DECIDED TO STAY at the cabin today, had a few things that needed to get done that I had kind of forgotten about. Early this morning the rain finally let up and a strong wind from out of the South was starting to dry the deck off. Of course it did help that by noon it was almost sixty out and I was soon outside just working in a sweatshirt. I put the riding lawnmower away after blowing it off with the leaf blower, next in was the tiller as the ground was just to soaked to use either one of them. Last of the leaves did not get mulched and the garden didn’t get that last till in. Shovels and rakes were put away and the snow thrower was gassed up and rolled to the front of the garage. Apple picker was tucked back up into the rafters and Duncan’s water bowl was brought into the cabin.

Of course this was all stuff that was supposed to have been done before I went to deer camp but had forgotten to do. I think in the back of my mind I had this plan on actually shooting a deer and I would be back from camp and would have this all done before the snow fell. Well, no deer and no snow but it looks like the snow coming is a sure thing and the deer is pretty iffy. As I was putting stuff away I was thinking why I dislike this part of fall. In the spring you take stuff out of storage as you need it, shovels and rakes and clothes line poles. Lawn mowers and weed wackers and leaf blowers. Brooms and hoses and hoes, all you have to put away in the spring is a couple of snow shovels and the snow blower and maybe some let over deicer.

With nothing left to do I decided that maybe I would take a walk out the back trail and sit on a stump and deer hunt. Just so happen I had my hunting stuff in the back of the Tahoe. Now I am not going to admit that this was planned but sometimes things just have a way of working out. The wife distracted Duncan and I slipped out and took the trail down to the big stump and I made myself comfortable. Sixty out, some wind and sunshine and I figured with all my apples missing that I had just as good a chance of scoring a deer here as I did up at the Hotel. A couple of hours later I saw no deer and the sun was gone. Wind was still blowing, matter of fact it felt like it was getting stronger and the rain started to fall, yup, Just like up at the Hotel.

I got back to the cabin before it really started to rain hard, I changed clothes as the wife came in and told me she heard that Joe had died. First thing I did was look up on the wall where my picture of Lady my first black lab hung. Everyone around here knows who Joe was, he was a dog trainer who trained dog trainers. I had met Joe when I got my first lab looking for some pointers. I knew his son who told his dad I had gotten a dog and Joe told his son to send me and the dog on over. I spent some time watching and learning and with pointers from Joe, Lady became a pretty good gun dog. Joe had moved away and I had lost contact with him but hearing his name brought back a lot of memories of Lady and Joe’s pointers. That was over thirty-five years ago, funny how time fly’s even here at Lake Iwanttobethere