Visitors before Breakfast

    Upon rising I raised the shades as I always do.  There was one young deer laying down and eating grass in our yard.  Not laying on its side but with its feet curled up underneath.
    We had seen twin fawns with spots in June with their mother in the yard.  They ate awhile, then the mom gave them a signal (which I didn't see or didn't understand it if I did see it).  Off the three of them went with mom in front walking and the twins jumping and skipping with each other behind. 
    So I went to another window, raised the shade, and there was the twin about five feet from the window.  They would hear a sound, stop chewing, and turn their ears in that direction.  After identifying that there was no danger, they would continue chewing.  The sounds were two gray squirrels playing their continuous game of chase me.  Also, two blue jays came around making a raucous.  They stayed for an hour or so.  Of course, they may have been there all night.  After breakfast, I went outside to where they were laying down.  I could see the grass matted down where they had been. Then came to me who ate my lilies that I brought from Mt. Prospect.

Explaining Daylight Savings Time

Trying to explain Daylight Savings Time to our pet birds has proved to be difficult.  Clocks and DST don't mean very much to them. They get up when the sun is up and go to sleep when it is dark.  I am not fond of this spring and fall clock moving business either.  It usually takes me a week or more to get adjusted to it.  In retirement it should be much easier.  We no longer use alarm clocks.  It's wonderful.

My First Wreath

On my Northwoods list of things I want to do was to make my own green things for Christmas.  You remember the huge tree that fell across our lane to the road during the wind.  It was a balsam (Christmas tree type).  As I was dragging the branches to the fire pit, I decided to keep some choice ones and make a wreath.  Never made one before, but it turned out rather nice for a first try.  And it smells wonderful.  You may be thinking that it is too early for a wreath.  Not in the Northwoods!  The radio has been advertising where to bring your evergreen boughs for money.  I have seen pick up trucks and larger carrying green boughs to the wreath making places since October 25.  So enjoy your fresh evergreen wreath at Christmas.

Northwoods Wildlife

I don't mean animals.  Oh, I do mean animals...that we see, watch, or try not to hit with the car.  But now I am referring to the social scene.  There are so many clubs, service organizations, girls' nights out, book groups, hiking clubs, church committees.  Man, there are so many that I have had to start saying no.  I could have 2-3 organized activities a day if I wanted to.  I thought I came here to retire.  Clearly, there will be no shortage of things to do and people to be with.  The first one that we joined together is the Chequamegon Lions Club.  We are the only club in WI that doesn't have a town.  We all live in the Chequamegon (she-WAM-mee-gon) National Forest.  There were over 40 people at the last meeting.  It is very active with a variety of service projects and fundraisers for local needs. 

Need to go...book club at 1:00.

Cleaning up after the Wind

Last Tuesday and Wednesday we had strong winds like Illinois did as about everywhere else in the Midwest.  All evening the lights flickered. By 9 pm it was like having a strobe light.  We just knew it was coming so we found flashlights and waited.  Sure enough - we lost power.  We could hear limbs hitting the roof and whole trees falling.  In the light of day (because the power was still off - 18 hours total) we surveyed the damage.  Five trees total: on the steps in front of the house, in back of the house, two nearer the lake, one behind the garage.  No damage I am happy to say.  On the lane from our house to the road there was a 12-15 inch diameter tree that had fallen.  Case had to chainsaw us out.  He loved it.  So today we cleaning up branches and chainsawing the trees for firewood.  It will take several days to finish it all.  That's OK.  We're retired. 

Northwoods Pet

We told ourselves we were NOT going to do this, but she is so cute! 

One of our very few neighbors are animal lovers.  They have been putting out their dinner meat scraps in the same spot every night.  A female fox comes by after dinner, eats, and moves on.  She does have a den in the area and had a litter this spring.  Others have seen the den, but I haven't though I have seen her walking around.  One night WE had a pile of scraps so I walked around the house, down the stairs, across the yard, down another set of stairs toward the lake to reach the fox dining spot.  I forgot to bring a flashlight, so much stumbling was involved.  I didn't really put a coat on, so I was cold.  By the time I got back to my well-light, warm house, I decided that the fox can fend for herself. 

The next night that generated scraps Case says, " This is better than having a dog."  I relate the above story, so he volunteers to go with me with flashlight in hand and coats on our backs.  When we return, he agrees with me that the fox can fend for herself. 

The next night that generated scraps, Case volunteers to handle it himself but with a twist.  There is a small stump about 10 feet on the other side of the garage.  He has decided that this will be the fox dinner place #2.  Sure enough, the scraps were gone by morning.  Of course, we wondered if another animal had eaten it but no matter.  Whoever ate it, we were OK with it. 

After a full afternoon of working outside, we stood on the porch watching the sunset in the west which also happens to be the direction of the garage.  The fox walked up the driveway, looked at us, trotted to the stump that was empty, and trotted back to the driveway.  She proceeded to sit down, look at us, stare at us, waiting for us to "go to the stump."  She is so beautiful:  black legs and feet, full tail, golden red color and of course, like all foxes, looks like she is smiling.  We had nothing to give her at the time but Foxy needn't worry.  There will be scraps later.

Quite a Week to make me Weak!

Another quick trip to Illinois to yes - finally - clear out the house and garage.  It is done.  Now, to sell the house.  That happened in a few more days I am very happy to say.  Buyer is pre-approved for a loan so we are thinking it looks good.  The price ended up being about $50,000 less than the original price 4 months ago.  However, we did follow our plan of either making a change in listing or lowering the price every 2-3 weeks until it sold. We followed through with the plan and it sold.

I think that our retirement frame of mind will be much better with the major financial arrangements completed.