Neanderpundit

SO today I wander out to Kingsbury in search fo Bambi’s mom, that I might kill and eat her.

I enjoy being outdoors, and I especially enjoy being able to walk around without a lot of people around, or a lot of noise. I’m careful about how I smell, and how I move, and it pays off- though, not in DEER, just yet.

Anyway, whitetail deer are skittish and wary. Humans, on the other hand, are mostly dense. As I discovered this morning.

Around nine, I was walking through a grove of pines, and saw two hunters circling the edge of the grove. THery didn’t hear me, and I giggled a bit as I watched them circle around.

I started heading back for the truck, and had gotten within about a hundred yards and THWOCKKKK! an arrow hits a tree about ten feet from me.

‘HEEEEEEEEEYYYY!!! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT???”

“Whoa, sorry, man, I saw something moving”
“YOU ALWAYS SHOOT AT SHIT THAT YOU SEE MOVING?”

by this time they’d caught up to me, and saw me, face red, arrow in my hand.
“HOW DO YOU MISS A 300 LB GUY IN A BRIGHT ORANGE HAT?”
‘Sorry, dude, I didn’t see the hat!”
“DO YOU OFTEN SEE DEER WEARING CAMO?”

Anyway, I broke the arrow, and offered to insert it in the offender, whose aim, thank god, was no better than his judgement, and left.

Good lord, what a day.

In other news, I stepped in a pile of Coyote shit so fresh it steamed, and I had to wash it off in a stream. And saw prints that could only be cougar.

WHen I was a kid, one of my friends moved to Valparaiso, INdiana. And then I discovered Fetlas.

Fetlas was… well, they had…

Look. Here’s a list of some of the things I saw at Fetlas. Maybe this will help illustrate what kind of store it was.

Grandfather clocks.
Canoes
Lumber
Condoms
Magazines, especially the blue kind.
Groceries
Surplus firearms from every conflict on earth
paddleboats
dinette sets
outboard motors
lawnmowers
tents
assless chaps
saddles
boots
guitars
liquor
horseshoes
lodge cookware
casual clothing
housepaint
artist’s supplies
computer supplies
new firearms of every description

THis list doesn’t touch the array of ephemera.

And now they’re selling down the very last article in the store. I went there today and got 30% off a sling swivel for the 336. They have one lonely boat out front, a pile of firewood. A little pile of ammunition and a few (very few) pellet guns. One muzzleloader. A bunch of cap guns. Some leather. A little bit of fishingh equipment.

Time was, you could walk into Fetlas and find an ice cream freezer with a rack of Sharps rifles above it. A box with rack grade enfields tossed in it like umbrellas Perscopes from Armored personnel carriers next to bolts of cloth. Saddles thrown over the top of stacks of Royal Crown Cola. Boxes of milsurp 45 acp ball ammo.

And though they make noises about “restructuring” they will probably soon be gone forever. A pole building covering more than an acre, with a rotting, aging lapstrake motorboat parked out in front.