Considering the storms and rains that are washing over much of my neck of the woods, as well as a few other necks, this offering from Slim Randles is perfect. Grab a cup of your beverage of choice to go with these donuts and enjoy…
We watched the thunderstorm growing, building, off to the west. As we sat on our tailgates sipping coffee and wishing we could be inside at the Mule Barn counter, we just sipped and looked in awe.
When the show began, we’d get in the pickups and drive off home, but there’s no harm in watching the weather’s overture to spring violence.
“You boys been out on the plains in spring, right?” asked Steve, our tall, mustached cowboy member of the vaunted world dilemma think tank.
We nodded and sipped and glanced up at the roiling blackness.
“Always wondered what it would be like to be caught horseback out on the plains in one of these storms. Not something I’d look forward to, I can tell you.”
“I know what they do, Steve,” said Doc. “Had a patient who punched cows out that way. He said when it rained, he’d get off his horse and sit on the ground under his belly.”
“So the horse would get wet and he’d stay dry?”
“More or less, I suppose.”
“But the lightning,” Steve said, “what about the dang lightning?”
“Doesn’t sound like any fun to me,” Herb said. “But I guess it’s some consolation that the horse, being the highest point for 15 miles, would get struck by lightning first.”
“See, Steve,” Doc said, grinning. “If lightning goes through the horse and hits you on the ground, you don’t have anything to worry about, but if it just strikes the horse …?”
“Yeah, Doc,” Steve said, “then you’d have the honor of being killed by a falling, fried horse.”
Steve took a swallow of coffee then added, “I think I’ll stay off those plains for now.”
Brought to you by salmon fisherman, pastor, and friend to all, Mark Henry Miller’s book River Runs Through Me. At markhmiller@att.net. Check out the book on Goodreads
Check out all of Slim’s award-winning books at his Goodreads Page and in better bookstores and bunkhouses throughout the free world.
All of the posts here are from his syndicated column, Home Country that is read in hundreds of newspapers across the country. I am always happy to have him share his wit and wisdom here. He also has a book of the same name. Find Home Country the book HERE
Slim Randles is a veteran newspaperman, hunting guide, cowboy and dog musher. He was a feature writer and columnist for The Anchorage Daily News for 10 years and guided hunters in the Alaska Range and the Talkeetna Mountains. A resident of New Mexico now for more than 30 years, Randles is the prize-winning author of a dozen books, and is host of two podcasts and a television program.