Various things

Life around here is sure not boring. Tyler, since he's now 12, can legally hunt with a gun with adult supervision. They have a weekend set aside in September for a special youth hunt. There's less pressure on the deer and I suppose pretty good odds that these new hunters will "bag a buck" and thus become addicted to hunting as much of the men in this area are. And so that weekend just passed- Tyler and Paul went hunting all weekend in hopes to that endeavor. And Saturday night, he bagged a small button buck. They were sitting on a ridge looking down at what they thought was a good sized doe. With the license that Tyler bought, he could get a doe and a buck that weekend. Well, much to their surprise, as when you are looking down at something, it appears larger than it actually is. It ended up being a small "he-doe" as my husband would call it cause it didn't actually have any antlers, but was a male. So because it was antlerless, the rules state that any subsequent bucks would have to be 5 point or larger and this x'd out his chance at a doe. They hunted Sunday as well, but didn't get anything else. So we have this little buckaroo- Tyler wanted to make into summer sausage or "ring bologna". Well you need 17.5 pounds of venison meat- and dressed out- that just nearly exactly what we have. So no tenderloin steaks this time, just summer sausage. Let me tell you , this was a big decision at my house! Tyler had told me ahead of time that when he gets his buck, he wanted me to make tenderloins along side twice baked potatoes, crab stuffed mushrooms, and Kentucky derby pie. A real celebration! So anyway, that was our big excitement.
Then Sunday morning, I found out that the owner of the dealership where Paul works died. He was at his home in Florida and had a massive heart attack in his sleep. This guy owns nearly all of Escanaba- banks, trailer courts, nearly every dealership in the U.P. , a real estate company, etc. So this is big news. He has three sons who have been running the dealerships for years, but not so much the other areas the way I understand it. We had just last week, gotten an invitation to one of their son's weddings in November. This turn of events has been a shock to say the least.
And so as it often is, you get intense pressure from usually more than one area in life. Paul's hours have been really low for months. What his future holds there is always a question we have lately. Being on flat rate- the company doesn't loose as much as the employee when times are slow. No work, no pay- it's plain and simple. It's exactly like being self employed. So this Wall Street fiasco- yeah- I wonder what we face next. They say the great depression won't even compare to what comes next. We shall see- maybe it's all a scare tactic. I'm feeling it here. I am reminiscing about old timers saying how those days were. No shoes, no boots in the winter, walking everywhere uphill in three feet of snow. I'll tell you what, I can see it coming. I can see making a ton of pasties, homemade bread, and eating venison that we shot because we can't afford groceries. I'm just thankful I know how to do all that. The recession/depression has been at our house for a while- and so whatever come what may- we will survive. God has promised that and in that is my trust and faith.