Getting dirty isn't my thing

Well it truly is time to work and it’s been a busy several days between Tuesday, Sept. 29, and Sunday, Oct. 4.  The one reprieve I got was on Thursday, Oct. 1 when we rode to Marquette and I got the bike serviced.  It was a cold ride as it was a bit drizzly here and there, and we had cloud cover all day, so it added to the dreariness and dampness.  But we were riding.  So I can’t complain too much.

Along the way when we were gassing up, for some reason I looked at Biker Bill’s license plate.  His tag was expired.  What?  Both of us?  Except his had expired in 2013.  Haha.  I covered for him.  But the funny thing was that his 2013 and mine that’s good until 2017 are both green, so they looked the same.  Unless we got stopped, of course.

We were able to get safely back to the lake house and get the bikes back into the garage.  He later found the tag for the bike.  That was pretty funny.  He’s ridden way more miles on expired than I have.  But we’re both legal again.  Yay!!!

The other days were spent running working and errands:

-  Getting the television hooked up

-  Putting up posts, no trespassing signs and cord on our property

-  Measuring the size of some deer stands for the new one Biker Bill’s building

-  Setting out trail cams, changing memory cards and looking at photos

-  Separating out apples we’d appropriated on our trip, big ones and bite-sized

-  Buying corn, sugar beets, cabbages and pumpkins

We put all the apples into crates for easy access.

The food is for the deer who might eat better than some people.  But then the works begins as after you get the stuff, most of it has to be cut up and then bagged for easier storage, except the corn that has to be taken from 100-pound bags and poured into metal containers.  Big knives and hatchets were involved but no injuries occurred.  

The farm where we got the pumpkins had hundreds of them, in the barn, in front of the barn, in front of the house, in the yard.  It was very cool.  I also learned that they hand pick the pumpkins and they pick them green.  They ripen after being picked.  I love all the different colors.

The cabbage folks have a machine that goes through and cuts the head from the ground so all you have to do is put the pitchfork under it and pick it up.  The whole thing was too much for me.  I just ended up picking them up and tossing them onto the trailer.  That worked out way better.

Biker Bill does it the correct way. 

The fields of cabbages just went on and on.  In a way, they are quite beautiful.

The cabbage involves more work as we took off the outer leaves, cut off the cores to make it easier to cut into large pieces before putting it out, and bagged it all in separate bags. 

The trailer was full, and I didn't think we'd ever get finished.

Then you put what you’re feeding for the day in buckets, load it onto the four-wheeler (or I held onto the buckets) and haul it out to the areas to put it down for the deer.  We did this in multiple areas, and when we’d go back to put out more the next day, I couldn’t find a single kernel of corn.  What piggies these deer are.  Of course, they aren’t the only ones eating … squirrels, birds, raccoons.  You name it.  They all eat.
 

One evening we’d put the food out and hung out at the deer camp, but the deer didn’t show up.  However, when we were driving back into town we must have seen a couple dozen of them.  They were in a huge pasture area and just watched us go by, mostly.  They hadn’t gotten the word that the buffet was open.

The deer are pretty skittish, though, if they're close to the road.

We’ve also seen two families of turkeys most days when we’ve gone to the cabin.  They’re pretty funny, walking along, following their moms.  They don’t linger when you come by, though, so it’s not easy to get a photo.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Both families were together for this photo.  It made me hungry for a turkey dinner.

And in my spare time I made some turkey chili for him and put it in the freezer, what was left, that is.

We hauled the stakes out, pounded them in the ground and then hung the no trespassing signs and strung the cord across.

But I did get to drive the four-wheeler, so I was rewarded for my work.

I’ve also kept watch on the lake, looking for birds, but none appeared for days.  The guy next door has been out duck hunting most mornings, so I think the others have been spooked.  Oh well. 

The sunrises have been brilliant.

If you just wait a while, you get a different look.

There have been a couple of awesome sunrises, so I practiced using my tripod on those.  One morning I was outside and there was a light frost on the bench on the deck.  Ugh.  I didn’t like seeing that as it seems to indicate how my ride out of here will be in a few days.  And then a few days before I left, there was a bald eagle circling and scoping out the area.

Different day.

But taken from the front of the lake house.

A favorite because of the light above the clouds.

There was also time to go to dinner with friends Bill and Teresa, who took us to this great rib and prime rib place.  The wind was howling on the lake when we got home that evening and the waves were ocean-worthy, and something to see.

We went to the store one day and there were all these pumpkins for sale.  Look at all the different colors.

Somehow this just doesn't seem right.  Pumpkins should be orange.

And then ... there was this ... also a pumpkin, or so I was told.

My final night at the lake house was Sunday.  My days of being worked like a dog were finished for this trip.  We looked at the route that we’d take the next day, Monday, Oct. 5, as we were going south and west into Wisconsin, hunting the white deer.  It would be a worthy hunt.