Welcome!
contact: trinitytrace@gmail.com
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!
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