. and then heads home.. it can be an out of town hospital.. so it is hours of driving home.   Dead tired.. wore out.. and a lot of times.. no thank you giving… thank you for coming with no notice.. yet there he/she is… Trying to comfort us.. when someone should be comforting them.  What about the crisis in his own home.. Kids in trouble..  or illness of his own family.. their parents, or spouse, or even the kids..  who is there to say.. God will watch over you.. it will be ok..

To deal with humans as they have to do daily.. different problems, some times the parishioner will wear them down.  Not all problems are easy to fix.. and hard to comfort.

This is why some clergy burn out.. unless they can take months off..   Just a vacation doesn’t always cut it..

So with this being HONOR YOUR PASTOR MONTH…  maybe a kind word.. some comforting words.. words of appreciation… sometime we just don’t think about them.. we take them for granted.  And that is a horrible thing ..to take another human for granted.  

Maybe a small note to them.. to say thank you for being there.. than you for your guidance. … what do you think?

 

I’ll go first..  THANK YOU PASTOR CHAD.. (Sandpoint Church of Nazarene )  thank you for being there for all of us… thank you for your research to find the right words to guide us thru life.   Thank you for being on the run in those early hours, and sometime finishing up so late that your family has gone to bed..   THANK YOU seems so little to say.. but know the large words are filled to the brim with everything in my heart.   You must be doing something right.. as your oldest son is following in your footsteps..  and all of your children are following yours and Jamie's lead. 

 

And THANK YOU Koby, Carlie and Janine… a great crew we have.

 

HOT TUB … HOT TUB… YEAH!!

HOT TUB … HOT TUB… YEAH!!

We had our hot tub die last week..  The King took down half of the wall, and slid it out of the little house it is in.. Then he got a saw and cut it in half.. took it to the dump.. This was after testing the pumps and engine.. finding them fine, but the panel board was fried. 

A friend saw him taking it to the dump..  asked  him, if he wanted another one..   She would give him hers..   It was smaller, but that was fine with us. So Saturday, he went and got it.  Took the trailer around the yard and back into the area..  put rollers under it and slide it inside the little house.   He spend 2 days wiring it correctly, then he got the water in.. and started to heat it up.

By 6pm. yesterday. the tub was hot.. 103…  After working on it all day and getting the wall put back in.. we were beat. Our backs hurt, our legs hurt.. So being able to get in it was wonderful… 

He knows something that he can do for her, so he is going over tomorrow to take care of that..   Great to have good friends.

This is OUR AMERICA…..

This is OUR AMERICA…..  

If you have been watching the news the last week, and more so, the past few days…. You have seen Ashville N. C.  is in trouble. Water has washed away the roads….  The hurricane took house after house…  Even the people who still have their houses.. have no electricity.. no water … and for a while no roads..  Some still don’t have roads… But this past weekend..  there are trucks after trucks after trucks.. hundreds of them..  Workers, thousands have showed up to help these people who lost everything.  It is hard to watch the video’s of how bad it is..   

Hurricanes are no new weather hazards..  We have seen hurricanes for years..  a hundred or more years.. and it seems like there is more now.  I lived my young life in R.I… we were use to hurricanes..   But this one .. this one seems different. For one thing is Ashville is way inland from what a hurricane usually comes thru. It is more a coastal storm…  This one was more powerful than some of the past ones.. or maybe because it is more inland, it seems like it.

Before even FEMA arrived..  people were coming.. People with mules started a mule train to go thru the area where no vehicle could go.. taking in water, food… and what ever else they thought they could use, in those bad areas…  the ones no one was able to reach the first day or two.   Small churches are opening their doors to help give a place for people to go… opening their doors for the workers who have come from far away… 

THIS IS OUR AMERICA…  Take the politics and the nasayers, the people who are shown on television shows and news..  that upheave our towns…   THAT IS NOT OUR AMERICA….  THESE PEOPLE in North Carolina.. the survivors, the helpers, those with little .. sharing what they have..  THAT IS OUR AMERICA.. 

AN I AM MIGHTY PROUD OF THATAMERICA…

Ups and downs of life….

October 1, 2024 good morning Fall..

Ups and downs of life….

So yesterday we heading to Spokane Valley to return a part that was not needed in the restoring of the truck..  And we got our money back for that…  Then headed to a spa place to find out if our motors were good or not… for our hot tub…  Scored well on that..  as BOTH of them were just fine… The guy is one of those older guys who knows his stuff.. without a computer involved.. Remember those guys?   So he made a suggestion of the fact the heater might be the problem.. maybe it kicked out the breaker..  Sound reasonable. 

Off we go to the restaurant the King loves and not so much from me… Top of China… it is an all your can eat place.    The food was ok.. seem not really hot, but not cold either.. which was odd as steam was floating thru the air.   After we ate, we headed home.. and the traffic wasn’t bad.

Upon arriving home… I went to get something out of my jacket pocket… when it dawn on me… after I could not find it.. I LEFT IT AT THE RESTURANT… which is 45 miles away.. I called and yes they had it..  told them I would come and get it today… 

The King comes in..  he is bummed..  The motors are fine as we knew… and the heater is fine too… THEN he noticed a  little bit of smoke..   it is the master board..   fried…   This is a major part.

So now the decision…. Is ..  it worth the price.. or is it time to give up on it..  We decided… the hot tub is 20+ years old..  While we would love to get a new one..  but while getting the motor checked.. I saw that they average $10,000.. for a small one.. and that is what we would get, as we don’t need one as big as this one is. 

So we will think about that for bit .. and decide..  Maybe there is someone who repairs master boards.