The Best Laid Schemes of Mice and Men...

...oft go awry.

I remember Uncle Danny telling us that balsam trees have notoriously short lives, and how lucky he was to have found this one in which to mount his M.O.A.T. stand. Alas, Mother Nature has a way of "course correcting". The balsam succumbed to the high winds we experienced in the past few days. The M.O.A.T. stand is mounted no more.

Danny emailed me these pictures. His words: "The M.O.A.T. (Mother of All Treestands) is now the F.M.O.A.T. (insert creative free license for letter "F" here). The high winds that left me

and 60,999 other people in northern Wisconsin and me without power for 15 plus hours also took down the 80 plus year old tree that we had set my stand in less than three weeks ago. What are the odds?"

My condolences, Uncle Danny. At least nobody was IN it when it happened.
Time to scout a new tree. We'll be along next year to help you mount it.