“Nature bats last.”
Nate Polson (aka “Canadian Prepper”)
Almost every day I mention another deer sighting, almost always between our homesite and the county road. I’ve seen whitetails before, of course, thousands of ’em, going back to my childhood in rural northeast Ohio. But this spring and summer, it seems to me like there are just a whole lotta deer on The Mountain.
Every now and then I’ll check and see what one of the locals thinks, usually sneaking the question in the side door of a conversation. Virtually without exception, everyone has said they’re spotting more whitetail than in almost any year in memory.
Y’know what else they mention? Rabbits. Folks say they’re seeing more rabbits than usual this late in the year — and, not coincidentally, they’re hearing fewer coyotes. Another sign of an odd season.
I was off on my errands this morning before 7:30am. As I crested a rise on the gravel subdivision road, a doe crossed in front of me. Then, to my left a few hundred yards later, the biggest group I’d seen — five bucks, four does, three fawns. To my right, another doe, another fawn.
All that within a mile of Home, before my truck’s tires ever saw pavement. And I spied still another doe on my way back, for a total of 16. An unusual year, indeed.
There’s not much else to report today. Blistering hot again, upper 90s with a heat index of 105°F. Filled two gas cans, and the pump price was 40 cents higher than it was just two days ago. Filled a water barrel. Dumped the black and gray waste-water tanks.
Months ago now, Deb’s cousin offered us a compost tumbler that was on his property when he bought it. He said he’d never used the thing and thought we might when we get around to putting in our raised beds (which we haven’t quite yet).
I see the tumbler every time I fill one of our fresh-water barrels at his well, just fifty feet away next to his garden plot. This morning I decided to take the truck rather than the buggy, and I tossed the tumbler into the bed.
It’s in good shape. It’ll do what we need it to do. Now it sits near where we think we’ll be putting our garden, probably next spring.
We’ll start contributing to it later this week — a few greens, a few browns, a little dirt and then regular servings of kitchen scraps. I expect we’ll work out the details of the chore as we go.
That’s it, for now, from The Mountain. Life is good.
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable
#LetsGoBrandon #FJB