Just add Black Flies

The size of this guy

And you can be outdoors in the Adirondack foothills.....

Bird IDs Needed

Common or arctic loon?

Could these be smews?

Surf Scoter?

A good friend photographed these birds at Low's Lake, NY. Can you ID?

Tales of the Deer Stand

The waters were still in the Adirondacks yesterday...so many lakes, so many mirrors

To answer requests for the details of the deer hunt..... Hunter-in-Chief went out to his stand in the old pasture before milking. Saw three, shot one, thought he missed it. Chased all over the hill looking for it, following some incredibly lively deer, finally gave up and went back to look where he first shot. There was a nice doe. The ones he had been chasing were completely different deer, which explained their amazing stamina and agility. (Anyone who professes that a .243 isn't enough gun for deer is mistaken I fear.)



This deer was amazingly fat, with 2.5 inches of fat on her hinder parts. She was a big un too, very heavily muscled. Having a fisheries and wildlife student, who has studied meat cutting is a pleasantly advantageous thing I must say. Instead of a few haggled up steaks and a lot of stew meat (we process our own), we have tenderloin steaks, London Broil cuts and numerous other tasty dinner options. For farmers who have been out of meat for weeks and can't get our beefer processed just now that pile of frozen venison on shelf number one in the freezer is like Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one.

BTW, I took some pictures of the carcass before we processed it...just to show how big it was. If you want to see them I will put them up....maybe over on the View so I don't offend any sensibilities. Let me know if you do want to see them.



Update: A six point buck has just joined the doe. The kid was only out of the house about twenty minutes.... we had an outlaw from town stop and offer today to take the kid out and teach him to hunt. I kinda didn't know what to say to him....except maybe no thanks

Check out the odd asymmetry of the antlers on this guy

Update number 2...you have to check out Jan's blog for the darnedest story about deer and hunting that I have ever seen.....bar none! Do take time to watch the video. The ending is simply beyond belief!!

Hoss's in Long Lake

Do click and zoom. This is an incredible store and we were so glad we stopped. Two floors of all things Adirondack. They even have those little balsam fir incense thingies my grandma used to buy when we were kids. It was like stepping back in time!
And check out that center pic...guess who's home for the holiday!

Yesterday in the Mountains

One of those very special brothers of mine offered to help us out with the challenge of getting Becky home from Potsdam for break. He was kind enough to take time from his work and home life and choir practice and all to drive for over nine hours up mountains and down, across night and day, so a college kid could come home and see her family for the first time since the 28th of August.



As always the Adirondacks offered up their best and shiningest as a reward for the long distance drive.



The trees lay across the mountains like the tawny pelt of some large wild thing, rocky, granite bones jutting up through golden browness. They seemed to shrug off a few leaves here and there as we passed like a lion shrugging off flies as it lay licking its paws on the Savannah.




All the colors of a lion swirled across them, turned luminescent by bright, thin sun. There were trees the color of pumpkins, lanterns,and oranges, with crimson cardinal flags from the swamp maples, and russet, gold and cinnamon from the many scattered oaks. Hickories splayed leafy brown and green fingers over swift, and silent waters, lakes and rivers turned blue jay blue where the sun hit, and liquid ink in the deepened shade.

Sacandaga River, Raquette River, sleek lakes by the dozen, I don't think I have ever seen them lovelier. The Sacandaga was showing its teeth after all the rain, with whitened fangs piercing the smooth indigo of its flow wherever a rock was hidden. Beck was in class when we arrived, and not answering her phone. We were looking for a coffee stop when I glanced across the road, across the campus, across a dozen others, and spotted her as instantly as one heart recognizes another. It was a grand moment I will tell you.





As we returned home and dusk fell, along about Lake Durant the catch-light waters let go their hold on the sinking sun and closed their shining mirrors for the day.

I love the Adirondacks. A trip across them is as much a treat as any theme park or holiday party. More in fact. Much more.

Thanks brother for the joy and the music and the good talk of old memories while we made new ones too.
And thanks for the special reward at the end of the day...the whole family together again, at least for a little while.....we love you muchly.

***I must also thank those who stayed at home and kept the work moving along, so thanks guys and especially, thanks Liz....hope old Mando gets it in gear and has that calf real soon.

*****I must also question. What is with the corner yard with bathroom fittings (you know, the most important ones) set at regular intervals with sunflower planted behind each of them? In downtown Potsdam that is? The traffic was just too heavy to get a picture, but we sure were puzzled.

Wordless Wednesday