The Finalities of Fall

It was likely the last wisp of summer as the forecast is set to become more winter like in the coming weeks.  It was t-shirt temps in the late October sun this weekend however.  Merrick had basketball on Saturday morning and I think Friday was filled with domestic chores and cleaning.  I know it was for the TR crew as we continue to downsize our roofline footprints.  Saturday found us with some

seasonal chores to attend to such as raking the leaves and then buying pumpkins and halloween costumes.  We buried the garden and pulled up the last few plant stakes, putting the plot to sleep.  Merrick wrote a letter to Grandpa telling him that he was going to be a "ninja" but his inventive spelling of the word, "niga" may confuse the trick or treating image that Grandprize pictures. The kids carved pumpkins with traditional faces and less than traditional emoticons and text-language, and given the standard chaos of activity we have yet to put a candle in any of them, although they are proudly displayed on the front stoop.  With family pictures planned for Sunday afternoon there was plenty of hair and clothing that needed attention, but it was all worth it during the hour long photo shoot with the kids eating up the lens. Monday started off as Mondays are supposed to.  The radio station was off the air so none of the alarms went off, Merrick's water bottle had leaked all over his backpack and saturated the box of chocolate pudding that he had to take to school for the halloween party as well as everything else in his pack and everyone looked a little weary from the weekend.  Merrick went to sleep at about 6:45 and rumor has it that Grace too had a set of pretty tired eyes come Monday evening. Sophia and I used the 'down-time' to make up a batch of spaghetti for Tuesday's family meal.

Mentor Weekend

No Deer to show from the Weekends hunt with Sophia, but that was but a smaller goal wrapped inside of a much larger purpose.  It was an amazing weekend in so many ways as we camped in for a couple of nights on the pipeline and hunted in the changing fall colors.  Merrick teamed up with Ollie and head to EC with Grandprize but they both spent a little time in the woods with us.  The older Bryan boys meet us out there Friday afternoon.  We set up camp and built a small fire, there was plenty of nice dry wood around the site.  There were snacks and stories about how big each deer was going to be and how quickly we would pile up the three or six deer that we were allowed to shoot.  We did jump into FlatCar Jack's truck to check out the nearly full moon that lit up the whole woods to an wonderfull level of light.  A walk to the clear cut provide great views of the constellations and in the absence of light pollution also the Milky Way. The opening morning was cold, and much colder than I had anticipated.  Mostly because I fell into the same trap I do every year and look at the high temperature and forget it will be 30 degrees colder in the morning.  I had underpacked for Sophia and her toes were cold early in the morning as we sat near the creek off the old snowmobile trail.  We didn't see any deer that morning but I did smile as she opened her Heath bar at about 7:30 am.  We hiked back and the kids built forts, warmed themselves by the fire and we after lunch we headed back out.  Sophia and I decided to head towards our stand by wandering through the clear cut.  We jumped a beautiful buck after catching a fleeting glimpse of a doe.  It was an 8 pointer with wide and high rack and a deep chocolate color. It bolted from a bed about 15 yards from us and behind a shrub bush and in three quick bounds it dissappeared. It didn't matter, it charged up Sophia for the rest of the hunt, she was hooked.  We stalked and sat, stalked and sat even traversed a decent sized swamp that put her on my back for a short while and eventually saw another deer before sitting for a long while in the afternoon sun and reading on an oak knoll.  It was great to watch her learn how to read the woods but looking at the trees to tell what type of terrain to expect, wet or dry and how we should walk and based on the deer sign she was seeing, this was the mentor hunting I had wanted.  The cool weather returned in the evening and everybody returned to camp about an hour before dark but perfectly timed for a run to Black Bear for a pretty good burger and questionable service.  It hardly mattered as everyone was tired and laughing.  We were back out Sunday morning and it was warmer but still frost covered and ice crystals in the water bottles.  Sophia want us to head back to the oak knoll area and while we didn't see any deer, the whole weekend was just wonderfull.