Happy Thanksgiving!

We just returned from a fun (and eventful) week "Up North." It started last weekend up in Door County, WI where my family has gone deer hunting every year as long as I can remember. I have been going almost every year since I was about 12 years old. We stay in an old hotel and since it is the off season, we stay cheap and pretty much take over the whole place. It is not uncommon to see us in just socks in the dining room or even see our kids in jammies in the lobby watching TV. The hotel recently changed owners and the new ones are willing to let us keep up the tradition.



That is really what this whole week is about, tradition, and it is so much fun to now share them with my own childredn. Driving up, Kade was so excited to see his cousins and explore this "Up North" place. The week starts with checking into the hotel and meeting up with everyone. The next morning, the deer hunting begins. Since we had lived out of state for the last several years, we have not bought hunting licenses as they are so pricy out of state so this is the first year we have had the chance to really hunt. Of course, with 2 babies in tow, it is not too realistic to think I would get out much.

I did have the great priveledge of going "out to sit" on Sunday morning. It might be hard to believe but there is almost nothing that compares to it; to sit, high in a tree, still dark, in 30 degree weather (or colder) and wait for the dawn in the middle of the woods. Walking out, the only sound you hear is the crunch of leaves and sharp snaps of twigs below your boots. In the dark, you can barely see the flags that lead you to your tree. Finding it, you make the akward climb up, up with your bulky snow pants, sweaters and blaze orange. You settle in and the try to load your gun as quietly as you can. In the silence, you are sure deer can hear it a mile away. As you sit there, the haze of the dawn begins to show as a slight orange glow on the horizon. Your ears and eyes, usually numb from the blare of TVs and radio, gradually become attune to your surroundings. You feel the gentle sway of the wind on your tree.

As the glow turns more yellow, you can start to make out the other trees around you, the gentle slopes and valleys of the landscape. As the sun slowly creeps upward, the silvery birch trees are the first to pick up the sheen of the sun. They begin to glow and then the papery bark burns white. They stand so tall,, bold and ghostly against the dark maples and oaks.

The sun rises farther still and now you can see the color of the remaining leaves. Lots of yellows and browns, a few leaves holding fastly to their green. The forest floor becomes a busy place below you. Busy squirrels and chipmunks dig endlessly, searching piles of leaves for one last acorn. Their activity seems impossibly loud, surely masking the deer that must be right behind me. But wait, what is that crunch, crunch, crunch! Your heart starts to beat faster, your finger becomes aware of the cold ridges of your safety button, your ears strain, the stock of your gun finds its way to your shoulder.. and you slowly turn your head to spot the big trophy buck behind you! Your eyes immediately go to where you think the big deer should be but nothing... then they search for the noise your ears here and Arrgh! Another squirrel! This happens several times during the few hours you sit there but in my case at least, it is almost always just a squirrel, or a chipmunk, or a turkey or a pheasant. Once, it was even a badger!

Now the sun is about a third way up in the sky. The wind is starting to pick up and you can literally hear it whoosh past your ears. Just as it starts to feel chilly, and your toes are no longer responding to wiggling around in your boots, you feel the warmth of the sun on your back. Ican just make out a blaze orange figure walking in the distance. I know it is time to go back to the warm hunting shack, fire blazing in the woodstove. I think I can even smell a whiff of woodsmoke in the wind. I unload and make the akward climb down. I may not have fired my gun, but I have gained some valuable time just thinking, praying, absorbing nature - time which is rare with 2 kids which made it even sweeter!