It appears our mild weather has played out and we're probably in for some more seasonal temperatures. Yesterday was abnormally warm and last night was in the 50's, as warm as some of our summer nights this year. Our cat, Woody, was delighted with the warm evening and so, apparently, was his cousin Rico from up the road at Jamie and Marie's. They met in front of our garage, loudly proclaiming dominance until we went out and shut things down. Rico sprinted into the woods towards home, and Woody, charged with courage because we were on the scene, took after him. Apparently they didn't tangle - at least we didn't hear anything, and when Woody came in an hour or so later he was unscathed, much to our relief. We think Rico usually wins their fracases, although Rico may have some battle scars dealt by Woody. We just don't know. Rico tangles with Tillie, Jamie and Marie's older cat, too, and she may give him a whack or two sometimes, but mainly she wisely avoids him.

Along with the mild weather, we've had quite a bit of fog. We went to St. J. early Thursday a.m. and Fred took a picture as we went through Danville and down Dole Hill. Not much traffic on the roads. I think the traffic picked up a bit on Friday, though - probably hunters getting to deer camp to be ready for the first day of hunting season. We generally hear gun shots and see a lot of hunters going by, but I haven't noticed that many this year so far. We can always tell the hunters - they're usually driving pickup trucks with the windows down, moving very slowly down the road. There's usually two guys and the hunters' orange hats and vests are easy to spot. They're friendly sorts and wave as they pass us when we're walking. We always remember to have some bright red or orange on, too. We don't want to be mistaken for deer.

As we started off today, Jamie and Marie were just going by with Otto. You can see that Otto has his bandana on. He also was wearing his hiking packs. Jamie and Marie are getting him used to carrying his own packs. He is always happy to see us, especially Fred. They've been buddies since Otto was a pup, and whenever Fred is working outside, Otto will slip away and come down to see him.

We've been watching the new building at the Randy Rouleau cottage. This small structure is where the old camp, the one originally from Sim Whittier's island, was torn down to make room for the very nice new cottage closer to the road. It looks like a garage, but there's a two-car garage as part of the new cottage, so we think this will be for boat storage. It is not a boathouse, though. It is built on a cement slab. Further down West Shore Road, the Geer family is putting an addition on their cottage. This was the George Karnady cottage for many years. (See picture right.)

Fred and I thought about George today as we came down through the woods from the pond the Phil Rogers made a few years ago (see picture below). It is a pretty spot up there, but the road coming down from the southern end of it had several trees down across it, so we hiked down the steep hillside where George used to enjoy deer hunting. Just as we headed down through, Fred saw a deer go out. He just got a glimpse of it, but we immediately thought of how many hours George had probably spent hunting right in that area. I don't know if George reads the blog, but if he does, he'll know we've been thinking of him and miss him and Pat.

Just after we'd passed the Keenan's log cabin, we heard a tree crashing down. The Keenans bought the Clayton Smith cottage that was surrounded by very tall pine trees. They tore down the old cottage and built a very large log cabin in the open spot that used to be Clayt and Barbara's lawn, so they removed only a few of the pines. The trees tower above the cabin and when we heard the crack of a tree falling, of course we were concerned that it might have fallen on the house. However, as near as we could tell, the tree that fell was actually from the Underwood's side of the brook that runs between the two properties. It had snapped off 10 feet or so above the ground and was lodged harmlessly in some of the other trees along the brook. The wind has been gusty all day, and we've had first rain and then show showers as the temperature dropped steadily throughout the day. Tonight, it's in the 30's and still headed down. It may be time to get out the down comforter . . .

I've just logged in to the new Comments Page. It seems to be easy enough - this is the first time I've tried it out. I've given my e-mail address and my password, and now I must wait for the e-mail to come with a link so I can post a message. --Well, that was quick! I just went to my mail and the link was there! I posted a short comment, but there will be a delay before it shows up on the page. As I understand it, now that I've logged in, I can post a comment whenever I wish. I'll try that out, too. I hope some discussions get going, or questions get answered. Try it out - I think you'll like it, too.