knew it would happen one day.

First, let me show you a photo of my faithful sentry. She is standing guard because, I kid you not, there's a buck with antlers and a lot of horns, outside on my property. I very nearly came face to face with it a while ago and we had a stare down which resulted in scaring the crap out of both of us. What I did see before moving inside was that he had a wound on his shoulder and it appears that someone tried to shoot him but was not successful except to graze him. He's over on the property next door right now and I'm trying to get a better shot but it's through a window and the screens are still on so everything I shoot comes out screened...rats. Anyway, I can't get blogger to let me move photos again so here is the only one I could get so far. He's the brown spot in between the two tree trunks about center. I'm hoping since he was moving in the direction of traffic that he will return to the relative peace of our property. Lots of places to hide. I guess I'm going to call town hall to let them know since I wouldn't want him to run into traffic and have anyone, including him, get hurt.

We've always known that we would encounter deer some time in the near future since the east end is covered with them. Out at the Lab where Roger worked they were on protected federal land and he would stop to photograph them in huge numbers of 100 or more. Trouble was they starved in the winter. As enormous as the land is out there it's not enough to sustain huge herds like that. There was a plan to allow hunting for a limited time but a great outcry from Peta people put the squash on that. Let me just say that those same people pulled up their tents and left the animals to die of starvation once they had their publicity finished. Not nice.

Anyway, Lucy and I have just come back from our walk where we went in search of the deer. No sign of him. Hope that wound wasn't worse than it looked. I see that the police are around looking for him. Don't want to know how that will turn out...

I'm kind of tired today since yesterday was spent at the Food Pantry with multiple visitations of Brownie Troops and Cub Scout Troops delivering food. One of the funniest parts is that the kids get so excited when you tell them that they can unpack their items and place them on the shelves. I bet if their Moms asked them to help unpack groceries they would run like the wind. We were so grateful for their enthusiasm since they had a couple of hundred bags of groceries and that would have meant a lot of bending and lifting for Sally and I. They had lots of good questions too. The Moms obviously had prepared them well and good for them. We've had kids who come in and stand like zombies. That's a touch audience. By the time we were finished late afternoon, I stopped for sushi and treated myself to dinner. Then I fell asleep. Those kids can really wear you out but all in all it was a lot of fun. The kids left telling us that they were going to bake pies and cookies for Thanksgiving and deliver them to us.

I am making potato, bacon and cheddar soup for James this evening. We have been having dinner on Thurs. evenings since Dani is in school until late. I'll send some home for Dani. Maybe we will have a chance to talk about our building project. I'm getting very excited at the prospect and hoping that it will make the winter less loathsome by anticipation of a spring build.

Anyway, if I get a better picture of the buck I'll post it. How I wish I had the camera on me when we came nearly face to face. He was beautiful.

Off to do some laundry. Talk soon.