Mountain Times - Volume 48, Number 48: Nov. 27-Dec. 3, 2019

Columns
70 • The Mountain Times • Nov. 27 - Dec. 3, 2019
By Dave Mance III
The blast of a gunshot: a deep
bass roar she feels in her chest,
followed by a treble ringing in her
ears. The buck drops. The hunter
remains in
her crouch,
watching
the animal’s
last breaths
through her
scope. When
he is still she
The Outside
Story
By Brett Amy
Thelena
rises, bling from
tremthe
cold and
the moment,
and approaches.
All about antlers
She takes in the expanse of his
body – a coiled spring in life that
seems pretend somehow in repose.
She’s struck by the pure white hair
on his belly, which seems unnaturally
bright up close. Her eyes follow
his swollen neck to his head, to his
crown: the dark paired horns … er
… antlers that are the same color
as the tannin-stained water in the
sphagnum bog from which he’d
appeared. She smiles, imagining her
grandfather bellowing, as he often
did when his grandchildren misspoke:
“They’re not horns; they’re
antlers!” He was not a biologist, just
a man who believed that words and
details matter.
One crucial difference between
a horn (cow) and an antler (deer)
is that antlers are shed and regrow
each year. In late winter this buck
might have been mistaken for a doe.
As the sap rose in the trees, his antlers
started to grow – at their peak of
growth in summer they might have
put on 2 inches a week. When they
were growing, they had skin, arteries,
nerves, and bone. And so you
can imagine antlers as limbs that the
bucks regenerate each year, like the
way a salamander can grow a new
tail. Another way to make sense of
things is to look at a growing antler
like a tree. The velvet and skin on the
surface is similar to bark, the bone
beneath is similar to sapwood, and
in between
there’s a
thin layer
of tissue,
called the
periosteum,
that functions like cambium.
The hunter touches the coronets
– the regally-named flairs at the
bottom of each antler. She touches
the tip of each point. As she runs
her hands along the beams she can
feel the arteries that were beneath
the velvet just a few months ago,
etched into the bone like fossils. She
touches the knobby pearlations at
the base of the antler – they form
where the periosteum merged with
the connective tissue and skin on
the outside of the antler. They’re
full of bark, as the buck used them
to rasp trees throughout his range
when they hardened off. She smells
the wood shavings and determines
it’s spruce. The softwood pitch may
account for the dark color of these
antlers, or it could be that when
the buck removed the velvet in
September, the blood stained the
bone. Both these theories attempt
to explain the difference between
these and the lighter, wheat-colored
antlers of the farm-country bucks
in the magazines and the sunbleached
racks that adorn the barn’s
north wall.
They’re big, she thinks, her hand
circled around the antler just above
the brow tine. She knows that if
her middle finger can just touch
the base of her thumb the antler is
roughly 3 inches in diameter. She
estimates the spread, the
length of the beams, and
the length of each point;
does some quick math
and decides it’s a 140sclass
buck. Her best
buck yet.
How old was he,
she wonders? She’d
read a story in
Northern Woodlands
magazine
recently, which said
that you can’t accurately
determine
a deer’s age by the
girth of an antler. The assertion was
based on a study that analyzed data
from 5,000 New Hampshire bucks
and found that the thickest antlers
were not the oldest. One of the lines
she remembered almost verbatim
from the story was that a deer with
a 3-inch diameter antler could potentially
be any age but a fawn. But
that’s the thing about editors, she
thinks. They get so enamored with
outliers – with details that contradict
conventional wisdom – that
they lose sight of the big picture.
Yes, this deer could technically be
any age but a fawn. But the chances
that he’s 1.5 are miniscule. She’s
killed enough 2.5-year-old deer
out of this gene pool to know that
the antler mass here is likely too
significant, and the chance that
he’s older than 5 is diminished by
the laws of averages on this heavily
hunted mountain. She checks his
coloration and the wear on his
Another way to make sense of things is to
look at a growing antler like a tree. The velvet
and skin on the surface is similar to bark,
the bone beneath is similar to sapwood...
teeth for their insights, but even
before she does she’s almost certain
he’s a 3.5 or 4.5-year-old deer. Still,
details matter. She will send a tooth
in to have it professionally aged, a
process that involves cutting a cross
section and counting its rings like
a tree.
She dresses the deer, then flips
him to drain. She attaches a rope
to his antlers, then leaving enough
lead for leverage, attaches the other
end to a stout pole. “He probably
outweighs me by 40 pounds,” she
thinks as she leans into the drag,
smiling. What a nice problem to
have.
Dave Mance III is the editor of
Northern Woodlands, and yes, is
enamored with outliers. The illustration
for this column was drawn
by Adelaide Tyrol. The Outside Story
is assigned and edited by Northern
Woodlands magazine and sponsored
by the Wellborn Ecology Fund
of the New Hampshire Charitable
Foundation.
Pay yourself first
Each month you settle down to pay bills. You pay your
mortgage lender. You pay the electric company. You pay
the trash collector. But do you pay yourself? One of the
most basic tenets of sound investing
involves the simple habit of
“paying yourself first,” in other
words, making the first payment
of each month into your savings
account.
Americans’ saving patterns vary
widely. And too often, short-term
Money
Matters
By Kevin Theissen
Mother’s
Celestial
Inspirations
By Cal Garrison
economic trends can interrupt
long-term savings programs. For
example, the U.S. Personal Savings
Rate jumped from approximately
3.5% to nearly 8% in May 2008 during
the housing and banking crisis.
It then rose and fell sporadically as
the economic environment stabilized.
Anyone who’s ever managed their own finances knows
that saving can be a challenge. There seems to be an
endless stream of expenses that demand a piece of each
month’s paycheck. Herein lies the genius of paying yourself
first: you get the cream at the top of the bucket, and not the
leftovers at the bottom.
The trick is to prioritize. Make it a point to put your future
first. At first, saving may mean a small lifestyle change.
But most individuals want to see their net worth increase
steadily. For them, finding ways to save becomes more of a
long-term commitment than a short-term challenge.
What will you do with the money you save?
If retirement is your priority, consider taking advantage
of tax-advantaged investments. Employer-sponsored
retirement plans, such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, can be a
great way to save because the money comes out of your
paycheck before you even see it. Also, as an added incentive,
some employers offer to match a percentage of your
contributions.
For money you may want to access before retirement,
consider placing the funds in a separate account. When
the balance hits your target, you may want to move the
money into investments that offer the potential for higher
returns. You’ll want to choose vehicles that fit your risk
tolerance, time horizon, and long-term goals.
In the pursuit of growing wealth, sound habits can
be your most valuable asset. Develop the habit of “paying
yourself first” today. The sooner you begin, the more
potential your savings may have to grow.
Kevin Th eissen is the owner of HWC Financial in Ludlow.
We are all related
This week’s horoscopes are coming out under the light
of a void-of-course Scorpio Moon that will remain in that
state until it turns new and enters Sagittarius on Tuesday,
Nov. 26. As you all know, we are barreling down on the
Thanksgiving holiday.
I find it interesting that Venus,
also known as ‘The Lesser Benefic,”
moves into Capricorn right before
the Christmas and Hanukkah revels.
Saturn, a.k.a. The Grim Reaper,
rules Capricorn and among other
things, is known to be the cosmic
tightwad. Venus, being a loving,
joyous, life-affirming and openhearted
planet, has to put her
girdle on when she passes through
Capricorn. Lucky for us, she will be
out of that bind by Dec. 1.
This is a tough call because Jupiter, a.k.a. The Greater
Benefic, will enter Capricorn on Dec. 2. Well known to be
the planet of largesse and good cheer, there’s an outside
Horoscopes > 77