11/23/11 GETTING DESPERATE, AND DEER SHOULD BE LIKE THE SHMOOS

Wednesday, 5:30 PM.  40 degrees at present, which it has been most of the afternoon. Wind has been WSW since about 10:00 AM, and it has been blustery  all day, at times gale force.  An obvious front has moved in, that cleared away the clouds by noon.  The barometer is on an upward trend but the impending high is still not really here.
    It was another odd, quiet (except for the incessant wind) day in the woods, and I have about had it and am ready  to take tomorrow, Thanksgiving day, off from the hunt.  My feet hurt and my knees ache from hiking first in snow and now on slippery surfaces.  I am very glad I saw three deer on Monday morning or I should perhaps be persuaded that phantom deer were leaving their tracks in the snow. 
    This morning I even resorted to putting an Ojibwe charm around my neck (bought it at a Canadian trading post a while back) to bring me luck on the hunt. It is a little Indian medicine bottle made, as I remember, from part of a moose bladder. It is on a leather thong, and is painted with Indian symbols.  I carry a couple of aspirin in it in case I should have a heart problem out in he woods (unlikely, I hope). 
    The next time I get a deer I will put some hair and maybe a tooth in it for good luck as well.  I guess I am getting desperate, and for all I know I would have it all wrong anyway,  but according to local Indian legend, the animals are anxious to sacrifice themselves for food for the people, as that is according to the plan of the Great Spirit (or something like that).  One has to be careful about  such cross-cultural interpretations, and not giving offense to people or to spirits, as the whole thing might very well backfire and I could be in a whole lot of trouble.

END TO A QUIET BUT BLUSTERY DAY

    All of which reminds me of Al Cap’s Lil’ Abner comic strip of many years back, and the Shmoos, little beings that were just dying to be dinner for folks.  Deer should be like that.