We’ve posted before that bison are a special kind of addiction. We’ve been keeping our numbers down during the drought and while we concentrate on writing in an effort to survive the collapse of American publishing. And despite our best efforts, the numbers keep climbing. This year Hot Springs State Park here in Thermopolis didn’t receive bids on a number of their calves. They were desperate to move the animals, and we couldn’t turn down the opportunity, so we brought home seven! And then our old friend John Painter, president of the Western Bison Association, needed to move animals from his drought-devastated range in New Mexico. He just brought the first load, for which we will provide pasture for a year until rain finally, if ever, returns to his Cerro San Cristobal Ranch. For the last two days, we’ve been working with the bison, cutting and sorting, separating the heifer calves to stay with Pia here by the house. Working with these magnificent animals is such a joy. …Right up until Michael didn’t double-check the load-out gate at the corral. It had only latched with one pin, and the heifers–clever little darlings that they are–knocked it open and zoomed right up the hill to be with the main herd. Which meant we had to catch them again, re-sort, and trailer them back down the hill to the house pasture. …All but little Nip. She managed to escape again, and we’ll have to figure out how to lure her back into the catch pen before breeding season. All this while we keep burning the late-night oil to finish PEOPLE OF THE SONG TRAIL. The Song Trail is the path that shamans must follow to the Sky World and the Spirits who inhabit it. The story is set in the Canadian Maritimes, and deals with early Viking contact. Michael is also working part time on Touch of Sanity, a Civil War novel that he’s had in a box for almost three decades. And yes, it makes for busy days, seven days a week. It’s a reminder that there’s no such thing as a free lunch, and that when times get rough, you just buckle down and work harder. So far we’ve only scheduled three events for the coming months. We’ll be in Bloomington, Indiana, to give a class presentation, and a public lecture at Indiana University. The public lecture is scheduled for April 24, 5 pm at the Black Laboratory of Archaeology on campus. In June we’re off to the Western Bison Association summer board meeting in Santa Fe. Always one of our favorite occasions. And finally in July, we’ll be attending ThrillerFest in New York City. We’re teaching a class at CraftFest and serving on a panel at ThrillerFest. If we get enough interest, we might have a “get-together” over coffee for any of our fans who are attending.