At dusk on Saturday in my neck of cabin country, the tally of deer taken was 31 bucks and 21 does.

Plus one bear.

The registration station that Your Scribe is referencing is at the Sandy River Farm Store in New Sharon, a farming town of about 1,500 that is between Augusta and Farmington.

I was under the impression that there weren't many deer around, because I haven't seen one on my rural dirt road for three years.

But 52 deer in the first week sounds like a hardy herd is out there.

Praise must go to a state Fish and Game official named Tom Jacobs, who was hanging out at the Farm Store as day disappeared.

As a doe, formerly of Chesterville, was being weighed and registered, Jacobs said, "I would guess 110 pounds."

It turned out that this inert animal weighed in at 112 pounds, which is pretty darned close.

(An aside: The "staffer" hoisting and weighing the animals was actually the cashier from inside the store. She would ring up beer, lottery tickets and perhaps a carbo-loaded pizza slice, then she would run outside to work the pulleys so that the next deer could be weighed. Talk about multi-tasking!)

It was cold Saturday night - well, in the teens.

And when it is 18 degrees outside, it is likely 18 degrees inside my uninsulated cabin.

I slept fine but didn't feel like making a fire when I awoke. So I went to the local breakfast spot - the Top of the Hill Grill - and washed up there.

(Aside No. 2: I did not shower, which produced this random thought: The pioneers, woodsmen, Indians - everybody - must have smelled pretty rank before the arrival of indoor plumbing and hot water. And if I can be so indelicate - deodorant. Hearty travelers ranging from the Benedict Arnold team that marched to Quebec to the squads that journeyed out to fight in the Civil War, rarely bathed. And how about their teeth?
Though it sometimes appears that we are making minimal progress as a society, the advance in personal hygiene has to be one of the great triumphs of the modern age!).

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