Larry A. Smail's Blog

An orange hue line

  The sun glowed an orange hue early in the morning hours. The orange-red colors engulfed the landscape until the rising sun turned into the brightness of the dawn. I felt fortunate to have been in the woods to witness the event. The colors do not last long.

The deer seemed to have moved away for all morning I only saw four deer and Bob saw one. Deer hunting is like that at times .(We later saw three deer while traveling home.) 

The amazing  part of the day was the weather. It seemed like mid-March!  The sun was bright. The sky was blue. The temperatures were cool early, but quickly turned spring-like. I kept thinking I should be hearing gobblers gobbling and see turkeys strutting!

I was armed with my .410 H&R shotgun from my youth. I thought to bag a few squirrels to make a feast for the family. (I had one squirrel in  the freezer already.) While walking towards Bob I heard some wood noise and looked to see a squirrel which I quickly bagged. Up to this point, squirrels were not on my mind. The sight and sounds placed me into “Squirrel-mode”.  I soon saw a couple more, but avoided shooting due to plenty of witch hazel and grape vines blocking perfect shots. I waited for better shots.

        Soon I saw another squirrel which I bagged. I took a few photos as memories. My tradition has been for years to clean the squirrels in the woods. I then place the entrails and hides in the trees for the critters to utilize.

I had just completed cleaning the two squirrels when another appeared. I loaded the shotgun and took the shot. Three squirrels… a meal was to be reality!

I, also, saw a great-horned owl flying among some pines.

Porcupine den with droppings

   One subject of interest was the discovery of a porcupine den tree. Porkys were very scarce in my haunts until rather recently. Many people hate the critters, bit I find them a beautiful mammal with some very interesting traits and body parts…the QUILLS! My friend C. W. Nebinger had an expensive vet bill when three of his English Setters became at war with one of these creatures!  OUCH!