Once in awhile I am reminded that Sicilians are different than most other ethnic or tribal cultures. When they get pissed, be somewhere else.  Maria is half German, half Sicilian. She has an internal volcano. We respect and appreciate hunters as the deer season approaches, almost all of them we know are polite, thoughtful and respectful

They ask permission, respect posted signs and clean up after themselves. They never leave a wounded deer behind and usually stop to thank us afterwards.

There are, humans being humans, some not to good hunters, and we have one trespassing on our property right now. We found a giant metal stand cable-wired to a tree last year, no one has asked permission to put it there, and it was built as a permanent structure, it seemed, it even h ad a power cable for a heater or some other device.

We asked around, then took it down. This week, we broke through the brush and got back out onto the woods behind the farmhouse, and somebody had come onto our property, put the stand up and cabled it with locks to the tree.

She said she was going to take it down, I said I would be home soon to help. She has been very angry lately, reading about the sexual harassment by sex demons It was bound to come out.

I wasn’t home for this discovery, she had gone for a walk in the woods now that the brush is thinking, but the text messages I started getting from Maria nearly melted my Iphone. “I’m pissed!,” she said, she she was really pissed. I said I would be home soon, but I knew she wouldn’t wait.

I hoped the irresponsible hunter was not around, it could get ugly.

By the time I got home, she had gone back into the woods – a rocky climb – clipped the cables, took apart the large metal seat and metal ladders, and hauled them out of the woods.

It took three or four trips – each about a quarter mile, mostly through dense woods and brush, and she was too angry to wait for me. She stuffed the pieces in her car and took them off to a junkyard. She went to the hardware store and got a bunch of “Posted, No Trespassing” signs.

I got home about this time and we went back into our woods with the dogs. There is no trace of the stand and whoever put it there is lucky he didn’t run into Maria. We walked the stone wall that marks our property line and put up a dozen “Posted Signs.”

Gus loves the woods and  had no trouble keeping up with Fate and Red, even though he often vanished into the brush and could not be seen.

The three followed Maria everywhere, they were fascinated by the proceedings.  Her posse, I thought.

Me too. I had come home and grabbed the camera. It takes a lot of gall up here to put up a giant metal structure on somebody else’s property (we gave him months to come and get it, whoever he is) and then put it up again when the owners take it down. Responsible hunters – and most are – follow a strict code of ethics, this one didn’t have a code of ethics. What he did is a big no-no up here.

Maria said it all felt good, I’ve rarely seen her so angry, but he was messing with the wrong woman.   She said she let all of the anger go. That was good news. I should add that she did apologize to the trees for putting nails into them.

Maria has clippers, saws, hammers and nails and knows how to use them all. She dragged all that stuff through the marsh and up by the farmhouse. Maybe her next stop will be the Justice League.  I can see it: Nature Woman, defending the earth. 

This weekend kicks off deer season, we will be out there checking the grounds. Do not tread on us.