Grouse Hollow Journal for December 15, 2016 by Greg Koelker

Grouse Hollow Journal for December 15, 2016 by Greg Koelker

I took a walk in a winter wonderland a week ago Sunday.  I was carrying my muzzle loader, but I wasn’t really thinking about filling a deer tag, just getting some fresh air.  Heavy snow flakes fell and piled up, bending over tree tops and covering my blaze orange hat and coat.  The beauty was only surpassed by the sound of silence.  I crossed the Mushroom Hole ditch and slipped and slid my way up through the prickly ash to a path that lead up the hill where I planned to take in a quiet hour or so.  The Mushroom Hole holds some good memories for me.  

One of my favorites was a cool spring Saturday morning back in the 80’s.  El and I had been cutting wood and when the truck was full of dead elm, we started looking for morels in the pasture.  Ben was a toddler and Mark an infant in a baby chair.  We found a few morels.  Little Ben came walking along in a furry blue winter coat, holding a morel he found on his finger.  Another time, when Mark was maybe 6, I took him  squirrel hunting down by the mushroom hole.  It started to rain so we took shelter under a cedar tree.  We leaned in tight against the trunk to try and keep dry.  We were quiet for a while, but then he started asking questions about squirrels and the rain and my .22 rifle.   We didn’t kill any bushy tails, but I treasure the memory of that sit under the cedar.  

This morning I leaned against a big cedar tree and watched the edges of my horizons for movement.  A few squirrels moved about, shopping for breakfast before the snow got too deep.  The heavy, wet snow never quit falling.  I took a few pictures with my phone.  The cedar trees were almost tipped over with wet snow weight.  I never saw a deer.

I stopped in my shop to keep my powder dry and tend to my wet rifle.  I dried it off with a towel and headed into the house.  As I have said before, sometimes the best part of going out in the snow and cold is the coming into the house to get into dry clothes and warm up by the fireplace with a hot drink.

On Friday, Ellen and I had a shopping date out by Valley View Mall.  Actually, we dropped our truck off for some work at The Neighborhood Wrench, a business owned by friends Ashley and Mike Stolsberg.  We started with breakfast at Nutbush - I had a chicken fried steak and eggs.  We went to Farm and Fleet next.  After that, it was Best Buy for a new printer and then Target for a special gift for a niece.  We spent an hour at Barnes and Noble and had lunch at Burger Fusion - good stuff.   I kept checking my phone, hoping the mechanic had called.  I might have been able to skip out on Dante’s 7th layer of Hell if he had.  He hadn’t, so I accompanied my much more adventurous better-half to Woodmans - ON - A - FRIDAY afternoon with a snow storm in the forecast, truly a level that Dante hadn’t considered.  Anyway, the truck was done and Ashley, a former student, left me a present on the seat, a copy of her book, Customizing Model Horses Painting and Etching by Ashley Konichek.  If one is looking for a gift for a horse lover/hobbyist type, this would be the “bomb.”  You can purchase this unique and  beautifully illustrated and written 252 page how to book on Ebay.  You can also find her other book, The Beauty of Horses at Amazon or Barnes and Noble or Books in a Million.  Thanks Ashley.

The snow storm on Saturday and Sunday covered us with a different kind of snow.  The soft covering smoothed out the rough and gently placed pillows on every spot that stood still long enough to accumulate some of the white stuff.  The icing makes for a real Christmas wonderland for some - not me necessarily.  Still, there’s hope.  I was at the hardware store the other day and they have snowblowers outside out front, but  all of their charcoal and gas grills were up front inside with a header or two of grilling tools and such set up right as you walked into the warmth of the store.  I couldn’t help but smile at the thought of some spring evening when I will watch our old Weber burn up a couple of cheeseburgers for a supper served in the screen porch.  The way time seems to have going, it won’t be long.  

I am not a snow fan, but I love Christmas.  I like what the author and retired radio host, Garrison Keillor once wrote, “Christmas is magical. It's brief, and its powers are limited, but it can make you happy, if that's what you want. It only works once a year, of course. In August, the songs sound dumb. You have to work up to it through the fall, starting right after Halloween. Thanksgiving, of course, is a sort of dress rehearsal, Christmas minus the gifts, and then December is like a fast chute that you sit down on and ssshhhhhhoop, ssshhhhhhoop, ssshhhhhhoop, suddenly it's December 24, there's your tree, the candles, the candy, the stockings, and the traditional Christmas cat.”  I guess Gypsy is our “traditional Christmas cat.”  But she talks to me all the time, well, she mumbles mostly, but it is pretty clear she wants a back rub and more Tasty Treats.

Anyway, channeling a memory of Dumb and Dumber, I tried to step onto the ice in Goose Island on Saturday morning.  It only took one step to realize I needed knee boots if I was getting on the ice.  I observed the half-a-dozen fellows who were jigging through the shallow covering of hardwater.  I saw only one small fish come up a hole in five minutes.  Earlier I observed a couple of guys tip toeing on the ice of Stoddard Bay.  I think it is time to get my ice fishing stuff untangled and set up, but I can wait a couple days to get on the hardwater.

Until next time, get out - kitchen aromas abound at our house: cookies baking, chocolate melting on the stove, turkey cooking in a soup kettle, and this morning it is the spicy, sweet scent of a breakfast pizza being delivered to the table by the guilty party.  Thanks Darlin’. Enjoy.