Twilight

School started back today, and so my break was over.  It's always a little bit depressing, when I get back into my usual routine.  I get up and have to leave the house by 6:15. It's dark and everyone is asleep.  I used to eat breakfast, but it's just no fun sitting there by myself. I pray the Rosary on the way to work; that's good, but still I'm all alone.  I used to think that I was a loner.  I've discovered that it's not that I don't like crowds, it's just that I'm not a very good conversationalist.  On the rare occasion that I go to a party, I have more fun just being a fly on the wall than I do actively participating in the escapades around me.  I think, that  for me people around me is just a security blanket. If my wife ever kicks the bucket, I think I'd have a great time as a contemplative monk in a cenobitic community.  Lots of people around, whom I am forbidden to talk with - sounds like heaven on earth to me!

Anyways, school lets out at 4, and I have an hour drive to get home.  Right now that means I have about 30-45 minutes of actual daylight left to get things done outside.  In the past, I've tried to use that time to sneak off to some corner of the house and grab a nap, but no more.  I figure that if I'm actually going to earn a living at this stuff, I've got to be productive.  Most of the farmers and ranchers that I know actually do continue working after the sun goes down, when there is an important task to get done, but I'm not to that point just yet...maybe I should be though.

This evening, I decided to do something I should have done a few months ago.  I've got a redneck hunting blind.  It's a 25 year old double wide mobile home that also doubles as my place of residence.  Exactly 100 yards from the front porch is a deer feeder with a clear line of sight.  Before the season started, I filled this feeder with 200 lbs. of all-stock sweet feed.  If you know what "cubes" are for cattle (aka. cake) think of that, just much smaller.  I thought this would be a great solution, because I know that the deer like it and it was $2 cheaper than corn per sack.  Well, lo and behold, the stuff just doesn't do very well in my whirling feeder.  In fact, it doesn't do anything at all, except just sit there.  So no feed on the ground meant no deer from my front porch.  I had to go out hunting.  Luckily, 4 deer have offered their lives for my family's sustenance, but I still have 1 tag left to fill, as well as a couple of friends with licenses that haven't been so fortunate.

So when I got home, I found a little kid wandering around the pasture and we got to work emptying out the old stuff, spreading some of it, and putting fresh corn in the feeder.  We even had enough of the sweet feed left over to fill the two empty feed sacks left.  Now I just have to finish that dadgum fence.  Two weeks left in antlerless and spike season, gotta get a move on.