December 15^th, 2002: 

We just got home from our annual gift-exchanging tour; the temperature is around zero but there is a strong south wind, and that’s the way it has been the past two or three days.

We enjoyed the decorated homes along the way; some are decorated artistically, and some mistake quantity of lights for quality. A couple of the nicest: there is a house just east of Naicam, on the south side of the highway, with its roof neatly outlined in red lights, and Dahlton Church, with a simple blue arch over the door.

Yah, it’s that time of year again - time to put up the Christmas lights. You have dithered and dallied and postponed and limped, and even tried the flu, but now you’re in a corner and you’ve run out of excuses. Might as well get at ‘er and be done with it. Having done my duty already, I thought I would offer a few do’s and don’ts to make the job easier on you.

Do:

·        …make sure you actually have some lights to put up.

·        …check to make sure they all work (If you did your job right, while you were vacillating your spouse will have got fed up and already checked them out.)

·        …line up the necessary tools – screwdriver, screws (and it is useful if they match), hammer and nails, carpenter’s apron, wrecking bar, chainsaw, and ladder.

·        …sweep the snow off the ice where you plan to place the ladder.

·        …make sure there is something to lean the ladder against.

·        …make sure the first aid kit is adequately supplied with gauze, finger cots, adhesive bandages, slings and splints.

Don’t:

·        …let go of the hammer. If the ladder slips on the ice, you want something to hang onto.

·        …do it while your spouse is watching - she’ll just make you nervous.

·        …plug in the lights while you drive nails through the cord.

·        …use duct tape - it ain’t cool, and besides, it won’t stick to frost.

·        …bleed all over the flippin’ carpet.

George Renneberg tells me pickerel are biting, some jacks, but almost no perch. He says the ice is about fifteen inches thick where he has his fishing hut, off the Uskatik Peninsula. Last weekend, he walked down to his fishing hut, and no hut! No sign of it anywhere! Finally, he located it away east of where he left it, by a beaver lodge. The high winds of the week before last had moved it. He opened the door and found the beavers had started building a lodge inside it. He had a gas heater with a piezo-electric starter; a beaver must have pressed the button, because the heater was going. They hadn’t left any lights on, though - the flashlight was hanging up too high for them to reach.

Rennebergs and Millers used to have hay bales in their yards to feed the deer. Apparently, the deer don’t like cats; Miller’s cat found this out and decided it wouldn’t let the deer feed. It would sit on the bales to keep them away. Merv said some cold mornings it would sit there until it was covered with frost; finally it would get too cold so it would come inside, and the deer would move in.

George said they looked out their window and saw the deer acting very nervous, pawing the ground and looking in one direction. They looked closer, and there was their cat, down on its belly and stalking the deer. When it got close enough, it charged, and the deer put their tails up and took off. I wonder what the cat would have done if caught a deer?

Gwynn and Ronnie Hirtle were at coffee on Thursday; they looked out their window one morning and saw two bull bison, a big one and a smaller one, out on the road. Gwynn went out to take a photo, but they were too far away for a good shot. They moved off to the south. For almost a month we have been hearing of bison sightings; don’t know if it is the same ones or if they are taking turns.