Chad, Jeremy and I loved to fire up the barbecue on Saturday night after a hard days work. The day was very productive. We were popping out the bathroom to make this little shelter more civilized and upgrading it from a fish’n cabin, Dad’s original plan when he moved it here from Goodyear, Arizona some thirty-five years ago, to a cozy cabin with a modern bathroom and toilet. Carol and I doubled the size of the bathroom some twenty years ago when we extended a sheet rock wall and installed a larger 32″ wide door. We taped the sheet rock hoping that overtime someone else would be inspired to texture and paint it out. But that never happen. It was good enough and not broke, so there it was . The modern bathroom has a glass shower that replaced what the Wagner Boys used to call the ductwork shower as it was metal but very small. The sink that helped throw-out Brother Jeff’s back and created a few bumps on various heads is now a nice large vanity and sink. Boy, did I get side tracked. I was talking about BBQ.
So after a hard days work, we were looking forward to •tiring up the bar-b”, which I understand is not what they say in Australia as per popular belief. This night it was to be filet mignon with baked potato with sour cream, Caesar Salad, and sourdough garlic bread. What a treat! When the charcoals were ready and the grille positioned to take advantage of the bright back porch light to check the progress of the cooking, I sat out all the required cooking utensils, which was only a small dinner fork to turn the meat, plate and steak knife to check its progress as we didn’t have the official BBQ tool set. So while I was cooking away, Chad & Jeremy stepped out of the cabin to check the process and to give me advice. They suddenly yelled •Dad, Watch Out!” As I the flood of the light was a masked intruder. With teeth bared and fierce eyes, a giant raccoon was encroaching in on my outdoor kitchen. Grabbing a near by walking stick, I headed off the initial attack. No creature was going to rob me out of our main course, well any creature this size or smaller (excluding skunks). The local, larger creatures that could cheat us out of our dinner consisted of bear and probably mountain lions. I poked at it while shouting out loud •Hey!” The raccoon grabbed on to my stick and after a brief tug of war it immediately saw my resolve and scurried away. Having saved the day or should I say saved the meat, we continued with the evening dining or shall I say chowing down. rubbed the smoke from my eyes, there in the darkness beyond the flood of the light was a masked intruder. With teeth bared and fierce eyes, a giant raccoon was encroaching in on my outdoor kitchen. Grabbing a near by walking stick, I headed off the initial attack. No creature was going to rob me out of our main course, well any creature this size or smaller (excluding skunks). The local, larger creatures that could cheat us out of our dinner consisted of bear and probably mountain lions. I poked at it while shouting out loud •Hey!” The raccoon grabbed on to my stick and after a brief tug of war it immediately saw my resolve and scurried away. Having saved the day or should I say saved the meat, we continued with the evening dining or shall I say chowing down.