The Hunting Times

Alex and I left the house before 4 pm.  It has warmed up to 49 degrees today.  What?  Well the winds came along with the temperature increase.  25 mph gusts. I dropped Alex off at Vice's S end and he went to over-watch Pete's Buck.  I parked on Marshall and walked the entire Neal property line. We saw nothing.  Not even a squirrel. We called it a night at 5:45 pm.  We returned to the house and ate a dinner of elk stew.  In between hunts today, I chopped veggies and pressure cooked some elk and turned it all into a stew. Nick, Shelby, Dave, Missy, Emily, Kathy, Alex, Dad and I all ate on it - and there is still about 1/2 a pot left.  Great food to warm back up with and an awesome way to end the season for 2015. Well, archery is still in until 03 JAN 2016.  However, the weather usually does not cooperate enough to allow for that.  Maybe we will get out, but it's doubtful. Rabbit, squirrel, and goose are still in season. ...

The thermometer was at 38 degrees F this morning, with a wind chill of 35.  That's more like it.  The wind was still up:  8 mph steady and 22 mph gusts. I picked up Davey at 0700 and we went out to Marshall's S woods.  I dropped Davey off along the creek to the W and drove around to park E of the square woods.  Our goal was to get out of the wind. I walked E and then S to the swamp.  I took this sunrise photos along the way. I just got out of the truck and this was waiting for me. Sunrise Sunday Dec 20, 2015 Marshall's South Farm As I continued to walk, I took this photo. And finally, only me and a coyote got to see this perspective of the sun rise. As I was heading to the swamp, I heard something break in front of me.  It was too far away to be a rabbit, and it was too small to be a deer.  I stepped out from behind a tree and saw a black coyote running South.  If only he would have broken to the W, I could have t...

Welcome to Winter!  The thermometer read 18 degrees F at 6:30 am, but the windchill had us at 7.  Okay, that's cold.  We went out anyway. I dropped Alex off at the bridge on Vice.  He was walking in to the creek to set up for the morning - out of the wind. I went on top and parked on Marshall.  I took this picture of the sun coming up. Sunrise, Saturday December 19, 2015.  Marshall's North Farm If you look really close, you can see a star directly above the tree, 1/3rd of the way from the left. I walked down the road and sat in the bottoms on Marshall.  I did not go more than 20 yards off the road and sat in the first row of trees on the W with a wind block to my back side (West). At 8:00, I caught movement coming from the N.  A lone doe just meandering through the bottoms.  She'd sniff branches, chew some grass, saunter along, not paying attention to much.  I cocked my muzzle loader immediately - she was 120 yards o...

Some of you all regulars may know that I went to Cancun for 12 days.  I put most of that on my Vacation Blog here:  http://rcseager.blogspot.com  if you care to follow what happened there. Upon my return, I got some hunting in.  Today, however, it rained.  So I took the opportunity to install a new counter top in the kid's bathroom.  We had previously purchased the sink and faucet.  We special ordered the counter.  It was original to the house - circa 1965. I took some before and after photos.  But please realize, the bathroom is about to be all rebuilt after Kathy and Alex move into their new house.  We are going to install a new tub unit, replace the tile floor, and paint.  So, this is not in it's "finished" state, just good enough to get by until more work comes along. All told, it took less than 2 hours to complete.  Finally a project that went my way. The original counter top and sink. I added the bamboo trim ...

So I pick up Davey at 0700 this morning.  It is damp out, but not raining.  A balmy 60 degrees F with 87% relative humidity.  We head for Marshall's S farm. We park along the road and chat until legal light (7:30).  I let Davey out on the W edge.  The wind is from the S at a supposed 14 mph.  More like 24 mph to me. I drive around and sit the square woods on the E side.  We sit and sit and sit.  By 0900 I have seen all of three squirrels.  Nothing is happening. Davey walks my way as I have planned ahead.  In the truck I have Sun King's WeeMac beer, fresh deer salami, crackers, cheese, and West Virginia's Best Hot Pepper Butter.  We feast! A shore lunch fit for a king!  WeeMac and fresh deer salami. This is from my earlier kill.  Simpson did a nice job processing this batch. Davey sure enjoys his WeeMac and deer salami.  Friend for life! Again, note the GREEN grass we are parked on! Those black lu...

Okay, so we took a long break from hunting.  First off, we had to as there is a week of no gun hunting in Indiana.  Secondly, we spent 12 days in Cancun on the beach.  Sorry, have to keep Mama happy too! We returned to 67 degree weather.  Tough for deer to move in the daylight when it's that warm.  We are now in the Muzzle Loading deer season here in Indiana. Our initial plan was for Alex to hunt on Vice along the creek.  Nick would sit the killing finger in Marshall and I would hunt the bottoms.  As we dropped Alex off, the Colonel was out on his 4-wheeler.  He was heading off to check his trap line.  He also told us that 4 doe were on the E side of the property (where we do not have his permission to hunt).  We call an audible. Alex goes to the E stand on Neal, Nick to the finger, and me in the bottoms.  Here is the shot as we are walking in at 4 pm on 12-12-15 and it's 67 F. As I stroll N, one doe comes along the...