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09/09/2003 Archived Entry: "Trees felled"

I guess Peg has been soaking up that mountain sunshine. Hope she's staying warm.

I know I'm warm. I've been out this morning cutting wood. I'm taking a break now so I can catch you folks up on all the doings around here yesterday.

We went out to the deer stands early in the morning to work on the brush a little. Down in the creek bottoms the brush is quite prolific. We put in the carpet, cleaned the chairs and cleared the stands of dropped limbs and debris gathered over the spring and summer.

A disgruntled owl sailed silently away as we arrived. A few deer were wandering about near the creek. They fiddled around while we worked, following and watching us from cover. Most were does. One young buck came by, stuck his head over a limb to get a better look, snorted and bounced away into the early morning darkness. Now and then I'd see an ear flicker or the sliding shadow of a back moving through the thickets. I surmise that life for a deer must be pretty boring if our grunting, stooping and climbing was such an attraction. Perhaps they were hoping we'd leave some sweet potatoes or corn behind.

The whole trip out and back took a couple of hours. There are ten stands across the low properties where we hunt. So that's done. We're almost ready for the season.

Then we came home, met with the tree fellers (not a typo) and supervised the felling of three large hardwoods in the yard. I feared they might one day fall upon the house. That took several hours by the time the treefellers came, felled and finished.

So all in all, it was a pretty busy day around here yesterday. Today the activity plan includes sawing up the big trees and turning them into firewood as well as a possible excursion into the fun of home winemaking.

I have a few gallons of pears here, saved back from all the other purposes to which the pears went. I'll be gathering the equipment, tools and additional ingredients for a try at some homemade pear wine.

Well, time to get back to the wood cutting...