Aerie Report, December 2, 2009

There's not much to report on at the Aerie.

I've been watching them make progress on the three windmills across the way. They got one of them up and running early this afternoon. Wouldn't know it was spinning if you weren't watching it. Totally silent as far as I can tell. A second was turned to face the wind but it hadn't yet been let loose to do it's thing yet. Both have blinking red light to ward of any planes stupid enough to be flying that low. Still, the blades reach some 75 feet above the lights. I imagine all three will be churning out the watts by tomorrow night. Most of those alone the ridge east of here and into Bradford County are already online.

I spent part of the day composing our annual Christmas letter while Terry has been addressing the cards. They'll get into the mail in the next day or so. We've already received one card from an old girlfriend of Terry's.

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An hour with the Kitchen Aid yesterday turned out ten pounds of ground venison for the freezer. It's remarkable lean meat since the deer, unlike the cow, stores its fat beneath the skin and isn't marbled like beef. Tastes great in spaghetti sauce or in tacos but it makes a poor hamburger without more fat.

Add the ten pounds of stew meat chunks, all the steaks, fillets and roasts and we could live high on the buck for quite a while.

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Terry has a follow-up mammogram tomorrow over at the hospital in Sayre. They'll take a second look at a small lump they found and investigated six months ago and determine a course of treatment if any is necessary.

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It's been around 40 degrees all day with a leaden sky for much of the time. Rain finally started falling around 4:30 PM and will last much of the night. The guy on the boob tube says it will be heaviest around 4 AM but will end before 7 AM. Then the temperatures will drop...again...into the 30s for the rest of the week.

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I'll be headed back into the workshop tomorrow to work on another wooden quilt square. I hope I cut the strips to the right width this time since I don't have any spare wood to use if I goofed. When the square is done, I might turn to the scroll saw to do some patterns I've got for ornaments/hangers. That is, if I don't grab the rifle to hit the woods in hopes of filling my doe tag.

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Speaking of hunting. Things have really quieted down from opening Monday. Hardly any shots were heard today. I guess that's to be expected since the kids are back in school and the dads are probably going back to work for a few days. I know the number of guys at the camp down the hill has decreased and the deer (or was it two?) they had on their meat pole has (have?) disappeared. I expect Saturday will be another big day as will a week from Saturday which is the final day of the season.

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Well, that's about all I got on the home front for now.