As fall rapidly approached so did the arrival of Corey and his hunting friends. Corey’s mom and dad plus his brother-in-law, Jim, accompanied them also. They generally hunt close to Thanksgiving but are often plagued with bitter cold and wind, so the decision to hunt at the end of October was made. Sure enough our balmy days changed to horrid winds that could blow small children away. I accused Corey of being under a weather curse.
After the first day of hunting, Soop informed me to refer to Jim as “Peaches.” He explained that Jim was blocking but shooting at every hen that flew over. The group reached the field’s end and asked, “What in the Hell are you doing?” It appeared that when Jim heard them yell “hen-hen-hen” he thought they said “Jim-Jim-Jim.” Since Jim is from Georgia they renamed him Peaches.
Supper conversation centers around their hunting expertise or lack of it. Corey had a new excuse for a shooting miss, “I was distracted by three hens.” I prefer to spice things up while preparing supper so I opened the salt shaker and cringed at what I discovered! After the meal I slipped Corey a folded note that said “I found a _____ in the salt shaker. I swear to God I don’t know how it got there.” Corey promptly passed it around the table and soon there were exclamations of, “I never used the salt!” Corey’s mom, Kathy, asked to see the note. I said “Corey, you eat that note like a good spy before your mom sees it.” (Ask me in person about the rest of the story.)
“Cuz” had recently returned from Spain and showed us an interesting, but nasty, picture of a restaurant’s sushi sign. I viewed it and commented that Cole loves sushi. Cuz texted Cole my reaction and sushi picture. Cole had a smart reply (unprintable). (Cuz explained that Europe is much more liberal about sex.) Gay took one look, never blinked an eye and quietly said nothing about the pictures content but said, “I didn’t even know Cole liked sushi.” We erupted laughing.
Any cook will tell you that there is a certain joy in making a meal and watching your guests really dig in. A typical meal I made was two 9×13 pans of meatloaf (I ran out) two 9×13 pans of cheesy hash browns, salad, sweet potato casserole and apple crisp.
Breakfast at the L-K where Luann sets aside their favorite – sweet rolls. My coffee cup one morn had two small children on it. Cuz asked whose kids they were. I replied that they were his from two years ago. Cuz, you may recall is the one I wrote a romantic exposé on his romantic troubles with what I refer to as “That Woman.” He refused to speak to “The Press” ever since. Cuz has an amazing talent ofmaking flowers out of napkins for bartenders. I inquired of Corey how many flowers were made the previous night. Corey related that he was up to a bouquet. Corey then produced a picture if Cuz vacuuming. I commented, “Cuz, you’ve put a new meaning to sucking up to the bartender.”
Thursday night at Skeeters is our designated Grand Finale Night that includes pizza and adult beverages. Cousins Janet and Carli traveled from Sioux Falls to attend the mayhem. First stop was Doren’s Bar and I stuck my head in Jim B’s door to roust him out also. As midnight approached so did the appearance of rounds of shots. (It was agreed that the liquid Cinnamon Toast Crunch did us in.) Carli proved once again that the later the hour the more she can talk. Janet proved she’s not a flamingo ‘cuz when she stood on one foot to remove a boot she fell over. Surprise visitors, Kevin and Ronda Tiede, got a full dose of our late night antics.
I awoke the next morning at 5:00 still fully dressed, clutching my PJ’s in my hands. Carlie awoke fully dressed with her voluminous neck scarf choking her. We huddled over coffee until 7 and then we decided our promise to hunt that day would be welched on. (We talk big with firewater.)
Thankfully Tanner and Lynn Eining filled in to guide Corey and group at Fedora. They were a little nervous on how to find Fedora. I said head east, stay on the Highway and meet at the gas station. Peaches asked how they would know which station. I said ,“You can’t miss it there’s only one.” Tanner and Lynn led them to an abundance of roosters. Tanner related to Janet there were quite a few holes in the sky. Janet texted Corey and told him in order to kill a bird you have to hit the bird with a bullet before it will fall to the ground. Corey texted, “You have mo right to criticize  unless you’re out here.” (Which he stated we will be next year.)
Dead-eye
Dee Baby

By Jill Swenson

My friend, Troy, who was the instrument that got me to Ireland last year, was interested in tours and so I introduced he and Finbarr last fall.  Troy wanted to go to Peru. When they agreed on it he asked me, “You’re going, aren’t you?!”  What could I say. I hadn’t planned on going to Peru, I was going to France. The gods were in my favor and I got to do both trips. I met Troy in the Cities and we were off to Atlanta, the same city I flew out of for Ireland! (And if you read my blog, there is another facet to the name Atlanta.)
As we crossed the threshold into the walkway to the plane, Troy said, “Did you feel that?”  I had, but wasn’t sure it was what I thought. It was the first sign we were on our spiritual journey. We met Brad (he’d been in one of Troy’s classes with me) in Atlanta and we all flew out to Lima. None of us could believe we were actually going. Troy took a picture of the sign behind the flight desk saying Peru.  It was surreal.
Arriving in Peru late, we checked into our hotel which was only yards from the terminal. There we met up with another of the tour group and retired for the few hours we had before meeting the group at 7:30 a.m. in the lobby. We were introduced to our Peruvian guide, Romulo. Then we boarded another plane to our destination of Cuzco where we boarded a bus for an hour and a half ride up into the mountains and to the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
The ride through Cuzco showed the extreme poverty. We saw farmland that was little more than scratches in the dirt compared to here. Romulo told us that there are 2,000 varieties of potatoes grown in Peru. We tasted many of them in one form or another while we were there. To get to the hotel we drove through very poor sections and ended up in a hotel in a walled area in the country. It was absolutely beautiful with flowers and gardens and beauty.
That night we had a ceremony with a local shaman outside in the garden area. We were each blessed and given three cocoa leaves to put our intentions into and give them back to the shaman who put them all together as an offering to the Earth mother. The shaman and his wife conducted the ceremony and sang. It was very beautiful and showed us  a cultural side of Peru that was very interesting.  The people are so very connected to the earth.
Day 2
Today we explored the original town of Ollantaytambo (City of Dawn). We visited a home where there was a dirt floor and it was quite small. There were different statues and a shelf with a couple of skulls that were their ancestors. Romulo explained the traditions of what was displayed on the little table. There were also about 30 guinea pigs that shared the home. It is on the menu in Peru, so I don’t know if they were raising them to sell or eat themselves.
Romulo led us down the winding, steep streets and showed us parts of original Incan buildings. Considering the way the buildings were built with the stones so close together, there was quite a knowledge of craftsmanship and design. Farther out he showed us the natural stone Temple of the Condor. He talked about the outcroppings of rock on the sides of the walls and explained that they had been animals, power animals, and that when the Spaniards invaded they chopped off the heads of the animals and destroyed much of the culture and beliefs of the Incas. Romulo commented that when the large stones were moved, one weighing about 90 tons, there was no way that pulleys and such could have done that and besides, they were from about four miles away across the river.  We all agreed it was similar to the story of the pyramids and we believed differently than how the story had been told.
As we tried to return to our hotel, there was a traffic jam in the tiny streets due to a festival going on and huge amounts of traffic. We sat stopped in the bus for about an hour until our driver got perturbed and walked up to a bus stopped ahead of us to see what was up. He ended up telling that driver to get out and he backed the other driver’s bus back up the hill and parked it so we could proceed. The police were doing nothing, so Emelio finally told them they better get something done. They did.  We loved our driver, he took no garbage!
Day 3
We went to the ruins of Chinchero today. We were driven to a small compound where we were shown how they spin, dye and weave the many things they have for sale in Peru. They use alpaca wool and it is all very primitively woven. The ladies doing the work sang and gave us tea and were very happy to show us how it all worked. So primitive are the conditions in which they live and work and yet they are so happy. We were all taken with a lovely little girl named Camilla who was about three. She was so loving and hugged us and wanted us to hold her.  We took her picture and it is the custom to give them coins if you take their photo. We all bought some of the things they had for sale and some of us had brought little things to give to the children. As we left they came down to the bus to sing to us and thank us.
The most beautiful site awaited us. We drove to Moray, an Inca site back up in the hills. It was concentric circles of terracing held up by rock walls in the shape of a bowl. It was fabulous and the temperature was 18˚ cooler on the bottom than at the top.  It took a long time to climb down to the bottom and a long time to climb back out. We really had a workout that day. Finbarr said that there were ceremonies done in the bottom by the Inca people in the ancient past. Some of the pilgrims had visions of things like that while at the bottom. I did not, however I felt it to  be a very spiritual place and one of great peace.