Chuck Carpenter, Christianne Crumpp, Luke Erickson and Dennis Lopez
Graphic Design
Denice L. King •208.918.5190 www.greentreedkdesign.com
Distribution
Shauna Howard, Doris Evans
Idaho Family Magazine, published monthly by Rocky Mountain Printing, LLC, is committed to providing readers with informative and entertaining information to help them in maintaining healthy families and positive lifestyles. It is distributed throughout the valley as a free publication. Idaho Family Magazine does not assume responsibility for statements or opinions expressed by editorial contributors or advertisers. The acceptance of advertising does not constitute an endorsement of the products, services or information. Idaho Family Magazine does not knowingly present any product or service which is fraudulent or misleading in nature. No portion of this magazine may be reproduced without express written consent of the publisher. Reader correspondence and editorial submissions are welcome. Idaho Family Magazine reserves the right to edit or reject all materials submitted. All rights reserved. Copyright 2024 by Rocky Mountain Printing, LLC.
Children’s Photos Wanted
Idaho Family Magazine would love to put your child or children on our cover. All photos should be high quality, sharp and clear, and high resolution of around 300 dpi. Color photos are preferred, and all photos need to be vertical not horizontal. Please identify the children in the photos, the children’s ages, and what Treasure Valley community they reside in. (If chosen for the cover, their last names will not be used without permission.) Send the photos to adriannegoff@me.com
Meet Idaho Family’s new publisher
By Adrianne Goff
Hello Treasure Valley Families,
My name is Adrianne Goff and I am very excited to announce that after 6+ years as the Associate Publisher, I am the new Publisher and Owner of Idaho Family Magazine! I want to thank our former Publisher, JJ Plew, for all of the amazing work he did these last several years. You will be missed. All of us at IFM wish you much success in all of your new endeavors! I am happy to announce the newest addition of our design team, Denice King. Many will remember she was the original designer of the magazine and is excited to be working on it again.
We plan to continue to bring you all the same quality, family-oriented content that you have grown to love as well as adding in some much-needed new community content such as restaurant, theatre, show and event reviews, etc...
Currently, I am a real estate developer with projects all over the valley. I thoroughly enjoy the development process and all of the puzzle pieces that it takes to make a development come to life. Prior to real estate, I worked in the publishing and print manufacturing industries for over 25 years. My expertise spanned from print production to project/product development. I was fortunate to be involved in creating some of the most interesting, unique and exclusive titles and products available in the marketplace.
I spent my youth on a large ranch in Jerome, ID before moving to Los Angeles with my young son. In Los Angeles, I began a modeling career that took me to the runways of New York City, where I met the owner of Global PSD (a print manufacturing company). With my son just about ready to start kindergarten and this new career on the horizon, I relocated to the SF Bay Area. While living in the Bay Area I was the Editor-in-Chief for Best of Bay Area (BoBA), an online magazine that offered the most up-to-date information and reviews on the BEST shows, events, tours, and eateries that the SF Bay Area had to offer. In 2016, I decided it was time for us to move back to Idaho, and we settled into the Treasure Valley. It was a great decision coming back to the state that we love and being closer to our extended family.
Outside of work, I LOVE to cook, host dinner parties, compete in chili competi-
tions (we currently have 11 grand champions under our belt as Hillbilly Chili. Next one is in Star ,ID on Oct 5th), educate people on natural medicines / herbs, direct murder mystery dinner theatre, and perform in local theatrical productions. I am a mother of three boys, a Master Herbalist, a wine connoisseur and reviewer of all things delicious, drinkable and fun to do. A few years back (*wink, wink*) I was named “1 of the Top 100 young business women under 30” by Women’s Business Enterprise. I currently live in the Boise area with my family and look forward to getting to know so many of you!
Adrianne Goff
Have a wonderful day!
Best regards,
Adrianne
SALT FLATS TRADITION
Families and Speed Week at Bonneville
By Dennis Lopez
Every year I say I am not coming back. But yet, I do.
And every year I enjoy it more and more.
It’s Speed Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats near Wendover, Utah and for a motorsports guy like me, there is nothing quite like it. Speed Week is a week-long mixture of vehicles that look more like wingless fighter planes than cars; and it is hot rods that should be on the set of American Graffiti rather than the 30,000 acres of salt flats.
And it’s people. Not just any people, but cool car people. The kind of folks who appreciate machinery in all shapes and sizes. My kind of people who have made the annual pilgrimage to the “The Salt” to attempt to set land speed records or to just be there, basking not only in the sun, but in the totality of the Speed Week experience. In that, it seems like this unique place in the American West is the last bastion of hot rodding. It is a gathering of aging hot rod clans for a week of racing the clock across a fivemile, string-straight course, one car at a time.
It’s also hot and dry. Salt sticks to your shoes and clings to the undercarriage of your car like some kind of evil beach sand. The solar energy reflected off the ultra-bright, white dry lake bed is so intense that it can cause sunburns on the underside of your chin. Late afternoon winds feel as though they have come straight from a blast furnace. It’s the kind of place that easily could have been the prototype for hell. I love it.
I have covered all sorts of motorsports from go karts and quarter-mile dirt tracks, to NASCAR and IndyCar yet, in its uniqueness, Speed Week is my favorite. No grandstands, no annoying prerace falderal or military flyovers, no driver parades. Just people and cars and salt. Bring your own water, chair and shade.
Being there on The Salt is a bit like stepping back in time. It is an opportunity to immerse yourself in a unique mixture of cars, motorcycles and trucks, some driven by people with seemingly unlimited funding; others by those who may have trouble putting together gas money for the trip home.
The Salt Flats officially have attracted this sort of motocircus annually since 1949 and continues to do so under the watchful eye of the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA). While speed is the goal, safety is the SCTA’s number one priority. Every vehicle is subjected to a thorough technical inspection to make certain everything, from the driver’s Nomex racing suit, to how quickly they can escape the car in the event of an accident or fire, is ready for the race.
Speed Week also validates the old saying that there are no strangers, only friends you have yet to meet. Random people will ask you random questions or offer insights into...well, just about everything. Everyone is willing to discuss cars, theirs or someone else’s. Guys give you unsolicited business cards. No one seems to complain much about anything; it is after all, “The Salt.”
So what does all of this have to do with families? Who would expose their kids to the heat, noise and the well-organized confusion of Speed Week? I wondered that myself. Remember the “random question” comment above?
My answer came from folks like the Bashores, grandparents who, along with their four-year-old grandson, were assembling a sunshade. Between hammering anchoring stakes into the salt bed, they explain that four generations of the Bashore family had made the trek to Bonneville. It takes some advanced planning with kids, they explain, pointing to their well-stocked cooler. Keeping everyone hydrated is important they say, but sun protection is Job One.
“We go through a lot of water, juice and high SPF sunscreen,” Jack Bashore says.
It’s a similar story with most families there. It is a generational homage and a trip to which family members look forward all year. Grandfathers, fathers, brothers, sisters, all came before and the hope is the youngest in the group will come with their future kin. In short, kids are everywhere soaking up the sights and sounds of land speed record attempts protected by hats, hearing protection, sun glasses of all description and, of course, gallons of sunscreen.
Unlike most other forms of racing, Bonneville offers spectators a chance to get close to the race cars, their crews and drivers. The time between runs or clearing the track in the event of an on-course breakdown, creates a snail-pace, miles-long parade of fantastic cars, all accessible to those who choose to wander and look at these incredible vehicles.
The trip to Wendover is a little over 300 miles from Boise and is an easy drive that allows stops in Twin Falls and Jackpot and Wells, Nevada. Take the longer route through Buhl and get ice cream from Smith’s Dairy. It is a drive that not only takes you into another state, it is a trip into automotive history. Off the Salt Flats, Wendover also affords visitors opportunity to visit an historic airfield with a museum dedicated to the bomber crews who trained there during World War II.
With apologies to Rod Serling…when it comes to the Bonneville Salt Flats in August…you’re moving into a land of both shadow and substance, of things and ideas. You’ve just crossed over into...Speed Week. n
A family attends Salt Week at the Bonneville Salt Flats and a dad acts as ear protection for his son while cars zoom by loudly. (Photo taken by Dennis Lopez)
Point your palate Due West for a tasty and interactive culinary experience with spot on service
By Adrianne Goff
Due West is a new fine dining restaurant that opened in downtown Boise approximately one month ago by Cary Prewitt and Melissa Levick, a dynamic husband & wife duo. Due West is the third restaurant in the Western Collective Group that coincidently opened at the same time as their second, The National. Both of these new eateries are in the same space as their beloved House of Western and are well on track to elevate Boise’s culinary scene.
The menu features signature dishes such as; a crispy amish half chicken with a truffled pan gravy, a red wine braised beef ragu over fresh pappardelle topped with homemade ricotta and a 22-24 oz Duroc pork tomahawk with a miso butterscotch sauce. One of our favorite items on their menu was an indulgent $50 wagyu burger with whipped foie gras, bone marrow, caramelized onions and gruyere. This is the burger to get when you want to splurge and have the best of the best flavors in your mouth. A burger that you “smash” and then come back again the next day, pay another $50 and do it all over again. It really is that good!
Before we received our starters, the staff tuned into the fact that our littles may have been hungry, and we all know kids are not the best at waiting. They surprised us with a beautiful plate of fresh strawberries and blueberries, which we very much appreciated. A few of our favorite appetizers included; a king crab mac and cheese, warmed feta brûlée with a honey drizzle and crispy baguette slices, elk meatballs with a well-balanced blend of pork topped with a spicy huckleberry jam. They even have fresh-fromthe-oven Parker House rolls.
Braised beef ragu
King crab macaroni and cheese
Parker house roll
Crispy amish half chicken with a truffled pan gravy
Wagu burger
Feta brûlée
In addition to a well-curated wine list they have table side crafted cocktails to add a fun interactive element. Lastly, you are in for a real sweet treat with their desserts, guaranteed to please a simple palate or a true gourmand. Get the butter cake, just do it… it comes with a bowl of fresh whipped cream and berries and will just melt in your mouth and end your dining experience with pure joy!
The menu may appear to be limited, however the attention to detail and flavors that you experience in each and every appetizer, entree and dessert will leave you wanting to come back for more. My only complaint is that I did not have a bigger stomach to finish it all. n
Due West
610 W. Idaho St. Ste 101•Boise, ID 83702 208.995.6489 • www.duewestboise.com
Butter cake. All images courtesy Due West
Hawaian Tuna Crudo
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
SEPTEMBER
Ice hockey and ice skating
Ice hockey and ice skating are offered throughout the year at Idaho IceWorld, 7072 S. Eisenman Rd. in Boise. For more information about all the on-ice activities, go to idahoiceworld.com.
Art in the Park 2024
Friday through Saturday, September 6-8
The annual Art in the Park event sponsored by the Boise Art Museum is set for Friday through Saturday, September 6-8, at Julia Davis Park in Boise. Friday and Saturday hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., and Sunday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. For more information, go to https:// boiseartmuseum.org/art-in-the-park/.
Last Splash Weekends
September 7-8 and 14-15
Weather permitting, the Last Splash Weekends at Roaring Springs will be held September 7-8 and 14-15 from noon to 7 p.m. Go to roaringsprings.com for more information.
Indian Creek
Festival 2024
Friday
and Saturday, September 13-14
The annual Indian Creek Festival is scheduled to take place Friday and Saturday, September 13-14, at Indian Creek Plaza in Caldwell. Friday’s hours are 6 to 9 p.m. and Saturday’s hours are 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information, go to indiancreekplaza.com.
Idaho Gourd
Festival 2024
Friday through Sunday, September 20-22
The Idaho Gourd Society will present its annual Gourd Festival Friday through Sunday, September 20-22, at Franz Witte Garden Center at 20005 11th Ave. N. in Nampa. Friday and Saturday’s hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Sunday’s hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission is free. Featured will be a gourd art competition, classes, make and take birdhouses, a silent auction, vendors, a food truck and music, and a fabulous gourd store. For more information go to idahogourdsociety. org/festival.
Dig into Geodes
Sunday, September 22
Crack your own geode and see the magic inside at the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology, 2455 Old Penitentiary Rd. in Boise, from noon to 3 p.m. Sunday, September 22. Participants may crack geodes, take a hillside geo-hike, and visit the museum. Cost of admission is $5 for adults and kids; IMMG members receive free admission. Pre-registration is required of everyone at www.idahomuseum. org/events. Updog hotdogs will be on sale for anyone seeking a snack or lunch. Contact operations@idahomuseum.org or call (208) 283-3186 if you have questions.
Oktoberfest
Friday, September 27
The annual celebration of all things German, Oktoberfest, is set for Friday, September 27, at the Nampa Civic Center, with something for the whole family. The event begins at 5 p.m. with pony rides and much more. Go to nampaciviccenter.com for more details.
Courageous Kids Climbing
Saturday, September 28
Courageous Kids Climbing will be hosting a climbing event for people with special needs ages 3 to 103 at Vertical View Climbing Gym, 1334 E. Bird Dog Dr. in Meridian, on Saturday, September 28, from 10 a.m. to noon. For a registration packet and more information, email courageouskidsclimbing@gmail.com.
13th Annual Idaho Renaissance Faire
Saturday and Sunday, September 28 & 29
Now 2 weekends!! Come join us at Expo Idaho as we celebrate with the Dutchess of Milan in welcoming back our joust and fighter. Come see some amazing entertainment, including Ses Carney and Thee Corvids. Dressed up or in plain clothes, you’re sure to find something to marvel at. Sept 28 and 29 and Oct 5 and 6.
September - October 2024
Please send family-related calendar items to adriannegoff@me.com
OCTOBER
Canyon County Fall Home Show
Friday through Sunday, October 4-6
If you’re looking for great ideas for your home, the Canyon County Fall Home Show will take place October 4-6 at Ford Idaho Center in Nampa. For times and ticket information, go to fordidahocenter.com.
13th Annual Idaho Renaissance Faire
Saturday and Sunday, October 5 & 6
Now 2 weekends!! Come join us at Expo Idaho as we celebrate with the Dutchess of Milan in welcoming back our joust and fighter. Come see some amazing entertainment, including Ses Carney and Thee Corvids. Dressed up or in plain clothes, you’re sure to find something to marvel at. Sept 28 and 29 and Oct 5 and 6.
Gold Panning for All Ages
Sunday, October 6
Join the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology, 2455 Old Penitentiary Rd. in Boise, between noon and 3 p.m. Sunday, October 6, and learn how to pan for gold. The program is free for youth and IMMG members. The cost for everyone else is $5 plus Eventbrite fee. The panning instruction will be provided by the Nampa Gold Prospectors. Also, inside the museum there will be exhibits and a free mineral for each child. Children must be accompanied by a registered adult. Pre-registration is required of each person at www.idahomuseum.org/events. Updog hotdogs will be on sale at the event. Contact operations@idahomuseum.org with questions or call (208) 283-3186.
Events in Eagle
Saturday, October 12, 19 & 26
Eagle’s annual Harvest Fest is set for 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, October 12; a Mother Son Monster Mash will take place from 6 to 8 p.m. Saturday, October 19; and a Night of a Thousand Pumpkins is scheduled for 6 to 9 p.m. Saturday, October 26. For more details, go to cityofeagle.org.
Funtober Fest
Saturday, October 12
The Harward Rec Center in Nampa will present its annual Funtober Fest from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, October 12. This is an outdoor, carnival-style event that will include a costume contest, games, and more. Cost is $6.25 per child for members; $7.50 per child for non-members; and free for adults with a paid child. For more information, go to nampaparksandrecreation.org.
Pumpkin Plunge
Friday, October 25
Celebrate Halloween with a twist when the Harward Rec Center in Nampa hosts its annual Pumpkin Plunge. Plunge into a pool for a pumpkin hunt from 6 to 9 p.m. Friday, October 25. There will be other fun games, races, and pumpkin-themed activities for children 6-13. There is a fee to participate and pre-registration is required. Go to nampaparksandrecreation.org.
Boo at the Zoo
Saturday and Sunday, October 26 -27
This year, the annual Boo at the Zoo presented by Delta Dental of Idaho will take place from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday, October 26 -27. (Last admission will be at 4 p.m.) This is one of the best family Halloween events in town and will feature trick or treat candy stations, a costume contest for all ages, Halloween-themed treats for zoo animals, and more. Normal admission prices apply. Visit zooboise.org for further information.
Don’t wait until it’s ‘higher and deeper’
Submitted by Christianne Crumpp of Mary Ann’s Cupboards
Laundry is one of the five “Higher & Deeper” tasks that Mary Ann Wilcox talks about in her Clutter Free Living e-learning classes. To catch you up, a “higher and deeper” is a task that needs to be done every day or it will pile higher and deeper. Doing dishes is another one.
If you are like me, you hate how laundry is never done. Just after you have emptied a hamper into the washer, it seems to be full again. So, I wanted to share a few tips that have helped me stay on top of the laundry in my home.
Getting it done: Have established laundry days at your house. The number of people in your household will dictate how frequently you need to do laundry. If you have a lot of laundry, you might need to embrace the fact that laundry is a daily thing…sorry.
Get a load started first thing in the morning. My routine is to throw in a load while the kids are at the table for breakfast.
Set a timer to remind you when to rotate the laundry and also again when you start the dryer to remind you to take the laundry out. My preferred timer is the microwave because it just keeps beeping until I turn it off. This is critical for me because the timer on the washer and dryer will beep a few times and then be done. If I’m in a different part of the house I sometimes don’t hear it, or I hear it but then get sidetracked and forget to go rotate the laundry. Now, I go straight from shutting off the timer to the laundry room.
Folding and hanging: Have an established place for folding. Recruit kids as much as possible. Teens and tweens can do it themselves; little ones can help fold hand towels, wash cloths and rags at about age 5.
Hang and fold straight from the dryer in your laundry room – it takes a fraction of the time. No more binge-watching Netflix on laundry day. (I know – I’m crying too!)
Putting away: Definitely get the kids to put away their own clothes as soon as they are old enough. How old is old enough? Maybe 2½ or 3 – you know your kids.
Don’t change your clothes in the laundry room. This is a direct order to my hubby!
Put clothes away after school or before bed. Establish a time every day.
Everything that is not clothing (linens, towels, etc.) should be put away when you finish folding the load.
Time yourself. How long does it really take you to fold a load or put it away? Not as long as you think, I promise. Once you know how fast it is, it makes every step that much easier. n
For more information, go to
REAL MONEY, REAL FAMILIES
The allowance debate: earned or unearned?
By Luke Erickson
Silent Generation: “Eight year olds should be seen but not heard. Now, if you want supper, finish plowing the field and change the oil in the tractor when you’re done.”
Baby Boomers: “Because I said so, that’s why! Now go outside and get into just enough trouble that you learn a life lesson but not enough that we hear from the cops.”
Gen X: “Here’s a Nintendo, a TV, and a key. Don’t burn the house down.”
Millennials: “I follow 12 parenting podcasts. Here’s an iPad with educational apps, and some organic kale puffs. And whatever you do, don’t leave the house without me and my helicopter.”
Gen Z: “Hey Alexa, give me some parenting hacks, and some tips to make my kids TikTok famou$$$.”
Regardless of the generation, parents have tried to do their best with the tools available – whether it’s a tractor or an iPad. But when it comes to teaching kids about personal finance, many parents feel woefully underprepared.
A whopping 83% of teens say their parents are their primary source of financial wisdom, yet only 31% of those parents report having confidence in their financial knowledge. Schools are trying to help, but even where personal finances are mandated by the state, it usually gets thrown on the wrestling coach who has no background in finance, has no real curricula to use, and little if any budget to support the class.
So, parents, looks like it’s back on you. But not to fear, because there’s one parenting tool that has proven effective over the generations at teaching kids the value of money: Allowance. It’s like an itty-bitty paycheck for kids but without taxes and more whining. Actually the whining is about the same for adults, let’s be honest.
But the debate between Earned vs. Unearned Allowance is crazier and more intense than the current presidential election! Okay, not even close. But it’s probably just as important to our kids’ financial futures. So let’s dive into the pros and cons of each.
Earned Allowance:
On one side, we have the Earned Allowance camp. The philosophy here is simple: “No work, no pay.” It’s like a mini version of the capitalist market that overlays the family structure. What could go wrong? Do your chores, get your cash. Don’t do your chores, and you’re on your own…except that you’ll still get all your needs met…and most of your wants too, but trust me, you’ll feel the pain when you can’t buy that pack of Pokemon cards and hot cheetos you so desire.
Pros: Kids learn that hard work can be rewarded financially. It’s like boot camp for their future 9-to-5 lives. Plus, parents don’t have to worry about chores getting done since kids love money and they will be begging for more. In theory anyway.
Cons: Things can get awkward when kids start expecting cold hard cash for every little contribution, like eating their vegetables or taking a bath. Also, what if your kid is more interested in playing ‘Fortnite’ than earning cash? The truth is that kids aren’t always motivated by money. So your labor supply could dry up, leading to many incomplete chores or inflation in your chore prices to actually get them done.
And then there’s the sibling rivalry. Older kids can do more chores faster and more effectively, so they might hog all the work—and the cash—leaving younger siblings with empty pockets and a burgeoning resentment that only therapy can cure that you’ll have to pay for.
Unearned Allowance:
On the flip side, the Unearned Allowance camp believes in
giving kids a set amount of money regardless of whether they scrub the toilet or just sit around listening to Taylor Swift on Alexa. It’s basically a stipend for being cute.
Pros: It’s easy, consistent, and you won’t have to worry about the complexities of running an in-home economy. Kids get a regular amount of money, providing opportunities to budget, save, and prioritize. And it also puts the children and family on the same team when it comes to household duties.
Cons: Allowance won’t be the place that kids connect the dots between effort and earnings. This lesson is left to the real world and might smack them in the face when they get their first job. Also, without the chore-money link, getting kids to clean up will require some other kind of motivation besides money.
The Ultimate Parent Hack: The Blended Approach
With all these pros and cons, what’s a parent to do?
Personally, I’ve found that a Blended Approach works best. In my household, chores aren’t paid, but they come with perks like screen time or time with friends. The allowance is a flat rate that is adjusted by age and automatically deposited into an app that tracks their saving and spending.
Whenever my kids want to spend their money, they come to me since I’m the gatekeeper of the app. We have a chat about what they’re buying and why. These are teachable moments, like when they spend all their money on less desirable things and then complain about being broke. Ah, the sweet sound of a life lesson learned.
And I actually give them a lot of freedom to spend on whatever they like, because I’ve found that their mistakes are even more teachable moments. It’s better that they blow their allowance on a useless toy and learn these lessons now, rather than rack up a bunch of expensive debt in early adulthood. Plus, it saves me from the endless refrain of “Can I have money for this?” Either they saved their money or they didn’t. It’s entirely in their control.
Final Thoughts: The Real Value of Allowance
So, what’s the best method? Honestly, it depends on your family’s goals and dynamics. The worst option, though, is doing nothing at all. Giving your kids any kind of allowance, earned or unearned, is an opportunity to teach them real-life money management skills.
In the end, the goal isn’t so much about giving your kids the money they want, it’s about helping them prepare for a future where they don’t end up living in your basement because they spent all their rent money on video games and the latest boba drink trend.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go see if my eight year old drove the tractor back to the barn…on her iPad game that is. Don’t worry, she still has all her limbs. n
Luke Erickson, Ph.D., AFC®, is an associate professor of personal finance for the University of Idaho. He works and lives in the Treasure Valley. @drlukeerickson (Instagram), erickson@uidaho.edu
Trapper etiquette: you don’t have to tell
By Chuck Carpenter
I accompanied one of the Wildlife Specialists that was in my District to an area in Owyhee County. One of the cooperators was losing newborn calves to coyotes.
We listened to another District Supervisor and one of his Wildlife Specialists talking on our radio – they were heading to an area just a little further to the west to work on another damage complaint.
We visited with them on the radio and decided to meet them in Murphy, Idaho around lunch time after when we had taken care of the complaints. Murphy is the County Seat for Owyhee County and at that time had a courthouse, jail, a small hamburger joint, and a dirt airstrip along highway 78. There were a few ranch buildings nearby.
Chuck Carpenter
Gary, the Wildlife Specialist that worked in my district, and I headed to the area of the complaint and went to work. Layne, another District Supervisor and one of his Wildlife Specialists, Doug, went to the complaint in their area and went to work.
We were able to take care of the complaint after several hours and headed off to Murphy. A while later Layne and Doug showed up to meet us. We discovered that the one and only place to eat, the small hamburger joint, was closed. It was miles to any other possible place to eat.
“No worries,” replied Doug. “I stopped on the way over here this morning and picked up some salami, sliced cheese, mayonnaise, bread, and chips.” We drove our pickups over to the end of the dirt airstrip to have sandwiches and chips for lunch.
We parked close together. Gary and I got out of the pickup and walked over to Doug and Layne’s pickup.
When we walked over to Doug’s pickup, we noticed that while driving through the rough terrain areas Doug’s cooler had tipped over and all the contents had rolled out into the back of his pickup bed.
Doug must have missed breakfast that morning – after stopping and picking up the groceries for lunch he had a couple slices of the salami from the package for breakfast. When all the contents in the cooler had spilled out in the back of the pickup, two pieces of the salami had escaped the plastic wrapper and was bouncing around all over in the back of Doug’s pickup with God only knows what else that was in or had been in the back of that pickup? Everything else remained unopened and was still in the original package.
Now ole Doug was probably one of the nicest people I have ever met. He would do anything for anyone and help a person any way that he could. As the saying goes, he would give you the shirt off his back.
Doug was also very conservative and was not wasteful. He quickly picked up the two pieces of salami that had been ricocheting around in the back of his truck bed and slapped them right back on the top of the stack of salami. Gary and I watched when he made this quick maneuver. Layne was digging around in the pickup and missed Doug’s quick maneuver.
My mind was quickly running through all the possible things that ole Doug could have hauled in the back of his truck, and I didn’t really want to flop my lips over anything that would have been back there.
Doug held the stack of salami over to Gary. I was hoping Gary would take the top two pieces but nope he reached into the middle of the stack and yanked two chunks out slick as a whistle.
I thought, “Well, if it worked for Gary maybe I could do it too?” Doug held the stack over to me and looked over at Layne; I jerked a couple pieces out and slapped them on my bread.
Poor ole Layne hadn’t been paying attention and missed the whole tipped over cooler incident.
Doug held the stack of salami over to Layne and he grabbed the two top pieces and slapped them right on his bread.
Gary and I had to look over toward the horizon and bite our lip so we wouldn’t laugh.
Layne began to eat his sandwich, and something went crunch. I think it was a tiny little rock. He spit it out and remarked, “They must have ground up a piece of bone?”
A short time later we hear Layne going, “pphhfff, pphhfff”! We looked over and poor ole Layne had a glob of coyote hair stuck on his lip.
Well, ole Layne didn’t die or even get sick. After all that I think he’s still my friend. I hope he’s still my friend.
The trapper etiquette to this story is even if you see it you don’t have to tell. n
Chuck Carpenter, who now lives in Idaho, likes to hunt, fish and trap. He worked on a farm as a boy; then, as an adult, he took a job with the Department of Interior’s Animal Damage Control, now called USDA Wildlife Services. He ultimately became a district supervisor. He retired in 2011.
