"Work smarter, not harder," is a phrase that gets a lot of airtime around our house, because the husband and I are no big fans of wasted effort. Sometimes it pops up in odd places.

When I got home from Cleveland on Sunday, I noticed the .30-06 was propped up against the wall in the master bath. A firearm in the bathroom is not in and of itself an odd thing; that window gives us the clearest line of sight to the chicken coop. However, I had forgotten that hunting season started Saturday (I know, I should have my Montana resident license revoked). When I commented that shooting a deer out of the bathroom window did not seem very sporting to me, the husband came back with, "Work smarter, not harder. This way I don't have to haul it in a mile from the woods."

On Monday morning, the husband walked into my office and said, "There are some deer in the woods." Clearly, I was just not paying attention, because I said, "There are always deer in the woods." "Yes," he said patiently, "but I am going upstairs to shoot one and I didn't want to surprise you." And so the husband went up to the bathroom and shot the first deer of the season. Four weeks to and a couple more tags to go.

(I feel sort of bad for my cousins in Ohio who are having trouble finding places to hunt anymore, while we're picking the darn things off in our backyard.)

If only an elk would walk through . . . .

Some chick pics for you:

Mama hen has finally allowed the baby out in the yard with the other chicks. The husband says he does not know how the other chickens get any sleep, because the chick emits a constant "cheep cheep cheep" that seems to serve as some kind of homing beacon. Truly, it is constant, because the chick is a very adventuresome little thing.

And even though it has its own feeeder and waterer, it insists on getting into the feeder with the big chickens.

We have not yet checked to see if this is a male or female chick. It surely is cute, though. And appears to be a solitary accident, as we can't get the hens to set on any more eggs.