Yay for Deer Sausage!

Gun hunting season opened this weekend (not a couple weeks ago as I'd assumed...I think that was bow season that opened).

Anyway. The guy we let hunt on our property got an 8 point buck yesterday morning. On opening day. He was pretty proud. He's going to bring us some deer sausage. He may come back and try for a doe, he has a doe tag too. He's been bow hunting off and on the past couple of weeks, but didn't get anything.

There were tons of shots going off yesterday. Some of them sounded like if all the bullets hit the deer there wouldn't be much meat left when the carcass hit the ground.

We saw so many hunter orange drivers going back and forth all day yesterday. I guess there are several deer camps around here. That whole deal just cracks me up. Especially what we saw go by.

Hubby, Ellen and I were all outside when this Army-looking truck and trailer goes by, all camoflaged with green and brown paint blotches. The driver honked and both driver and passenger waved enthusiastically at us as they went by.

We waved back, but hubby said; "I think some of them just get carried away. How many deer do they expect to get to have to haul them in that big of a trailer?"

Oh, well. Let them have their fun I suppose. Only thing is that I try and stay inside as much as possible and keep Ellen inside. There have already been too many incidents of stay bullet injuries and such. It's kind of scary.

On this same subject. Gun season in California was a few weeks earlier than here I believe. I guess my nephew went out and got his buck, brought it back to the meat plant (where he works)to be processed, along with the pork meat that they mix with the deer meat for sausage.

They grind it...then at the other end he looks at it and says, "What's all this blue stuff in it?"

Ummm...someone had left their rubber gloves on the meat processor and they got ground into his meat.

Forty pounds of meat. Down the drain.

He was just a tad upset.

For want of anything else...

Here's a poem. I have been meaning to get a pic of that mini calf we had a few days ago, but haven't been out here with the camera. I need to get her picture anyway. Well, maybe for tomorrow.

***

Anyway. Robert Frost is one of my favorite poets. He has quite the collection of poems. Here is one that seems appropriate to the season.

In Hardwood Groves

The same leaves over and over again!
They fall from giving shade above
To make one texture of faded brown
And fit the earth like a leather glove.

Before the leaves can mount again
To fill the trees with another shade,
They must go down past things coming up.
They must go down into the dark decayed.

They must be pierced by flowers and put
Beneath the feet of dancing flowers.
However it is in some other world
I know that this is way in ours.

Random Photo

Here, out of my photo files, is a picture of Ellen sitting on her quilt.

This quilt was made for her by one of my overseas pen-pals, who mailed it to her for Ellen's first birthday. I treasure this quilt and pray it will be one that Ellen will treasure also.

This pen-pal is Victoria, from the Ukraine. She and I became pals way back when it was all still the USSR over there. We do not keep in touch much, and mostly by email now, but we are still friends nonetheless. She is quite the seamstress and does really beautiful work.

I treasure all of my friends and pen-friends, but this was one the most touching gifts we have ever received in the mail.

Thirteen for Thursday 3

For this Thursday's list I hadn't had anything planned ahead of time. I mentioned to my husband at lunch that I needed to find 13 things to list. He suggested 13 things that make me smile.

And he listed off the first four...

Delightfully helpful man!

Thirteen Things That Make Me Smile

1) The honking of geese on their way north in spring.

2) Seeing the little radishes sprouting in spring.

(ummm...can you tell he's not looking forward to winter?)

3) A kid's laughter

4) Watching kittens playing.

5) A walk by the creek.

6) Finding a dollar bill in a jacket I haven't worn since last winter.

7) Watching Ellen "steering" the 4-wheeler when she's riding on it with her daddy.

8) Getting a good book in the mail.

9) Listening to some of the tales my husband tells about the locals.

10) Getting a good email from a friend.

11) Listening to the kids at church practice for their Christmas play.

12) Seeing a friend I haven't seen in a long time.

13) Ending this list.

It's harder than you'd think.

Whatever Wednesday

The past couple of months I have mostly been making fun of other people, so I guess I ought to poke fun at myself a bit.

In Sunday's post, (or was it Monday's, or Saturday's? I forget. Who cares?) I talked about ideas city people have when they come to the country. Heh. I forgot to throw in my personal example.

I came here with the fond idea of having a compost pile. You know, all the kitchen waste rotted down into good compost for the garden. Hmmmm...that didn't even last one night. Remember the wildlife I mentioned before? Yeah, well it didn't take long for them to all show up en masse; 'coons, 'possums and skunks, oh, my! Not to mention stray cats and what all else. Since I don't want to hassle with getting a compost bin, I just make sure I toss my kitchen scraps a long way from the house now and let 'em duke it out to get it.


Now, I should have added yesterday's event to yesterday's post, but I ran out of time. Here goes...

Generally I am not squeamish about bugs. I can handle them, pretty much, as long as I know that they are relatively harmless. But these babies...they just creep me out:



Walking sticks. According to Wikipedia there are some 3,000 species of them, and they make good pets. PETS? Urgh!

I don't know why they creep me out, but they do, however harmless they might be. (So do those nasty granddaddy longlegs, but that's for a different post. Maybe I just don't like long-legged critters) Anyway. Yesterday I was doing some busy-work outside, while Ellen watched Dora the Explorer-which keeps her out of my way when I am going in and out of the house.

I come back inside and am in the kitchen when I see something moving out of the corner of my eye. It's something on my shoulder.

GAAAAAHHHH, it's a walking stick going across my back!!!!!

EEEWWWW! EEEEEWWWWW!! EEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!

I reach over and try to flick it off. But these hideous critters have 6 long legs, on looooog bodies. Trying to flick one off is a joke, especially when you can barely reach it. As soon as one set of feet are detached, they just put them back down while you are trying to flick off the other set.

Far be it from me to actually TOUCH the THING with my fingers and pluck it off.

So, after a bit of a dance around the kitchen, accompanied by a bit of squawking, I peel off my shirt and pray no one comes to the door or the front window. Ha Ha Ha!

Then I get the broom and dustpan and get it out of the house.

There, now you can laugh at me!