The largesse of friends...
I've been very lucky lately.
Many of you know that I make and sell glass sculptures for my living. That type of business takes me to fairs and marketplaces all over our area.
Last month I was working the Pima County Fair just outside of Tucson. They had a booth there that sold pictures of folks taken with large snakes and exotic parrots. I became friends with a lady that worked there, and she gifted me a few hundred feathers that she swept up every day...no clue what bird(s) they are from, but they would have went in the trash and now will become parts of some nice flies.
This last week I spent working on the military base here (Davis Monthan AFB). One of my customers turned out to be a gifted amatuer taxidermist. She brought me a bag full of some really nice whitetail trimmings that will spin into outstanding bass and pike flies. I've never seen this quality of hair this long before. I should get some 3/0 and 4/0 sized bugs from this stuff.
And a man I met at a craft show this past fall and I got to talking and I found out that he was a duck hunter and an ocasional fly fisherman. We traded addresses and I sent him some flies. Last week a box came in the mail from him containing two gallon sized bags, one full of woodduck feathers, another containing mallard.
Now, if I could just get a day off, I could maybe tie a fly or two....
Sometimes I'm a really lucky fellow.
Buddy
