Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Welcome new readers & Day 230 CJSM

 
Welcome!
 
 
books: visit: Amazon books; search: Carl Schuler
 
CJSM (Cookie Jar Sweet Memories) is 365-days
of episodes from our lives written on individual
slips of paper and housed in a cookie jar presented
to Lady Candice and me on 11-25-2016 for the
celebration of our Golden Anniversary. I took the
"gift" and wrote the story each "sparker" depicted;
that 4-volume tome will be published as a series
of 4-book volumes as they appear on this blog.
 
Enjoy!
 
 
 
Plus:
 
 
 
Day 230
 
 
Breakfast for the Deer hunters at the “old” house
 
 
The 214-acre “farm” we purchased at Maeystown and which we called “home” for 11 years had the old, original farmstead at the top of the bluffs consisting of a somewhat “dilapidated” house which had originally been a log cabin and had been added to over a century and a half. The structure was just delightful. Several out buildings also dotted the surrounding area including a barn, loafing shed (I’m good at the “loafing” part), a chicken house, two car “garage” and another “catch-all building.
As soon as we closed on that deal we moved into the old house and set up housekeeping; quite the real “adventure” of a lifetime. “Fun”-times at every surprising turn! Wouldn’t miss it.
I started excavation  on our new home,  immediately. The farmstead was a mile off the county road; our new domicile was only a half mile from “civilization. In a short six-week window, I completed that construction process working day and night with different “crews”; we moved in September; the following year, I installed a swimming pool. I designed the fireplace on an outside wall so that the bottom level could be used as a bar-b-que for pool activities.
The property had been farmed by Lady Candy’s uncle and since we deer hunted together, that is how I originally came to “find” the property. Freddie’s farm lay contiguous to the property.
I “gave” the old house to the girls for a “playhouse”; pretty neat! Anyway, I thought so.
We made our garden on the hill at the farmstead, kept all the animals there so our “yard” would be free for ball, shooting, golf, equestrian jumping for which I built jumps and painted them, appropriately. All the “mess” thereby was confined to the old house, a half mile away.
Back then, I was “all-in” where hunting was concerned. Truth be told, I bought that property for deer hunting. Whitetail were thick in the region and with Freddie’s farm, another neighbor hunter and our place we had well over six hundred-acres of a prime deer habitat preserve.
Deer season came in late November over a three day weekend with a second opportunity in early December. I volunteered to have “Deer-hunter’s Breakfast” for the whole gang at the old farm house during deer season. A “real” deer camp, of sorts, right, literally, in my back yard!
I’d rise at 3 a.m., load the truck with hunting gear and breakfast supplies and head out in the cold dark for the old farm house/ playhouse. Eggs, bacon, ham, sausage, fried potatoes with onions, biscuits, strawberry preserves, butter, orange juice and coffee for those who indulged. Yeah! Another “surprise”: I can cook some, too!? Nobody left that spread with an empty spot in their stomachs; wonder how they managed to climb into the deer stands?
And, we sure enough harvested some fine venison over the ensuing years. Yes! Sir!
Problem for me was: Those whitetail used to be just deer; now, they were my deer!
Realization of such stark reality signaled the beginning of the end of “Davy Crockett’s” foray.
A dozen years later, we moved to Oregon; Beth attended Law School; I resigned hunting!
Yet, even with that, I maintained my “love” and respect-appreciation of dear Mother Nature.
During that episode of my life, I planted a majority of the 10,000+ trees I have set out!
We sure enough had us some fine hunts and exciting adventures on those “special”-hunt days.
 
Ah! Cookie Jar Sweet “early morning Gourmet-breakfast” Memories!


No comments:

Post a Comment