Our Turkey Day

We woke up on Thanksgiving Day to all white frosted trees in our backyard. It's really starting to look like Christmas!

Then we had a festive Thanksgiving Day breakfast: Joe's famous breakfast + pancakes.

Since we weren't cooking turkey or anything, we went out to feed the deer and check out Joe's deer cam. We both loved the fresh snow on tree branches in the woods. On our way home Joe picked up his all nicely processed venison meat and 4-point antlers.

We'll be celebrating the Turkey Day with Joe's family this evening before I have to go to work for a few hours. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

And Finally... Snow

This past weekend it finally snowed... enough for Joe to use his snow blower for the first time this season. Joe was glad that he already got his deer and wasn't sitting out in his blind on such windy snowy cold days. The gust of wind we could hear from inside our house was impressive.
Joe's deer is being processed at a butcher shop. Meantime, I started to try using what's in our freezer to make room for the venison that's coming. We had sushi rolls with cooked fish and stir fried veggies and venison, which was saved in the back corner of our freezer. It turned out to be a celebratory meal after all.

We are wishing you a happy Thanksgiving!

Joe Got a Deer!

Yesterday was the opening day of deer season. Usually not much happens on Day 1, but Joe saw a couple of bucks in the morning, then just before lunch heard two bigger bucks fight clunking their antlers in the nearby woods. Exciting. After lunch he shot this respectable 4-pointer. Though he only had 1 deer tag this year, with only limited days to hunt, he decided not to wait for the more illusive trophy buck.
His deer cam happened to capture his deer the day before.

The first day of deer season became Joe's last for this year, but he had an interesting deer encounter when we were in Nara, where the Great Buddha stands. The city is famous for their wild deer population... well, the tourism helped these wild creatures tamed and bold. Joe was carrying a paper shopping bag when a couple of deer attacked and ate parts of the bag. 

The interesting thing Joe noticed about his deer that he shot was that its antlers stood strait up just like those of the Nara deer. Usually the deer around here have more curved and spread antlar shapes.

Temperatures are still staying well above the freezing point, so Joe has to get his deer processed right away.

November!?

We are having a very warm November so far. Last Sunday we went out to the lakeshore without any jackets. The lake was calm and blue. Enjoyed skipping rocks!

Joe is getting ready for deer season. Hard to believe, but the opening day is next Tuesday already. The below picture, taken by Joe's deer cam, shows the current balmy warm woods as well as me taking pictures of trees.

When we came home from outdoor on Sunday, we ran out of excuses for not raking our yard on such a beautiful day. So we both contributed some time and muscles to raking as good as we could. The reward was an unexpected daikon radish that grew voluntarily all by itself in our untouched garden space.

We were making gyoza dumplings that night, so the radish was a perfect addition to our miso soup.