Photo by Al Remington

Or perhaps some of you who remember would like to be taken down memory lane with a bit of the Hollies singing Bus Stop.

And here are the lyrics for you die hards:

Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine

Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she’d shopped and she would show me what she bought
Other people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same

That’s the way the whole thing started
Silly but it’s true
Thinkin’ of a sweet romance
Beginning in a queue

Came the sun the ice was melting
No more sheltering now
Nice to think that that umbrella
Led me to a vow

Every morning I would see her waiting at the stop
Sometimes she’d shopped and she would show me what she bought
Other people stared as if we were both quite insane
Someday my name and hers are going to be the same

Bus stop, wet day, she’s there, I say
Please share my umbrella
Bus stop, bus goes, she stays, love grows
Under my umbrella

All that summer we enjoyed it
Wind and rain and shine
That umbrella, we employed it
By August, she was mine

Photo by Al Remington

Do you get the feeling like these two guys are checking you out?

Photo by Al Remington

One New Year’s Day, the sun does sometimes shine in Alaska, even if for only a short time. Here’s proof.

Photo by Al Remington

Photo by Al Remington

I’m certainly no expert on identify wild animals, especially wild goats and sheep. The two photos below are from Alaska. The photo of the animal facing away from the camera, might be a mountain goat? and the other photo that shows a curl beginning on the horns I am presuming is a dall sheep.

Photo by Al Remington – Click on image to enlarge.

Photo by Al Remington – Click on image to enlarge.

Photo by Al Remington

Photo by Al Remington

Photo by Tom Remington

Spending many hours moving about the Maine woods, certain unusual sights are before you if you take notice. These days hunting in the woods of Western Maine you aren’t too preoccupied with looking out for deer, because there just aren’t very many to see. It’s easier then to be distracted by other things.

Such was the case this day. I was on a relatively gentle sloping hardwood ridge with a southern exposure. Being a relatively cool day, often deer will find a spot to lay down and warm themselves in the glow of the late autumn sun. South-facing hardwood ridges is ideal.

As you can see in the photo, the young beech and scrub oak leaves were still clinging earnestly to their hosts making the site distance for hunting, poor at best.

As I stood on a long finger of land among the young beech trees, standing before me was this white birch tree. What caught my eye was the blackish growth, one on each side of the tree. My first and short impression was it might be a small black bear cub or two.

It wasn’t. Turns out it’s some growth that stands out on a white-barked tree. To help put size into perspective, the birch tree at the point where the growth begins, I would estimate was about 14 or 15 inches in diameter.

Photo by Tom Remington

Willie Nelson used to sing, “On the Road Again” and “Going places that I’ve never been”. In this case I think these two guys went places they ain’t never been but ended up someplace they shouldn’t have been. It was quite the fiasco and I’ll spare all of you the sordid details.

In short, these two guys ended up between a rock and hard place. On the power line, after a foot of snow had fallen a day or two before, these guys descended a pretty steep hill and couldn’t get back up over it after they discovered the large water hole at the bottom.

After giving it some thought, they decided if they just kept moving, they could get across. Didn’t happen. Two guys from hunting camp happened along, and with the aid of two-way radios and cellphones, the posse arrived to haul them out.

They were happy!

Milt Inman photo

Milt Inman photo

Hunting camps across America vary tremendously. Our hunting camp is set up so that each hunter brings and/or prepares an evening meal for each night of the week long adventure. We don’t go hungry. The other meals are prepared at camp with food that we chip in the expense for that becomes “camp” food. Many pies and other “homemade” desserts are brought. Again, we don’t go hungry.

Nearly 40 years ago, we kept perishable foods in coolers filled with ice. Lighting was with Coleman lanterns and later supplemented with gas lights. Today, a Honda generator supplies enough electricity to keep a refrigerator going and lights and electricity for the camp. One might wonder other than lights, what else would a hunting camp need electricity for? Well, this is 2011. Cellphones have to be charges, portable radios need to be charged, electricity is needed to run all of the laptop computers hunters bring and it powers the old radio we found on the dump so we can stay abreast of the news.

The first night at camp this year, the meal was meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and biscuits, followed with your choice of chocolate, apple or custard pie and home made spice cake. In the first photo below, the old wood-fired cook stove, not only cooks and warms our food, it has a water tank so we can have hot water, make coffee and hot water for tea, and keep us warm in camp as some nights can get pretty chilly.

Check out those hot biscuits and two pans of meatloaf in the oven.

Milt Inman Photo

The oven is big enough and hot enough, with some good “biscuit wood”, to bake up two large pans of meatloaf.

Milt Inman Photo

Once seated for the meal, it’s “boarding house reach” and every man for himself, however, we do stop long enough to pass the biscuits. Take note of the beverages of choice: Coffee, Dr. Pepper, Pepsi and Root Beer…..seriously!

Milt Inman Photo