The Hunting Times

 Today was the Albitz family Thanksgiving (Sandy's side) at a local church in Frankfort.  It started at 1 pm.  After which, I went up to Young America to retrieve the deer we had processed with Frank last week.  Nick went out to Marshall's N woods.  Davey and Michael were at the S woods. I told Nick to text me if he got anything and I would drive out and help him load it up.  He texted well after dark that he jumped two doe walking in, but no shots taken.  He did see 5 driving home. I got a call from Michael at 5:15 that Davey had a nice buck down and they needed the gator.  I loaded it up and joined them on the S farm - and I myself saw 4 deer driving out there.  We drove the gator down to the deer and loaded it up and then they hung it in the barn, to be turned into Frank tomorrow for processing. At this point, Davey should have already checked his deer in online with the State.  If he has not, he'd better because it's now posted on th...

 Alex and I left at 6:30 am.  It was a balmy 17 F with 18 mph winds.  This puts the wind chill (or felt temperature) a 1 F ( -17 C).  Cold.  GD Cold.  We arrived at the golf course and no one else was around.  Imagine that. We stayed until almost shooting light as we both wanted to walk in able to shoot if we saw something.  This time, I headed S off Hole #1, E down holes 3 & 4, where I paused on the #4 tee box.  About that time, a nice buck came across from the N to S going off property without every looking up, nor was he in a true hurry.  I found out later that this same buck busted Alex on Hole #16 as Alex was walking in.  The buck snorted, garnering Alex's attention.  Alex cursed mentally, dropped to a knee, and pulled the buck up in his scope.  What was in the background beyond Alex's target?  The restrooms.  No shot could be safely taken and so it was not.  The buck spooked and ran past me crossin...

 Eric came over after work and he and I loaded up for the golf course, arriving about 4 pm.  Yes, it was still cold, but at least the wind had died down a bit.  As we got out of the truck, I grabbed my gloves, you know, the ones from Saturday's snow storm, and they were soaking wet.  I had dried, cleaned, and oiled the guns but did not pull my gloves out of my coat pockets to dry them.  Sadly, I walked into the woods without gloves.  Live and learn.  You know how you get good experience?  From bad experiences.  Check. Eric walked S, then E, then N to the bottom of 15.  I waited for him to get settled before I walked in on 16, so if I were to bump something, it would hopefully run to him.  I saw nothing in the two hours we had remaining - except a beautiful sunset.  Eric had one doe walk up the property line and then head E, so not shots to be had. Eric walked back to me along the cart path.  When he reached me, we were all...

 We all checked in our deer on the Indiana Deer Check-in website, which BTW is easy and awesome.  Thus, we are 100% legal to process these deer as we wish.  We wish to not do them ourselves.  So Sunday afternoon, I take them (with the tags) up to Young America to have Simpson's processing do it for us.  They are very reasonable when it comes to price and you get your own deer back! I arrive expecting to chat with the owner, Frank, whom we have been dealing with for the better part of 30 years or more.  I pull in from the W, as I always do, and the alley is blocked.  Ok, I turn around and drive in from the E, only to see orange cones and signs up - and deer stacked all the way out to the alley.  That's a lot of deer! The signs said something to the effect that they had too many deer to process today, so come back tomorrow after 10 am.  Wow!  It's a good season already and everyone has figured out that Frank is a good value when it comes t...

 Me, Nick, Alex, and Myers met here at the Ranch at 6:30 and drove to the golf course.  We walked in at 6:45.  It was 35 oF with strong winds out of the W-NW, sometimes from due N, sometimes from straight W.  We saw a doe on the road driving to the course, so already it was a good day.  And as we pulled in, we could see the snow just starting. Alex headed for overwatch on Hole #5.  Nick went into the woods on Hole #16.  Eric dropped into the bowl on Hole #15 and I headed off to the tee box on Hole #14.  Before the boys could even split up, there were deer standing on Hole #5's green.  Close enough for a shot, but it was up at about 45 degrees with no idea what lay beyond.  Not knowing what was behind their target, no shots were fired (wisely)! Walking up the #9 driveway, looking up to #5's green. Two doe standing up there. Here's the same picture zoomed in so you can see the deer. I stood behind a tree the best I could to get out of the ...

 Pa Jerry bought a speed boat for the pond - and yes, it is battery operated.  He took Will and Hadley over for a spin.  No one enjoyed it at all!  Shout out to Mark Mongin for managing the pond - and by that I mean controlling the weed population.  He does great work. Alex launching the boat on her maiden voyage. Hadley and Will receive operating instructions from Pa Jerry. Hadley driving the boat Will takes her for a spin as Pa Jerry watches

 I got up early Saturday morning and made some venison biscuits and gravy.  Folks showed up at 0700 to eat and we headed for the fields at 7:30 or so. Zach and Eric sat at the N side of the sunflowers where I had not sprayed but had mowed a path for the birds.  Kathy & Alex took Will & Hadley to the S side of the sunflowers, where I had sprayed and also mowed a path.  Sykes and I went to the pond.  Mojo decoys were flapping all around. The Martin family hunting together Will and Hadley ready to hunt some mourning doves. Hadley marching off to her sit spot with chair and BB gun Doves were flying, but they were slow.  Not at all like opening day down South.  And I will share that more shots were taken than birds in the pot. I think the total ended like this: Zach = 4, but that includes 1 split with Eric and 1 split with Kathy Kathy = 1 split with Zach Eric = 1 split with Zach Alex = zero (never fired a shot) Craig = zero (took one long shot over ...

 RePhil, Davey, Michael and I left Mulberry @ 5:15 am on Thursday, September 1 - opening day for mourning doves in Indiana.  We drove down to the SW of Clinton, Indiana to some private ground that used to be a strip mine.  Reclaimed it's now a camping ground, lake, and hunting area.  It took us 2 hours to get there. We arrived at 7:15 and the doves were already on the gravel.  We parked the truck and RePhil had to get rid of some coffee while the rest of us unloaded the truck.  The doves could not help themselves, they just kept coming in. We set up the decoys right at the edge of the gravel / grass area, sadly facing into the sun.  Davey and RePhil walked about 20 yards South to the campers and used them as "cover."  Michael sat next to the boat and I just plopped my bucket down right next to the truck - using the tailgate to hold my "beverages." And boy did the doves come!  In flocks of 20, 30, 40 and 50 - dive bombing the decoys.  We ...

 Nice morning outside today.  63F (17 C) and not overly humid.  Nice August weather for Indiana!  Krueger showed up at 6:30 am and we headed for the Amphitheater.  We started our ride at 7:02 am, which is before sunrise, but we were able to see okay.  Wouldn't you know it, we were the only ones there!  It was nice not having to worry about joggers, other bikers, or dog walkers.  We could go as fast or as slow as we wished. We did four laps.  Two were relatively slow.  On the third one, we raced up the last hill in an attempt to set personal bests for the climb out.  And on the fourth lap we increased our pace.  I can tell you that my body could take it (lungs, legs, arms) but my bike could not - and by that I mean that I had lost some dexterity because I was getting tired. Of note, on the race up the hill, I did bounce off a tree.  Never fell off the bike and did set a PR! We ended up logging 14.56 miles (23.4 km) in just ...

Great idea.  Poor execution.   We have a fireplace in our home.  No mystery to anyone who knows us.  When we burn, the ashes remain in the fireplace, but we have a trap door and we can scoop the ashes into a pit below (in the basement).  All is good and well until said ash pit fills up.  It's full now.  Last time it was cleaned out?  20 years or more.  So yep, we got a lot of ashes down in that pit. Instead of opening up the door to the pit down in the basement, scooping out ashes into 5 gallon buckets and hauling them out through the house, I got the great idea that I could vacuum them out. So I took the top off my ShopVac (TM) vacuum and installed it on top of an old trash barrel.  I cut a hole in the lid and used duct tape to make a good seal.  I cut a hole in the side and stuck in the hose.  It worked, but it lacked power. Please note that I set this contraption Outside, in the back of the Gator and then ran just the h...

 For a few years now, we have owned the Ambient Weather Station model WS-2902C.  It works rather well - except when you need to connect that SOB to a new router.  Lord have mercy! I did a search on YouTube and found this helpful set-up guide by user Just A Dad:   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXHHJ4UmAGE Follow those steps and it MAY work.  I tried multiple times over an hour and could NOT get the dang thing to connect.  Why did I have to reconnect?  Because we updated our home router and the weather station was not accessing the Net. I finally went to the App Store to see if maybe I did not get a recent update or something on my iPhone.  Nope.  All good.  However, the app has an average of 1.8 stars.  I read the comments and could not agree more - it's a royal pain in the arse to get that thing to connect.  It seems you just have to hold your mouth right.  I did try all the suggestions to no avail. What finally wor...

 The sweet corn is coming on like gangbusters now.  Sandy picked over 30 dozen ears yesterday and that's not including all we have eaten or given away already - and that's only HALF of the crop.  I think we may have finally figured this deal out - well after a mishap early on with too much herbicide.  I will just say, it's probably best to go with the manufacturer's recommendation and not what "experts" think you should apply.  Long story short - we almost didn't get any sweet corn! Along with that, the sunflowers are starting to bloom.  They're looking good.  This was by a happy accident and not good planning.  While we did get the grass burned off, the ground fertilized and tilled appropriately, and planting in early, there was an issue with a chain on one of my planters.  Thus, only half of the sunflowers got planted.  This is a good thing though as if they all got put into the ground, they would have been way overcrowded.  As it...

 Posting some pictures from the Farm this July 2022.  Still hot and dry here.  Need some rain.  All these shots were taken on an iPhone 13 Pro Max.  Enjoy the photos. Moonrise at 9:10 pm on Tuesday, July 12th (no zoom) Same photo, same location, same time, 4.1X zoom Same photo, same location, 15X zoom. Sunset, same night (just facing W now, duh).  9:12 pm. Now it's 9:18 pm.  4X zoom. Papaw has a Monkey on his back! That's Wes, our youngest grandchild (2.5 yrs) Went on a Family Run-Away (reunion) to French Lick and took an animal safari.  They had two bears.  Here's one of them bathing. Yes, we were close, but you can see the electrical fence "saving our lives!"

 Just catching up on posting some photos taken around the farm this July.  Spring started out really wet and quickly turned to drought conditions - as you shall soon see.  Enjoy the photos.  Captions included. This was taken at 10:06 pm (22:06) on Friday, July 1st. Beautiful sunset, but it's TEN O'CLOCK at night! This was Kathy's extended family enjoying the fireworks on Sat. July 02. You can see the sun reflecting off the house. Yep, it's 9:13 pm (21:13) And now I am driving back to Nick's to run his puppy.  The next three photos are same day, same sunset, Saturday, July 2nd, at approximately 9:15 pm. Taken from Kathy's driveway - pond on left in photo. Now taken from lane. Still in lane, just a little further N to capture Big Red. Grandma taking two of the grandkids on an adventure. Note the condition of our lawn from total lack of rain. Coming back from our adventure. Don't worry.  We didn't "lose one" as he's with me.