Hey Gershom, it’s that time of year when the fishing slows down, hunting is not quite here yet, and there’s a thousand things to do before winter sets in. All the guys say this is going to be a hard winter because the old-timer signs all say so. We sat around in the kitchen last week and shelled a bushel of pinto beans that Frank brought out, all dried, ready to go. They’ll be good in venison chili. While we shelled beans, everybody seemed to know what was coming. Bob said that there’s more caterpillar cocoons in the woods than usual, so it’ll be a hard winter. Mike said when he was out wandering around, the spruce tree needles were all curved on the north sides of the trees, and the squirrel nests were bigger than usual. Fred said that the night crawlers quit coming up on top earlier than usual this year. And Joe says that he’s never seen porcupines working so low in the trees before. Last week, I was in town buying kerosene and bumped into our old friend, Chief LeClaire, from the reservation over by Watersmeet. I asked him, and he said that from what he’s seen, it’ll be a really cold and snowy winter. Those Chippewas have been here a lot longer than us, and ya just gotta figure that they know a lot of stuff. So, I asked him how he could tell what kind of winter it would be, and he said, “I’ve been driving around, and every place I look, all you Palefaces have the biggest stacks of firewood I’ve ever seen!! That’s a sure sign of a cold winter!!!” And then he laughed so hard that I ended up laughing with him. It was Monday, so we went over to the old Mertin’s Cafe and had a couple of pasties for lunch. We both got ‘em with rutabaga and ketchup. NO GRAVY. That chief is a good Yooper.
We had a couple of quiet days last week. All the guys were at home, and only Pete was in the cabin, getting his tip-ups ready for ice-fishing. He said that he heard something out on the porch, and then the room darkened up. He looked up, and a full-grown moose was looking in at him. He didn’t know what to do, and I guess the moose didn’t either. This isn’t the time of year to mess with a moose. So, they just stared at each other for a while, till the moose wandered off towards the Johnson place. Pete said we must have done a good job repairing the porch after that fireworks problem on Independence Day, because it didn’t even sag with that thousand-pound moose on it. I wish he would have gotten a picture, but the hardware store was out of film the last time we checked.
The blackberries were real good this year. We picked all the berries we could, and Henry’s wife has been making jam for the camp. We had to share with the bears, of course. One day there were three of them in the berry patch, so we didn’t pick that day. Jerry thought we should dress up in bear-suits when we go picking. A couple of the older guys talked him out of the idea.
We haven’t heard from you in a while. Do you need stamps? I’ll put in a couple of twelve-centers, don’t lick ‘em till you need ‘em. I guess the coffee’s perked long enough, so I’ll close this letter.
-Your friend, Ernie, and the guys at the Iron Lake Fishing Club