Hotter Than a Bandit's Shotgun and Other Stories

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

“The woodshed at Skoki was an enchanted place: singing came from the
woodshed, chopping came from the woodshed, cursing came from the
woodshed. ... It was extremely difficult to swing an axe in [a room with
a] seven-foot ceiling. Sometimes I miscalculated my axe swing, [and] it
would deflect from the ceiling and crack me on the side of the head,
casing great pain and cursing. ... I would also curse when hauling water
from creek to the kitchen. Sixty buckets of water to be carried on
six-foot snowshoes, two buckets at a time. Every day I carried water and
cursed. I would curse when shovelling snow from the roof. Sometimes the
whole roof of snow would avalanche and I would be buried. I would sweat,
get soaked, and have to flounder through the snow to get back on the
roof again ... and curse!”

The above excerpt is from a Jim Deegan story. Deegan spent his life
working in the Canadian Rockies. His first job was at a ski lodge, where
he earned ten cents a pound backpacking supplies over more than 25 miles
of ski trail. Eventually he became a forest ranger and had many
adventures—most of them ending up in a minor personal mishap such as a
broken nose or being de-panted by a dying elk. The book’s title story
is about how Deegan gave himself friction blisters while riding down the
side of a mountain on a metal shovel blade. Although some people might
not relish reading a story about a man inflicting third-degree burns to
his own buttocks, those who like good outdoorsy yarns told in a simple,
straightforward, unpretentious manner will enjoy Jim Deegan’s humor.