news from my uncle, Ed:

Francoise just reported that there are three does on the front lawn. The other night when we went to bed there were eight of them out there. I wish we’d look out one day and see eight turkeys. We used to see wild turkeys all the time, but not for a couple of years now. We think the coyotes are encroaching from the north and raiding the nests. This past Monday a friend/neighbor stopped by to say he’d shot a big tom turkey for me, and we needed to go back and find him in the woods. He said he’d gotten a good head shot, but the turkey had supposedly disappeared when the mail carrier drove by. Well, I spent an hour or more searching this steep hillside for the bird, crawling over all this blown-down timber and through big thickets of briars, and never found the bird. In fact, I never saw a drop of blood or a feather. Now, this guy is a big-time drinker, and I have to wonder if he even saw a turkey. He had a 24-ounce Bud in his hand when he came to get me. We finally went to his house and got his dog to track the turkey, but that didn’t produce a bird either. So I guess we’ll have to wait to get our turkey.

The other night over at Archie’s barn one of his old friend showed up. There was beer being consumed, and his friend, Bobby, started spinning some yarns. He told us about how he was down in Roanoke recently and had stopped at McDonald’s for a burger. He left his car at McDonald’s and walked down the steet to the postoffice to mail a letter, at which point he was greeted by a very friendly dog in the parking lot. Well, it turned out that the dog was a drug sniffing dog, and his handlers came up and questioned him, asking him to submit to a search, which he did. They busted him for a pipe, and then asked him if he was driving (in Virginia, they can confiscate your car, I guess, in drug cases), He told them, “Hell, I’m not driving, I’m homeless!” and they released him. He had to wonder around town for a couple of hours until it was safe to go back and retrieve his car at McDonald’s. The episode cost him $150.

Stay tuned, more mountain tales to come…..

tags: friends & family