Where did the time go?

This morning's snowfall brought me up sharp with the thought that its WINTERY...not the summer of the SO recent thoughts and the Oh SO too busy life.

On the slippery commute, interupted by those who cannot seem to drive with a slip of snow and slickness (its NOT dry pavement folks), punctuated by red and blue flashing lights, I had some time to reflect on the whirlwind that the last 8 months have been.

Off time, firewood permits and woodcutting, stacking the little blue S-10 to its capacity with firewood, cut off the slash piles, unloaded and stacked for splitting down to stove size later.

Turkey hunting on a friend's ground and very successfully to boot! Some time in the hills with a rifle, around trips to the Land of the Rising Sun, but no deer to fill the freezer with.

 The occasional peek into the woods that soothe my soul and refresh my mind.  Even ONE trip out on the water...very short trip...mostly spent playing tug boat captain with my old boat for another boaters broken boat.

All of those things rammed into and around an incredibly heavy, every expanding workload...hiring 5 folks wasn't enough, 15 more followed and STILL the workload climbs past capacity.  As it turns out...various minor models are NOT Red, Blue and Green Legos...and do NOT fit together that way.  Integration is the watchword, the curse and the muttered password, said with rolling eyes.

My boys and I spent the last few evenings checking out the trucks and preparing them for the forecast foul weather...shovels, tire chains, flashlights, gloves (axes, chainsaws, ropes, logging chains, peavy and safety gear in mine) sandbags and raingear.  Its seldom that we cannot get where we need to go, in spite of the conditions of the roads and other drivers.

Ah well... such is life, today will pass, safely one hopes and tomorrow will come.

Brisk they say...BRISK.

Its been chilly at the rancho the last few days...temperature telling thingy has been solidly stuck in the 20s and 30s with the windshield solidly iced up at 0450 when I slide out the door for work.

If not for Work (more of same) being its own reward, I MIGHT be out in the woods. On the other hand I have that thing called a JOB that far too many do NOT have these days....so I won't gripe too hard about 12+ hour days this week. Even though its making hunting impossible. Hopefully the weekend will allow me to get into the woods with the muzzle loader again.

Last weekend was a few LONG hikes in the woods with a funny walking stick. Covered about 5 miles of DNR roads on foot...sat a lot of COLD places while being heckled by squirrels. Waded creeks where there USED to be roads, found places that used to be roads that had been obliterated. Like the one I planned to take back OUT. Lots of hopping over creeks at the bottom of deep man-made gullies, scrambling up the MUDDY sides to do it again 10 yards later....all the way back to the gate where I left the truck.

Oh well. Still better than working.

Evening's sights

After spending the afternoon doing stuff and things, visiting with a friend and partaking of a slice of fresh pumpkin pie...I headed out of most of "civilization" and into the woods. I took off into the back of a section I have the forester's permission to hunt. It backs onto a small cornfield on one edge and some 3rd forest reprod on the other... with one state park closing the back and a highway on the other edge. For all that its almost medieval once inside, ~50 year old forest that has been maintained, thinned and pruned, almost like a European one in some ways. I walked in a ways on the road, the plot is about 2.5 miles deep and a mile wide from the state highway, after parking out of sight of the highway. There was a small opening on the side near the cornfield with signs of a great deal of traffic into and out of the small bit of standing corn where it was too muddy to harvest. Finding a comfortable tree that was still within muzzleloader range of the trail and the standing corn I sat down for a wait until evening.

Not to be, the first deer appeared about 5 minutes AFTER shooting light, I had set tight through the end of light after hearing something moving in the woods off to the left of the opening. A doe and a yearling entered the gap first followed by a 3x3 buck and another doe, nice to watch even if I couldnt shoot. After watching them into REAL darkness, I roused myself, switched on the headlamp and headed back to the truck.

Even though I didnt fire a shot, it was nice to rest in the peace and quiet of the woods. It is something that recharges me and is calming.

Home again to make some breakfast for dinner, sausage, eggs and toast.
A good end to a great evening.

Daylight

Its a cold, wet, raw morning with the coffee brewing. Both cats wanted OUT into the heavy leaden grey sogginess that has been the woods of late. The rivers are up and have swept out the bits from the corners...the rest of the rotting salmon carcasses, odd trees, stumps and the dietrus of humanity's use (OK, Abuse) of the world. This too shall all wash out to the bay, to be deposited on the shores.

Tasks for the day: Find where the deer are hiding, get the space around the stove cleared so I can burn a fire, list the "stuff" to sell on Evilbay - cleaning out the closets and my life, find some food that does not involve turkey, start loading for the 1937 Husqvarna sporting rifle in 9.3X57 and see if the gear from yesterday is DRY yet.

Checked the work cell phone...no Hair-on-Fire-Screaming-Emergency-of-the-Day (tm) to deal with, so for now the time is mine.

More later...