Today started of with bright sunshine and clear sky, but now there are clouds crowding in on us.  The temperature has been unusually warm - 50's and 60 when the sun shines.  Beautiful fall weather.  I suppose the deer hunters aren't too happy with this kind of weather - they seem to favor having some snow on the ground for tracking.  We haven't seen many hunters in our area, and that is probably because a lot of the land is posted against hunting.  Also, since our neighbor has cut off his wood lot, there isn't as much cover for deer, and they are nervous about open spaces.  I believe they can still hunt bears until Wednesday, and regular deer hunting season ends on the 25th.  Then there's muzzle loader and bow hunting from December 1st through 9th.   After that, the animals get a break and we can walk safely on our back roads and in the woods.  Not that there's a big danger during hunting season, but we should all remember to wear hunter orange so we won't be mistaken for game.  Remember, too, to equip your dogs with something orange that will distinguish them from game.  Otto and his brother, Boomer, who is visiting for a few weeks, both have their orange kerchiefs around their necks.  We saw them romping at Jamie and Marie's yesterday when we walked.

It's pretty quiet - hardly any traffic on our road.  I guess most folks have the day off from work.  Earlier in the morning we saw some hunters driving by, and they'll be heading out again in a few hours to watch the fields for deer as the sun is sinking.

Right now we're going out to enjoy a walk in the woods - orange hats and vests aplenty.

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5 p.m. - We're back.  We managed to walk the whole property line.  We like to do that from time to time and mark the boundary, otherwise it gets lost in the underbrush.  We started from W. Shore Rd. and went up the line now clearly marked between us and Don Encarnacion.  Don recently had his property surveyed, so it was easy to find the exact line.  This first picture was taken as we stood at the edge of his property and ours, about half way up the hill to our southern boundary line.

The southern border, which is between Andy and Wendy Leinoff's and us, is defined by remnants of an old barbed wire fence.  It's completely down now, but we can still find some of the wire imbedded in big old trees here and there.  Using trees saved having to drive a fence post into the ground laced with roots and rocks, so farmers often stapled the wire to a convenient tree and over the years the tree would fold over the wire and the staple as it grew.  

Property lines were shared, usually 50/50.  The barbed wire was attached to the post or tree on the side facing the property owner responsible for it.  Usually neighbors had no problem agreeing on which fence line was whose responsibility, but sometimes there was a dispute, and that's why there were fence viewers.  Many towns still name a fence viewer, but they aren't often called upon these days, I expect.

The middle picture is me on the upper side of our lot on the Leinoff border where the going was pretty easy.  There are other parts of it that have lots of trees that have blown down recently.  A couple of years ago the Leinoffs did some logging above us, and that opened us up to more wind.  I expect the same will happen now that Don has logged his lot off.  That's why we are going to have Don's logger take out the mature trees on our lot - and hopefully clean up some of those that have been blown down. 

I snapped Fred as we were ready to head home.  That's why he looks so happy, I think.  It was dark enough in the woods so I had to use the flash, and we were both tired and ready to quit.  Once home, I needed to sit for a bit before starting supper, so that's why I'm here at the computer.  It was really nice out in the woods today, though.  Not too cold, and the leaves were pretty much gone so we could see for some distance, but a strong wind came up as we were coming out of the woods, so I expect the weather is about to change.