Bolt Hole Report, September 10, 2009

It's quiet and peaceful here at the Bolt Hole. Being located at the end of the paved portion of a dead end street has something to do with it as does having the power line end here. Only four buildings are located further along the road before you come to the gate the state put up to block motorized traffic--or any wheeled traffic for that matter--including mountain bikes--or so I'm told. Those are primarily hunting camps, however, and except when they come up to do some maintenance no one goes passed the Bolt Hole. If you walk the old jeep trail (still used by snowmobiles during the winter) it takes five miles or so to come to the next paved road which is in the next town and county.

We used to have one old timer who would drive up every evening just to see if they could spot any critters (or, maybe, just to get out of the house), but he passed away a year ago. And the school bus used to come up this far and turn around in Mark's driveway. since there are no kids on this end of the road, they've begun turn around further down. Now, if it's not a holiday weekend or the hunting season, there's very few cars that come up here.

Last week was a holiday weekend and Mark says the road was busy as all get out with folks out exploring and getting lost. Every half hour or so someone would stop and ask him directions as he was working on the porch foundation. He says it was a real PITA.

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I went to sleep last night to the sound of owls hooting in the woods. We've got both barred owls ("Who, who, who cooks for you all?") and the little screech owl. The latter is damn curious and if you're out at twilight walking the trails one might just seek you out or even buzz you, as one did to me two hunting seasons ago. Or one of the little screechers might perch in a tree across the yard and scare the living daylights out of you with its unearthly call, which also happened to me one night as I was butchering a deer I had killed earlier in the day.

In any event, it's good to hear them from the comfort of your bed and know that any small rodent may not make it 'til the next morning.

I may have had comforting thoughts upon going to sleep, but was awakened much too early (3:30 AM) by the sounds of distant coyote chatter and closer deer snorting. It sounded like the coyotes were well in the woods but the deer was right behind the house. This is the time of year when the young coyote are getting hunting lessons. Their parents have already done their damage to the young deer (very few fawns around this year) but even they will stay clear of a full sized doe or buck. Which ever the deer was, it let them know that it was not pleased with their proximity by snorting frequently.

I tried to go back to sleep but thoughts of the chores that lay ahead kept running through my head so I gave it up. I had just enough time to have breakfast and brew a pot of coffee before the red squirrels started complaining. I guess they prefer decaf. Good thing too since they seem wired most of the time.

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I spent much of the day breaking up the concrete from the demolition of the old porch "foundation" to use as fill behind the new foundation wall that Mark had built. When he finally returned in the late afternoon, I had filled the gap behind the wall. We then mixed up another bag of mortar to finish the leveling of the top of the wall and point up some of the larger gaps between stones. We also went over how we are to rebuild the porch, making sure we had all the materials we needed. It looks like we are good to go tomorrow. We might get it all done except for construction of a waist high wall to keep the snow and rain off the surface. That's something I need to get a few more things for but which I can definitely handle on my own over the weekend.

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Oh, and it was another beautiful day! Overnight low around 50 and daytime high around 72. Can't ask for better than that. It' ll be cooler tomorrow with the high in the low 60s. Some rain is possible late in the day but it may stay south of the NYS Thruway. We actually need rain. It hasn't rained here or at the Aerie in over two weeks. If it weren't for the heavy dew in the morning, the plants would be shriveling up. And Mark's shallow dug well has run dry...again.


PS Almost forgot...No skunk sightings.