Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, I did it again. It wasn't the first time, and I am certain it won't be the last.  I don' know what I was thinking but when I realized what I did, I apologized to Barb immediately. I gave her a big hug and told her how sorry I was. 

What unthinkable act did I do? Did I leave the toilet seat up again? Or worse yet, did I drink the last beer?  To be honest, I rarely put the toilet seat up in the first place and we don't even like the same beer, so it wasn't either of those. But when Barb said came out of the bedroom yesterday and said, "I am mad at you", I knew I was in trouble. "What did I do?", I asked. "You were mean to me in my dream". This is not the first time I have done this, and it certainly will not be the last. I realized long ago that the best thing for me to do is to tell her I am sorry and give her the aforementioned hug.  Otherwise, there is no breakfast for Jim. 

Whew, dodged that bullet! 

With Christmas fast approaching I have been busy buying Christmas presents for Barb. For the first time ever, I am not panic shopping a day or two before Christmas. Not only is this saving me a lot of stress, but it is also saving me a lot of money. Whenever I panic shop, I tend to spend way too much and buy items she does not really want. I still spent more than I probably should have but she is really going to like her gifts this year!

I deer hunted almost every day this past week, watching the deer antics in the woods. This is mating season for deer so both the does and the bucks are going through their mating rituals. Sitting there watching them I could not help but notice the similarities between deer and humans the way the does dance around and tease the bucks and how the bucks walk around, like these two, acting all macho, puffing up and strutting around trying to impress the does. 

The bucks are constantly fighting each other to establish dominance. Some of these fights get pretty rough resulting in injury and even death. Like this guy who is such a hard fighter that he has broken off several tines on his antlers. 

Other fights are more playful like these two. It reminded me of the scene from Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer where his nose cap fell off. 

And as many of you know the bucks will rub their antlers on trees to mark their territory. This does two things. It is a visual warning for other bucks to stay out of the area and it is also a scent indicator as bucks leave their scent on the tree so other bucks know who is in the area. 

The antlers of each buck are like fingerprints, no two are alike, varying in size, formation and color. Here are a few pictures of bucks I saw this week.

A little 6-point                                                         A nice 9-point

                          A tall 7-point                                     This guy is just growing his 7th and 8th points

A small spike

They don't get much smaller than this guy on the right

Then there was this big guy who is the boss of the woods. He was chasing a doe, got tired and laid down right in front of me!

I did manage to fill the freezer this week by harvesting a really nice buck. That picture is the last one in this post so those who want to skip it can do so. I just love sitting out in the woods!

Workwise, Barb and I continued to construct the workshop. It is probably 1/2 way done with all the lights in, insulation done and the OSB installed on the walls. One of the functions of this room will be for processing deer, I was able to put it to use this week!

Next up is steel siding on the walls and ceiling, then finish the electrical and the exterior siding. 

Being Thanksgiving, we wanted to wish everyone a...

 Happy Thanksgiving! 

We have so much to be thankful for; our health, our happiness, our family, our friends..... the list goes on.

Thanks to everyone who sent their email addresses to be added to our email list. It seems to be working just fine for those who were added but I did find another limitation. Blogger limits us to 10 people on our email list, so I added the first 10 people who responded. The other ones were denied by blogger. Ugh!

And finally, here is the picture of the deer I harvest this week. It is bittersweet, I am happy to have harvest such a nice buck and have the freezer full, but sad all at the same time. That is just part of the whole hunting process.