Halloween Ghost Walkers

The best thing about Halloween in Echo Bay, is that we finally have a couple of days of pure relief where we can let down our guard, our armor and our ammunition for our sneaky, silent, ghost walking neighbors; the cougars.  There’s just no way any animals are around here after Billy sets off all the fireworks – and what a show it always is.  With a whopping full-time community member number at 7 now, this year was a small little gathering of us wilderness dwellers, but as usual the potluck was delicious, with fresh baked bread, crab and lingcod cakes, mustard breaded sole with french fries, roasted garden veggies, an apple pudding-cake dessert and of course my classic contribution of baked squash, tho I have to admit, that my pumpkin’s candle unknowingly fell into the pan and was cooked alongside the squash.  Not wanting to waste my beautiful squash, the survivalist in me served the top portion of it anyways, I figured, “Well heck, we’ve all eaten jelly beans before so what’s the difference?”

Lately, the cougar presence around here has been pretty stressful.  Sadly, we had to track down and shoot a big cat recently who nearly attacked a neighbor.  We’ve had another cougar lurking around the yard for weeks, making beds near the buildings and keeping Buster Brown dog busy patrolling the place.

I did my best to honor the cat, she sure was beautiful.  I skinned her for a rug and canned up the meat.  I would never have believed it, but cougar stew is absolutely delicious.  The light golden meat tastes like sweet pork chops.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to make my Halloween cougar mask, which would have been awesome and horrifying all at the same time.