February 08       

February 20th, 2008
During the first part of December I loaded everything into the back of the truck and headed south.  The picture that I should have taken would have reminded you of the "Beverly Hillbillies", the way that I pile things on to make the move is an engineering feat in itself!  I do not pile the dog on top, but I did bring her along. 
   My truck was packed up with snow underneath, on the bumpers and grill.  Mostly it had turned to ice due to the heat from the exhaust system.  Everything was just frozen solid and every bump was an experience on the way down.
   As I made my way south the ice under the truck was melting and the ride improved and much of the "clunking" stopped.  I cannot remember if it was this trip or a previous trip to Bangor that a couple of children noticed the snow and ice under my truck and got all excited about the snow.  I overheard them whispering to their mother that I had snow under my truck.  I was just leaving and I told the kids that I had just came down from the North Pole from a visit with Santa and that there was plenty of snow up there.  I could hear the excitement and see the joy in their eyes as I drove off.  Santa would be making his appearance soon, and here were a couple of little ones that could not wait.
   Upon my arrival to "North Boston" this year, pandemonium broke loose, much like last year.  Jed is always excited to see me arrive, Maureen is excited to see me arrive, the cat and dog are excited to see me arrive (Even the one in the back of the truck was excited to see me, or perhaps she was excited to able to get out of the kennel) and I have to get the truck unpacked and all of the gear carried into the house.  The following day I have to get the computer set up for the winter and my office ready to operate. 
   I have found the secret is to use cardboard boxes and pack it in just like I have it up north.  Then I can just open the bottom of the box and out it falls, in the same order as it was before packing!  (Just kidding, but I may try it that way the next time!)
   After settling in for a day or two it was time to start Christmas shopping.  Being in the woods does not leave much time to do that.  I could not shop online as packages are not delivered to the camps and it would not do to have them dropped off down here for prying eyes to inspect and wonder about. 
   One of the things that was supposed to take place this Christmas was we were going to have a half dozen or so guy from a submarine come to dinner on Christmas day. 
   Maureen was on a committee that was welcoming our sailors from the USS Greenville that was coming into port down here.  We actually went over to the Navy Yard to watch the sub come in.  I must say that to watch their arrival and know that these young men live in that long metal tube for months at a time without coming to the surface, sure gave me some different thoughts.  Some of the families were here to meet them.  The wives and children were waiting and all excited.  Their loved ones would be with them for Christmas and emotions were running high all over.  I must admit that when I thought about it and what it must mean for them to be back together, especially in time for Christmas, I noticed a bit of a lump in my throat. 
   My respect for the men and women in the military, serving our country and protecting us from all sorts of harm, is great.  God bless them all, and my many thanks to those of you serving,  who read this journal.  You who do read it can thank any of the folks that you serve with for me.  Let them know that up here in the North Woods of Maine (And sometimes from a part of Maine that sure is different) there lives a person who truly does appreciate all that you do, and that you all have my utmost support in carrying out your job.
   We did not end up with extra guests for Christmas dinner, but we did have enough food to feed most of the guys on the boat!  (I am sure my waistline would have been better served if they had been able to make it to dinner)
Below are some pictures of the USS Greenville arriving in temps of about 11 degrees.  It is my understanding that this boat arrived from Hawaii, where the temps most likely do not reach down quite that far, at least on a regular basis!
                    
At a "get to know you" gathering after Christmas, I was talking to a few of the guys from the boat.  They indicated that the snow that we had was something that they were not exactly used to!  (I explained that what there was down here was but a "dusting" and that the real snow was further north)  So as you can tell, I have been keeping busy down here.  (Which helps explain what the journal entries have been a bit on the tardy side lately)  I will upload this so you folks can have it to read and I will prepare myself to relive my trip to BOSTON-THE REAL McCOY- and see if I can compile my thoughts on that into a coherent pattern of bits and bytes!
GT

February 2nd, 2008
   I know, I know!  Trust me, I have been hearing about my lack of keeping on top of things for awhile. I will go back to November to get you all caught up. 
   First off, I did not get a deer this fall.  I had a couple of chances, but not good enough. (No shots fired, just stupid ones standing in the middle of the road)  (Well, I guess they were not that stupid as I never managed to catch up to them) The last day of the season I did get a coyote that was chasing a deer, so I felt that my hunt was very successful.  I am sure that the deer appreciated the fact that at least one of these critters would not be hot on his heels again.  Yes it was a buck that was being chased by the coyote and he did look a mite nervous about the whole situation!  This is not the first time I have witnesses this happening, but it is the first time that I was able to take care of the problem.  (Of course there could have been 4 more waiting for the deer to be chased by the single one, in which case he still may have become supper before nightfall)
   One of our oldest guests managed to get the biggest deer at camp this fall.  Ken, I apologize, I cannot remember if it was just over 200 lbs or if it was just under 200 lbs. One of the guys got his this year, the first for him in a dozen or so years. 

We got some nice snow later in the season and that helped with the tracking.  The deer sign that I saw this fall was great.  There were deer right close by and I did not wander too far from home this fall.  I did do a couple of trips to areas where I have hunted in the past, but mostly just because it was habit.  If I had stayed put I may have done better, but for me it is all about having a good time. I enjoy going out muzzleloading, especially when there is lots of snow.  Part of that is because when I first started muzzleloading, there always seemed to be plenty of it to hunt on.  For the past few years one never knew if we were going to have the white stuff to wallow through while in pursuit of this pastime or not.  It is nice to see the seasons getting back in alignment again.  (Of course I can remember back to hunting seasons 20 or more years ago when the temps were in the mid 70's and I was in a Tee shirt!)
   The last day of the muzzleloader season it started to get serious about snowing.  I sure enjoyed that last day and getting the coyote with the smoke generator was a good conclusion to my season.
   After putting away the hunting gear I started in on finishing up closing the cabins for the winter.  There is always a ton or so of laundry to do and just the general buttoning up of things.  Then it started to snow once again.
   Snow it did for sure!  We had 10 or 12 inches of it on the ground and by the end of the storm we had another 18 or so inches.  I was not going to plow the road, so I kept driving in and out of camp to keep it packed down so I could get out after closing the cabins for the winter. I was pushing snow right up over the bumper on the truck and keeping my fingers crossed that it would quit snowing before it got too deep for me to navigate.
   I kept thinking about a book I had read about a camp owner from back in the old days who had to drive between camp on one lake and a boat landing on another lake.  When it started to snow he would keep driving back and forth keeping the road open as long as he could.  When it got to the point where he could not travel any longer the car would spend the winter where ever it got stuck.  As I remember it, this was kind of a blessing as he did not have to keep shoveling and driving in and out during each storm.  Of course that meant that all travel was by snowshoe from that point on!
  I definitely did not wish to leave my transportation somewhere between Ripogenus Dam and camp for the winter!  Each time I made it out and back in I would give a little thanks and wait for it to stop snowing.  In the end it all worked out ok and I survived the storm.  (But then if I had not, I would not be adding this entry to the journal would I?) 
   All of that snow did create another problem.  I now had to shovel off a number of buildings!  Now usually #1 son is here to help and that makes the job go much easier.  He was now down south playing basketball and Dad was here alone to shovel.  As none of the roofs had been shoveled off so far this fall, I had plenty to keep me occupied.
   I would shovel for a bit and then work on packing my gear for my migration south. The metal roof that I installed on the office is self- cleaning on one side, but the other does not have quite enough pitch to empty itself.  Some of the antics I preformed while trying to shovel that roof off would have made pretty interesting video for sure.
  In the end I managed to get all of the roofs cleaned off without exiting said elevated position on the structure.  Some of them I was able to use a roof rake, a wonderful little device which allows on to keep both feet on terra firma.  (The more firma the less terror)  It does however entail some interesting actions to try to maneuver a pole that can exceed 30 feet in length around the trees that grow next to some of the cabins.
   The down side of this is when you hit one of the trees that is holding snow with the handle, it tends to go directly down the back of you neck!  It is amazing how much snow can fit down the back of a guys neck and how small a "tap" it takes on a tree to get it there.  I swear that one of these days I will remember to put on my hooded sweatshirt before starting the project!
   Below are some pictures that I took after the snow had settled for a week.  The storm was one of the fluffy ones and in a few days it just settles right down to a about half of what the storm produced. (Which is a good thing or some years we would have 10 or 12 feet on the ground by the end of the winter)