This is precisely that time of year when the mice, who know a thing or two, look around outside and think about how much more pleasant the future would look from a berth inside my house. It is entirely possible that mice are sharing this information otherwise how would they know from year to year to come looking for that berth in my wine cellar. They don’t come in and wander round until they find this “cool” room, they come directly there from outside. I have caught two so far this fall. The idea that mouse pioneer mice keep reappearing is not likely. Not all mice are pioneers. If any food is vulnerable on the shelves mice will find will find it. My cool room will be a lot warmer than the potting shed or garage in month or two.
Yesterday, tired of hearing me crunching Que Pasa corn chips, Brenda said I had to drive to the village for potato chips. Luckily I did find two bags of Miss Vickies original kettle cooked chips and brought them back. Good Thing!
On my way there I counted 8 deer grazing like domestic animals in two or three fields where they could still find grass. Now these beautiful beasts stood like Greek statues and watched me carefully as I watched them. Deer know nothing of Venison. But at the village Esso where the chips were, there was talk of the impending Annual Hunt, and those guys know about Venison and expect to get some. At the first sound of a gun those dear will be much harder to find. Their best friend for life would be bad weather. Freezing rain and lots of it; strong winds and bad visibility; enough discomfort to drive hunters back to their camps for a fire and rum and cases of beer and steaks and cards. This is the fall back position that hunters love and a big part of why they come here.
The other thing is that the trees are still providing lots of cover because when the hunt begins there will be no more deer in the fields but deer hiding in deep woods in good disguise.
My trees are still full of leaves but our massive bass tree has been shedding leaves like crazy and now it is I admit is bit bare, but this is a giant tree. About two years ago Brenda started to worry about the health of this tree. We hired a guy from Mindemoya to give us a tree assessment. He walked around this tree. He checked the bark. He told us: This is very old tree. To take this tree down would be hugely expensive. There is no sign that this tree is dying because aging is not the same as dying. This tree has many years left to live. Leave it alone. It is doing well. It is surviving. Do not bother this tree. So we did not. Why would I not identify with this tree?
