A10
OUTDOORS
Blue Mountain Eagle
Wednesday, February 24, 2021
SHOOTING THE BREEZE
FLINTLOCK FOOLERY
W
hen I was growing up,
there was a song on the
radio called “Yodelin’
Fool” by a band called Wylie and the
Wild West Show. It was the ballad of
a young man who annoyed his small
town neighbors by constantly prac-
ticing his yodeling, hoping someday
he would hit the big time. I won’t
ruin it for you, look it up.
The song reminds me of another
young man I knew back then. He
loved to shoot. It’s all he ever
wanted to do. Like the Yodelin’
Fool he too annoyed many of his
small town neighbors with his con-
stant noisy practicing. He loved to
hunt deer and quail, and when he
couldn’t do either, he spent all of his
spare time practicing to hunt deer
and quail. In this little pile of rocks,
an elderly man took to mentor the
young man. The kind-hearted gentle-
man had a shop out behind his house
Dale Valade
that had all the perfect trinkets befit-
ting proper gun nuttery.
One evening the old man was
showing the boy a flintlock rifle he
had built from scratch. Every metic-
ulous detail had been hand carved,
hand fitted and hand finished. It was
the old man’s pride and joy. The
young man saw that rifle, and having
never fired a muzzleloader immedi-
ately wanted to do so. As it was near
dark on a weeknight, the old man
was hesitant at first, but seeing the
excitement in the eyes of this young
protégée he relented. The only
caveat was that the old man wanted
to be in charge of loading the gun.
After agreeing with the young-
ster to this one rule, he went out
into the back yard to perform the
perfunctory task of insuring they
were technically out of city limits
before shooting. It was getting dark
so he grabbed the appropriate size
stone and heaved. Marking the spot
where it landed, he stepped inside
his home to tell his wife to plug her
ears.
Inside, seeing the light gradually
fade, the young man in spite of his
promise, grabbed the powder horn
off of the wall and began pouring.
He counted out loud to three while
pouring, figuring that would be the
right amount of black powder. Find-
ing a patch and a ball he sat them
with the ramrod and quickly poured
the pan full of powder just like he
had seen in the movies. He anx-
iously stepped outside, and not see-
ing his old pal anywhere, he decided
to shoot before the light failed.
When he squeezed off the shoot,
all hell broke loose. The flash was
blinding, the report sounded more
like an explosion and being tempo-
rarily deaf and blind, he dropped
the rifle in the gravel to hold his
head with both hands. The smoke,
now everywhere, made it appear as
if the town was itself engulfed in
fire. The old man stumbled down
the steps, looking skyward peri-
odically as though he expected to
O utlook
SENI
R
Just when the
grass was getting
green, it started
snowing again!
We have 8 inches
Rose Coombs
in the yard so far.
PTL! And the
electricity is on! Hallelujah! What more could we ask
for?
The meal today was designed to warm you up. Cooks
Angie, Laura, and Tom served up chicken enchiladas
with Spanish rice and refried beans. Dessert was a
pineapple dream cake. That sounds delicious! This meal
was also sponsored by the Senile Sisters. Thanks so
much ladies. Thanks to Ginger and Mary for doing the
home deliveries, Pam at the registration desk, and Tom
for clearing the parking lot.
We didn’t get to eat any of this meal because we had
to be in Burns for an appointment at 12:30 p.m. We
pulled over at the Silvies Valley Ranch Rest Stop, but
they had closed it for a while, I guess. Anyway, the thing
that was of note was the mailbox keys that were hanging
out of the littler doors on the big mailbox there. Oh
dear. Other items of note were the absence of little trees
on the Canyon Creek Fire Complex. How come? It was
nice to see the beaver dams on the creek at the bottom
of Canyon Mountain and on Canyon Creek. Closer to
Canyon City there is an old mine entrance, I presume,
on the west side of the creek. Never heard anyone say
anything about it. Do you know anything about it?
We have a mystery in Prairie City. Some (I can’t come
up with a good adjective to put in here) individuals
absconded with the two old, comfortable wooden
captains chairs that were put in the lobby of the Post
Office for the convenience of the patrons. Now that’s
just downright obscene! What would possess a person
to do such a thing? All the good that the hard-working
people of our town have accomplished in the last few
years has been tainted due to this theft. C’mon man.
Bring them back.
WE do have good news to report. The new Head Cook
for our center is home-town girl Pam Woodworth. She
will begin her new duties March 1, and we are so very
glad to have her join us. I remember when she had a
little lunch counter on Front Street, and we had a lot of
lunches there.
So why did we go to Burns? To see the miracle ear
people. When I have to turn the TV up to its maximum
and Derrol is frantically turning his hearing aids down,
it is time to do something… The ladies brunch people
asked if I had been lip-reading all this time. Yes, and
masks sure didn’t help!
The ensemble got to do their Christmas Presentation
on Valentine’s Day with all members present and
reasonably healthy! And we had snow! How appropriate.
We’ll see what happens at Easter time.
Psalm 37:5-6 “God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he
does great things beyond our understanding. He says to the
snow, ‘Fall on the earth,…”
Psalm 38:22 “Have you entered the storehouses of the
snow….?”
Well, here we are
a few days from
John Day
March, you know
Seniors
that means spring
is just around the
Dusty Harris
corner.
We have had so
many good meals! We have the best cooks. And what do
you think of our Desserts?!
February 25 we’re having pork chops, baked potato,
and apple spice cake. I’m sure a lot of you got your
vaccine for the virus. Can’t wait ‘til we can get back to
what we’re used to.
Psalm 25:4 Show me the path where I should walk, O
Lord; point out the right road for me to follow.
Terry Cade and
Carrie Jewell, our
most wonderful
cooks, made a
lunch of mac
Soo Yukawa
and cheese with
ham, garlic bread,
carrots, and blueberry sheet cake. We thank them for
their hard work and diligence. I did not partake of this
meal because I actually was actually trying to do my
chores (hubby was busy) and I did not get done until
almost 1pm. It was hard moving around in the heavy
snow, even with the four-wheeler.
We thank our faithful volunteers. Kristi Guimont
filled out the paperwork. Jan Ensign and Bob Cockrell
counted the money and made sure everything was
in order. Sylvia Cockrell passed out the meals to the
patrons at the door.
Well, it looks like we got a nice heap of snow, oh but
it sure looks beautiful on the trees, on the ground, and
on the mountains all around us. The snow seems to be
melting slowly and seeping into the ground, praise the
Lord! It is a little weird though, in some areas, there is
like tons of snow and then you turn a corner, and there
is no snow?
The snow got real heavy on the previous Monday, and
collapsed the roof of our dog kennel next to the house.
My hubby and I were shoveling the snow out and it was
very wet and heavy. The weight of the snow broke the
arches of the dog kennel roof. 1st kennel was mangled
by a falling tree, now our second kennel got its roof
broken from the heavy snow. Praise the Lord the dogs
did not get buried!
So, the day I missed lunch, I was busy making
pathways for my little goats. I know it sounds silly
but I felt sorry for them having to trudge along in the
deep snow. I was walking with my heavy snow boots
and pushing down the snow, making pathways to
their water, from their goat shed, and to different parts
of the pen. I would say I got a pretty good workout
because I was sweating afterwards. Ha. I don’t know if
they appreciated it or not. The sad part was, I think it
snowed a couple of days later and buried those pathways
with another 6 inches of snow, sigh, all that work for
nothing.
I need to put some backbone into some hard work
come this Spring. I think I need to rearrange garden
beds, yank out a bunch of weeds, transplant, and dig
the ground. I am not looking forward digging in the
ground for I will most likely be hitting lots of rock. I
have to time it such that I dig in that time period where
the ground is still soft from the melting snow, before
the summer hits and the ground gets hard. That will be
interesting.
So many things to plan and do, yet I can’t do anything
right now, it is at a standstill because of the winter snow.
I will just have to be satisfied plotting in my head for
now.
Isaiah 61:10 I will greatly rejoice in the LORD, My soul
shall be joyful in my God; For He hath clothed me with
the garments of salvation, He hath covered me with the
robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decketh himself with
ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels.
Prairie City
Seniors
Monument
Seniors
feel pieces of his young friend rain-
ing down from the sky. Neighbors
began running down the street, and
upon seeing the young man, they
cussed him. Noisy fool!
The Flintlock Fool as he was
called no longer haunts that poor
little bend in the river. Just like the
boy in the song, the day he dis-
appeared, the townsfolk surely
cheered, for now they never had to
hear him make noise again. I run
into him now and again, and he
still enjoys shooting to this day. He
never made the big time but still
enjoys shooting muzzleloaders,
properly loaded, of course, in full
daylight.
Do you shoot muzzleloaders?
Write to us at shootingthebree-
zebme@gmail.com!
Dale Valade is a local country
gent with a love for the outdoors,
handloading, hunting and shooting.
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