Turn Out The Lights, The Party's Over - - -

 Heading down to the Lordville Estate tomorrow morning. Will be stopping at Vicky's Unisex Hair Salon at 10:00 AM for my last hair cut there until next spring. The Troutfitter is closed and David is probably down at Hilton Head by now after spending over two-hundred straight days at the fly shop and inn.

Down in Lordville, I've got work to do. It'll take me the better part of two days to finish the closedown. It's for me, a sad time, another year gone by, and at 81 you know there can't be many years left. When all the items are checked off the shutdown list, the place will be neat as a pin, the 'fridge turned off with it's door left open, stove ashes cleaned out, hot water heater shut off, the pipes drained, anti-freeze in the traps, the heat turned off, the bed stripped, and fly-tying materials moth balled, leaving the Lordville Estate nothing but a dark, cold, empty, unappealing  place. When I come down later to rake up the leaves from my neighbor's huge Norway maple, I probably won't even go inside. 

The fishing - This year was special. When you're my age with eroding skills, and have your second best year ever, on the Delaware River System, there's just nothing else to say. The FFMP release program has allowed far more fish to live in the system than did during my earlier years on the river. The relentless fishing pressure that the river is subjected to, makes it's fish a challenge to catch, but the cold water, season long bug hatches and a plentiful supply of fish, makes the river, for me, heaven on earth. Hopefully I'll still be able to fool a few when the Hendrickson's start hatching next spring.

The hunting - So far has been a bust. If it weren't for my trail cams, I'd swear there wasn't a deer in the woods. I live seven miles from Syracuse and have but 13 acres of land to hunt on. The area is hunted hard. Almost all of the deer restrict their movements to the hours well after sunset and long before sunrise. I've been out over a dozen times and have seen only three does, all just before dark. My four trail cams, however, tell a different story. Two ten pointers, one nine, at least four eights, a seven, and a 2.5 year old six, in addition to several 1.5 year old's, have all posed for pics. Until two days ago there wasn't a single photo of a deer taken in the daylight. In the last couple of days there have been a few pictures of bucks moving during daylight hours. I'm hopeful. 

Dennis, an ardent deer hunter, was good enough to give me a can of  "Nose Jammer" which he swears by. I've dutifully sprayed some up each nostril every time I've gone out, but so far all it has done is make my eyes water. Maybe I'm not shaking the can enough.