When the winter is cold—ache in your bones cold—spring seems far and summer unimaginable. Fall is so distant you’ll find yourself by the fire remembering last hunting season and the ones before it instead of thinking of the one to come. Relish the memories, time has a way of slipping away and taking the ones you don’t frequently visit with it. Soon, the rains will come, the grass will green, the apples will ripen, and then a kaleidoscope of reds, yellows and browns will paint the forest. You’ll forget the bitter chill you cussed but survived, and you’ll begin longing to see your breath in the crisp cool darkness of a November morning.
Someone finally unplugged the damned deepfreeze we have been living in for a little more than two weeks. We hit 58 degrees today, which is a bit of a shock from constant temperatures in the teens. I considered sunbathing, but there is still lots of snow on the ground and with March on the way, our frozen world is turning into a “green and muddy month,” as Bear Claw Chris Lapp described it.
This heat wave did allow me to begin work on my Shooting Shack, which due to bad weather had not been touched since it was delivered. The first thing I wanted to do was paint the floor to give it some protection from the mud and water I’ll be tracking in. I purchased a gallon of Valspar Interior/Exterior Porch and Floor Paint ($43) which is an acrylic paint that’s textured. I also bought a cheap ass paint brush, and in case you didn’t know it, cheap ass paint brushes cost eight bucks. It took me about an hour to put one coat down, I still have half a gallon left, and it’s supposed to be in the 50s again on Saturday, so I’ll give it another coat.
The next step is to brace the walls for the shooting and loading benches and to wire the building for a gas and battery/solar generator. It feels good to finally get this project underway because the guns needing shot are piling up.
