Visiting day

September 12, 2007 (5:44am)

40º F, Overcast, N Wind, 3mph.

Good morning,

It certainly was visiting day yesterday here at Guds Nordtre. Started off the morning with a doe and her two yearlings munching there way across the lawn and driveway, up to the main house to forage on the grass very close to the lean-to. They stayed for about 30 minutes or so. During the rest of the day, they continued to return often, especially the yearlings. At one point I headed out to the shop while the two yearlings were munching. They looked at me, and without any real alarm, walked into the woods. I could not figure out what was so attractive to them in that spot, other than a couple of branches cut off and laying on the ground which they munched on too. A couple of trees right there are dropping their seeds, which look very much like a small cherry, but now just the pit or seed. There are thousands of them on the ground at there. They must have some pretty good choppers to chew them up.

The other visitors were a flock of wild turkeys. I think it is the same flock which came a couple of other times, but minus one. This time the turkeys came right up to the big window in the gathering room and not 3 feet from it. They too stayed for the longest time and ate what ever they could find, before wandering around the house a bit and into the woods again. They really are not a graceful bird. On their trip, they went through some cut branches on the ground. I mean they went plowing through them, much like a black lab dog looking for grouse. Not going around anything but it appeared as if they were trying to see how many big branches they could plow through.

With all of our visitors, our work really was interrupted. We simply stopped and watched the show outside of our windows for a long time - several times. As long as we didn’t make any fast moves or loud noises, they all just went about their business. We don’t, nor will we, put out feeding stations for the critters (except for the little critters, but that we call a trap) around here. To me that is a form of abuse taking the animals away from their normal survival skills and making them dependent on man. If it is a tough winter and they are starving, I will cut browse for them, but not to attract them to look at or hunt.

The weather was really not all that nice yesterday. Light rain and high wind most of the day, with lower temperature than we have been used to, made the cool really drive through a person. I did manage to get a wooden “box” built to carry the weight of the chimney and a place to fasten it too yesterday. Since the ceiling is at an angle, the roof line, it took a bit of tricky construction to make. The material for it came from the walls, &c. I have removed here so far. Guess you could call that recycling. Since the opening for this chimney is larger than the old one, I also had to hog out the skylight some. I got out the reciprocating saw and that really made some short work of it. I am amazed how useful and how easily it is to use. Wish I had bought one years ago! That thing sure has paid for itself. The task of enlarging the opening would have taken many hours and some sore muscles doing it by hand. The saw cuts through the 4" width of a 2"x4" like butter and the blade only cuts the wood - not going through past the 4" width!

We did get into town yesterday and I stopped at the DNR office to check on getting a hunting license. I need to get a driver’s license from Michigan before I am able to get a license. Haven’t don’t that yet. Guess the residency issue is solved for them by the driver’s license or paying income tax to the state. They do have some very different laws here compared to Wisconsin. You don’t need to register a deer here and you can shoot up to two bucks, on must be an 8 pointer or more, and no does, except with a bow. Don’t think we will be seeing a doe in our freezer. Bear hunting season started on Monday and from the reports on the radio/TV, there has been some success.

We are heading to Kewaunee this morning as I have a doctor’s appointment tomorrow afternoon. After the appointment we will be heading back this way again. Not looking forward to buying gas as the price has increased again. We paid $2.979/gallon last time down and at present the price has gone up to $3.199/gallon here. Expecting $3.029-3.059/gallon in Green Bay and Kewaunee, but need to buy some before getting there I fear.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><