Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters An Experience - The Fawn

Steve
Thank you for the fine writing. ANd for starting this thread.

I'd have to say its the best read I've read here in a while.

Jeff

Steve:

If you grew up in the Bitterroot, you are one lucky man.

Jordan

Steve, that pretty well sums up how I feel about taking animals. I fully realize that they are alive, and have a presence in nature.
Killing an animal, and using it demands that I not only respect the animal, but give thanks for it.
Killing just to kill, is an anathema to me.

All,

I'm getting a bit long in a writing about my Grandpa Hank. The context of the writings is short, concise and meaningful.

I have what I think of an an "artifact" that I can easily excise from the already too-long Grandpa Hank thingie.

Believe it or not, I cry whenever I read this short piece. I am waaay too close to this schit!!

My question is this: Does this little piece on Belle stand alone???


XXXXX


BELLE

Grandpa Hank�s favorite hound was named Belle.

It was the mid-1920s and Hank was a bachelor. Hank had lots of hounds, of course, but Belle was special. When it came to running lions and bears in the Sawtooth Mountains, the two were a team.

One day, Belle went missing while after a big tom cougar. Hank eventually walked down the lion and killed it with his .30 Remington, but Belle was not there ... she was either killed, got diverted by another lion scent trail or fell over a cliff.

Hank and the rest of his hounds spent the next two weeks in the mountains, just searching for Bell. They never found any trace of that wonderful and loyal hound.

Years later, I remember standing in the back yard of our farm as night closed in. When God spread sapphire-blue ink across the sky and the first stars showed, we often stood in wonder. The land became quiet and the wind died down.

It was then that Hank swore he could hear Belle baying. She was still after lions, she had a big one up a tree and was waiting for Hank to come help her out.

Hank blamed himself for failing his beloved hound.

After a while, we'd walk into the light of our covered back porch and there would be twin wet tracks down his wrinkled cheeks. Dang, Hank loved that dog.

Of course, it was impossible for Belle to still be alive thirty years after she disappeared in the mountains. Still, Hank heard her baying almost every evening ��

and I did, too.

by Steve

Steve

Thanks for sharing

Does this little piece on Belle stand alone???


Yep, about a 1000+ pages worth,........... for ol' hound dog hunters!

Belle's story is an excellent stand-alone piece. Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks guys.

The little piece is precisely one page, which is perfect for my personal portfolio.

I use Comic Sans font, which is my favorite. Then size-16 for the title and size-14 for the text. I adjust the total lenght of the piece by changint the size between the paragraphs ... in this case, it was slightly long, so I used size-8 space. It worked out wonderfully.

Again, many thanks.

Steve

Stands alone and easily so. Thanks for the read.

Outstanding, tearfully so.

Any of us that have shared in the life of a dog or two during our life can easily relate to Grandpa Hank. Thanks for sharing, Steve. I always have liked your style and subject matter.

Yeah, I have the same problem. It ISN'T alergies or pollen or any of that crap.

In writing, rewriting and re-rewriting Belle and trying to get it just perfect, I've read it over a hundred times.

I freely admit that it's made me cry every time.

Of course, I was there, and maybe that makes a little difference.

Seeing that great man, my gentle/tough man, my Grandpa Hank watch the darkening sky ... "in the back yard of our farm as night closed in. When God spread sapphire-blue ink across the sky and the first stars showed, we often stood in wonder. The land became quiet and the wind died down." (Damn, I love that paragraph}

and watching Hank cup his ear and he could actually hear Belle baying. I know he could.

and to see his face that was wrinkled by age and thousands of days out in the Montana sun, with two wet streaks. Makes me cry. Seriously.

Ain't it great that WE are gentle/tough too???

Steve

Steve,

You can't keep sliding in your writings into the same postings. I damn near missed your latest, and I would have been the poorer for having missed it.

Just sayin'.

And thanks for giving us Belle.

Steve

No prob, Steve,

I'm trying to decide if the 24HCF is the venue for something about Hank. The Germans pizzed him off by killing some of the Doughboys he was racing off the killing field in his ambulance. So, eventually he and his partner painted a big black X on their Red Cross and stole some Lewis machine guns and boo-coo ammo from the British Flying Service.

Prolly wouldn't win a Nobel Peace Prize, that's for azzholes like Obammy and that azzwipe Jimmy Carter, but the two market hunters didn't miss many Jerrys and they saved a lot of American lives.

Hank called their anbulance The War Wagon. Imagine two Lewis Guns, and probably three, blazing out the windows and out the back, racing your great-grandfather back to safety. Makes sense to me.

The piece will also have some puntgun action. Market hunting for swans and geese on the Missoui.

http://www.neatorama.com/2011/04/15/punt-guns/

Anyway, I'm working on it. We'll see how it goes; may share, may keep it personal.

I can tell you this, my buddy Chub Eastman is gonna get a wonderful Christmas present this year. A leather-bound copy of all I've been writing, wonderful full of heart and soul stuff that will never be published. And all printed on that fabulous 67-pound bond. He's gonna CRAP, CRAP, CRAP!!!

I don't know; maybe it isn't that good, but it's more from my heart than I've ever been able to write or publish.

Steve

Great writing, Steve. Funny, your description of Spotty reminds me of my girls' Aussie/Border Collie cross. Like Spotty, she is pretty much always smiling with an even bigger smile when petted.

+1000






Exceedingly well written stories. Thanks for sharing them.

Steve,

Stands alone, tall and proud. Thanks for sharing some of you. I never tire of reading pieces of Steve.

Rick

Yes it is, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

My friend, Steve;

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