Road Kill Hamburgers

     My buddy Dave called me yesterday morning around 7 a.m. while I was out for a walk; "I've sent you two messages dude!"  I told him I couldn't hear the phone, and asked him what was up.  "DJ called me this morning (local Sheriff's deputy) and said that someone hit four elk down near the High School - do you want some?"  Four elk?  How is it possible for one vehicle to hit four elk?  I found out later that it was a jeep, and the driver walked away from the accident (although I'm sure his jeep didn't).  I told Dave  I'd help him clean the elk if he could go and pick one of them up in his truck - then we could take it down to Denver to have the meat processed.  When he got to the site there were two guys loading two yearling elk into their truck, and there was only one cow left (someone had already taken the other elk... I find it amusing that we're like blue-collar vultures swooping in to grab the kill).  Dave was trying to figure out how to load her into his truck - she weighed somewhere around 400 pounds - when a friend of his driving a front-end loader just "happened" to pass by at that very moment.  It didn't take long to scoop up the elk in the bucket and drop her in the back of Dave's truck.  He and I were talking about it later in the day - about how funny it was that his friend "coincidentally" passed by at that very moment, with just the right equipment to do the job.  You'd almost think someone is looking out for us....

He brought the elk over to our house, and I called my neighbor Brian to see if he had a place where we could hoist her up to clean the carcass.  He said we should come on down to his barn - and (of course) he had just the right equipment to hang the elk up.  A few minutes later I'm up to my elbows in elk blood, having the time of my life (no pictures for the sake of the faint-hearted).  We finished cleaning and skinning the elk and drove back up to my house so Dave could wash up before driving downtown.  Now, I have to say here that I've never seen any foxes, coyotes or bears anywhere near our house since we moved here - but we had no sooner driven into my driveway when a fox showed up to sniff the back of Dave's truck; what an amazing sense of smell!

Dave drove down to Denver and dropped the elk off to have it converted into roasts, steaks and hamburger - and I am now officially a Redneck who eats road-kill :)  I also know how to clean an elk now, which will come in handy come hunting season.

This is the view behind our house this morning.  We had a late Spring snow last night, which seems really strange knowing that the temperature will be back up to 72 degrees tomorrow.  Crazy Colorado weather.  I thought we were done with the snow, but the locals tell me we can get snow virtually any time of year.  It's all about Global Warming (not).

Daphne has started volunteering her services at the Angry Llama Diner entering the financial data from income and expenses, and she's loving it.  She's also learning the ropes of waitressing at the restaurant, helps lead a weekly women's Bible study, and meets with three or four different

women every week.  I guess you could say that she's really beginning to thrive.  We're leading the Home Group leaders training togetherBusiness at the Angry Llama is so good we're already trying to figure out how to expand the seating capacity.  We are full virtually every lunch and dinner  - all week long - and we run out of table space on a daily basis.  We're going to knock a hole in one wall to add more seating in the room next door, and we're busy collecting elk and deer antlers, trophy mounts, antique skis, antique guns... anything to give the restaurant a "mountain lodge" feel.  Of course, as you look at the pictures to the right - we just threw up some decorations just to get the diner opened.  You can see a couple of my paintings on the wall above the stairway in the picture to the right.  I'm hoping to sell some framed prints through the restaurant, but no takers as of yet.  Part of the problem (I think) is the fact that the paintings are kind of hidden, and that they don't fit with the "eclectic" decorations we currently have up.

I'm still working on getting Storm Guides up and running.  Next week I'm going to train six or seven of the leaders from our church as a rehearsal for me, and to get their input on the training itself, the content and the presentation.  I need to do at least a couple more "pro-bono" workshops to get the training to the level I need to reach before I begin charging for my services.  I should have a full-color brochure printed by next week (thanks to our good friends El and Debi Ridder);  I can then send copies of the brochure with a cover letter to  different churches and mission agencies, and follow them up with a phone call.  I am realizing one significant reality:  churches do not make decisions quickly - especially ones that require a financial investment.  I need to grow the business to the point where I'll have trainings set up 5-7 months out, and keep that pace consistently.  Our support has dropped by about two thirds over the past three months, and I'm asking the Lord to help us build an income stream to make up the difference... and trying to rest in His sovereign care and control in the meantime.