Mark Cogan, managing editor of our local newspaper, the Curry County Reporter, took this series of my son Robby’s swing for a photo layout about the high school golf team. If you’re a golfer, the photos speak for themselves.

As Backwoods Home Magazine continues to mail out copies of our new Special Preparedness Issue, high school golf continues to dominate the local scene in our hometown of Gold Beach, Oregon. Friday we had our home tournament at Cedar Bend Golf Course north of town and won by a staggering 66 strokes. Hugo Treinen, our No. 1 varsity seed, shot a one-under par 71 to lead the tournament.

On Saturday we had our annual golf fund raiser at the Riverview Restaurant just north of town on Jerry’s Flat Road. For $10, local residents could eat all the pizza they wanted, which was significant because the Riverview has the best pizza in town. Locals lined up out the door, and many had to wait twenty or more minutes to be seated because the dining room was so crowded. If you ever visit Gold Beach, I highly recommend this pizza. The restaurant itself is in a beautiful setting overlooking the Rogue River. It is typically closed this time of year, but will open for the season in May.

The fund raiser took in $4685, which will go a long way to helping the golf team. We are totally self supporting with donations and volunteers for all golf activities.

Meanwhile, back at the office, the ladies continue to mail out copies of our Special Preparedness Issue. We’ve been very busy. Saturday my sons and I reorganized our book storage areas for the office ladies to make it easier for them to ship anthologies and back issues out. Then we went to the fund raiser.

Afterwards, it snowed in the mountains. I measured nearly four inches at my house. Of course, that didn’t stop my son, Robby, from hitting golf balls off the deck this morning while the snow was still coming down.

Many BHM subscribers are now receiving the new Special Preparedness Issue in their mail boxes, and yesterday and today we mailed out the issue to those who ordered it from our internet website, after receiving a four-pallet bulk shipment from our printer. We’ll mail out new orders as soon as we get them.

It will take another week or two for the issue to make its way to the newsstands, but if you want to buy a copy there you’d better be on your toes because I expect them to sell out in a few days. Best place to find the new issue on the newsstands is at the larger bookstores, such as B. Dalton, Walden, Crowne, etc. The smaller outlets only get two or three copies each and they’ll be gone immediately. This is a very hot issue.

You can order a copy from us by clicking here and we’ll mail it to you right away via first class mail, or you can get the issue and also subscribe by clicking here.

New computer and website software

Meanwhile we’ve been busy behind the scenes at BHM. Annie installed the latest version of WordPress on the blogs, and we’ve decided to update our publishing software to Adobe Creative Suite, which will give us more capability both with the print issue and website. I hate learning all this new computer stuff but I have no choice in this ever changing computer world.

Flu and golf

Incredibly, Wonderwoman is still messing with flu symptoms and has begun taking an antibiotic. Shows you that even the strongest can be humbled by tiny germs.

I’ve been volunteering with the high school golf team through all this stuff. As the driver for the JV team, we’ve played at Ocean Dunes and Coos Country Club, both beautiful courses north of Gold Beach. Flu has knocked one player off the JV team, and poor grades have sidelined two others. That leaves my son, Robby, and his friend, Matt, who are, fortunately, the Number 1 and 2 seeds. Flu knocked out a varsity player today, so Coach Hockema got Robby out of school this morning so he could play this afternoon in the varsity tournament in Eagle Point near Medford, Oregon.

Notice that longtime BHM writer and gun expert Massad Ayoob is now blogging on the BHM website. He replaces the blog by John Silveira, who just didn’t have enough time to blog on a regular basis. Expect his blog about twice a week. If you’d like to check out some of the articles Mas has written for BHM, click here.