It's deja-vu all over again......

This post is in reference to the broken window episode recorded in April of 2006...... You may have to click on some of these pix to get a better look.



You may recall the day I posted about this broken window on the west side of the Lodge.








This is the actual posted photo, complete with photoshop cirles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each.... oh, wait, that's Alice's Restaurant... Anyway, this mess could not be blamed on Lucy, for she says in a comment:

"From the "OLD SQUIRREL HUNTER" - Stating the caliber of the bullet (correct word usage?) seems like Gene has incriminated himself. This hunter uses "only" the trusted 410."





It must be so, 'cause as you can see, she had gotten a personalized license plate. The question was, "what gun gets it done for squirrels?" She says, "410 duz"!




Today I noticed a different look to that window. More cracks! More glass fallen out! What the hey, anyway? And what is that laying on the ground????
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Hmmm.... a "ruffled" grouse has crashed into the same window!!! It's dead, the window is really messed up now. Last winter Ivan said, "You haven't fixed that window yet????!!!" Now I'm glad I didn't.

Go figure....

Got time for this? Then you can zone out....

The U.S. has land in 9 time zones, as indicated above.
Time Zones are quite interesting, and there is a lot of info on the web about zones. This article gave up the below items.
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While most of the world is familiar with time zones that differ in increments of an hour, there are many places in the world that use offset time zones. These time zones are offset by a half-hour or even fifteen minutes off of the standard twenty four time zones of the world.
The twenty four time zones of the world are based on fifteen degree increments of longitude. This is so because the earth takes twenty four hours to rotate and there are 360 degrees of longitude, so 360 divided by 24 equals 15. Thus, in one hour the sun moves across fifteen degrees of longitude. The offset time zones of the world were designed to better coordinate noon as the point in the day when the sun is at its highest point in the sky.
India, the world's second most populous country utilizes an offset time zone. India is a half-hour ahead of Pakistan to the west and a half-hour behind Bangladesh to the east. Iran is a half-hour ahead of its western neighbor Iraq while Afghanistan, just east of Iran, is an hour ahead of Iran but is a half-hour behind neighboring countries such as Turkmenistan and Pakistan.
Australia's Northern Territory and South Australia are offset in the Australian Central Standard Time zone. These central portions of the country are offset by being a half-hour behind the east (Australian Eastern Standard Time) coast but an hour and a half ahead of the state of Western Australia (Australian Western Standard Time).
In Canada, much of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador are in the Newfoundland Standard Time (NST) zone, which is a half-hour ahead of Atlantic Standard Time (AST). The island of Newfoundland and southeastern Labrador are in NST while the remainder of Labrador along with neighboring provinces New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia lie in AST.
One of the most unusual time zone offsets is Nepal, which is fifteen minutes behind neighboring Bangladesh, which is on a standard time zone. Nearby Myanmar (Burma), is a half-hour ahead of Bangladesh but an hour ahead of offset India. The Australian territory of the Cocos Islands shares the time zone of Myanmar. The islands of Marquesas in French Polynesia are also offset and are a half-hour ahead of the rest of French Polynesia

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Here is an interesting read on the history of time zones.
So, there you have the definitive word on offset time zones. Hope you enjoyed it, time to go, Carlo

It's TURKEY time!!!!

Yes, it's that time of year again. Turkey doings..... this photo is what turkey hunters are looking for--turkey sign.













And this is where this turkey sign will lead you, a turkey farm. It's a pretty gruesome looking affair. I'm much more in favor of getting a wild turkey, which has worked out pretty well the last few years.



At a turkey farm you can get "up close and personal", if you want to????? This one looks like he just got out of the army.









Here's a good shot of carving the Thanksgiving turkey.














And here's another type of turkey carving.......











Here's an Aztec turkey.....

















And here is Audobon's contribution to the whole thing.

This is from an article on the web. "....the sleepy-turkey myth lingers around each year because it sounds so logical. Turkey does have tryptophan. But all meat has tryptophan at comparable levels. Cheddar cheese, gram for gram, has more. While cheddar isn't the most exciting cheese in the cheese cellar, no one connects it with sleep. Turkey gets singled out for no other reason than being eaten during the biggest meal of the year." Read the rest here.


And, of course, Bush had to go through the stupid "pardon the turkey" routine.... I can't stand it.
I gotta go..... Carlo

Rifle season is in progress....

O.K., here is the gun hunting report so far..... Saturday morning I got into my treestand at 6:00.
At 6:45 this buck came into view, following two does. At 80-90 yards out I shot at the buck and he dropped after running about 20 yards. The does had stopped at the sound of the shot, so I aimed at the bigger one and shot. It dropped immediately! So less than an hour into the season I had filled both my tags. Then the alarm rang and I got out of bed to get ready for the first morning of hunting......

On my way out to the woods, a flock of turkeys took off out some trees right above me. It was pitch dark, so it was kind of exciting to hear all this commotion and then realizing what it was. I saw nothing but red squirrels and a black squirrel until I got cold about 10:00. Went back to the house and that was all I hunted this weekend. May sit a few evenings this week, maybe not. I don't get too excited about rifle season these days, but will hunt the week after with the black powder guns.

I gotta go, Carlo

The woods action....

You really need to enlarge these pics. If you want some nice wildlife photos, go to this site.


Here is one of the most common creatures sighted while deer hunting, the nuthatch. They are one of my favorite birds.









These little guys flit around all over the place, including very near me. Occasionally one will land on the arrow that's sitting on the rest.






This is probably the most common sighting in the woods. They are very aggressive toward other squirrels and birds. Noisey little beggars.....







These Downy woodpeckers are cool and once in awhile you get to see a Hairy.

















The gray squirrels are less common aroung the Ottertail and are usually subservient to the reds. I like the grays better.






I had a Pileated land about 15 yards from me one day last week. They seem really big when they are close, and what a sound they make.






You don't see these during bow season, they're old enough then to have lost their spots. Just thought I would include the cute little thing.





I got to see a few of these grouse this year. Their population cycle (9 years, I think)has their numbers at the high point now. Lots of people call them "ruffled grouse".



We're getting more and more turkeys in the area, and one afternoon I saw a flock of about 15-20 go by me in the woods.






And this is the supposed "reason" that we spend so many hours sitting in the woods, looking at all the birds and animals.

Tonight as I was driving home from work, I swerved to hit a deer (nice buck), but I missed it. I saw a sign by the Prentice motel that said:

Hunting is Great.
So is our Rate.

Hmmm..... hunting is grate, so's our reat. hunting is grait, so's our raight. As Fudd says, hunting is gweight, so's our wait.
English is grate, eh?

I gotta go, Carlo

Vacation doesn't last forever......

Just to refresh you folks as to what we are hunting for, here is a European style mount that I did a few years ago. It was sitting on the woodpile in the Lodge, drying and getting white. I used Clairol Basic White and the extra strength hydrogen peroxide.








While I was on vacation, Old Man Winter stopped in for breakfast. It was a nice change of scenery for a while.... I guess. There was about an inch on Friday, and a dusting on Saturday. It's all gone now.



Now here's a good one. A new garage and here are all the vehicles outside, covered with snow and ice. Doh!!! That's going to change , I'm sure, as soon as the snow and colder temps are here for real.




A quick rundown on the week of vacation. Let's see, I left you with the events of Tuesday. Wednesday I did a few chores around the place, then picked up my uncle Russ Mattson and we went to the Boondocks for lunch. Before we left his house, I hung up a sign that the wind had blown down, and changed a light bulb in the outside light. Then to Ivan's to get ready to hunt. Jerry joined us and we went to Cranberry Creek area. Thursday I did some chores for Ivan, picked up his birthday present (beer, peanuts and apples) and then had brunch at the Boondocks. We sat in trees for 3 hrs(me) and 4 hrs(Ivan) and got completely cold.



I particularly like the view of the woods just to the east of the Lodge. Anyway, on Friday I slept in, and spent the late afternoon sitting in a tree in Ottertail country. Saturday I did a bunch of tasks around the homestead, kept a fire in the Lodge and guarded the recliner in late afternoon. Sunday I started working in the poplar woods at about 10:00AM, Chuck showed up about 11:00 and we cut and skidded until 5:00. I just realized.... I HAVE TO GO TO WORK TOMORROW. WAAHHH.......




Remember this from one of the first editions of the blog? That was the year we first started doing a little taxidermy. I have only done one mount, but Ivan and Jerry have done several each. One of those little projects for that dead time in February. This photo was taken in the workshop area of the Ottertail.







And here is a current view of the Lodge, taken Saturday, one of the snowy days. Note the smoke from the chimney... that means it's warm in there.

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____________Hey, carve that pumpkin, would ya???____________

What I did on my vacation.....

It's been a while.... someone asked if the logger was stuck. No, just mired a bit.... I really was going to just let this go, but for some reason I CAN'T SEEM TO DO IT.......


This is from a couple weeks ago, just past full moon at the Ottertail.... thinking about hunting, logging is the reality...






Peg took a few photos last Sunday of the logging. I had quit at 3:00 so I could go hunting, Chuck kept on and hauled out what we had cut.





The piles are getting higher, over a truckload of pulp ready, quite a few sawbolts, a number of hardwood sawbolts. The pile of hardwood pulp is a bit short and we'll have to cut and haul a bit more.



Then the hunting routine.... I went hunting for the first time on Oct. 26th, Friday. Saw 4 deer, a couple of small bucks and does. It was good to get out and actually see some game.




I went on the 27th to a different stand, saw 5 deer, a couple of small bucks. Again it was a very enjoyable evening.





So, I went again on the 30th, Sunday. Near the end of the evening, the buck in the photos came walking in, chasing the does and fawns away. He stopped long enough to get a shot at him!! The light was growing dim and I found no arrow near where I shot. I decided to go home, call the tracking crew and return with some light......




The expert trackers, Ivan and Jerry, solved the mystery with some keen eyesight and deer savey. The buck had not gone very far, just a hard tracking job. When we saw the size of the buck, we paused to have a beer (Yes, the tracking pack contains a few cans of brew....). It was a beautiful night, good friends and my blind luck of having this big guy walk by.....




We had all planned on taking off work Nov. 5-9 to hunt during the rut, and this deer did not change my plans. It took the pressure off, now I could spend some time doing "hunting related" activities....



My first day of vacation, the 5th, was really windy, snowing, slushing, etc. I went to work in the morning for four hours.... so much for time off. That afternoon was spent cleaning the Ottertail... the great room, bunkhouse, etc. It's nearly ready to kick back and enjoy the season in the warmth of that wood heat.



Today, I slept in till 9:00.... must have been over extended the last few weeks... anyway, I headed out to Lance Meier's place near Spirit to get some hunting supplies. He's an ambitious young man, lot's of machinery, trucks, etc. I think his dad is Gene Meier down on YY. On the way home, I came over a hill and there was a flock of turkeys in the road. They immediatly flew up, they were beside me on the right, the left, I was going under some of them as they flew up.... I was surrounded by turkeys. Reminded me of some days at work......



Next I headed for Prentice. I had noticed a broken window in the neighbors porch and had put a piece of plywood in the opening. Today I was taking the window frame to the Prentice hardware to get it fixed. Then I headed to the Boondocks, a truckstop/restaurant for breakfast. I ordered hashbrowns, 2 eggs over easy and a bloody mary..... hey, I'm on vacation during hunting season.....! I sat in a tree for 2.5 hours this afternoon until dark, saw no deer, but did the house ever feel nice and warm when I got home!

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____________Hey, carve that pumpkin, would ya???____________