HUNTER GATHERERS

Here it is – the second Friday in October and the flickers are picking on our old country house. It's always something . . .

My mother used to insist on a fire in the furnace during the first week of September. She said if she didn't heat the house a little on chilly mornings, at least one of her children would take cold. Well, you know, the whole weather change thing . . . It has yet to be chilly enough to warrant consistent heat. Overnight temperatures haven't even approached freezing. Mike and I were reminiscing that this time last year – at opening deer season – it was cold.

Yesterday morning Mike was up early and out to scout for sign of deer. After tramping the property for an hour, he came back to report that he had seen neither "hide nor hair." We're into a rainy spell now and the deer are just pretty savvy. They know when it's time to seek shelter. So – if you were rootin' for the deer, the score is already Deer-1, Mike-zip, though the season doesn't open until Sunday, the 10^th.

After a little morning rain gave way to a lighter sky, Mike suggested we should head over to the woodlot at the Senter place. Our last trip to town (Tuesday, Sept. 28), Mike drove the big old Dodge Ram with a load of wood, pulling the utility trailer, also loaded with wood. The trailer-load of limb wood went to Ken, who sustained a tendon injury the last time he and Mike went into the woods. The pick-up load is now stacked neatly on pallets behind the shed in town. We had already brought a trailer-load here to the farmhouse. We are pleased for this opportunity to be working a year ahead on our wood.

"I won't take all of it," I heard Mike tell our neighbor, Chuck. "Probably just some limb wood."

"That's okay," responded Chuck. "Take all you want – leave the rest. No one else has spoken for it."

And I notice that little by little we've worked our way into taking most of the wood. Mike was pleased to discover that the locust splits easily – or so he says – and we have cut trunks into measured lengths to be split and stacked. My part is to handle the measuring stick, throw limbs and branches on the slash pile, and assist in loading. The elm, however, is another story -- resistant to splitting.

So yesterday forenoon the three of us headed back to Senter's where we had left the trailer. We loaded what was already split, then cut, split, and loaded more. On our way back to the house, we stopped at an elderberry bush to pick some luscious-looking clumps, but you know how it is with elderberries. When we approached the bush, luring us with its promise, we discovered that the berries were just out of reach, hanging off a steep, rocky drop-off. Even if Mike could have negotiated the drop-off, he would have been too far below the berries to capture the clumps. We tried with our long hook but to no avail. But, as it is with elderberry, we were able to pick a few clumps here and there and fill a two-gallon bucket.

And Nellie! – she picked up a clump that dropped on the ground and ran away with it. When we asked her to fetch, she disobediently munched the clump – berries, stems, and all.

After lunch at the house, I processed the elderberries into two quarts of juice in preparation for Elderberry Fest 2010 to be held October 16. I was just ready to head for the vintage sewing room to work on an apron I'm making, when Mike announced his intention to go back to the woodlot and finish loading the trailer. I knew it would be hard for him without me, so I volunteered to go. The worst of it was knowing that I would be really tired at the end of the day, but at least I had leftovers to serve for supper. We worked hard for several hours hearing thunder in the distance and watching a storm develop to the south and east. You know how it is with "scattered showers." It doesn't rain everywhere, and we really didn't get much at the farmhouse. Anyway, during a break in our work, I picked a few more apples from the Senter's old tree.

We were able to bring another trailer-load of wood to our woodshed – already split and ready to be stacked. KW

[Bloggers new photo feature which allows for captions under pictures is great, but as is often the case, working with it is frustrating. Captioning prevents opening the picture for a larger view, and a couple of readers really enjoy seeing the photos in larger format. I will use captioning sparingly.
Photo 1 -- Morning storm to the northwest.
Photo 2 -- Mike target shooting.
Photo 3 -- Mike at the Senter woodlot.
Photo 4 -- Storm to the southeast from the Senter place.
Photo 5 -- The old apple tree.]