23-26 October, 2011 First Snow, Hunting Blinds, Firewood, Pizza and Projects.

This began as one of those "day in the life of ..." posts but I just didn't get it finished in one day.  So it's more like "four days in the life of ..."!

This is about 1/4 mile from the cabin looking over the top at Marl Lake.  It's overcast  (common for this time of year!) so you can't see the mountains in the distance.  I was out looking for some innocent buck minding his own business so I could shoot him, skin him, butcher him and eat him.

This is how our day usually begins.  We get the wood stove going nice and hot then lounge around it talking or reading (Susan) or doing Sudoku (me) while drinking our morning brew of French Vanilla coffee and hot cocoa mix. 

The cups are waiting patiently for the water on the wood stove to get hot!

We usually get an hour or so to ourselves before Scott wakes up.  The great thing is that he's almost always cheerful and very affectionate when he gets up.

I often spend some time on the computer writing on my book, an article or the blog in the mornings while it's still too cold or dark to get anything done outside.

We got our first snow of the season this week!!!  This is just the warning shot to get people prepared for what's yet to come!  About this time next week we won't care how much it snows because we'll have our wood cut (at least enough to get us through the winter) and wouldn't care if we get snowed in until spring.  We have a warm cabin, food, water (melted snow), snowmobiles, skis, snowshoes, sleds and warm clothes.  Let it snow!!!!

This is wood in that's been stored outside under a tarp since last summer.  The wind knocked down a couple of live Larch and Fir trees so we cut them up and let them cure over the last year.  The big rounds are Fir and the smaller stuff is Larch.  Both are excellent firewood for around here.

The Fir is stringy and when it's this size I need wedges to split it.

Once I have it down to a manageable size I can use a maul to finish the job.  This batch has a lot of resin in it.  It ignites easy and burns long and hot.  It's the best firewood I've ever had!  It's kind of a pain to split.  If that had been Larch it would have practically exploded if I hit it with a maul as hard as I did this chunk.

My sledge hammer handle broke.  I bought this one with the fiberglass handle and it's had some hard use.  The problem is that the eye is oversize due to the plastic sleeve so I'll have to modify a pick handle to re-handle it.  Otherwise I'd just epoxy the handle back in the head. 

Scott wants to play with the kitty but the cat's heading for the door.

"No, really, I've never pulled the kitty's tail!  I don't know why he doesn't want to play."

Victor and I took my truck out to cut another load of firewood.  He paid for the gas so we could use my truck.  It holds about three times the amount we can get in his.  This is the mountainside we're cutting on.  There's a dead Larch at the right side of the picture that we're going after.

The fog moved in and out the first hour we were cutting.  We were pretty high up and when our fog was gone we were still above the clouds below us.   We're only about three miles from the cabin but the low-lying fog never lifted up from the valley floor until mid-afternoon.

Fueling up the saws before we start up the mountain.  I take my tailgate off when cutting and loading the truck because I don't like bent tailgates (very common around here!) from people dropping log rounds on them.

We got back late in the evening so this is the next morning when Victor is unloading the truck.  This is very good firewood and should split easily.

We decided to build a ground blind near B&V's cabin.  It'll give him a place to hunt without having to travel far.  It's his first time hunting big game and he's anxious to get his first deer.

It's set up nicely.  The chair is comfortable, the visibility good and the cover excellent.  It will also provide some protection from the wind.  The deer like this meadow.

Susan made pizza yesterday.  She used a rising crust with cheese, pineapple, and ham for the topping.  It's every bit as good as it looks.

I'm going to modify one of my butcher knives into a shorter, skinning type blade.  I just drew it out last night so I'll keep you posted on it's progress.  I've got enough metal left to change it later if I don't like the first model.  The blade is five inches long at the top of the mark I made.  It'll have a rather blunt point so I don't have to worry so much about poking holes in the hides.