Today’s puzzle is a picture I took on a recent hike with my family. The trail is only a mile long, taking us from a street in town into the forest to a high bluff overlooking the Ouachita River. (Ouachita is pronounced WASH-it-tah around here. 🙂 ) That river is where our family loves to make our annual floating-the-river adventure.
The bluff is called the DeSoto Bluff, named after the Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto, who led an expedition through these parts in 1541-2. It’s our local claim to fame unless you count the 1997 F4 tornado that swept through Arkadelphia and flattened 60 city blocks.
Mostly, Arkadelphia is a quiet little town with a great high school football team and two universities. We have two rivers (the Ouachita and the Caddo), so this area is dubbed the Twin Rivers. And I don’t know why I’m giving you a mini-tour because all I wanted to do was share my photo.
So, here it is. Yes, you have to solve the puzzle to see it! Then, for a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, tell me about some obscure claim-to-fame your area is known for!
Yes! It’s a holiday! Another of those weird ones I like to highlight because don’t we need more reasons to celebrate? It celebrates the mayhem and chaos in our everyday lives. Something we usually hate, but today, we can revel in it!
Looking around my life, I can find plenty of chaos. I could take a daily picture of my desk, but the pictures I’m sharing today are much more fun. Our family decided to take the dive into raising our own chickens for their eggs—and what an adventure that has been!
Of course, my daughter went shopping for cute little chicks and came home with ducks and guinea fowl, too! Since then, we’ve added geese.
The guinea fowl have proven to be our “chaos agents.” Here’s the “best” picture I have of the raucous pair. They were much younger. They don’t stand ever stand still (my dd says it’s like they have ADHD).
This is what they sound like! They are very loud.
We didn’t know it at the time, but they are excellent little guards for the chickens. They are very vocal and scare off hawks and snakes and anything else that might try to enter the chickens’ yard.
Here’s a recent picture.
And because we’re on the topic of our birds, here are some more adorable pics.
Can’t forget our geese and ducks.
Here’s our first egg!
Contest
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, share about some chaos agent or chaotic event in your life.
I’m so not motivated this morning! I finished a BOOK yesterday, y’all (Jackson—you’ve pre-ordered it, right?). I got up late today, drank coffee from the biggest cup I could find, watered my plants (my babies—everyone gives me their dying houseplants to revive!), fed Loki (my betta fish—I fed the cats last night!), and now? The morning’s half over. I should just call it a day, right?
Except, I need to find the surface of my desk. It’s so cluttered with mail, a dusting cloth and beeswax spray, pens of all colors, washi tape rolls (WHY?!), gum, and cough drops. My inbox is 8 inches high. I have three empty coffee cups, waiting for my lazy butt to carry them upstairs.
So, what will I do next? I think I need breakfast. Maybe after that, I’ll swim. Then maybe I’ll shower (yeah, I should do that!), then maybe I’ll check my planner and see what I SHOULD be working on today… We’ll see. I kind of like the idea of heading back to bed to play Charm King on my phone.
The puzzle’s picture today is NOT a selfie, but I can so relate. You’ll see! HaHa!
Solve the puzzle, then tell me the lazy things you want to do this weekend! Join me! There’s a $5 Amazon gift card for the winner!
Thank you, thank you, Powers That Be. I’m almost there. Well, I got to The End last night. Today, I sweep through my book, and hopefully, catch any last typos my beta readers (Thank you Fedora, Laura, and Reina!) didn’t find or I added when I revised.
I love the last line, and I hope it works. I think I’ll share it here. It probably won’t make any sense, but that’s because YOU HAVE TO READ THE BOOK for it to mean anything.
They fell asleep like that. Connected. Dreaming of big fish and the life they’d share.
Big fish? Yeah. Made me smile anyway. I always wonder if anyone else will laugh, chuckle, or at least grin when they read something in my stories.
I don’t try to write a funny scene, but then characters start “talking” in my head, and my fingers fly to try to keep up because they’re going so fast. Sometimes, I don’t even know what I’m writing until it flows off my fingers. I know. It’s the writer’s schizophrenia. It’s an actual thing. Swear.
I don’t know how many more bounty hunters my Dead Horse office of the Montana Bounty Hunters can hire, but I’ll try to come up with something plausible so they can all stay happily ever after there. I’d hate to leave Nadine behind. Although, I do think there needs to be a southern bounty hunters story somewhere…
For a chance to win a FREE download of one of my bounty hunter stories, imagine what a Big Fish might have to do with a romance story. Share your wildest idea. Doesn’t have to be good to win!
I haven’t been this close to a deadline in forever, but here I am, typing my little fingers to the bone this week to make sure Jackson is ready to load tomorrow afternoon! Wish me luck! I’ll be sprinting to the finish!
It’s a good thing I’m having fun with the story or this would be torture. My hero and heroine, Jackson and Rachel, have been a joy to “get inside.” And whoo-ee, the story’s hot!
I thought it might be fun for you to get ready for the release next Tuesday, too. So, as part of my countdown, here’s a puzzle with some words related to the story. I’m a word nerd and love crosswords and word searches. If you’re anything like me, these little challenges are a great way to keep your mind sharp. Calisthenics for the brain! (I’m using a lot of exclamation points so I can “use them all up” before I head back into the story. 🙂 )
Word Search Puzzle: Jackson
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, let me know whether you’ve read some of my bounty hunter stories, and where you might like to see hunters hunt in the future! Do you have any ideas for adventures? Have fun!
Our family will be playing it low key. #1 — It’s hot as hell, so we’re not driving anywhere to sit and be consumed by mosquitoes while we roast. #2 — We probably won’t do more than sparklers and little poppers because our many animals would freak out, plus the 9-year-old doesn’t like the sound of explosions. #3 — We have a pool, so hopefully, we’ll decide a nighttime swim would be more enjoyable. We are planning finger foods and sandwiches. No grilling. Again — it’s too damn hot. But I hope the rest of you have fun! I’d love to hear what your plans are! I can draw vicarious joy from your celebrations!
So, share what you’ll be doing this 4th for a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC!
