Here’s part one of your questions answered. I should have the second part out early this week. Thank you for such thoughtful and interesting questions. I had fun answering them. Hopefully the answers are satisfactory for one and all.
We’re a hive of industry over here. Saturday (that will be today when this goes out) is the annual bowman competition that my husband, Troy, started a few years ago. Teams of men come here to compete in a grueling competition that includes running through our woods with sandbags and bows strapped to their bodies and pulling sleds full of whatever weighs enough to torture. They do a series of sprints, each two kilometres in length. Then, along the course, there are targets of animals set up that they have to sucessfully hit on the bullseye. Wounding the “animal” (made of foam or wood) is a deduction in points. The idea is to put themselves through extreme struggle and then still be able to hunt with success. After each lap through the woods, the teams come back to the staging area and have to pull heavy things, do pull ups and push ups and… you know, it’s really tough to watch all these half naked bucks running around with their sweaty muscles popping, but alas, we, the audience, endure.
Beyond the competition are the the wives and little kids that fill up that audience. It’s a really fun time to see new babies born and to visit with each other every year. And it’s so incredibly fulfilling to see such a wonderful, good-natured, supporting group of sound men bonding and laughing together. We need more of that, I think. Obviously, Troy, thought so, too. That’s why he started this competition during Covid when the world was being shut down.
This will be the final year for the bowman competition. My fingers are crossed that Troy and our dear friend, Andrew (his teammate in all things) win first place, again, for the finale. They’re the old guys and yet they’ve won first place three times. It would be nice to see him walk away with first for the last year this will be running (on our farm at least). Both of our daughters and our granddaughter have arrived to cheer on their beloved papa and “Buddha” (as our granddaughter has dubbed him).
So, along with butchering and food preserving tasks, there is the utmost prioritized jobs that rule over it all. These include reading as many books as our granddaughter requests. We also must milk the cow together, visit the apple tree endlessley, make ice cream and then do it again, play in the bathtub and check for chicken eggs seventeen times a day. Most important.
So, please enjoy this audio Q&A. As I said, I will return early in the week with part two when I will wrangle up the mister to help answer some of the questions you had for him.
Have a beautiful weekend everyone,
Tara ❤️
