What a winter! It's been a wild ride here in Ontario ever since the second week of deer season last November! It started with snow. And then more snow, then bitter cold that froze your blood from pumping freely through your veins, to a slow thick syrupy glug, glug, glug. Or maybe that was collesteral! No, I think it was the constant -36's we seemed to have day in and day out! And did I mention more snow?! It was definitely a bumper year for it! I remember making a wish in front of co-worker's for 4 ft of the white stuff! I do this every year just to harass them! This year I should have wished for winning the lottery because we received at least 4 ft if not more!
We actually broke down this year and bought snowmobile trail passes. We have had really bad winters the last 2 years so we decided not to buy passes. What was the sense? Well this year I'm glad we did! For once you could go out onto a lake with NO FEAR of going through! It was that good! The snowmobile club did an amazing job of grooming trails this year. Our last ride was in April this year and what a great day of riding! Warm beautiful sunshine! Tons of snow on the trails! Warm enough to ride in jeans! And not a lot of idiots on the trails! Lots of moose poop though!
Deer! Deer had a hard winter. Up past their bellies in the white stuff! Wolves also were feeling the impact of this winter. The snow was deep and hard on the deer, but the deer could get through it. The wolves had no base to walk on, and so dog attacks by wolves were heard through out the county. Thankfully the owners were able to fend off the wolf doing the attacking! My Mom resorted to feeding the deer this winter. Not really by choice but because they were helping themselves to her bird feeder. Her yard was always full of deer, squirrels and birds! Just like a scene out of a Disney Movie!
My husband brought home a big 4 litre jug of maple syrup last night. After a supper of pancakes sausage and bacon, topped with fresh maple syrup, Don put some in a jar and Hailey and I struck out to Mom's house to give her a taste of spring tonic! Her and Dad always drank fresh maple syrup out of a glass! Yummmm! So Hailey and I and my two boxer dogs climbed into my PT cruiser and struck out to Grandma's house. Now usually this time of night I'm sitting on my fat ass watching tv, but no, I wanted to get mom her maple syrup! We saw a deer chewing on a tree along the highway in someone's yard. Nothing new. Further along came upon a deer at a birdfeed way up a driveway, but a small deer was closer to the ditch and it seemed intent on being scared of my car and was threatening to jump out in front of it! I was intent on trying to get by it without hitting it! I was thinking Whew! Coast is clear when there was a God awful smash on my left side! I let out a scream and many curse words as I tried to keep my car in control but to also see what had just hit the car!!! While I was watching the 2 deer on the right side of the road, a deer had come out of the ditch on the left side of the road and ran into my car! Literally!!! It hit my mirror which is now non existent and I have what I presume to be deer slobber all over my drivers side window! I looked in my rear view mirror because I don't have a side mirror now, and I see a stunned deer standing on the highway giving her head a shake and then she finished crossing the highway! Poor thing! But at least she's not dead! Bet she has a really bad headache though!
My nerves are now shot! The dogs, who had been sleeping are all alert and wondering what's going on, Hailey is like "Most people slow down when they see a deer!" Which I was positive and am sure I did! We carry on to Grandma's house with her now very expensive syrup! We pull into her driveway and we see a deer. I tell Hailey to grab the dogs while we go into the house but she grabs Heidi first and Maddie is away! On the scent of a deer around the back of the house she goes! Full tilt! Now I don't know if you know how fast my Maddie girl can go! I will tell you I'm sure she can outrun any grey hound dog going!!! That's how fast! So by the time I got around back of Mom's house I see a deer on the run at the FAR end of the field, and a little brown deer running like a streak not far off the big deer's butt!!! That little deer was Maddie! Now I know how when she runs after a snowmobile, you have no hope in hell of getting her to stop! So I thought she'd run that poor deer into the ground! I was hollering so loud the tree's were shaking! And finally she stopped! Looked longingly after the deer and turned around and came back to the house! I couldn't believe it!!! We are now knocking on Mom's door with her now very pain in the ass maple syrup and it seems no one is home! I am now getting pissed at myself for not staying home, so Hailey pulls out her cell phone and calls Mom. "Hi" she says. "We're standing at your back door!" (Guess she had her hearing aides out) After a brief visit and delivering her mega bucks maple syrup and telling her our tale, we head cautiously for home! We didn't see any deer! Thankfully we didn't see a dead one laying in the ditch where I hit her. But we did see a dead mirror! We made it home with no more casualties and I quickly took an advil and a migraine pill and went to bed. Frigging maple syrup!
