Many years ago, I, and many members of my family used to go over to Eastern Oregon for deer season. We would camp at a site on Paulina Lake Road. It was a spot by Paulina Creek, that was usually used for a horse camp. After I would get my camper set up and ready, I would start putting out tid-bits for the Chipmunks and Camp Robbers... For the Munks I would supply small dog food kibbles and empty toilet paper and paper towel cores, so they could pack all this stuff back to their nests....... More about the Munks later.
It didn't take the Robbers long to figure out that at every meal, this crazy lady (me), in that tin box (camper), always brought leftovers out to a stump, and fed them... You know what? Robbers can get really pushy. Oh YES! I should say here that I am a early riser... I normally would get up, and have the campfire started before anyone else got out of bed... WELLL,,, One particular morning, I slept in...BIG MISTAKE! My brother-in-law, got up first... He had fixed his coffee in his tent (big elk hunting tent), anyway, he steps outside to enjoy his first cup of coffee... My pet Robbers were sitting in a pine tree by the back door of my camper... I'm sure they figured, "well she isn't out here feeding us, so lets TAKE what HE has"... My pet Robbers hit my brother-in-law so fast, and hard, they knocked his coffee cup out of his hand, and it lit about eight feet from him... My pet Robbers were yelling, and so was he! CASSANDRA!!! D*MN YOU! He shrieked... I hit the floor, was out the door, barefooted and clad in longjohns... I retrieve his cup, as he was getting his 22... Me or the birds? I wasn't sure yet... He finally calmed down and nursed his scalded hand... Me and my pet Robbers were allowed to live another day...
There was a place up on a low rimrock that I loved to go to, and sit against a 40 foot lava bluff... I saw allot of deer from that spot over the years, but alas no bucks, just does... That's ok however, I enjoyed all the critters out there so much that I really didn't care if I EVER shot a deer... One particularly memorable day, I was sitting there, in my favorite spot, the day was getting quite warm as it often does in Eastern Oregon during deer season. I was gettig a little bit sleepy, so I snuggled down in the pine neddles and drifted off to sleep... I need to tell you here, that I always kept a pair of musk glands off of a buck deers back legs in my freezer... At deer season, I would get them out and put them in a plastic bag with my hunting clothes. As a result, there was a constant aroma floating around me of buck (simular to Goat), as long as I had my hunting clothes on, I would also tie them to my boot laces and rub them now and then with the toe of my boots. I think that's why I saw so many does... So, there I was, sound asleep. with the smell of buck permeating the air... I don't know how long of a nap I had, but something woke me up... I layed there real quiet listening, because it was a sound that had woke me... I slowly looked up to the top of the rimrock outcrop that I was at the base of,,, I started laughing... There, sitting on the rimrock above me, looking over the edge at me, was a Vulture... That bird was sure he had found LUNCH... When I moved he said EEEEK, and flew off in a great flurry of wing beats. I have often wondered if I had not heard him land, the sound of his wings beating the air, if he would have flew on down and sampled me! The aroma was sure right!
So, as that deer season came to a close, everyone in camp was busy packing things up for the trip home... All of a sudden I heard a blood curtling yell, CASSANDRA!!! D*MN YOU!! Yep you guessed it, same brother-in-law that my pet Robbers had kamikazied... Well, you remember I said I would get back to the Chipmunks? Well, here we go. This brother-in-law had bought a brand new Ford Pickup, and drove it over to deer camp... It didn't even have plates on it yet! He wouldn't even take it out hunting for fear of getting it scratched. He had raised the hood up to check his oil, before leaving for home, and there it was... All of the toilet paper, paper towel cores, and dog food kibbles I had given to the Munks to tear up and take to their nest.... Well, they didn't. The munks had every crook and cranny, including the air filter, STUFFED full of all those supplies I had been giving them while we were over there... Everybody in camp had to look, and were laughing so hard they had tears running down their faces, after a while so did he, thank heaven... At that time of my life, I was to young to die... Especially over toilet paper and kibbles.... And that was just ONE deer season...
