Yet Another Deer Collision

Well, tonight went downhill quickly. My father hit another deer and the Ford Freestyle looks like it may be a goner. Unfortunately, the insurance policy wasn’t comprehensive so our options will be limited. We’ll know more tomorrow, but being without wheels with the closest town being twelve miles away is going to be a problem.

We never catch a break.

Spinning Wheels

The results of the PET scan revealed my father’s lymphoma no longer can be found, which means the tumor is gone and cannot be blocking his stomach. So that’s great news. However, they doctors still don’t know why his digestive system isn’t moving things along.

Once again, it is a waiting game. I headed home to prepare the house in case he’s coming back today or tomorrow, but haven’t managed to get much done. Energy levels start out low for me and they are even lower now making everything difficult to do.

Heading home last night was a bad experience despite getting good news on the cancer part of my father’s woes. Out on Houston County 4, I noticed large amounts of deer in the fields due to the snow cover melting away. At night, I rarely exceed 45 mph because the large vermin are very active thanks to a huge population. It still didn’t keep me from hitting one.

Another Kamikaze Bambi Strikes

It would be nice if car problems would stop happening, but here we are in 2013 and another deer collision happened last evening.

My father was coming home and hit a doe following her fawn across the road. She darted up from an embankment in front of the car as he slowed to avoid the fawn. It appears her muzzle impacted the windshield from all the chewed grass combined with saliva.

The impact could have been a lot worse but the slow down and angle left a dented fender and the badly cracked windshield as the only damage. It could have been far worse as my posts on earlier deer damage show.

Still, this is going to be incredibly expensive to repair if my suspicions are correct. I can feel the center of the spider web fractures on the inside of the glass. A Walmart parking lot temporary repair is probably in order involving reinforced packing tape.

Given the out of control deer population in the area the DNR really should do a massive cull, but that’s not going to happen. Instead the pests will continue to damage vehicles, crops, and gardens. I’m sick of the varmints being cared about more than humans.

Looking Much Better

The Subaru Outback is completely green again! A big thank you has to go to Dan who managed to wedge this in between other jobs and keep the price low. He did an outstanding job matching the faded finish when painting the replacement hood and fender. It was nine months since the deer collision when it was finished.

We also got the long MIA spoiler replaced. The original vanished one day without a trace a couple of years ago, so it is strange to see the glow of the brake light filling the rear window again. I originally meant to take pictures while the car was still clean, but that did not work out and the car quickly dirtied in the dusty area we live in.

Waiting to take pictures did pay off in that I can show the repair A-1 Glass out of La Crosse did. Unfortunately, I did not take a before shot. There was a dollar coin sized fracture that looked like someone had shot the windshield. A gravel truck from all the road work going on around here kicked a piece of gravel right in front of the rearview mirror while my father was driving. He didn’t know it was damaged until I asked him about it, since the mirror hid it from inside.

I am very impressed with how it filled and it sounds like we were lucky that way.

Now to get mechanical work needed on the old warhorse underway.

Resurrecting the Dead: The Subaru Lives Again

After five months of tinkering, bending metal, and hammering, the Subaru Outback is running again. Oh there are a host of problems needing fixing yet, including the non functioning fog lights and hood catch, but it is being driven again.

RIP Subaru Outback

In the face of the ridiculous costs of bodywork, the still running Subaru has been totaled by the car insurance company. Sadly, there is no way we can afford to replace it with a vehicle that has even a fraction of its capabilities and things are an absolute mess on the transportation side of life.

The Subaru was the best car we ever had and ever will have. It could handle any weather, slippery hills, and long distance travel with excellent handling and comfort. A trip to New Foundland proved what a wonderful traveling car it was and i have fond memories of driving it through Canada.

Deer were cruel to it and there were other minor accidents, so it was an unlucky vehicle over the years. The first day we had it in December of 2004, I hit ice pulling into a business and put the car through a garage door. I should have known then something bad would happen to it in the end just from that unfortunate beginning.

Now we are faced with a serious problem of no wheels and not being able to afford what we really need living out in the sticks. The ever treacherous driveway makes ascending it very tricky on anything other than a 4WD or AWD during the winter.

This did not help with my improving on feeling the Christmas spirit. I am set on getting a 12 gauge by next deer season.

Why I Despise Deer

In my previous post, I mentioned my father hit a deer yesterday -- after we finally go the brakes repaired on the car. Talking to him, he did not even get a chance to brake, which is just like the deer in 2007. There are too many of the hooved vermin in the area and the DNR has allowed things to get out of control. A couple of years of year round open season might be enough to manage the population, but I think it will require government culling. That will never happen here in Minnesota thanks to Bambi lovers in the cities.

As you can see, the front driver’s side took the hit this time. The license plate holder/protector I got to defend against kamikaze pheasant attacks did its job and only the top rim remains.

There is deer hair everywhere. At least the radiator appears undamaged; the 2007 hit destroyed it. The headlight is a complete loss.

The door had to be completely replaced when a buck ran into it in 2008. Now the new one is banged up. Looking at the car from the side shows how violent the collision was. Yet it is not enough to set off the airbags to my amazement.

As bad as it looks, the collision in 2007 was worse:

Not a good way to go into Christmas.

For Your Entertainment…

Were They Watching Animal Planet?

This is why I prefer reality to fiction.  It is nearly impossible to make something up as strange as this story about a deer running amok during Halloween. I would have loved to have seen the deputies’ faces.

Making Fun of the Air Force

For a good cause.  Though other branches of the armed forces would say it is always a good cause making fun of the men & women in blue.  My favorite demotivator is “Fundamentals.”

You can find out more about Project Valour-IT at Soldiers’ Angels along with other projects to help the troops.

But It Looks Like an Old PC!

Ever take one of those silly online tests to see what color you are?  Did you wonder what color the universe is?  Wonder no more! Here I thought it would be more of a taupe.

A Town Drowned Part Three

Photos by Patrick Boone

The first thing I noticed coming into Rushford was this sign, with a pile of snowmobiling signs piled against it. The field it is next to is likely ruined and the house on the outskirts of town had water up another level of bricks earlier in the morning. I was growing more somber with each flooded corn or soy field we passed between Houston and Rushford, the crops that had looked to be exceptional this year were now dying. We parked just before the bridge and walked over it, trees were going by under it along with other debris headed for Houston.




The sound of diesal engines filled the air, farmers had arrived with tractors to run pumps, feverishly trying to pump the water trapped between two levees.


People were gathered, some were tourists who were lost, others just thought it would be fun to see a disaster. The locals had a different attitude, one of shock and loss. A grim sense of humor was the only response to the situation for some of them. Also, a sense of helplessness could be felt as nature's fury is so much bigger than we are.

Only a week before, I'd been in Rushford for unhappy reasons, as we'd hit a deer with our 2005 Subaru Outback and had limped into town. The car took major damage and had to be left at the Kwik Trip parking lot to be towed later. Little did we know what would happen a week later.


This is what a doe will do to a car traveling 55 MPH.



The parking lot on Sunday.

Continued...