Coons & a Country Hint

I'm an early riser by most standards - up between 5:00 and 5:30 each morning. Coffee & quiet time in my jammies, a load of laundry, put on real clothes, feed and water plants & animals. Today strong skunk smell outside --> peeeew. Picked a few black raspberries. (PANIC) Then I remembered what I forgot to do yesterday -- WATER THE PEAR TREES!! I think that was the only thing The Cowboy instructed me to do while he was gone. Too bad you weren't there to watch me tote 40-pound buckets of water to the 3 baby trees -- I'm sure it was a sight. I like to think of myself as strong - but I'm really just one tick above weakling on the muscle-woman scale. The soil around the 3rd tree had been messed with. COONS!! Those varmints!!! The only cute coons are the ones in Bambi and Sleeping Beauty.

When the girls were little, the Cowboy took them coon hunting with coon hound Johnny Cash in the woods next to our house. They shined their little kitten-cooner belt lights up into the trees and spotted the shining eyes of a coon. Princess with her little lisp said, "Isn't it cute?? Shoot it, Pop!!" CRACK went the gun, down came the coon and the fight between Cash and coon commenced. Cash won -- flawless victory!! The Cowboy finished the coon off and showed the girls how to sling the coon by its tail over their shoulder to carry the dead thing out of the woods. I took victory pictures of each girl holding the rifle, one foot on the dead coon, dog tied to the tree. The pictures are framed and displayed in the living room to this day. Red neck? Yeah, what of it?

Why did I forget to water the trees yesterday? Too much on my mind. If they only cried, barked, mooed, clucked or whatever when they're thirsty, I wouldn't have forgotten. So, it's not completely my fault. (Do you like my reasoning?) Princess and I picked red raspberries for a couple hours last night. The Farmer and Farmer's Wife (a.k.a. my dad and mom) helped too. The Farmer ate more berries than he put in the quart baskets. I think he ate and entire quart!! It was fun to be with them.

Here's a country hint: always have a roll of toilet paper in your truck. Don't ask questions, just heed my advice.