Tradition

As most all of us wrap up one tradition, overstuffing ourselves with turkey and pie, I decided to show some pics from the vault of another tradition that is, perhaps, not as widespread, more localized,  and is almost as important to Wisconsinites as Thanksgiving.  And I'm not talking about Black Friday.  It is the annual 9 day deer hunting season that started last Saturday and runs through this coming Sunday.  I won't get into the pros and cons of the event except to say for those partaking it is the biggest event of the year. It is 9 days of family and friends spending lots and lots of time together.  9 days of telling stories around a campfire.  9 days of fathers and sons, and sometimes daughters and wives and mothers, connecting differently than they would at any other time.  9 days of eating some of the best food ever cooked over a campfire.  9 days of remembering anecdotes of years past hunts.  9 days of breathing clean fresh air.  At least, that's what the hunting season means to me.  My father and I have been part of the same hunting group going on 25 years now.  Cousins and uncles that we didn't know well when we first joined up are now our closest friends.  Many of us were pretty young when we first started hunting with our fathers.  Now, many of us are fathers ourselves and teaching our young ones how to be good, responsible stewards of nature.  This was the first year my daughter and my son both said they want to go hunting next year.  This was, unfortunately, brought up in front of their mother, so we decided to leave the discussion for another time.  And for those of you worried about the deer, don't worry.  They were pretty safe around us this year.  Here's a few pics of camp life:

Roll on

Unfortunately, no more rolling for this guy.  I found him in an overgrown front yard of a place that I don't think has been lived in for years.  I think he was retired at the same time.

Arc of a Diver

Been a slow week for pics as you can tell by my lack of posts.  It's that time of year where the landscape is not that exciting and I've been pretty busy with other stuff.  But, last weekend my daughter, son, and I made time to make a trip to Madison Wisconsin to support my niece in her pursuit of the State Diving Championship. It's an event my daughter and I have attended before since this is the third trip to state, I believe, my niece, Kelsey, has made during her high school run.  She is a senior so she'll be doing her diving for a collegiate program somewhere after this.  While she didn't take home the gold, she did place higher than she ever had previously- 10th.  That's the 10th best diver in the state.  Pretty cool accomplishment that I know she has worked hard for.  I know for years I've heard her talk about having to be at the pool like 5:30 in the morning since that is the time setup for the team to practice.  Crazy.  But it's things like this that create a winner, which she is.  If I ever end up with a chest of gold medals, she will definitely get one.  Not just for being a great diver, but for being a great kid.
Tonight's ist shot is a composite of several shots of one of her dives.  Unfortunately, to create it, I used Photoshop and I am pretty much self teaching myself on the capabilities of Photoshop so it's not perfect.  If I waited for that, it would probably never get posted.  The second is her getting ready to dive with the judges looking on.

 

Past its prime

As fast as peak color comes into the area, it's gone.  But, the late fall winds and placement of the sun can create some stunning landscape shots throughout the day instead of just morning and evening.  Here's a couple from the last couple weeks. 

Bottoms Up

One last shot of one of the many bridges crossing over the Mississippi River between Wisconsin and Minnesota.

Oh Deer

O.k., so they're not deer.  They're elk.  I would have had to think too hard to get something in the title about elk.  This shot was taken at an elk farm in Minnesota.  Not the best shot composition wise, due to the elk not happy that I was hanging out.  Pretty skittish creatures.

On the Mooo-ve

Maybe it's where I'm from or something(Wisconsin), I don't know.  But, It doesn't look like I'll ever be able to sneak up on a cow.