Thursday Mutterings

This, like all others it seems, has turned out to be a busy week.  I'm officially one day late on filing my column for October.  Thank goodness for a flexible publisher who trusts that when I tell her I'll be late, she'll see the finished product in ample time.  

I'm writing my column about singer/songwriter/ guitarist Megan McCormick and her numerous local roots.

Yesterday, thanks to the folks at Coeur d'Alene's The Long Ear,  I received my very own copy of her CD "Honest Words."  After listening from beginning to end, I was emotionally blown away with the potpourri of talent and profound sense of the world displayed through her words and musical know-how.

I don't know which aspect of the album I like most, but her guitar mastery is something else---at times overpowering and at other times, pleasantly, softly and purely beautiful.  I can see why Oprah has included Megan's CD on her i-tunes list.  

Over the next couple of days, I hope to complete her story along with anecdotes about the friends and family (including members of the band Trestle Creek) who know her on a local and regional level. 

This morning,  I'll share one great snippet which came from her mother Shelley ( a third-grade teacher in Wasilla, Alaska)  in an email interview.  

Shelley wrote, "One day in her room, listening to a Gladys Knight cassette tape her Papa Chuck (Bell) had recorded for her, it broke.  I heard her crying and ran in to see what was wrong.  She was so upset it broke because she, 'had to learn those songs . . . who will take her (Gladys') place when she dies?'  

"She was SERIOUS," Shelley added.

This will be a fun column and a tribute to many of her family members, whom I've known and loved for years. 

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The annual Idaho Draft and Mule International Show opens today at the fairgrounds.  That means my neighbor up the road, Gary Finney, is busy this week.   He's always been part of the sponsoring organization, and he'll probably be showing his Percherons in the competition over the next three days.

My plan is to take Mother for tomorrow afternoon's performance.  My buddy Rose Marie will meet us, and we'll feed on one of those brats we missed enjoying at the fair when Rose Marie was gone.  

I hope the weather cooperates.  Seems the "fair" days on the forecast mysteriously turn bad.  After seeing all suns on one forecast this week, I learned this morning to expect more rain over night.  In Spokane, they say today is supposed to be blustery.  On the Sandpoint radio, they say the winds are coming overnight.

I guess we can pick and choose what we want but just live with it in the end.

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I don't know if I can do this when push comes to shove, but I've advertised Heather, my gray Arabian mare for sale. I love Heather very much, but I don't love the constant expense that comes with having three horses while feeling lucky to have the time to ride one.  

It's a difficult decision, but if someone comes along with the money after reading my Nickel's Worth ad AND the assurance that Heather will have as good a home as she's had here at the Lovestead, I'll follow through.

In my mind, Heather deserves to have an owner who knows horses and has the time to give her both tender loving care and a sense of equine purpose.  

If nothing happens as a result of the ad, I'll figure that Heather's home here is meant to continue. 

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In the meantime, this weekend I'm getting rid of Lefty.  Before horse lovers assume I'm a hard-nosed old goat, please know he'll be gone for just a month.  Saturday morning we'll be taking him to Spokane where he spent a month a couple of years ago, learning young-horse basics from Monty Collison.

I told Monty he'd probably have more fun than work while riding Lefty five days a week over the next month.  I'm excited to see the results because Lefty has had all the basics----lungeing, driving, riding----off and on for the past two years, and, except for that night when the lightning storm set him off,  he's always been a willing learner.

Lots going on, and Todd Mitchell will be here soon to take care of some electrical problems we've had lately, like no yard light.  

So, I'll wish you all a happy Thursday.  Check out that album of Megan's; it's available at Amazon.com   and at the Long Ear in Coeur d'Alene.