Apologetic beef jerky

Hazel awaits her dinner, sniffing all the good grill smells in the smoky air after a fruitless day of bird hunting.

Journal Excerpt from Saturday, October 12, 2019

We should have given into the hotdogs. I’m not sure why they taste so good when you’re camping, but they always do. It must be all the fresh air and primitive cooking. We are back in our beloved North Country. Clear Stream lies three feet from our camper. Whenever we open the door to come outside, I think it’s raining, but instead I find the wonderful sleepy, noisy calm of the river going by. I sat on a river rock today and just stared thoughtlessly into the busy, bubbling water after a little reading. The fire beside me is the same. I stare into it mesmerized, in a trance. We come from life into these short nature escapes so tired and beaten. Thank God for these reprieves.

There’s a full moon tonight. It beams shadows through the trees over the picnic table where Judd eagerly downs some baked beans, teriyaki chicken and slices of Kerrygold cheese while he watches me write. Sustenance after the hunt.

 He tells me of his adventures from the day as he throws Hazel a treat. “Will this piece of beef jerky make you happy?” he asks her apologetically after he missed several birds she flushed for him today.

“Tomorrow I will do better, I promise.”