Behind the Lines: by David Heiller

David Heiller I’ve been sitting on an outhouse column, so to speak, for several months. That’s because I had seen a want ad in a local paper back then that read: FOR SALE: Outhouse. $150.00. I figured that anyone who is selling his out house must have a story to tell the Askov American. First some background: We have an outhouse at our place. I guess it’s MY outhouse, since I’m the only one who uses it. Cindy hasn’t used it much since last summer, when a garter snake dropped on her. A David-style panorama of our homestead in Sturgeon Lake. (Complete with tape to hold it together) The outhouse is the little white building to the right. We used it exclusively for ten years. At the time of this column, it was David's domain.  Eventually, even he stopped using it when it was cold. Occasionally Mollie will hitch a ride on my back and join me there. It’s a two-holer. But she does this less out of physical need than curiosity, or if she has something urgent...

David Heiller It finally dawned on me on Monday, and a chill went up my cliche-filled spine. This dog is too darn smart. I’m referring to our Australian Shepherd, McKenzie. We got her a month ago from Kathy Horvath. MacKenzie Kathy is the biggest animal lover this side of Cassanova. She takes in homeless animals. McKenzie had been given to her because she kept running away from her home in Duluth (McKenzie did, not Kathy). The dog had learned how to open the door, and couldn’t resist the sound of children playing down the street. Kathy and a group called Aussie Rescue in turn gave her to us. It was pretty much love at first sight, even for me. I didn’t want another dog. We already had one, a six-year-old flugel - hound named Ida. But the other three family members begged pretty shamelessly. “Let’s just try it, and if she doesn’t work out, we can take her back,” Cindy said. Yeah right. McKenzie is hard not to like. She catches Frisbees with spectacular leaps. When w...

David Heiller If you saw a rattlesnake, would you kill it? I sometimes wonder about that. Everyone is entitled to his or her opinion, and I respect that, but I can’t see why a person would kill a rattler. I have to admit I once dispatched one, in the front yard of the parsonage where Gary and Maureen Meiners now live. That was in 1969, and there were so many Blair kids running around I figured it would nail one or two of them. But chances are that would not have happened. The snake was probably a little out of its territory I could as easily have lifted it up with a shovel and moved it as the nearby ravine. It didn’t want to be there any more than I wanted it to. Fear and emotion and a certain panicky dislike for snakes won out. Admit it, you see a snake and it startles the heck out of you. They just do. That goes way back to Genesis. But I’d like to make a pitch for the lowly rattlesnake. For one thing, they are disappearing. You might scoff at that, but it’s true...