MORE HIGH WINDS

RED OAK AT SUNSET

Monday, 8:30 AM.  33 degrees F, wind SW, light with moderate gusts.  The sky has a high overcast with dark clouds moving beneath it.  The humidity is 74% and the barometer is trending down, now at 29.78".  This is the morning I should be out in the woods.

   I did venture into the woods yesterday about 3:00 PM.  The temperature had risen to the low twenties so I thought maybe the deer would start moving.  But it was even windier than the previous day, a constantly roaring wind with gusts that must have reached forty or fifty miles per hour.  The red oak pictured is at least ninety feet in height and even though now bereft of its leaves it swayed  like a reed in the wind.  

   I built a little ground blind of branches and sat within it on a log.  When I stood to stretch the wind rocked me back on my heels.  I imagine the deer were bedded down in one of the nearby ravines or cedar swamps.  The outing was not wasted, however, as the sunset, the color of molten iron but as cold as hardened steel, was worth the frigid effort.

   I got a call yesterday from "C G" Johnson, who now owns the land I hunt on.  He hunts with a group of buddies about two hours to the southwest, and he wanted to compare notes. They also experienced bad weather.  His group of five did bag one deer on opening day but didn't see much else.  Except wolves.  He said he had a pack come right to his tree stand, out of either curiosity or arrogance. He found it  a bit unsettling.

   I have to wait for a plumber today to get some repairs done.  I can't let the opportunity pass by, as plumbers are as hard to track down as the deer here in the north woods.