Winter has always been a challenging time for Ol’ Dutch with the colder weather, short days and lack of any meaningful hunting or fishing to be had. It's been the same for me for as long as I can remember so I guess I should expect it to come rolling in after Christmas every year. I think recognizing that it happens to me and why is a big help toward fighting any real depression but I can see why people do struggle with that in the winter months.  

I mean Ol’ Dutch would probably just go off into la la land if not for his good looks, great personality, friendly demeanor, captivating sense of humor and great singing voice. (And there goes Miss Trixie's chronic issue with her eyes rolling around in their sockets like a pinball machine. She really needs to get that looked at.) 

Ol’ Dutch and Miss Trixie are fortunate enough to be able to go South in the Winter and while we are far from our old winter hang out at South Padre Island, at least we are out of the cold, dark, snowy days that we get at our Colorado home. And this winter has been really nice at the Texas farm with days of 60 to 90 degrees all fall and no real cold snap until just this past weekend. But even the 17 degree nights that we are having are manageable when the days warm to 55 or 60 so it's not horrible.  

We did get out last Saturday to a soccer game for Grand #2 and it was a cold one for sure. The wind was howling and it was a cool 38 degrees. The only good is that we did get out of the house and get the stink blown off of us. A person needs to do that periodically or you start to develop mold in dark crevices that even clorox won't remove.  

My daughter Cricket is here for a visit and so Ol’ Dutch will be laying out some hard cash for entertainment purposes. What with going out to eat and Miss Trixie taking her and the Grands to the Fort Worth Stock show, Ol’ Dutch is gonna be cash poor soon enough. I was telling my Son, Bubs, about that and he reminded me that he had a constant flow of inlaws and outlaws for November and December and had also experienced having to entertain folks and the expense therein.  

I had some friends back in Kansas and he was the Manager of the local small Sears store. Well he did such a bang up job that they decided he needed to travel around and train other store managers so they hit the road for a while. During that time they went to Salida, Colorado and fell in love with the place and soon were managing that store themselves. They loved it there of course but it soon became apparent that everyone they ever knew also loved it there and came to visit. I mean everyone.  

And they all stayed with them and acted like they were on vacation. But endless long evenings and going out and entertaining took its toll and soon they had to move out of that beautiful mountain haven just to get some peace and quiet and stop the financial drain of having guests all the time.  

Of course, Miss Trixie, the ever-gracious hostess, just rolls her eyes at Ol’ Dutch and also rolls out the red carpet for whomever shows up. Thankfully we do not live near Disneyland or some other attraction so it's not too bad. Yet.  

But the good thing about Daughter #1 coming to visit is that I was planning to go visit Cricket in New Hampshire in March, so maybe this trip here by my daughter will suffice and in reality I will be saving money in the long run by avoiding that long flight. Which always makes my arms so tired.  

Kevin Kirkpatrick spends his days fishing, hunting, ATVing, hiking or making people laugh. His email is Kevin@TroutRepublic.com. Additional news can be found at www.troutrepublic.com or on Twitter at TroutRepublic.