Slight Detour: Spuds, Fire and Dolly

Bill and I worked on separate projects in and around the barn yesterday morning.

I hadn't planned to harvest my potatoes so soon, but I'm glad now that I did.

While going through the pumpkin patch to rescue my pumpkins from the teeth of underground varmints, I discovered that they had already done their damage to my potato crop.

With spuds sticking above the ground, I occasionally reached down to pull them up to be used as summer dinner delights.

What looked great above ground, had not fared well in the soil. Just like the carrots of years ago, I found several potatoes with much of the innards gnawed away.

That discovery led to an instant harvest in hopes of salvaging whatever spuds hadn't been harmed.

Once again, it was disappointing, and once again, I thought, "When will I ever learn?"

The harvest was disappointing, but then I kicked into my usual garden rationale while reporting to Bill.

"We may not reap much from the garden, but what we do tastes good," I said. It's an annual rationale, and I guess I'll never learn but I'll keep on gardening.

There's so much more to gardening than stuffing the goodies into our mouths, and, overall, I have no huge regrets about this year's efforts.

The tomatoes have been fabulous as was the lettuce before it turned hot. I also have more lettuce coming on, and as the temperatures cool, we may be able to enjoy some more before winter.

While I dug up spuds, Bill cleaned out a really dirty area at the opening of the barn. He had some old signs in big box container that he had planned to nail up in our forest 20 years ago when we moved here.

Well, they've collected a lot of dust, cobwebs, mouse turds and other stuff that's been thrown into the box over the years.

Later, as we were both eating lunch and watching tear-jerking Dolly tributes on TV, he asked if I wanted to go see the fire that started in the Pack River drainage.

He had read that it had grown to 60 acres. With a hot afternoon coming on, I figured an air conditioned pickup would be a great place to keep cool.

So, we drove the Upper Pack River Road and stopped at a trail head where we had enjoyed a Fourth of July activity several years ago.

We could see the smoke billowing from the fire in the area of the peaks of the Selkirks just up our road. And, as we drove, up the river, we saw a few other views which showed where retardant had been dropped.

While at the trail head, we could hear and see the retardant planes flying over us.

It was a nice outing for Bill, me and the dogs, especially because the water in the river flowing beneath the bridge on the trail head is crystal clear.

We were also pleasantly surprised to see that the only smoky air was that coming directly from the fire. Otherwise, the rest of the area was pretty clear both coming and going.

While driving toward the fire and on the way back, we heard ongoing poignant tributes on the radio to Dolly Parton, whose sudden death earlier in the day had shocked the world.

Hers is a monumental loss not only for those who loved her music but to so many who admired her as a good and caring person.

It was 2011.

Annie and I were walking around downtown Belfast, Northern Ireland, when we saw this billboard on the side of a building.

It was March, and Dolly was coming to Belfast in September.

We entertained the idea that we ought to come back with Debbie and attend the concert.

Sadly, it never worked out, but had there been a way, we would have given it a try.

We all loved her that much.

Since then, the persona of Dolly has magnified even more as we learned more about her philanthropy, her caring about education and her authentic love for human beings from all walks of life.

Pink said it well in the speech below when Dolly Parton was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame.