Weekend after Labor Day, up where I haunt. Didn't see nor hear a single grouse sign when I was up to open the shack for the summer season, this past weekend. Which isn't odd; only normally start tripping over them in June, I think. July and August, normally holding one-sided conversations with 'em.

Blackflies, midges, and gnats, though.... All I could eat. 'Cept they had it the other way 'round. I've acquired a hundred new freckles. Need to buy a 32-gauge and a 20-foot container of dust-shot shells. Black Sky Insecticide.