notes from the Taj ~ last day

Today was the last day of the nine day gun/deer hunt.  Unfortunately, I was not one of the lucky ones to  harvested a deer.  I did have an opportunity to take a fawn, which I refused to do ... or to harvest a little spike buck which wasn't much bigger than a fawn ... and I refused to harvest him too.  Let them go so they can grow!

This is the little fawn that I watched all season:

 

He's not much bigger than the turkeys ...

Actually, there were 3 turkeys that visited several times a day ...

They would walk right up to my hunting blind:

I must be a pretty quiet hunter to let them get this close ~ right under my window. 

The ruffed grouse and squirrels were also my daily visitors: they sure do blend in with their surroundings

Talk about camouflage ... look at these shots ... the deer is right there ...

do you see him?

I'll zoom out ... how about now?

a little closer look?

Once he picks up his head ... then you can easily see him.

Even the squirrels blend in:

So ... even though I didn't get my buck ~ I was fortunate enough to get over the rotten "malaria" that had been plaguing me for the last 2 weeks and was able to get outside once again and enjoy nature.

My little fawn buddy ... as he wandered down the trail ...

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

notes from the Taj~

Sitting .... and waiting .... and watching .... and watching ...
Sitting ... and waiting ... and watching ... and waiting ...

but no big buck was seen today.

I did hear a lot of shooting though across the road again by the power lines and to the south of me by the neighbors. 

Around 4:00 I had a single fawn and then a doe and fawn come in.  They only stuck around for about 20 minutes ~ then came back in right before dark and the end of shooting hours.  At least I was able to watch something besides squirrels all day.  I have a doe tag, but I really don't want to shoot one of "my" does.  I know... you can't eat the horns; but I also can't shoot a pet.  It's that odd ball buck that I've never seen before coming into the territory that I'm waiting on.  That I will harvest. I just pray that "my does" stay on this side of the fence line and highway and don't go wandering off where every Tom, Dick and Harry will take aim on her.  That phrase, "brown it's down" doesn't fly with me.  I don't hunt like that.

It was a cold and miserable rainy day ... tonight the weather is suppose to get colder and it's suppose to turn over to snow.  That's okay with me.  The snow is prettier to look at then the rain :)

Just thought I'd share this picture from two years ago.  I know I've shown it before; but I think it's pretty fascinating.  It's a dwarf deer.  The big buck isn't too bad either. The picture was taken over by Winter, WI  Some people claim that it's just a fawn, I beg to differ.  A fawn would at least be as tall as the belly of that buck by that time of the year... even a late born fawn. 

One more thing ~

I have a pocket watch!  Actually, it's Slim's old watch without the band but it keeps time and it fits in my pocket.

Well this old gal is off to bed ... it's hard work sitting outside all day in the fresh cold air.  Actually, I'm in the TajMelhal but the window is wide open so I can be ready when needed.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

notes from the TajMelhal~

I'm sitting down in the woods in my comfy hunting shack, patiently waiting on that big horn buck. So far, the only animal life showing itself is a big gray squirrel and a chatty red squirrel.

I'm guessing it to be around 9:00.  As usual, here I sit once again with no watch.  I've never been one who wears wrist watches.  Well, let me rephrase that - I shouldn't say never.  I use to wear them, but after my rounds with carpal tunnel and now fibromyalgia ~ I can't stand wearing one.  Maybe if I had a super loose one it wouldn't bother me, but I'm fat and it's hard to find anything to wear super loose - even a watch.  I'm thinking the same thing I thought last year at this time ~ I need a pocket watch.

Sitting and waiting sure gives a person time to think and to reflect.  My thoughts keep going to my Dad, who has passed away.  He is the one who has instilled me such a love for nature and animals and seeing the beauty and marvels that are all around us.  All we have to do in open our eyes and minds and see. Nature fascinates me.  No matter where I go I want to know what it is I'm looking at. 

I don't just see a tree.  I see a balsam fir, with little pockets of pitch under it's fine membrane of bark.  I notice on that balsam tree the branches grow in whorls. 

~ image from the internet ~

It's needles are flat and protrude from it's stems on the sides, unlike it's cousin the spruce tree, where the needles circumference the whole branch.

BALSAM ~ image from the internet ~

SPRUCE ~ image from the internet ~

The balsam needles are soft and pleasantly fragrant, not hard and pokey and skunky smelling like the spruce.  Lichens and moss grow on the trees.  The forest floor is a wonderland, as is a person's lawn or a park or a ditch alongside the road.  No matter where you are, randomly pick a spot - anywhere ... and really LOOK at it.  How many hundreds of things do you see?  What kind of shapes, colors, smells.  God created a beautiful world ~ it's up to us how we perceive it.

RUFFED GROUSE ~ image from the internet ~

The prettiest ruffed grouse, aka. partridge just showed up.  It has so much white on it ... BEAUTIFUL.  He ate a few kernels of corn, walked around a bit, went up on a stump, more strutting around and here comes this nasty little woodrat , aka. gray squirrel and he has to go and chase it away.  Boy those squirrels are greedy little buggers. 
~~
Well... I sat until shooting hours were over ... no groceries this time around.  I have until Sunday to get some venison on the meat pole.  Wish me luck tomorrow with the harvest.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

it's malaria ~

yesterday from the hunting shack ~

I'm finally out of the house and sitting at TajMelhal.  I'm still sick ... but figured I can be sick down in the woods just as easily as at the house.  Today is day 10 of this vicious illness that has been inflicting me.  I've come to the conclusion that it's malaria.  I did watch a movie about Africa two weeks ago.

I fired up the heater and it sounds like a jet getting ready to take off.  Dear Hubby says that won't bother the deer.  ummmm... does he forget?  He's deaf in one ear and can't hear out of the other.  Now his perception of what something sounds like and what it really sounds like are totally two different things.  Oh my gosh... seriously... it might not scare the deer - but it scares me.  Why is that thing so noisy?   I have the Taj heated up .. and now that heater is getting shut down.  I'm not using that thing anymore.  Note to self ... steal (I mean borrow) the nice, pretty, new, quiet ceramic heater from Slim's ice fishing supplies.

The only critters I see scattering about are some furry woodrats - aka. squirrels.  At least I have something to watch.  I wonder if they find every morsel of food they stash away for the winter?  Or are they just stashing it during the day then having a late night supper and starting the whole process all over again in the morning?  All day long ... the same route ... show up from under a brush pile, run the length of the log, jump down, a hop, a skip, look over the pile of corn, scratch through it, find the perfect piece, snag it with your teeth, a skip and hop, jump back up on the log, run the length of the log, into the brush pile and back again repeating the whole process within a few seconds.  Do this all day long and pity the other woodrat that gets in his way - then the chase is on.  Especially if it's of another species.  The gray squirrels will tolerate the red squirrels when they are on the corn pile first ... but if a red squirrel is there first and a gray or black squirrel comes on to it then it's war.  That red squirrel will put the run on the other ~ big time.  Squirrels are greedy little hoarders.

No sign of deer today.


~~

today from the comforts of home ~

No hunting for me today.  I'm staying in the house and making a big old turkey and trimmings for the family. I actually woke up feeling pretty good for a change.  I had the most restful sleep that I think I've had in two weeks.  There's still a dryness in my throat and sniffle of the nose; but not profuse sweating and fever.  Yeah!! Maybe my malaria is gone!!!

We're doing our Thanksgiving a day early - because it's when everyone can make it :) ... so I opted out of hunting today.  Last year I didn't cook and it drove me crazy.  Seriously, I LOVE cooking and seeing my family enjoy the meal I set before them.

Tomorrow, the Thanksgiving Day Parade - then FOOTBALL!!  The Packers are playing on Thanksgiving Day!!! How sweet it is!

Then ... my butt will be out in the woods until the end of hunting season.  I've lost a LOT of hunting time this year.  We NEED the meat and I hope to be the one to get it.

Have a blessed holiday :)

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

under the weather ~

I am soooooooo bummed.  I have been sooooooooo sick.  Sweats and the chills, weaker than weak, dizzy, headache, nausea, leg cramps, diarrhea, pain in my jaw, pain in my chest ... just plain sick!

I did end up in the emergency room on Wednesday (that was day four of this), after having such leg cramps and pain in my jaw on Tuesday night.... thinking that possibly it was my heart going haywire again.  But that all checked out okay.  The doc did say that possibly I did have some plaque let loose that temporarily clogged and then flushed through again.   Knowing that the ticker was okay... they sent me home to sweat it out ... and sweat it out I have been.  I haven't sweated this much since I was in high school track.

Today is day 7 of this crappy whatever I got going on.  It is also the opening day of the Wisconsin gun deer season.  I wanted to be one of the 600,000 hunters out there, sitting at the TajMelhal ~ that my family so endearingly constructed for me and I'm so dang weak I couldn't even carry my bullets, let alone the rifle.  The season runs for nine days ... so maybe I'll snap out of this and get some hunting time in.  If not, I guess there's always muzzle season or next years rifle season.

Well... I'm outta here ... heading back to bed.  Sorry I haven't been visiting any blogs lately; but as soon as I can sit at my computer without it giving me a migraine headache from the glare I'll pop in :)

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

coffee's on ~

Who'd of thought it would be such a big hallapalooo over replacing my coffee pot?  I made the run ... well actually it was a 45 minute drive ... over to Wally world yesterday to cash in on the warranty I had on the old GE and came home with this shiney new red Mr.C.

and the bonus ... it was $5.00 LESS than the old one; so Wally owed me :)  I love moments like that.  Buy a coffee pot, use the bejeebers out of it for 2 years, return it to the store and get 100% cash back.  Yes, Virginia ~ there is a Santa Claus.  It pays to fill out those little warranty cards that come with your products and to hang on to the receipts.

~~
A big congrats is in order to my little bro on his harvesting a nice buck with his bow and trusty arrow.

He's lucky he saw that deer before me!

~~
Not much going on around here ...
I think I'll go enjoy a cup of jo and feed the AsUps and chickadees before they revolt and start dive bombing me.

Until next time...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

another fairy ~

What up with the fairy post?  Yesterday I turned Lily and Bailey into little lawn fairies ... with their pretty little smiles and butterfly wings ~

and now today I went and cropped my daughter Staci out of this photo and  ...

 

... and turned her into a nymph of glitter and glitz.

This is the second woodland nymph pic that I did of Staci.  You might recall this picture that I did a while back of her ~ morphing and blending her into a tree trunk.

I feel obsessed lately with the whole fairy scene.  I can't wait until next spring to make something on the line of this for my garden.

A fairy house ~ this one shown is for sale right now on Etsy for the fantastic price of $75,000!!! Can you believe that - 75 Thousand Dollars.  For that price it better have working plumbing.  Seriously, I'm watching it to see if it sells.  If it does ... I'm thinking of a whole new line of business :) that I need to consider getting in to.

Not much is happening around here other than my dreaming of things to be ...

So far, knock on wood, we haven't been hit with the big snow storms that went through the state.  Most of that hit to the south and north east of us ... dumping up to a foot of snow in some places.  We just got a very light dusting of it ... no accumulation to speak of ... yet.  I know it's coming ... but it can take it's time as far as I'm concerned. 

Tomorrow, I'm taking a Walmart run with Sara to return my coffee maker.  I dug the book out on it to see if I could find something out in the 'trouble shooter' section and I came across the receipt from when I bought it.  It has a 2 year warranty on it.  I purchased it 12/06/09.  Talk about cutting it close!

I wasn't going to replace it; but now that I found that receipt it's just foolish not to.  Besides that ... it's really kind of a pain in the butt to make coffee the old fashioned way perking it on the stove and having it boil over and getting coffee grounds stuck in your teeth, and burning the taste buds off your tongue from the HOT boiling brew .... if you know what I mean.  I forgot about all those (un)pleasant little tidbits of making coffee like that.

Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

lawn fairies ~

I had this picture sitting on my computer since June of the girls ... my Grandlove Bailey (on the left) and her cousin Lily, waiting for me to do something creative with it.  I just love those two  munchkins in this photo and wanted to make a scrapbook page out of it.

I know ... I'll turn them into little lawn fairies!

A tree background ... some big mushrooms and butterfly wings, a flip and a flop, load everything up to Microsoft Picture It program, a little play with color (which is a dangerous place for me to go - because I'm color blind) and here's what I came up with ~ a 12x12 scrapbook page:

~ my little lawn fairies :)

Lily and Bailey

How's it look... is the coloring okay??

~~~

~~~

Something happened this morning that bums me out ... a little bit anyways.... my automatic coffee maker took a dive.  I only had that thing for 2 years... which seems to be the life span of those things... at least at my house that's about how long they live.  So...  it's back to making coffee the old fashioned way, on the stove top again with my good old trusty coffee pot that I saved out of the camper when we quit camping.  

I can perk up a pot of coffee on the stove top just about as fast as the automatic maker ... and I'm thinking that I don't even want to replace the coffee maker anymore.  I go through those things like Tammy Faye Baker went through mascara! 

So ... if Dear Hubby is reading this (which I know he isn't ... he thinks my blogging is a foolish waste of time) or if my kids are reading this (I know they do; but never leave me a comment) ~ thinking "now I know what to get Mom for Christmas".... think again.  I do NOT want another automatic coffee maker!!  In fact, I don't want any Christmas present that represents anything domestic and involving the kitchen ... unless you want to bake me a pie or some cookies :) OR... a HAM!! I LOVE HAM!! Yeah... bake me a ham for Christmas ~ I'll be one holly jolly mommy.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.

Until next time...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

tick toc turn the clock ~

Just a friendly reminder :)
















Until next time ...
So it goes in my neck of the woods.
~mel

granny panty fitter ~

 

DREAMS - where do they come from?  

What is it that takes your subconscious  mind to the unknown?

Why do "I" have the weirdest dreams imaginable????

Night before last ... 

I had a dream that involved me, my doctor that delivered my son ~ whom I'll refer to as Doc T. in this post and a whole bunch of young pregnant women.

The dream ...

All across the nation these babies are being born with a strange marking on their little heads.  It looks sort of like a peace sign.  

Some people are referring to these strange markings as a signal of some sort ... a sign from God ... a revelations of something that is to come.  The media, newspapers and television, are going crazy.  Doctors are just befuddled ... what does this mark on all these newborns heads mean?

Then ...

My great doctor, Doc T. figures it out.  Yay!!! I knew my Doc T. was a brilliant man!!

The mark is a PRESSURE MARK ....

FROM -  

drum roll ...  drum roll ....

THONG UNDERWEAR!!

OH MY GOSH!!

The media goes nuts!  

Doc T.'s face is all over the TV and in newsprint.  

He's FAMOUS!! 

Everybody knows who he is for solving this mystery :)

THEN ... my dream goes to this ~

All these young pregnant mothers come knocking at my door.

They all ask, "Are you the granny panty fitter?" ...  "Doc. T. sent me."

I say, "Yes, I am the granny panty fitter, come on in."

I proceed to take the pregnant gal into a room in my house.  The room is HUGE ... it looks like a beautiful store front and it's wall to wall with shelves and racks of granny panties!

I take a tape measure and measure around the gal's belly and then I have her discretely give a little lift of her leg and I take a measurement from her belly button to the small of her back.  ( I know... where did I get a dream like this from!!!)

I'm fitting these chubby mommies all night long.  Doc T. and I are in cahoots on this store and we're both getting filthy rich off of granny panties.  

~~~ dreams over ~~~

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel

the hillbilly 10 commandments ~

I saw this on facebook and just wanted to share here on my blog ~

 

Until next time ...

So it goes in my neck of the woods.

~mel