"Winter's Closing In"

Black ice has arrived. The morning radio show announced that part of the interstate north of here was closed because of the road conditions – rain on top of blacktop when overnight temps had been in the 20s and the 7am temps were around freezing is a fool-proof recipe for black ice.                                         
This is the first day of rifle season (deer hunting), which goes on for about 3 weeks. Despite these pictures, the leaves are of course off the trees. “Stick season” doesn’t really give good woodland pictures. 

The local radio station calls this first weekend the Vermont High Holy Days. The woods are full of hunters. Given the rural nature of northern New England (VT, NH, Maine) hunting is cultural, and many hunters are indeed putting meat on the table or in the freezer. Some hunters who love hunting for its own sake will donate a deer to the Vermont Food Bank, which is certainly worthwhile. Generally, deer aren’t being hunted for obscure medicinal purposes, or just to put trophies on the wall in the den.

Yes, there are hunters who cheat: they hunt out of season, they use decoys, they hunt on the road using strong lights (a deer will freeze in headlights, hence the well-known expression). Those folks get whatever punishment can be meted out. There are hunters who shoot because they “were sure it was a deer”. This behavior leads to horses, cows, goats, dogs and even people being killed. Last year a man was hunting with his 20-something son, a years-long family tradition. They separated, and the father lost track of where his son was. He fired, and killed his boy. A well-publicized case over the last two years featured a young man who wanted to see how far a bullet would carry and fired at a tractor that was very far away. “Way over yonder” was not an understatement. Well, the bullet carried, entered the cab, and killed the tractor driver, a farmer with a family to support.

Target identification is enshrined in Vermont state law and hunters who do not “properly identify their target” can be prosecuted. This second man drew a meaningful sentence. The hunters I know are careful and responsible. They practice gun safety and don’t fool around. They will pass up a shot before they put anyone or themselves in danger.

I finally realized that I was not going to be able to buy a new car before I needed snow tires, so I bought new snows yesterday. Sigh. Three years ago I bought high-end snow tires for $400+ dollars. Yesterday, for the same money, I could only buy the high end of middle-grade tires. We’ll see how they work out. It looks like I got them on just in time.

(The title of this post comes from Joni Mitchell’s Urge for Going)