It's so gray, foggy, rainy and dreary outside, that I don't even feel like going outside for a walk.  Instead, I contented myself to get Christmas cards signed and addressed, and put them in the mailbox, flag up.  Also paid the last of this month's bills, etc.  Finished doing my bookkeeping for the year, have reduced overall debt by $2,000 and I'm so impressed, that it tempts me to go on a shopping spree.  I am desperately trying not to do that, though.  Still....there are a few things I would like to get. 

We've had a tragic episode here in the Northwoods.  A local man who writes an "outdoorsy" column photographed a female wolf and printed the photo in the paper.  It was radiocollared and a member of a local pack.  A couple of days went by, and the rangers noticed that the collar was signalling that the wolf was probably dead, as the signal goes on if the collar doesn't move for awhile.  They tracked the collar down and found it snagged on a log in a rapids.  It had been cut through with a knife, so someone had killed the wolf and thrown the collar into the river.  I guess there are two kinds of people in this world - those who believe that all the animals have their place in the ecosystem, and those who fear and hate (wolves).  I hope someone finds out who did it and turns them in.  Wolves are protected in this state.  It reminds me that the American Bald Eagle was almost exterminated by those who see a big black target and think it might be easy to kill and brag about.

December's cover on my Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine shows a beautiful bobcat, and below his picture is a headline for "fur school" on how to skin out trapped animals.  Why do they do it?  I just don't know.  The article about the wolf suggested that people may have reason to fear wolves while walking with their dogs.  I have been here in the woods for 60 years and have never experienced fear of wolves, walking with or without dogs.  And I've spent a lot of time in the woods, fields and lakes.  The scariest things in the forest are the two-leggeds, or the top-siders (as the muskies call us).