6. december 2023 Just A Nice Day For a Drive

 

Looked like just a nice day for a drive.

    Needing to make a deposit, I had to visit the MNDH "Hides For Habitat" box outside the Olson’s Skime Store. Only about 13 miles southeast of us, it’s been the most convenient location for a number of years. I had a few deer hides that recently had been ‘walking’ off on their own again, although not under their own power. https://mndeerhunters.com/what-we-do/hides-for-habitat

   I figured it must have been coyotes that pulled some frozen deer hides from near the meat pole, then recently dragged off to eat at their leisure. The first deer hide I saw was laying apart from the others by the old stable, but I gave it no more thought than, “Hmmm, I don’t remember leaving that there,” as my memory ain't what it used to be.

   The second deer hide I noticed a few days later was in a different place. My brain tried to make sense of it, but I was too impatient to get where I was going, and so came to the conclusion that although there seemed to be a issue surrounding it, obviously I didn’t have the time to fix it and maybe it would just disappear on its own, somehow.

   The third time a deer hide aroused my curiosity, was when my wife mentioned noticing an errant hide herself oddly placed along a trail she had been walking. She inquired of my knowledge of it, to which I replied, “Aye, I observed such roving hides meself and I assure you I will act upon such observance, at once or sooner!” 

 

  Blissfully married to me as she has been these past, almost 15 years, she knows to take such things in stride, but to her credit acknowledged later on, I did act almost immediately, although primarily due to her regimen of follow-up.

   “Did you call Olson’s Skime Store, den eh?”

   “Vell, I plan on it, you know,” said I, assuredly.

 

    “Today?” she said, bordering on sarcasm. "Call dem, den. Make shure you ain’t goin’ ta be driving all da vay over dere an’ ere’s no deer pelt box!”

   Ya shure! I did!” I answered triumphantly. "I called dere yust a few minutes ago, an’ a voman answered, “'Yah, dis ‘ere’s Olson’s Skime Store.’” 

 

   And I asked ‘er, if da ‘ides fer ‘abitat’ box vas dere an’ she said, “‘Yah shure, you betcha.’” So off I’m goin’, voman. Keep yer shirt on!”

   “VAT DID YEW SAY?” I thought I ‘eard, but couldn’t be sure, so didn’t ask. And off I went.

   It was a just nice sunny day for a drive through Golden Valley Township. The roads were dry and the temperatures were in the 40s-above zero, for December 6. I took Roseau County gravel road 125 a mile south, then 2 miles east to State Trunk Highway 89, and south on that to wide and wonderful Roseau County 18, a steady south and east gravel road all the way to Roseau County Road 9, about a mile north of Olson’s Skime Store, a virtual oasis in the middle of nowhere.

 

 

    There was no fanfare; no crowds or excitement that time of day; this time of year. Not so, during opening weekend of firearms deer season there, I assure you, for that area is teeming with deer and deer hunting camps dotting the landscape all directions of the compass, becoming a bustling metropolis virtually over night. Today, the only deer around could be seen leaving the bed of my pickup, one by one by one.