I’m still on a high from the past weekend and have to share a bit of realism with you.  As we were cleaning up the camp from the weekends activities and making sure we were not leaving a big mess for the Whitear Family to see, we found that we had quite a few of Tye’s special beans left in one of the large pots.  We found a bowl and lid and filled it to the brim, but there were still quite a few beans left…what to do with them?

I told Kris I would take them home and find a bowl or something to put them in and then clean up the pot and bring it all back for the upcoming weekend.  Those beans were too good to just toss out.

So on went the cleaning and that pot of beans were set to the side on a picnic table.  Once the main camp was cleaned up we went to cleaning up our own little camp area around the trailer.  It’s always hard to think of everything you are going to need at home and so we were slow at getting packed up.  Weasel and I were talking about possibly going turkey hunting ourselves during the week and so that tossed in a new dimension to what we needed to take home…camo, decoy, calls, gun, shells etc…more packing…and then there were the things we took for the big camp that were not needed and there was no foreseeable need for them as well, like big camp coolers and EZ ups.  So into the rig those things went to take home and put away.

As we were finishing up our task, in pulled the last of the hunters and so there had to be some Jaw-Jacking about their mornings hunt and then say our good-byes to them.  They won’t be back for this weekends hunt, but they talked like they would probably go out again on their own before the general hunt is over.  Their guide, Newt, (BP Turkey), would also not be coming back up as he has to relieve his helpers back at work.  All three of them will be missed this coming weekend.

Anyway, we finally got our things gathered up, the toys (ATV’s) loaded up on the trailer and it was time to head for home.  It took us a while to get out of the camp as we had to load up the garbage bags for the trip down the mountain etc. and we got all of that loaded.  As we progressed we kept remembering other things we needed and so there were two short trips back to the camp trailer to get those items.  I told Conner, “We might get out of here”.  He laughed.

And so we finally did get down the canyon and the garbage was allowed to be placed in the Sinclair stations garbage cans…thank you manager!

Home, unhooked, unloaded and very much tired from all the activities of the day and the weekend, we settled into a much needed relaxation time…a cold drink in hand.  Stories had to be told to Sherry about the weekend happenings and I had to hear her events as well.  As for me, when supper was finally eaten, I was dead to the world and went on to bed…I think it was about 8 o’clock…out like a light!

Early the next morning I awoke in a sweat…dreaming about raccoons at the camp.  They had gotten into some corn bread we had left over from the big meal on Saturday and had eaten almost all of it and of course scattered corn bread all over the place.  My dream included the pot of beans on the table….we had forgotten to pick it up and take it with us…My dream was three racoons on the table poking around with their little feet and knocking the lid off the bean pan and then trying to crawl into that large pot of brown sugar smelling stuff.  Suddenly the pan falls off the table and onto the cement floor of the covered pavilion….sticky beans and sauce went everywhere…splattering up on other tables and in general making a very big mess.

And then the three little varmints jumped off the table to devour all the beans and  meat chunks and lick as much of the juice up as they could…and like all raccoons, the one that gets the most wins….As they tracked through the mess of sticky sauce they made tracks on everything and once the beans and meat were all but cleaned up they made tracks on top of every table they could get on…I was sweating profusely as I lay in bed seeing this vivid picture that awaited me back at camp.

I lay there for quite some time and then Sherry’s alarm clock went off, signaling time to rise and shine…we arose alright, but my shine wasn’t what it usually is (it’s not very bright anyway, but this morning it wasn’t even a slight glow).  Over coffee I told her about my dream and said, “I have to go up to the camp site and clean it up”.  Besides I had forgotten my camo pant leggins.  I have to have those if Weasel and I go hunting.

So, up there I go with two five gallon buckets,  a large cleaning cloth, snow shovel (?), yes a snow shovel to scoop up the spilled remains…you see, in my mind the spill covers about 10 square feet and is 3 inches deep.  I’m ready for the worst and prepared to spend as much time as needed to clean it all up.  After all I made the promise and it’s my undoing since I forgot to take the pan home in the first place.

I loaded my little dog MaPa’s up and headed for Peterson.  I stopped at the trailer and got my camo pants first off and then over to clean up the pavilion.  As I entered the North doorway into the pavilion I looked toward the table with the pan of beans and I saw…………nothing on the floor…….nothing but bare cement….no bean juice….no raccoon tracks on top of the tables….no big old mess….I sat down on the nearest bench and said a quiet little prayer.

Once I had my senses back, I approached the pan of beans and saw that there was a full 5 gallon jug of water tucked up closely, the raccoons would not have been able to get behind the pan and push it off the table.  The lid was still tightly on the pan as well and the whole scene looked as if the raccoons had not even been on that table…maybe they didn’t visit at all during the night…still full from all the corn bread they had eaten the night before…thank God!

I loaded up the pan and happily drove MaPa’s and myself back to home!

Now there is a story to relate too…don’t make a promise and then not keep it, you could end up with a big old mess on your hands or worse yet have to eat some blue moldy apple pie.

I get that moldy apple pie from a story I heard from a missionary for the LDS church, who said he promised a little old lady he would come visit her and she said she had a pie in the window seal for him when he came…he forgot his promise and when he remembered a couple of weeks later and then went to visit her…she made her promise good by serving him a nice BIG slice of that pie…the pie that had been sitting in the window seal for over two weeks!  He said the mold was nearly an inch thick and as he ate it and said how good it was, he was thinking that penicillin is made from fruit mold and everything would be alright.

Bears Butt

April 30, 2013