The Hunting Times

Driving to Christmas Eve dinner with Sandy's parents & family last night, my bride says to me that TV Channel 18 (WLFI) Lafayette put out a Christmas Movie quiz.  In this one, you answer some questions and the quiz tells you which Christmas Movie you are most like. I immediately said, "I'm Die Hard!"  I was promptly corrected that 'Die Hard' is most certainly NOT a Christmas movie.  I am not sure what cave my bride has been living in, but she should not blaspheme like that!  Die Hard is the ULTIMATE Christmas movie. Well, I was informed that she was 'It's a Wonderful Life.'  And, I was about to take the quiz to find out my movie.  She pulled up her cell phone and started asking me the questions.  You only get four options as answers, so just pick the one closest to what you'd like. I finished the quiz right as we parked the car in her parents' driveway.  Low & Behold, it's Craig for the Win - I am most like the Christmas m...

Poor RePhil, he can't catch a break and get a deer.  But man did we give her the ole college try.  Me?  I got plenty in the freezer and really would not shoot another unless it's a wall hanger.  RePhil on the other hand wants some meat. Final week of firearms season was DEC 17 - 23.  We went out at least four times.  Twice to the golf course and twice to Neal / Marshall. The only time we saw deer were on the Neal and Marshall trips. I ran two doe right up to 20 yards of RePhil.  All he had to do was pull the trigger - they were at a dead stop.  Why didn't he shoot?  He had just used the restroom and was replying to my text that I had not seen anything in the last two hours.  Phone in hand, no gloves, gun leaning by tree.  Nope.  Not gonna get many deer that way. The next trip to Neal / Marshall had the doe walking on the top of Marshall's toward the S.  I tried to push them back to RePhil on Neal, but they continue...

Since it was such a nice day, like 50F, sunny, and only a slight westward breeze, we decided to go call coyotes this evening.   We started here on my property.  Walked to the curve and called W.  Nothing. We went to Marshall's S farm and called S.  Saw a small buck (4 or 6 pt) heading SE.  No coyotes. Drove to Krueger's and along the way we saw 2 deer on Huffers, end of Bailey's, on the E side.  We walked to Kruger's stand.  I sat up there, he on the ground.  We saw 6 deer, including 2 shooter bucks.  We had an owl attack the decoy.  But again, no coyotes.  Tracks?  Yep, saw those.  No 'yotes. So, I must conclude that: There are no coyotes left in Clinton County because Krueger shot them all, or Word is out that I am an excellent marksman and they all ran scared, or We have educated them enough that they aren't coming to our call, or It was too warm and early for them to be out this evening. Of cou...

Just last Friday night (two days ago) I saw a wild turkey fly down into the bottoms on Bailey's Hill.  I was driving back into town about 4:30 pm.  It was sitting on the S side of the creek along the top of the last hill before you hit the bridge.  It flew W to E and landed on Paddock's.  Awesome to start seeing them around. Last weekend, Krueger and I were headed S toward Indy.  We saw a Bald Eagle sitting in the tree line over on US 52 near SR 28.  The are being seen more frequently as well. Stock pictures.  I did not have time to get my phone out and take these...

From the deer we processed earlier in the season, Simpson's has finished our batch of venison salami.  Alex and I had to take a road trip to Young America to pick it up.  Of course we could not go without something to keep us hydrated. We dropped a bunch off at Uncle D.C.'s and chatted for a while.  Then we brought the rest home. However, we could not contain ourselves and since we had a cutting board and a knife - we chowed down. Taken in the parking lot.  No drinking & driving and  No open containers either. Besides, it's not safe to drive with an open knife. We're not THAT stupid!

RePhil and I again tried our luck at the course this Tuesday evening, Dec 11. This time RePhil walked down 10, past 11 & 12, and into the woods at the E end.  I stood over watch on Hole #16. It was a much nicer day.  Slight breeze, 35F, and clear. RePhil walked S to Jenkins, across the creek, and then back W to me.  It took 2 hours.  We saw nothing again. It was just a great evening to be out with friends and enjoying Nature.  At the end of the night, we thought we would cap it off with a nice cold brrrrew.  We were wrong... Remnants of snow, looking E on Hole #16. Sun setting over course on another great day to be out in the woods This is the cooler in the back of the truck. All FROZEN in a solid block of ICE. Thou shalt have no beer tonight!

It was a very cold & snow covered morning on Saturday, Dec 8th, like 20F cold.  Some of us dummies went out and tried to get some more deer. RePhil and I were on the course.  Davey was at the fertilizer plant. RePhil's alarm did not go off, so we got out late, about 7:30 am.  I went to hole #4 and RePhil walked to the bowl on hole #15.  We heard a shot to the N.  My best guess is that RePhil pushed all the deer out North and the hunter up there shot one.  This was later confirmed by the tracks in the field. We, on the other hand did not see any deer.  Squirrels, crows, hawks, and other birds, but no deer. I started texting RePhil about 8:30 seeking his insight to where the deer were hiding.  No response.  I asked if he was asleep.  No response.  About 9:30 I was cold enough and started to walk to RePhil and maybe push something his way. When I got to where RePhil was supposed to be, he was gone.  I searched up and...

Today is Sunday, DEC 2, 2018 and is the last day of firearms season for deer in Indiana.  I finally got to spend a day in the woods with RePhil.  I've been hunting all year with family and spent today with a friend. We hit the golf course at 6:45 and caught up until about 7:15.  We walked in and stayed until 10.  While the weather was nice (50F and breezy), we saw absolutely nothing.  Sure was pretty out there though. Sun coming up over #4's fairway. Had 2" of rain Saturday.  See the puddles? Walking out and calling it a day, looking down #17's fairway. Sure is pretty out here in God's Church. Since we were planning on getting a Christmas Tree at 1 with Nick, Shelby, and Mallory, I called Davey out to put a scope on his new muzzle loader and sight it in.  Well, we tried.  Scope is on, but we can't get it to hit paper.  So we called it as we were both busy.  We have all week to get it sighted in.  Looks like ole Da...

Cousin Shane is two weeks my younger, so we grew up tight.  Got our first BB guns and .22 rifles together.  And when we finally hit 13, our Dads took us deer hunting over the Thanksgiving holiday.  For the past 37 years, our Thanksgiving feast has been a cold ham sandwich in the deer woods with our fathers.  And as our kids grew up and showed interest, they started to tag along too. Well, Father Time has spoken and the "old men" think it wiser that they stay in where it is warm, where they don't have to walk 1/2 a mile to a stand, and what would they even do with a deer if they shot one?  They can't load it any more.  So this is how we celebrated Thanksgiving 2018 this morning - Yes, this is our breakfast.  And as you can tell, it was awesome! Our feast spread out all over the garage workbench. Ritz crackers, three types of cheeses, Hot Pepper Butter, two types of deer salami, Buffalo Trace & Colonel Taylor's bourbons, and lots of diff...

After getting up on the third ring of my alarm when my wife 'encouraged' me to get out of bed, I finally did.  I made it to the woods at 7:10.  Legal hunting light was 7:11.  Now don't get me wrong, I do not like walking into the woods when it's dark.  I know there are not supposed to be any other hunters on the property, but there are hunters to the S and E.  I do not want them mistaking me for a deer.  It's a really bad day when you get shot...today, though, I was pushing the limit and should have already been in the woods. The wind was blowing steady from the W on top, but in the bottoms it was calm with swirling winds.  It was 30 degrees out and overcast.  Overall a nice morning. As I was walking down the road to the woods, I saw a large deer cross the road in front of me.  It was too far away to call buck or doe, but it was most certainly not a monster buck nor a yearling.  Probably a 4 or 6-point buck.  It snorted when it ...

The gang all headed out for the golf course this morning for opening day of firearms season for 2018.  We did ok in the morning, bagging a small buck and a very large doe.  We went back out in the evening and bagged another three small anterless deer.  Five deer on opening day by four people - that's the definition of a great day.  Not sure we've ever had a better opening day... There were shots all over this morning - S, E, and N.  Folks were seeing deer, but not many were getting bagged.  Both S & E missed.  Not sure about N.  Hunters were in the woods though for sure! Reports from hunters on other properties: RePhil went out in the morning and didn't see anything.  He was bored and texted me a lot. Zach bagged him a nice buck - the one that never gave him a shot during archery season. Krueger got him a wall hanger, which you kinda hate to do because they get so expensive.  Beautiful 10-pointer! Davey didn't say if he was l...

RePhil, Davey, and I met A-A Ron in Sioux City, Iowa and drove to meet Kent Burget in Winnetoon, Nebraska for a long week-end of busting pheasants. Winnetoon is located just 20 miles S of the Missouri River and 2 hours due W from Sioux City in the NE corner of the state, or the middle of no where! The accommodations are fantastic.  Kent has a 4-bedroom, 3-bathroom, full kitchen "cabin."  We took some of our own food, but we also tasted some of the local cuisine as well. We hunted both public and private land, and saw more birds than we have seen in a long time.  Kent's two dogs, Layla & Bailey, worked great.  Lots of solid points.  If we would have been better shots, we could have limited out.  Alas, pheasant hunting is tough.  You walk through grass that is waist high to head high - because that's where the birds are. We ended up bagging 10, but the killing of birds was not our sole purpose.  It was being out with good friends, tellin...

So Krueger is doing some snooping around on the internet trying to figure out what barrel to put on his Thompson / Center (T / C) Encore muzzle loader.  The problem is that the trigger is not the best for precision shooting.  That leads to an investigation on what to do to improve the trigger function on the T / C Encore so that he could get excellent groups. Turns out that Mike Bellm's T/Cs provides multiple spring kits (at different poundages) for $20.  This turns out to be a Great Deal for 5 springs that will definitely improve your trigger function!  You can go to Mike's website to buy direct here:  https://www.bellmtcs.com/ Go to Store Categories -> Shop and pick the right spring kit for your gun and your preferred poundage. We order the Encore 2.5# spring kits and await their arrival.  Kruger comes over and we tear our guns apart - carefully. Thanks to the wonderful research tool that is YouTube, we utilized the following video to help u...

Deer Season in Indiana opened on 01 OCT for archery for the general public.  It has been way too warm to go sit and swat mosquitos, hoping for deer to be traveling around during the day.  So instead, we have been mowing the yards - plural. Finally, it has gotten cold enough to keep the bugs down and get the deer up, but Mother Nature also brought about 1.5" of rain.  Oh well, time to get into the woods. Alex came home from the high school volleyball sectional at CP Friday night and saw 8 deer feeding on Marshall's N woods.  We got up and rolled at 6:40 to head that way. Alex sat on Neal and I went to the bottom ground on Marshall's N woods.  Sunrise was at 7:54, so legal light was 7:24.  We were well on our way into the woods when it got to legal light. Yep, it was a bit chilly, but fortunately the wind was not blowing hard. I watched a nice-sized deer head E across a row of trees.  I snuck E to cut it off.  I waited for what seemed l...

Sandy and I heard a news report from the UK that 80% of the people surveyed were bored for 2 hours per day.  Not sure the population that they surveyed, but we looked at each other and said that we can't remember being bored.  And work goes so fast we are not bored there either.  Wow.  Who are these people? So we spent the weekend cleaning up the wood from the four trees we had dropped.  We hauled 5 wagon loads of wood and two trips of brush.  It was H-O-T.  But we did it without any complaints and we sure were not bored! Two pictures of the wood we stacked behind the barn. East side of barn facing South Now facing North If you find yourself getting bored, by all means give us a call.  We have plenty for everyone to do here on the Ranch!

So a local group of hornets decided to build a nest directly between the power line poles on the N side of the house (see earlier post).  I left them alone and they left us alone for most of the Summer.  I mowed by them without incident. In fact, I also mowed by the other two nests (one in lane and one at Nick's) without issue as well. But now it's time to clean up the trees we had felled due to the emerald ash borer.  It was too close to the nest and some of us were going to lose.  Unfortunately for the hornets, it was them. I took some pictures of the inside of the nest.  Well laid out.  Nature is awesome.  Hopefully some of the little guys went to the other nests and did not perish. At least the meter reader can check our electric meter now. The now open nest built directly below our electric meter. The remnants on the ground.

Posting a Shout Out to Mulberry Telecommunications (full disclosure of bias - I am on their board of trustees).  But they have a Honeywell security system that, for the money, is tough to beat. We have had our system installed now for about three months.  It includes door sensors (we installed 4), glass break sensors (we installed a ton), motion sensors (installed 1), smoke detectors (installed 4), and video cameras (we picked 0).  The installation fee is minimal and can be completed in just a few short hours.  Go check out the product on their website:   https://www.mintel.net/home-security Have we had any issues with the system?  None.  We have accidentally set it off four times of our own doing (me one, cats one, and wife two).  But those were all relatively early and getting use to the system.  It obviously works really well. So why did I pass on the cameras?  Because I wanted a wireless system that uses my network instead of r...

You always trust the Fat Guy when it comes to eating a great meal. I cut some jalapenos in half, cleaned them, stuffed them with cream cheese, and then wrapped them in duck bacon.  These I threw on the grill with ribeye steaks. I will make somebody a good wife one day.

Dove season opened up here in Indiana on Saturday, 01 SEP.  RePhil, Krueger, Davey, and I went to Tippecanoe County to try and rustle some up. We did, but not very many.  Seems they all wanted to be in the cattle feed lots and we did not have permission to hunt there.  We bagged about 7 that morning.  But hey, we had fun. RePhil.  Opening morning for doves. Then on Sunday, we held the annual hunt fest at the Ranch.  Again, not many doves.  I think the 8 of us ended up with 6 doves.  Really, we are not that bad of shots - there are just no doves here yet. We had a great breakfast of venison biscuits and gravy.  Since the birds were slow, we pulled out the trap and shot some rounds off.  It sounded like we were slaying the birds.  We were, they were just the clay type. Sykes out in the NE corner in the early morning. Alex, Zach, Nick, and Tony (goofballs). That's better - at least more suitable for publishi...