Tag Archives: Day’s end

The Bread Thief

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It’s been a long hard day. Foraging for food is not for the faint-hearted, not when it’s in the low 20’s and the wind is a steady 30 mph out of the west. Not when the neighbor’s dogs are out and you spend half the day running circles around them. It’s fun for them but then they get to home to a nice big bowl of dog chow and sleep in a warm house and you still have to find dinner.

You’ve been to all the usual places and it’s a barren wasteland out there. No one’s left anything out, there is no food to be seen. Even the mice are tucked into their little mice places and aren’t going to come out again til morning.

Then you remember that place up on the hill, they’ve left stuff out before. They were soft touches and the birds made out like bandits. It’s worth a shot to check it out. Oh man, they had left some bread out for the Stellar’s and they hadn’t found it yet. It’s like a total ‘Eureka’ moment. The motherlode. It’s gone and they’ll think the birds got it. And as luck would have it the last rays of the sun are a bonus that you hadn’t counted on. A reward for perseverance. Life doesn’t get any better than this.

Supper time

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Home in time for supper. Lots of times that isn’t the case. The work takes as long as it takes and that can mean working well into the evening and that can mean missing supper. In the fall there’s more than enough work and it all has to get done or else the winter is going to be a lot tougher than it should be. Hay has to come in, firewood needs to get cut, there’s even that elk that has to get in the freezer or else there ‘ll be a lot of rabbit or maybe squirrel served and a man does get mighty tired of squirrel.

But towards the end of harvest things slowly get done. The days get shorter, the sun seems to be a little more golden at day’s end and it is easier to get home in time for the evening meal. The kids are a littler quieter because it’s kinda strange to have dad home this early and they haven’t figured out if it’s ok to be themselves or if they need to behave a little. The littlest, the one the others call Squally, doesn’t care and sets the tone by yelling and demanding to be picked up. Dad does and tosses him in the air and that’s the signal for the rest to cut loose. Mom’s pretty happy too, it’s nice to have them all together, it makes the effort of feeding everybody worth all her hard work. Soon as supper’s over and the kids have the dishes done it’s time for a story by the fireplace. Dad’s telling about that six point bull that wouldn’t quite come out of the brush enough for him to take a shot, but it doesn’t matter because everybody knows a cow is better eating.

Then it’s off to bed for everybody, there’s school tomorrow and mom and dad need some quiet time. Tomorrows another day.