Slight Detour: Thursday This, That; TBT

Be prepared: Boy Scout motto.

Bill, the former Boy Scout and Troop 111 Scout leader, was in his element last night and this morning.

Last night he focused on assembling his fishing gear. This morning: the food he was taking.

When I came downstairs to do the chores this morning, he had just carried a new box of tupperware containers into the kitchen.

I expressed a concern that he was gonna unload all those containers into the bottom cupboard with a bunch more containers which were already there.

No, he wasn't, he told me---just looking for one with a lid.

Seems he had already been to the tupperware, et. al. cupboard and had not been able to find a container with a matching lid.

Tupperware and socks! They must be related.

Anywho, he had an assortment of containers loaded with watermelon, 'maters and cucumbers, crackers, etc. to take with him today with departure set for OH-seven hundred.

Actually, he left about five minutes early, and, so far, has not returned for something forgotten.

Bill, the "be prepared" guy, often returns to the house several times before departure with something he forgot.

Yesterday he said he would mail a letter for me. I put it on the island and, later, thought it might be wise to put it on his desk so he would not forget it.

"No," he said, "put it on the island . . . my desk is too messy and I'd probably forget it."

So, I did.

Later, I was outside mowing when he left the house, started the pickup, drove partway out of the driveway, stopped, returned to the house and came out with (Guess what?) my letter.

Bill does a lot of being prepared, but it doesn't always work out as efficiently as he plans.

He has headed up to Smith Creek along the west side of the Kootenai Valley and just south of the Canadian Border.

It's his annual "Return to Smith Creek" nostalgia and fishing adventure. He's been doing this for nearly 50 years.

Bill spent a summer working for the U.S. Forest Service and camping out each week at Smith Creek. So, there are lots of memories and, of course, fish to catch.

Hopefully, he has enough food in those tupperware containers with matching lids to not go hungry today. And, he probably had as much fun "preparing" as he'll have today.

Prior to his big day at Smith Creek, Bill happily played Marianne sitter while I rode Lily last night.

Now, I'm not quite the "Be Prepared" person that Bill is, but still, I do prepare when I go riding by asking Bill to watch my every move.

It's not that those moves are so impressive; instead, it's to ensure that if any movement while riding Lily goes awry, Bill is there to pick up the pieces.

Another ride on my old gal went great last night with no incidents, so we'll stick to this game where I ride and Bill watches and hopefully Lily always behaves.

Today I'll watch while Laurie climbs aboard CB and, hopefully, he does all the right moves.

This little guy was sitting on my garden hose while it hung from the fence yesterday. I gently removed him and placed him on the ground.

Later, after bringing the horses in from the first pasture, I noticed that the automatic waterer wasn't working quite right.

Upon close inspection, I noticed that the lid had been almost completely removed: curious horse lips had been busy sometime during the day.

Well, after taking the lid off from the waterer, I discovered that the receptacle doubles as a home to tree toads. The tiny toads were crawling and hopping all over the place---at least half a dozen appeared while I tinkered with the float which maintains water level.

Then, I began to wonder if the toads were the culprits and not the horses.

For some reason, busy horse lips still seem much more suspicious than tree toads.

I'll probably never know.