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Summer is for Chores
Author: Bill Garwood

Summer is for Chores

I love a good green lawn but keeping it green and NOT full of dry areas gets interesting! Never mind the doggy doodoo or occasional Deer “foraging”; there is always something else to interfere. Like maybe a city water pressure valve added to existing water lines, city-wide. (I watched my beautiful lawn be dug up.)

Now, there are bare spots and dirt all around the front yard. Luckily, they didn’t disturb the Squirrels! Finding my water shut-off valve 9 feet down got…interesting. Nature will heal all bad spots, but now I have to mow around the dirt areas! Grrr.

One great thing about THIS summer has been that we have had quite a bit of rain. Unfortunately, we now have Montana “smog” otherwise known as smoke from wildfires. I hope you are all breathing decently. I have found over the years that breathing is important.

The city folks have been doing a great job chip sealing our streets and filling in most potholes. Good job, folks!

I can’t say anyone’s name any longer, but I will say thank you to Mr. P. and family for trimming all our trees. (Don’t you ever rest?).

Townsend’s Public Works people are second to none. They help keep our community running well. Even when the state busybodies come around and are measuring the space between our curbs and street signs, or businesses. Don’t you folks have anything better to do?

It seems all of our local businesses are being really well maintained; we have even added a new Restaurant on Front Street. Welcome folks. Good food.

Based on all the people out and around Saturday night, it looks like the street dance went well. There were a lot of folks out to do some dancing - good for you. I hope everybody enjoyed the Rodeo.

I love that sometimes when the firefighters block off the street, they put out a sign on the barricades. Saying: "Caution Townsend, Partying". Nice. Small towns need to have local celebrations, like our “Upcoming” Fests and strolls; they bring people together. We get to see old friends we haven’t seen all summer. Many have been out ranching / Farming and such. Our local parades have been special this year; the Independence Day parade had the largest turnout that I ever remember. Such great events!

I would still like to see a winter carnival - in say, February. We need to celebrate our cold months. I mean, Montana is a cold state, mostly.

Back to yard/chores, etc. We grow our lawns, then cut them down. Then water them so they grow…then cut them down. I think there was an old Mark Twain story about the devil sending letters to God, laughing about the same thing. We human types do often make strange decisions and have odd ideas. I think that’s what makes us jump ahead, over cold logic, to abstract ideas. This is called Creativity! (Don’t be frightened.) Nowadays they call it “thinking outside the box.” I never remember building a box. But it’s easy to think outside it.

Enjoy our warm summer; TRY to breathe. Enjoy, prepare for fall. My favorite season, mostly!