Guy's blog about life with pets in northern mich.

Without even realizing it, I must really need a break from the day to day routine here in our household. My brother, who lives in New Mexico, offered to fly me out there for a nine-day visit, over the Christmas Holidays, and I snapped him up on his offer. For over 15 years I’ve been living with Marilyn, and for 6-8 years been practically a defacto parent to her grandkids. I haven’t laid eyes or feet, on a mountain since 1970, seen an elk, mule deer, antelope, sagebrush, armadillo, javelina or... Sign in to see full entry.

Yesterday, Baby and I had just arrived at the tree blind and as I was getting into my safety harness and sorting through all the things that needed to go up in the tree with me, we heard a distinct THUD! I looked for the source of the sound and saw a woozy squirrel get shakily to his feet and scramble back up the tree. If I had fallen out of the tree, Going right back up again, wouldn’t have even entered my warped mind! The squirrel thinks that height above ground level equals safety, even after... Sign in to see full entry.

First, I’d like to thank the throngs of people that have written to me, complimenting me on the magnanimity of my gesture to assure Mr. Gore’s becoming a Nobel laureate. Unfortunately, I can’t do that. I can thank them BOTH though and I do so here and now. In our area, we had a real drought this year, which really affected production of most all crops. Deer take a heavy toll on crops, some more than others. For farmers, this must be a disappointing harvest season. As my old buddy Willy said,... Sign in to see full entry.

Last night, Ivy woke us up after having a bad dream. D.J. also has them sometimes and it got me thinking about how long it has been since I had one. I don’t even remember the last time it happened to me, even though adults understand just how scary the world and the future really is. We grown-ups don’t fear zombies or made up monsters, we fear the real dangers of life in a world that hates, fears and envies us all at the same time. We also fear the unknown, unlike the children who are motivated... Sign in to see full entry.

Do you know what the shortest legally accepted will said and how long it was? This story takes a little background information and I’ll set up the circumstances as well as I can. A man was living alone in a remote cabin in a wilderness setting, back in the 1800’s. I think that he was a trapper or miner and while splitting firewood near his cabin his axe flipped back toward him or he fell on it and was badly wounded by the axe. He managed to make his way back inside his cabin and realized that... Sign in to see full entry.

Does it appear to you that candidate Fred Thompson is withering physically, as we’ve all observed in those unfortunates who are dying of cancer? Maybe he was advised to lose weight by some overpaid political advisor; the appearance can look much the same. I don’t naturally like politicians but I’ve enjoyed his ability as an actor. In this political silly season, my BS antennae are twitching, and I listen with suspicion to all the candidates and suspect many behind the scenes plots by fringe... Sign in to see full entry.

For some reason, beer drinkers are getting a bad wrap (rap? Rep?), and I’m sick and tired of it, and I’m NOT going to take it, ANYMORE! Beer has been slandered by those who call it a low-class social lubricant, as opposed to those LAH-DI-DAH limp-wristed mixed drinks Before brewing was perfected, humans were nomadic raiding opportunists. When mankind discovered that grain was needed to make beer, we eventually settled into peaceable, permanent farming communities, in order to be able to brew... Sign in to see full entry.

Today isn’t a work day for the Council on Aging, where I work. My boss closed down the whole operation in honor of my birthday, tomorrow. She explained that she couldn’t change the date of Columbus Day, to the 9 th, but she said that if the reason that she declared this obscure holiday to qualify for a closure, ever became public knowledge, many people would want their own birthday to be treated as though it is remotely as important as mine is. It’s a good thing I wasn’t born close to “Flower... Sign in to see full entry.

The tree blind/sanctuary is coming along nicely, if slowly. Today, I finished installing the hidden trap door entry, and now I have to construct the framing for the cubic rhombus (rhomboid?) that will become my refuge when living with irrational bipeds becomes unbearable. It is about the same size as a solitary confinement cell on top, but I keep an enormous number of deer in my HUGE basement. A long time ago, I built an architecturally flawed tree house for my intellectually and empathically... Sign in to see full entry.

News flash, folks! I’m imperfect, in that I’m addicted to nicotine. I know, but that doesn’t mean that I’m flawed in other ways, so stop crying! I may have led you to believe that I’m never wrong, but there was this one time, I thought I had made a mistake, but found out that I was jumping to an incorrect conclusion. I’m pretty sure that still counts. Sorry if I’ve let you down but the only time I’ve ever heard of someone supposedly being infallibly right and never wrong about ANYTHING, was this... Sign in to see full entry.