Summary: In 2018, BTR started a writing challenge call Sourdough Starters. A Sourdough Starter is the Yeast that will activate the Dough that will be Baked into Bread. This was used in the 1800’s and is still used today. BTR’s take was to use it as a “Starter” for a bigger story. A Sourdough story is not usually fully complete. It should leave questions – what brought the characters to that point? What happens next to the characters? etc. We continued running the challenge through 2020.<\/p>\n
Rating: G, Word Count 2079<\/p>\n
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2018 January<\/p>\n
Here is your small bit of Starter – what are our guys running from? (scene at the end of Hound Dog).
\nAdd a bit of yeast and let’s see what happens.<\/p>\n
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by\u00a0BettyHT<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0<\/span>Fri May 04, 2018 8:29 am<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, how was the meeting for the spring picnic at church? I want to thank you again for taking my place on that committee. I simply have too many things to do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all right, Pa. I didn\u2019t mind at all. It was a pleasure actually.\u201d Busy at work at a table on the porch, Ben smiled at that and Joe was happy to smiled in return. Glad to have evaded answering that first part, Joe would have snarled if he could have at Adam\u2019s question that followed though.<\/p>\n Sitting in a chair at the same table and reviewing some contracts his father had given to him, Adam noted Joe\u2019s evasion of the first question. \u201cSo, how was the meeting, Joe? What happened?\u201d<\/p>\n Hoss had stopped by the porch to share the cookies and coffee Hop Sing had brought out for Ben and Adam. He was curious too especially when he saw how nervous Joe seemed first with their father\u2019s question and now with Adam repeating it. \u201cYeah, Joe, what did happen at that meetin\u2019 anyhow?\u201d<\/p>\n On the spot and unable to evade now that Adam and Hoss had focused their father\u2019s attention on him, Joe began with his prepared speech about the meeting, but his father figured that out in a moment.<\/p>\n \u201cJoseph, I want to know the part that you don\u2019t want me to know.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWell, you see, with only one man at the meeting, they kinda got around to teasing. They said that it was spring and a woman\u2019s thoughts turn to marriage. They asked which one I was going to marry in June. I didn\u2019t want to marry any of them even if they are pretty.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, go on. Then what?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI didn\u2019t want to insult them so I said I couldn\u2019t get married because in a family, the oldest has to be married first and so on down the line, and I was the youngest. I said as soon as the oldest were married, I could marry someone.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cJoe, you didn\u2019t.\u201d Adam had a look of horror.<\/p>\n Ben looked at his eldest. \u201cSon, you don\u2019t think?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cDadburnit, what\u2019s that sound I hear?\u201d<\/p>\n All four men walked out into the yard to see what was coming. What they saw was a caravan of carriages and probably every eligible woman from Virginia City. It was every man for himself to find a place to hide.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a0by\u00a0Hart4Ben<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u00bb\u00a0<\/span>Fri May 04, 2018 11:27 am Ben and his sons were chatting in the yard after lunch when a questionable looking character came with a wagon loaded down with crates.<\/p>\n \u201cThis the Cartwright place?\u201d The raggedy looking man drawled.<\/p>\n \u201cYes, I\u201dm Ben Cartwright and these are my sons.\u201d How can we help you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWas told ta deliver this load o\u2019 crates ta ya. But I gots me a bad back so you\u2019ll have ta unload it yurselves.\u201d The man pulled a large cigar from his pocket and gnawed off the end. It took multiple attempts and much spittle to expel the bits and pieces out in the yard.<\/p>\n Looks of disgust came over the faces of the Cartwright men. Joe was the first to recover.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s in the crates?\u201d Did you order something, Pa?<\/p>\n \u201cNot that I recall.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben and the boys shrugged at each other before Adam remarked with his head wagging back and forth. \u201cWell I guess there is only one way to find out!\u201d<\/p>\n As they moved closer toward the wagon, the labels on the boxes came into focus. At the same time the driver lit a match to light his cigar and haphazardly pitched it in the air.<\/p>\n \u201cYippee Trading Company?!\u201d Hoss shouted just before the firecrackers and Roman candles were ignited.<\/p>\n The Cartwrights scrambled for the front door. The wagon driver, bad back and all, disappeared behind the barn as the horse dragged the wagon around the yard finally breaking loose from the traces.<\/p>\n Inside the house, heads bobbed where they stood peering out of the window behind the desk. They winced and ducked in unison as the fireworks exploded and plumes of smoke rose into the air.<\/p>\n When the commotion finally ceased, Ben stood with his hands on his hips glaring at his big son. \u201cHoss, wasn\u2019t one fiasco enough!\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\nAfternoon De-Light<\/strong><\/p>\n