The morning greets us with four inches of fresh snow and temperatures in the teens. The blanket of snow helps echo the chirps of birds around the valley and the local rancher can be heard working hard distributing hay to the cattle and horses. Hugo was out early this morning learning how to amplify his senses from summer fun to winter wonder. The cabin offers an endless supply of stimuli lying beneath the blanket of snow and Hugo is on the hunt with territorial markings and protection desires in high alert.
The freezer downstairs is packed with last season’s kill and the “Hungry man” breakfast includes eggs with ground venison and mystery spicy sausage. For whatever reason, the cabin coffee maker makes the best coffee in the world, at least for this moment. With the snow tapering off, this makes for a great time to put the breakfast to use with a hike to the lake. All the winter gear is ready to go with insulated wellies, heavy thermal and my favorite, toe and hand warmers. Hugo manages to come to terms with his reflective vest and now ports it around like a kid thinking it’s Superman’s cape. With all the winter kit we have available, we’re feeling quite confident as well and head out.
This is the view from the top of the driveway looking down Belmont Ridge rd. The snow plow surprisingly came by early making the road passable, but I'll let the Honda sit this one out and enjoy the cabin today.
Michael's mom made this 20 year old slate sign. Michael's parents purchased this cabin in 1989 in hopes of moving down here after all the kids left home. Sadly, Michael's mom fell ill shortly after and wasn't able to enjoy the cabin. Since then, the cabin serves as the family retreat with hunters creating a rather ambiguous "boy's club" replete with a Playboy thermometer in the living room and an ashtray next to the toilet. It's always nice to know the temperature, but using the toilet and smoking at the same time is simply dangerous! Your magazine could catch on fire. Michael's mom would never have that.
The Honda stays at the top of the drive. The double diamond slope of a driveway proved easy going down but not the case going up. After repeated tries, I shoveled down to the gravel for half the drive, turned the Honda around in order to get the weight over the drive wheels and prayed momentum would do the rest. It did, on the fifth try and cursing in French.
Sunlight appears and the world sparkles. Behind the shed is the path leading to the lake.
The wood stove compliments the central heat in the cabin, but generally is the only source of heat used. Simply brilliant how much heat it gives off in relation to a normal fireplace.
The stream below the cabin marks our way to the lake.
Hugo at speed.
Shhh! We're hunting wabbits!
Hugo working the scent.
A shepherd pointing? What mix is he now?
Gazing over frozen Lake Piedmont, OH
Well, not quite so frozen. Hugo managed to break enough ice away to sit in the water. That didn't last long.
The ice fissure creeps towards Hugo, but he seems not to care.
Boo!
Rocket dog!
I think we'll just keep the car here.
Back to the remodeling issue, after celebrating the stubborn removal of the ashtray lodged by the toilet, we kept going. We dug the car out and headed to the nearest Lowe's, thirty minutes away but the roads were in good condition. These projects are never as easy as you expect and the 20 year old wallpaper proved to be resilient. Two days later, the finished project below:
No smoking please.
While we paint, Hugo scavenges for, well, what can you say? After much discouragement and treat tossing, we finally got the coyote vertebra away from him and hid it. Not to well apparently as it only took him a few hours to claim it again. The treasure is now on the roof of the cabin.
Coyote vertebra now out of the picture, Hugo finds a severed deer leg. We thought it was a stick at first but he became very protective over the "stick" and then I picked it up in the dark to discover it was a deer leg. Disturbing. It too, is now on the roof of the cabin. Even more disturbing.
I thought he'd just chase the deer in the back yard like he does cats and squirrels, with great abandon, but only just. This epic deer chase is best explained by using this photo from Google Earth. 1) is the cabin of which Hugo took off down the ravine to (2). Crashing through and up the woods to (3) and then there was a visual at the top of the driveway (4). Hugo and deer launched over the ridge to the rancher's land and the down the hill to (5). I lost sight through the woods and then saw him at the bottom of the hill (6). I thought it was him at least. Just a spec. Minutes later and futile call-backs, Hugo appears at (5) again but only to trace the tracks again. He reluctantly came back and I've never seen this dog so tired. His tongue hanged all the way out of his mouth, eyes were glazed and the panting could be heard the field away. Out of shape? Hardly, as what isn't represented here is nearly two miles of travel down and up steep hills (so much so that the car can't make it up the driveway with snow), thick woods and in a matter of ten minutes. Yes, I was worried on many counts, namely Hugo didn't have the "super dog" cape on and the rancher thinking a coyote was after the live stock. God takes care of fools and children. Fortunately, we were both.
Post deer run nap.
On guard.
We'll leave Wednesday now.
Hugo, come home!
Are we cooking deer again?
No, I dont' want to leave!
Nor does the car. Low profile everything does nothing for heavy snow.
I'm not leaving!
Slippery and I'm doing everthing I can to resist going pro rally for just a moment!
Snow drifting over Lake Piedmont.
Sleepy town of Piedmont.
