A fruitful opening day

Opening Day of deer hunting has been an exciting day for the men around here for as long as I can remember. When the kids were younger Alyssa got to do most of the chores so that the boys could hunt. She was always thrilled, as you might imagine. It's also been a day of constant cooking for me since the guys hunted at home, they were in and out all day and always hungry.

Alas, it is a new era. Kit, Ned and Karl slept in the shack last night which meant very little commotion around here this morning with just Paul and Evan in the house and Paul wasn't exactly moving very quickly (you can ask him to explain that sometime). There was a pre-dawn phone call letting Evan know that the bacon was ready and he'd have to cook his own eggs, but that was about it for early morning happenings. A far cry from historical opening days and I was prepared to take full advantage of it.

I finished the two autumn pillow covers I had been working on. Our couch (or sofa or davenport or whatever you want to call it) is green. I love it. It came with two green pillows that are a very nice size and shape, but plain green pillows in the exact fabric as the couch have always seemed pretty dorky to me. It has a lot to do with my preference for things that are not too matchy, I suppose. At any rate, it occurred to me in one of my recent Minneapolis travels that I could just make seasonal covers for those pillows and then I wouldn't have a pile of extra pillows to store since I have big plans for this seasonal thing. Pillow covers are pretty compact for storing and yes, I deemed myself brilliant. So, this morning I finished those pillow covers and they are pretty darned cute -- deep chocolate brown tweed appliqued with several different orange plaid pumpkins . I also finished a little runner -- appliqued acorns and oak leaves -- just in time for Thanksgiving. All this before noon without any interruptions because the guys are in and out of the shack instead of the house. This shack thing is great.

I did make some venison for sandwiches and invited my men to come in and eat. They didn't even linger. It was back out to hunt with their breaks in the shack. Great. I managed to attach the binding to one of my quilts do the binding on one for my sister, as well. It was like a regular sewing factory here today. I could actually learn to like this hunting season thing.

Getty stopped in to say hello on his way back to the woods and I've seen a few sets of headlights head back there, but other than that, it's been a very quiet day. It's even quiet hunting-wise. No deer and not much shooting around the neighborhood. (I caught a mouse, but I don't want to brag.) The deer harvest might not be much today, but the sewing accomplishments are record-breaking.

Evan just came in and reported that the loft in the shack sleeps pretty well. He's done quite a bit of napping out there today as he still fights off the nasty virus that is bothering him. He heads back to Minneapolis early tomorrow for a mid-morning appointment and will leave his brothers to try to beat his 2009 hunting record since he already shot two deer while bow-hunting before he went for the transplant. I don't know if any of them will match him, but I do know they're all enjoying the time together in the shack. And, yes, I am also thoroughly enjoying their time together in the shack.