Boos and Blood

For the months of October and November I have decided to lump the two together this year.   October was such a wonderfully busy month.  Autumn, in the language of trees, began to speak the final weeks of September and the vast wooded hills and flats of the area reached their color peak the weekend of October thirteenth.

October is such a charming time of year.  Pumpkins, spooky cornfields, and a few frosty mornings are all token October goodies to experience.  October is the month of Samhain and Halloween.  There are so many wonderful and different traditions observed during this month and all revolve around remembering our ancestors.  Samhain also marks the Pagan New Year and great works of transformation and ideas are developed during this time of year.

The gray squirrel and 13-stripped ground squirrels were very busy this month; running to and fro from ground to tree.  It was often fun to watch two squirrels battle it out on a big tree branch outside our living room window.  Deer are now the color of wet tree bark.  They no longer stand out of the wild greenery of the forests, like graceful sandstone-colored figurines.  They blend into the darkening of the woods now.  Unless they move, they are difficult to see.

Now it’s November, the third month of the “ber” months and that means the occasional snow shower, frosty mornings become the norm, and the pre-rut is upon us!  The men in my family already seem to be frothing at the mouth in anticipation of Deer Camp towards the end of the month.  This is a very old tradition for the men in my family and this year is my husband’s initiation into the manly man world of the ol’ Deer Hunter’s Camp way up in northwoods of the state.  I wonder if there are any bets in place, yet.

Slowly the deer are more visible, rather than spending all of their time in the woods grazing and caring for the young.  Now the young are strong.  No more spots.  The does have urged the young deer out on their own.  The few deer we have started to see are still getting fattened up on the cornfield remains.  The crazed, horned beasts are not doe crazy just yet, but its right around the corner, and remain elusive until they just can’t help themselves and have to come out of the woodwork to find the does.  The occasional geese arrow can still fly above, but they are becoming far less than the large migrating flocks of October.

In the coming weeks, may you and your families be blessed during the wild hunt and may your freezers become full!