Hayter article for September 24, 2021
“Still Hill”
GRANDVIEW, WASHINGTON – Grape orchard to the north of us, apples to the east, cherries to the south, and corn to the west. Goats? The goats are gone. I can only speak for myself, but life has never been better here on Still Hill.
Over the past four years, Kay and I have spent several months at Curt and Rhonda Still’s place here in Grandview, located on the eastern side of the Cascades. Mount Adams and Ranier are on the Western horizon. Quite the view. I call this location Still Hill because all three of their sons live on this hillside. Clint and Cole each built houses on the hill. The youngest son, Cody, lives on Curt and Rhonda’s spread. If they had a daughter, they would’ve named her, Calamity Still. Just a guess.
The last two times we visited Curt and Rhonda, the goats were here. There were somewhere between one to five of ‘em, depending on which ones had escaped the field enclosure. I don’t care what you say about goats, they’re crafty beasts. They can climb over, between, or through any wall, fence, curtain, or hedge. I’d be sitting at the breakfast table and see Mama Goat passing by. I’d pick up my cell phone to call Curt, “Yo, Red Dawg Leader, the goats are out.” Somewhere during our third month, I quit telling on the goats. They could walk to Oregon for all I cared.
Curt never seemed to tire of rounding them up. After several years, he did tire just a bit of the early morning milking. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to find a goat-milker during a week-long vacation? You might as well locate somebody in Oregon, because, as I’ve established, the goats are just as likely to show up there as in their pen. And, get this. Now that they’re gone! Curt told me that he misses milking them. He considered it a good time for pondering stuff.
Kay and I are staying in my sister Sue’s house which sits on the eastern side of the hill. Susan sits on the western side of the mountains, with her husband Col. Don. They live in Tacoma, because they think there’s more to see and do, and because there aren’t as many goats.
We’ve had some good eats here. Fried goat, for one. -- I joke! Curt sold them to a guy who owns “Missing Goat Ranch”. It covers a three-state area, as well as the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. – Where was I? -- Right! While here, we’ve been well fed. I was seven pounds lighter when I set foot on the 737 out of Bush Intercontinental. Or, 787? Whatever it was, it probably had “Narrow-body” in its name.
We were on one of those three-seat rows. The third-seat lady was a wonderful seating companion. She had a sense of humor and everything. She was from North Dakota but didn’t know the capital of the state just south of her. Nobody knows “Pierre”! Not even the people in South Dakota. By the way, our time at the airport and during our flight was pleasant. People were so nice. Almost as nice as everyone on Still Hill. They were all so glad to see us. Some of ‘em even seemed glad to see me.
You may not remember the twin girls. Bella and Livy. Bella is the one with bumps on her head and cuts on her arms and legs. She’s somewhat of a go-getter. Livy is a bit more petite. Both girls seem to know their football. Bella was holding a football even while eating. We had watched the Seahawk/Titan game and were really upset. Bella said that the Titans cheated. Livy thought so, too, but she was a little less adamant about it. By the way, their mom, made Bella and me quit throwing the football around in the living room. Brittani’s worse than Kay!
Susan and the Colonel have already returned to Tacoma. They even cleaned up their house before leaving. It looks neat, doesn’t it? I spent a couple of days trying to figure out where all the stuff was. Turns out, they don’t have a decent apple peeler. They live right next to an orchard, yet don’t have a functional apple peeler. Kay felt she had to make a pie, so I had to peel the apples. Susan has an apple-potato lathe on which you can stick an apple and turn a handle to peel it. There is a special way to do it, and my sister never thought to teach me. I had to use a knife. Do you know how much of an apple you lose while peeling with a knife? A pie’s worth. The pie was great, though. And the ribs my niece cooked were superb. I thought mine were great until I tasted Rhonda’s. She taught me how she did hers, so when I get home, I’m gonna rib the daylights out of the place.
We’ve already done a bunch of stuff. I’ll share some of it with you next time. I do want to mention one thing that impressed me a bunch. Curt and I were on one of the back roads when this huge semi-truck came by carrying a massive load of orange tubes. I thought they were electrical diodes. I’m not that familiar with orange tubular things. Curt told me they were carrots. I was so impressed that he didn’t say, “They’re carrots, you idiot!” You haven’t lived until you’ve seen a truckload of loose carrots. Well, you might’ve lived a little.
Later this week, we’re supposed to see some hot-air balloons and go zip-lining. I won’t have enough room to tell you all about it, so you’ll have to use your imagination. – Next time.
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