The Deer of Beaglesonia

We didn't get paid sick days at the paper mill.  We got vacation days and personal days, but we had to schedule those in advance.  I have often marveled at how little I get done now that I'm retired.  I think it has something to do with the Beaglesonian Corollary to Einstein's Theory of Relativity.  Since time slows down as you approach the speed of light, it logically follows that time would speed up as you slow down.  Since older people move slower than younger people, time passes faster for them and, consequently, they get less done in a day.

We don't have a wild pig problem this far north, but I understand that they are starting to in the southern part of the state.  We are allowed, even encouraged, to shoot any wild swine we see at any time of the year, but I only know of one ever being taken in this area.  That one had escaped from a game farm, and the owner suspected that it had a little help doing so.  Michigan farmers are no longer allowed to keep certain wild breeds of swine but, last I heard, they were still arguing about that in the courts. 

The deer in Northern Michigan are not such creatures of habit as they are in more intensely agricultural areas.  The same deer do show up in the same places, but not with any predictable regularity.  You might see them three days in a row, and then not again for three months in a row.  With does it's hard to tell if you are even seeing the same deer because they all look pretty much alike.  We have seen that injured one several times since spring, but she has healed up to the point that we won't be able to identify her much longer.  Does commonly travel in groups of two or three, but you might not see all of the group every time it passes through because of the thick vegetation.  

North Woods deer are also kind of migratory, frequenting different areas at different times of the year.  Individuals have been tracked with radio collars covering over thirty miles between their summer and winter ranges.  Some of these migrants undoubtedly cross Beaglesonia coming and going, but there are others that seem to hang around most of the year.  If the snow gets over two feet deep, they usually avoid my swamp, which is puzzling because they are supposed spend their winters in swamps like mine.  There must be a swamp they like better somewhere around here, but I don't know where it is.