Potpourri

I have been responding to some other's posts but have not been too active in following up with our stuff. So here goes.

We went hunting and the group killed 17 pheasants. That wasn't bad considering it was misting and rainy on Sunday so we didn't hunt. The CRP was very thick this year so it was hard finding downed birds. We lost several we shot and I always hate that, but I guess the coyotes need to eat too.

On Saturday evening we always have a huge dinner at my cousins place where we hunt. It usually is just a big meat fest. Bar-be-que, chili, ham and my brother fried a whole turkey. This year he fried a few of the pheasants that we had just killed and they were great. Truth is, I'm a guy, anything fried is pretty damn good. After all that dead stuff we just ate, my other cousin brought homemade apple pies, we also had pumpkin pies and brownies and anything else sweet you wanted. Notice there isn't any mention of that green type food and healthy type stuff, cause it just ain't there, and if it was there it would still be there.

A very funny incident happened while we were hunting and I hope I can describe it adequately so everyone can get this mental picture and have a chuckle too.

I was blocking at the point of an irrigation circle. There were others walking thought the CRP. The grass in CRP fields this year was at least 4' high and in places taller than that. We had a couple of german shorthairs, a lab and my golden retriever in the field too. My golden is nothing more than a house dog. She gets into the field once a year but her instincts take over and actually she does a very respectable job. As I said I was blocking and about 200 yards from the line of walkers. Watching them all of a sudden I could see Paul running as quickly as he could and around in circles. The people on each side were making a hasty retreat to the rear. Of course I couldn't see anything else due to the tall grass. And when you are trying to run in 4' tall grass with a shotgun in your arms and weighted down with shell vest and a dead bird in a game pouch that actually is comical enough. After they finished walking to the end of the field I got the story.

Lexi, my golden retriever had found a skunk. She had this skunk in her mouth shaking it and was trying to retrieve it back to Paul. As she was shaking this skunk and bringing it to Paul this skunk was spraying like a garden hose. Paul was running in circles away from Lexi to escape being hit by skunk spray. Lexi just kept following him and the skunk just kept spraying.

Lexi smelled horrible. I had to take her back to the barn to try to and get the smell off. First of all she actually had skunk spray that was all yellow and wet right on her face. I cut the fur off her face down to the skin. My cousin told me about a formula to remove skunk spray. 3 parts tomato juice, 1 part hydrogen peroxide, a very liberal amount of baking soda and a liberal amount of Dawn dish washing detergent. I will attest to this formula, it works. I washed her twice and she was once again clean enough to be around people. She actually smelled fine. I could not believe the results, it was amazing. Except for a few bald spots from me cutting away the fur she is none the worse for wear. I haven't gauged Paul's mental state.

Another funny incident, my youngest daughter is a hunter. She has her license and likes to walk a few fields. I try to have her close to either Paul or me. She is very inexperienced and most all of her shooting has been at clay pigeons. When she has been in a field she has not really had any good shots. We are walking through some CRP and coming to the end of the field so I told her to get ready because pheasants much prefer to run instead of fly and many times they will run to the end of the field before flying. Right after I told her to get ready a rooster literally come up right from under her feet. Thay make quite a racket getting out of the grass with their wings plus they are usually cackling loudly. It startled her so much she literally fell flat on her back. Paul and I shot the bird, she didn't even get to shoot.

Still trying to think of "what if's" for when I pick up Alex. That's just my nature, I also try to cover every possible circumstance before I begin anything. My trouble is I have to keep reminding myself that what is to happen is up to him. I need to be a listener instead of a talker. Help him with his plan instead of implementing my plan.

My posting on The Partnership For A Drug Free America has garnered a lot of comments and I have been trying to respond to them. In addition I am receiving 1 or 2 e-mails each day from parents that open their souls and are grasping for help. I try to get back to them in a timely fashion also. Most of the time I also refer them to some of the wisdom of you bloggers that read, post and comment to blogs. Another outcome of this posting is I have been contacted by a counselor that runs a program here in the KC area and ask to be a guest speaker at a meeting on Dec. 10. That's quite a jump, I hope I am up to it and they consider it worthwhile. The message I got from her is they want me to focus on my 7 truths writing. She is publicizing this meeting and my speaking so I really don't know how many to expect. They are a part of one of those mega churches that have thousands of members and she said she is putting it out for the entire church and others. New doors have opened so anyone that really knows me, I'm going in. LOL Hope I don't run back out screaming with a mob on my tail swinging implements of destruction at me. Alex will be home at that time. I am going to ask if he would like to join me. I'd love to have an opportunity to introduce him as my son. Despite everything and sometimes I don't show it well, I am still proud of him and proud to call him my son.

I have submitted my second article to The Partnership. They haven't posted it yet. It is on Boundaries.