Well, yesterday I informed Michele and Duncan that they might not have me around much longer. “Duncan,” said Michele, “can we afford to hire Joanna full time?”

“That’s what you can spend the afternoon figuring out,” Duncan told me. So I filled out an application for a workers comp insurance quote and called a paycheck service to ask them to give us a total number for what it would cost to hire a full time employee at $25,000 a year. This includes FICA, FUTA, unemployment insurance, the paycheck service–including direct deposit, withholding, and tax deposits. What I discovered is that it’s darn expensive to hire someone! And I thought the respective government hand were taking enough out of my own wallet already. I didn’t realize they raided my boss’ even more.

Today one of my duties was to drive down to the Division of Wildlife and fill out a roadkill form. On Saturday someone out near Baptist Road hit a doe and her fawn. They called the game warden, who gave them the Michele and Duncan’s number and told them to call. So they went into action. The fawn was already dead, but the doe had to be put down. Then they skinned and dressed the carcasses, wrapping them in sheets and hanging them from the porch ceiling. I can now say that I’ve tasted fawn… something I will probably never taste again.

So I got the roadkill paperwork, allowing the holder to legally possess a carcass. Which was a good thing, since I had the doe in my trunk. Then I drove up to Black Forest to a house with a meat processing operation in the basement. “That’s really big for an antelope!” said one of the white-coat-wearing butchers with a sandy handlebar mustache, pulling the carcass out of the trunk and hanging it up on a hook.

“Probably because it’s a mule deer,” I said. “It was roadkill.” I don’t think deer are in season yet.

“Had to drive through some fences and fields to hit it, did ya?” the butcher teased me. He unwrapped the sheet from the carcass. “I don’t see a bruise on it!”

“Well, she had to be put down,” I suggested, “so maybe her leg was broken.”

“From steppin’ in a bear trap?” he laughed.

Michele had told me that this operation had really good summer sausage for sale, so I bought a huge one marked ANTELOPE and brought it home to Berck tonight. We haven’t tasted it yet, waiting for it to thaw. I hear their elk summer sausage is the best, so maybe I’ll get some of it if I get sent back out to pick up the venison.

In other news, I finished entering all of the information from nine years of deposit slips, check stubs, and bank statements today. Then I started matching up ins and outs. More of that tomorrow.

Unless I get to go running more errands.

Michele has pointed out that if I work anywhere else, I won’t get my daily smoothie. (Wild-cherry peach is the best I’ve had so far.)

Actual Fact: Gabriel Duvall, associate US Supreme Court Justice from 1811 to 1835, served his last ten years deaf, so oral arguments left little impression. He apparently refused to leave the bench until what he considered a suitable successor would replace him.