A Memorial Surprise

This morning during our usual Sunday morning walk all was pretty much as usual. About three quarters of the way around the loop, Prince came bounding out of the woods from the west closely followed by Hawk the pup.

Ginger had her usual frenetic run around with the two dogs and it was a nice warm and humid morning. I was breaking a sweat just standing there watching them play.

We continued around and broke company at the last turn. Ginger likes to lay on the cool sand after a play session, so we relaxed in the shade on the sand trail exiting the forest for a few minutes.

As we were getting up to head out, I heard a noise in the woods to the right which would have been where Tony and the boys headed to their homes. At first I thought one of the dogs had come back to say a final good bye, but that wasn't the case. It was a yearling deer. Rather small, but healthy looking. It cautiously entered the path in front of us and I had hunkered down and grabbed Ginger's collar to ensure she didn't chase the youngster.

The doe (I guess) looked at us for a second then continued into either the briar patch in front of her or along the path into the neighborhood. I hoped for the former.

I heard some more brush noise off to our right and thought that was most likely the mother, but we never got a glimpse of any other critters. After a few more minutes we headed home with a story to tell.

Now this tract of land isn't the best of habitat for deer, but we have seen sign from time to time. I guess it is mostly a covered transit zone, since there is no water in the area and not much to eat right now.

It certainly was a treat to see and felt like a very magical moment. I really like our Schramm's Woods.

Lean To Project

When ever those meddling kids mess up my stuff, I just move on to something else. Since they cut my cordage and toppled my wikkiup I had going, I decided to build a lean-to next. I found a good crock in a tree and cut down a standing dead oak that had widow-maker potential to use as a support for the other end and started building. I build slow, bringing a branch or two each time we go into the woods, so it takes a while. After lots of branches I will maybe shingle it with bark and throw some debris on it. Let's see how long it stays around. Here are some pictures.

Damn Meddling Kids

Damn Meddling Kids! Once again as Ginger and I did our evening walk I was passing the PS, I wasn't even going to do my usual walk through camp to check on things and something didn't look right. I took the path back and sure enough my latest project, a wikkiup, was knocked to the ground. It is never a big deal, but it still pisses me off. This time the asshole cut the paracord scraps I had used to tie the three poles together. Someone has a new toy. I also noticed that they had cut the duct tape cord I had made and used on the debris shelter. They also cut the small piece of rope that one kid had left as a peace offering that was tied in a square knot.

One day I will be hanging out there when the douche bag comes by and he will get a little Angry Old Man payback.

No biggie, self-reliance goes on.

Patapsco Park Hike

This Friday, we headed to Patapsco Park to do a little hike. Along with me was Lisa, Shauni and Ginger. It was a beautiful day with the temperature around 66 degrees. We parked on Landing Road and headed down the yellow trail. We took that to the blue and ended up at the Cascade Falls before heading back the way we had came. It was a good hike and Ginger had a good time meeting some new friends. All in all the hike was about 4 miles on fairly easy terrain. A good hike.

Ginger Gets a Kill

This morning Ginger and I headed to the woods as usual as is our normal routine. The morning was nice. Not too cold, but the sky was starting to cloud up. We did our normal route through the woods towards the camp site. When we got there I was fiddling around with the fire ring as Ginger did her normal wandering to and fro.

Suddenly I heard what sounded like the squeak of one of her toys and I looked up and it looked like she had a toy in her mouth. I quickly figured out it was a baby rabbit and each time she would chomp, it would squeak. I yelled at her to drop it and of course she did exactly the opposite. I chased her around the woods for a bit until she finally dropped the poor thing and I was able to get to her.

The baby was pretty much done for. It looked like it couldn't move its hind feet and was most likely in pain and not for this world much longer.

I pulled my neck knife and quickly dispatched it by cutting off its head. I took the baby back to the camp site and quickly skinned and gutted it. There was no sense in wasting the poor thing, so I took the small carcass home with the liver, heart and kidneys and stewed the whole lot up. I mixed it all up in Ginger's dinner as it was her kill.

Later, we did our second walk into the woods and as we came around the circle I saw the tell tail sing of a cotton tail running off to my right. Ginger was on the left and didn't see it, so I stayed quiet and she never noticed. As we were almost done with our walk and after Ginger was back on the leash we say one more rabbit and Ginger appeared to see it too, but she didn't even try to go for it. Maybe she had enough killing for one day.