LAKE OF THE WOODS COUNTY, Minn. _ A deer camp in the now-defunct town of Carp, Minn., might not be the traditional setting for an afternoon gathering of senior women, but gather they did last week at "Buttercup's Bungalow."
Now just a memory southwest of Baudette, Minn., Carp once had a store, gas station and post office. The area is sandwiched between Beltrami Island State Forest to the west and Pine Island State Forest to the east.
John "Buttercup" Humeniuk, 73, of Baudette, Minn., who owns of Buttercup's Bungalow with his wife, Judy, recalls going to the Carp Store as a kid.
Even in the heydays, though, it's hard to imagine the Carp Store was livelier than Humeniuk's cabin last week, when he hosted a group of eight senior women to an afternoon feast of venison with all the trimmings.
The women at the gathering ranged from 80 _ the minimum to be invited _ to 97. The average age: 88 {. All of the women either live on their own or in senior housing.
"They're all a bunch of good, old gals," Humeniuk said. "We joke around and have fun and really get a bang out of it."
That was obvious last week.
"Buttercup" might not be the first word that comes to mind to describe Humeniuk. He landed the nickname while working at Marvin Windows in Warroad, Minn.
Long story, so we'll leave it at that.
Deer season's been kind of slow so far, Humeniuk said _ at least in this neck of the woods _ but the weather and the entertaining has been great.
"I've gone out hunting for a couple of hours," he said. "It's almost too nice too hunt."
Still, he was able to tag a small buck that served as the main course.
