Good afternoon my darling Christmas elves!
Guess what I'm doing!?!
I can't tell you!
I can't tell you because I'm making gifts for some people who may read this. (Is it you?) I'm broke this year along with everyone else, so even the kids are getting home made things!
I told them. I told them that this Christmas will be different. We are going to adopt a family that is not as lucky as we are. I mean, one that doesn't have the luxury of running water and electricity like we do. We are lucky! We can help someone else!
And, my priority is keeping a roof over our heads and making sure that we have the basics.
Anyhow, my hands are just whacky colored with an array of different inks and I'm just a mess, but I'm having an absolute blast! It's so therapeutic! I even turned off my phone, yesterday!
I drove to Lincoln City to get supplies, and I went wild! It was so fun! I love craft crap! Is that cussing?
Alright, crud, then.
I got colored crud, and glitter crud and ribbon crud and holly crud and glitter glue and crud to put crud on!
Let's say it together! Everyone is getting Crud for Christmas!
Did I tell you how much fun I'm having?
Why is it, though, that I keep getting interupted? By UPS, and the mailman and the doctor who wants to change appointments, and the VISA people wanting me to take a new card? And Bill, who wants to convince me it's time to shoot the varmints instead of trapping... Everyone wants to crud up my Christmas fun!
Christmas will be purely about the Birthday of Jesus, this year, and except for my crafty gifts, it's going to be so good to be mostly crud free!

November 17th

Good morning, my sweets!
Remember... Francis Caldwell's column is up "around" the 15th of each month!
Frankly, that wasn't my original intention, but it seems to be that way, so that it is. I will try harder to get it up on the 15th! I promise!
It seems that everything I read is about losing your favorite pet, these days. I hope we turn to a brighter topic, soon.
In Chapter Fifteen, we find Captain Caldwell talking about losing his favorite dog, Buddy, and how he gets too close to dogs and refuses to get another.
I can relate! Especially after Kilchis goes. How on earth will I be able to put myself through this, again?
But, somehow I always do. They say the best remedy for a broken heart is a new friend.
Perhaps now that I have read Fred Archer's explanation of where these "friends" come from, I will understand why I always give in, and bring that new friend into my life.
It's because the dog that you lost picked it out and sent it to you, to make you smile, again! Also, without people like us, there would be an awful lot of sad puppies and kittens around! They need us! They do!
So, if you've been putting off getting another critter, listen to Fred. Listen to your heart! Next time you run into a pet that looks at you with those longing eyes, take it home. It's been picked out especially for you! Don't walk away!

November 16th

No storm, yet! But, they have upgraded the warning.
Click here for the latest. Note the red printed warnings at the top of the forecast.
Pete (the admin) lost his beloved dog Stoney a couple days ago. His dog was 13 1/2 years old and has been struggling for a while, now. Stoney died peacefully.
It hurt me to have Pete lose his dog. It's the beginning of the end of an era, because some of the mods are losing their long time friends all at once. Just as we got these dogs all at once, it is their time to go, soon. STGRule's was the first to go, and Pete's was next.
Who do you bet will be after that? :(
The day Pete lost his dog, I conversed with Fred Archer about his long lost love.
Fred invented those Archer bars and is a sponsor of the Salty Dogs board.
Anyhow, Fred sent me some material and he allowed me to post it. It has really hit my heart.
You know, years ago, I wrote a poem about holding your hand to your heart, and feeling the "thump, thump" of your heartbeat. That, I wrote, was the wagging of the tail of your lost friends. I still believe that... but this poem by Fred really goes deeper than that. This made me cry, but a good cry!
To think that my last beloved dog, Hershey, picked out and sent Kilchis to me, makes so much sense! I had to hug my Kilch for a long, long time! Thanks, Fred! -and for all of you who want to read Fred's poem, please click here!
Have a wonderful stormy day!

November 15th

The storms, they are a brewin!
A HIGH WIND WATCH IS IN EFFECT SOUTH WINDS WILL INCREASE TO 25 TO 35 MPH WITH GUSTS UP TO 65 MPH
LATER TONIGHT AND MONDAY MORNING.
STRONGER WINDS ARE EXPECTED
MONDAY AFTERNOON AND EVENING AS SOUTH WINDS INCREASE TO 35 TO 45
MPH WITH GUSTS TO 75 MPH. WINDS WILL BE STRONGEST NEAR BEACHES
AND HEADLANDS.
I love a good storm, but my Maple leaves are all blowing away! They were so beautiful and bright red!
This year, I have to be very frugal for Christmas, so I'm trying to make all my presents. Today, I'm headed for a crafts store!
I hope I get home in time to actually "craft" something! That's the fun part! We really need a craft store in Tillamook! Maybe that would be bad for the bars and taverns, but good for the county, overall! There just is so little to do, around here! I think it would be fun to be in a crafts group!
I also want to get together a group of women and have a cookie swap and tea, before Christmas, with some of my lady friends, here. Fun!
Speaking of local lady friends... I saw Marie yesterday of Tillamook Bait for the first time in so so long! Every time I stop by, she isn't there, or it happens to be Tuesday and I forget they are closed! It was so good to see her! I picked up a bottle of her famous shrimp scent and a salmon jig from First Bite Jigs. I have tons and tons of steelhead jigs, but none with one of those big old strong salmon hooks!
Let's see... I just spent 10 dollars on me for Christmas! I don't want to save them and put them in my stocking, though! I want to use it now, before the water rises, again! It's about perfect, right now! I think I'll go fish.... nah! I have to go to the crafts store! See ya later!

November 13th

I'm tired and I'm emotional. Therefore, I printed this out and had Bill read it and asked if I should post this. He said it was OK.
I pray every day that the right owner will come along for ifish.
This can't be good for my health, worrying so much, and having so much on my plate. It's not the work, so much. There isn't a bunch of work, as in hourly "work". It's not measurable in units.
It's mostly worry for me. It's dealing with the business aspect that is difficult and worrying, because I am only self trained through ifish.
I react, instead of plan and it all goes so fast, I can't keep up! I don't know if it's because of my disability, or because I'm not trained, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by it all.
Ifish could be a business for someone that could feed a family, or more. I just don't know how to do it myself, and besides, that isn't why I started ifish! I didn't mean to start a business.
A business plan? Ha! As if I had time to plan! I just keep peddling as fast as I can, trying to catch up!
I never planned on ifish being a business, anyhow. It never was about money, and as long as I own it, it never will be about money. The only reason money is involved at all, is because ifish costs money and some of the things ifishers want cost money to provide for them.
I started ifish simply because I loved fishing and the internet fascinated me. I had to find out how it worked. Oh, boy! I found out!
I love fishing, but sometimes I forget that because I don't get to fish very often! So rarely, in fact, that Bill and I both have lost that "dialed in" feeling. I so miss that!
I was talking to a Tillamook friend in Fred Meyers the other day who had experienced "terrific" fishing in Tillamook, this year. Yes. I was surprised! But, as I listened, my mind started to wander and wonder what it was like to have those days where you'd get up each morning and put everything off to fish! That's what he had! Where was I? I used to be in that group of people that knew the secrets! Now, I'm so far from them, I didn't even know they existed this year!
Remember being into a series of hot bites and nothing in the world mattered but that!? Whoo hoo! Can you relate?! I sure can! I used to have those times!
Is it that fishing has gotten worse, or is it that I'm just too occupied to find that bite?
Don't get me wrong. I never want to be without ifish! I love it dearly. It will always be my baby.It is like how I feel about my kids in a way. My boys will marry someday, and have families of their own, but they'll always be my babies!
They will have another family to introduce me to,