Kayo Shot Her First Deer

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.
To follow Joe's Thanksgiving tradition, I went along to sit in his deer blind this morning, mostly expecting to see no deer. Just then, past 8 a.m., a little doe came into our sight. I basically froze, trying so hard not to move, or breathe. Finally after a while I figured she was here to stay and eat some more (though I didn't expect her to stay for almost an hour!). Then I reached for our camera to take a shot at the doe. Right, not with a rifle, with a camera. Certainly my very first deer to shoot from the blind.
The funniest thing was that so many times the doe looked right into our direction like she was the one watching us. A strange feeling in the wilderness. One thing is sure: Joe is a better shooter than me... he took the clearer photo below.
That was my half day hunting story... whereas Joe's heavily emphasizes on the truck not running right since last night and his brother Mark locking in the ignition key and Joe breaking his chair. The good news for me is that Joe is sleeping in tomorrow to make me breakfast and to drive me in to work for my Black Friday shift 1:30 -10 p.m.
Happy Turkey Day and good night....

Deer Hunting

It's in the middle of deer season up here. Joe has hunted three days and seen a couple of does and a young buck whose antlers indicates he is not legal size. Still Joe is happy that he's seen more deer this year so far than he had seen in the last two whole seasons.
Yesterday on my day off I got myself up early to go out with Joe to sit in his deer blind. It was a very, very quiet day in the woods. Even critters and birds were not as active as usual. And no deer. Joe got some reading done; I took 2 huge naps, one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
It started raining in the afternoon and turned to sleet then snow. Maybe 3-4 inches.
This morning Joe slept in, cooked me his famous breakfast, ran his snowblower in our driveway, and is now getting ready to go out hunting in the afternoon. I'm not that crazy. I'll catch up with some cooking and cleaning at home today.

For the Opened Bottle of Sake

Tonight I made salmon & avocado rolls for dinner with that opened bottle of cloudy "nigori" sake from the other day. My sushi rice turned out very good, so I was quite happy. I went out and about with Joe this afternoon taking care of the last small business matters before the deer season opening day Tuesday, and didn't have anything else planned for menu.... I had a head of napa cabbage. On the side I made kimchi slaw and kimchi flavored fried pork belly. Don't ask. It sort of just happened.
P.S. We did not finish the bottle, really, though it would've been very easy if we tried.

Toasting to the Snow

It's Friday and my day off finally! I did some laundry and cleaning, but mostly enjoyed planning and cooking dinner. I remembered about this rare bottle of "nigori" sake that Joe had picked up for my birthday. Though tonight's menu wasn't really Japanese, we opened it anyway, thinking its cloudy white color is quite appropriate for the first snow we just had this week. The sake was simply... exquisite. Smooth, gently sweet, easy, too easy to drink.
Menu: shrimp wantan soup, beef & mushroom stir fry in oyster sauce, jasmine rice
I was just happy to have freshly cooked white rice, though I will have to cook something Japanese to accompany the rest of the "nigori" sake this weekend.

First Snow

It all started... midday yesterday and did not stop snowing hard till early today. Heavy, heavy, wet snow. By the time Joe came home in dark after going out in the woods to feed the deer blinds, almost a foot of snow had accumulated in our driveway. He ran his snowblower then.
I was at work till 7pm and was very glad that Joe called to warn me about the terrible slushy highway and side streets. I came home driving around 25 mph all the way, the last few miles in total dark. Our city had lost power right after I talked to Joe. No electric pot, no electric stove, no microwave. We had cold pork roast and peanut butter and graham crackers for candle-lit dinner.
The power came back on after 4 hours, thank goodness. Hot tea, warm bowls of oatmeal, hot shower, furnace this morning! Oh, and internet connection and phone. Thank you, electricity!
Our plow crew went by again this morning, so Joe blew snow again, while I cleared our front steps. It's the kind of heavy snow that sticks to everything!! It's like that yucky, thick, sugary frosting all over. I really hope this is only for this first snow. I much prefer the fluffy, dusty, feathery snow.
So begins our winter officially up this north. Joe's already gone to work as normal. Today is my last day of 9 consecutive work days before the 3-day weekend off!! I think I'm going to put my snowflake necklace on.