I may have mentioned I live out in the wilderness. This is where City Folk come for vacations and retire. I'm on a back country road that snakes along the river and the last 7 miles of it is gravel-and-dirt. It ends at my driveway with a gate across it and a padlock. There are 5 houses back here, mostly part-time hunters & fishers. I'm the only gatherer. haha Except when I go fishin' with my pal Willie. This is a picture of him holding the 12-pound catfish that I caught last summer. When he told me I had to touch it...Eeeewww! So I took his picture. And yes, we release anything back to the river. The fish is toxic with mercury & I'm not about to eat Grandfather Catfish, anyway. I make him chocolate truffles and he brings beer I don't drink. He's a retired salesman, but it wouldn't matter what his profession was, some people are just easy to be around. We laugh and talk about nothing in particular and have a good time. For Christmas I made him an ornament with pictures of the river and fishing. He made me a walking stick that he borrowed from the beavers who have set up a dam near our fishing hole. It's really cool--they stripped the bark and you can see their teeth marks. Anyway, he called last night and after spending all day on the phone, it was nice to laugh about everything and nothing in particular. Easy.
P.S. A $10 donation will help A Place to Bark win a $50,000 grant to help with their animal shelter. They get pointage for each donation, not dollar amount. Deadline is Jan. 31st. You can click here to contribute.
