“Ole Betsy”
The last two weeks have been cooler here. This morning the thermometer reads 46 degrees. Even with afternoon temperatures getting up around 70, the angle of the sun and the amount of daylight will have its impact and the leaves will gradually start to change. There are already a couple of red leaves here and there, and as only a few more are added each day, we tend not to notice. That all changes when we get a hard frost, then bam, everything becomes a drastic array of color.
I enjoy the gradual change. It's all beautiful. Something about this time of year puts all of my senses on hyper alert. Every new day brings just that little bit of different color here or there, or something new, like acorns falling or wild cherries peppering the yard. Most days aren't that significant, but I try to take notice and enjoy each one.
The past two weeks of my personal life have been a little bit like that. Just a lot of neat little things to be thankful for. Of course every day brings with it its own troubles, but at this time of year, for whatever reason, it just seems hard to dwell on them. Maybe it's just the angle of the sun. Whatever it is, the good just seems to outweigh the bad.
My nephew and mother-in-law drove out to see us over Labor day. We didn't do anything that super awesome, but we had tons of fun hanging out, shooting bows, hiking in the dark and just being together.
Another neat little thing, I have this friend that's into taking photos of the Milky Way. He has some really neat cameras and lenses. Anyways, Tuesday night I hiked with him to the overlook on Meadow Mountain. It was the New Moon so the stars were awesome. He got some good pictures while I fired up the stove and made some tea. Just a perfect couple of hours.
Oh yeah, I don't think that I've mentioned in my blog that my father-in-law built a muzzleloader for me. Maybe one day I'll write down the bigger story, but for now, the short version is that I had attempted to build a gun when I was 19 or so. I had gotten a barrel and lock from Dixie Gun Works. After putting a lot of time into it, I split a piece off of the stock when I was carving an inlet for the lock. I was frustrated and stuck it in a closet. It followed me around all these years and last year, Ray took over the project and with a new piece of curly maple that I got out of my woods, he made a most beautiful gun. So another fun thing I've been doing the last few weeks has been shooting and familiarizing myself with what makes a flintlock tick best. It's an odd caliber and fits a .410 wad perfectly. So I’ve been shooting shot through it. My intent is to use it for squirrels now and turkeys next spring and if I can find the right size of round balls for it, deer in October. I've missed a couple of squirrels but it's been fun. In fact, as I'm writing this,“Ole Betsy” is here by my side, and hopefully by mid October, we'll be best of friends.
I blew glass at the Art and Wine festival on Saturday, while Jenelle manned the booth and the sales. It's always fun when Jenelle and I can work together and hang out for the day. We both like meeting people, and then we’ll have those slow spells where we can chat with each other. Of course I really like it when some hunting fanatic like myself sees the glass antlers and starts talking about deer and hunting. Saturday was no different. There were several local deer hunters, and then some guy from Wisconsin with pictures of some giant deer that he's taken. And the wrestling team from our community college was there. They were working at the festival and in their spare time hung out with us. They are a really fine bunch of young men, and of course some of them were hunters too. So it made for a good day. It was good to see people buying our glass antlers and fish! Of course we love it when they buy pumpkins and mushrooms and everything else too.
For me, I like making glass, but really, I love to hunt more. So something about making antlers and the conversations that come with it, really make both of them even more enjoyable. It's like one feeds the other.
As I'm wrapping this up, a squirrel runs up a tree about twenty yards away. I put down my phone and reach for the gun. I find it in the sights and the smoke rolls, the gun goes off and through the smoke I see the squirrel fall. I’ve just gotten my first squirrel with a flintlock. It will be a treat for me! I grew up eating squirrel. Jenelle and the kids will probably say “pass”, so one will be enough. It's time to head back. It feels like I have lots to do. They say work needs to come before play.
Bow season is in. I have a lot to do before I go bowhunting. I sure don't want to wait to long because I see so many neat things while hunting, and I don’t want to miss out on anymore than necessary. On top of that, I really don’t want my bow getting jealous of “Ole Betsy”.
Hope you all enjoy the leaves!
