Blind Squirrel Scores!

 Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.

I started the morning walking around and calling.

I had some conversations but nobody came in.  I really have the most success with this idiot-proof friction call.

Eventually, I went in for breakfast and then decided to head out to the driveway stand where I killed a gobbler last year.  I set up my decoy, climbed in the stand, made a few calls, and then went quiet.  After awhile, I looked up and noticed that the wind had blown my decoy over.  The next thing I know, I've got a gobbler in full strut circling my blown over decoy.  He came in silent.

I shot him at 30 yards and he did a lot of flopping around.  I got down and finished him with a boot to the neck. He had flopped quite a few feathers out.

Seems like he lost some of the inside row of his fan.

Decent spurs.

Over 11" beard.

I breasted him out and salted down the beard and the fan.

That was a Sunday morning hunt.  

Joan and I toured Saturday afternoon.

Here she is in front of what we think are wild crabapples.

Joan took photos of most of the blooms.

Several varieties.

The dogwoods are in their glory now.

Most of the redbuds are past prime.

Late edit - I forgot to add these photos of what we typically encounter when driving trails in the spring.

And I managed to not get a saw stuck.

This was me spraying last week.  My on/off switch was flakey and I had to hold it to keep the sprays on.  That meant driving one armed.

The orchard field looks like a field of dead dandelions this week.  I think that there's still clover under there.

The main field looks no worse - some evidence of a few weeds dying.

This field was in between.  The thistle doesn't seem affected yet - hopefully it will be.

I got some bushhogging in to keep the trees from infiltrating.

And I did some shooting with the 375H&H.  This is 220 yards which I was trying for the first time with 250 grain CX bullets.  It was really windy and I was tweaking with scope settings.

The bottom target is 300 grain off sticks at 100 yards.  The top target is the 250 grain at 100 yards after swapping scopes.  And I tried the long shots aiming at the middle and only catching paper 1/2 the time.  More work needed.

Lots of little tadpoles in the pond.

They were strutting everywhere on the trailcams.

I'm not sure what this coyote has this week.  It looks like an apple or a ball.

You can see the pedicles (start of antlers) on these young bucks.

A crowd of does.

Spring Chores Plus Turkeys and Yotes

I always stock some forage fish (fathead minnows and golden shiners) in the spring.  And I usually add a couple of grass carp and some bluegills.  Occasionally a couple bass.  To do this, I stop at Jones Fish Jones Fish Hatchery

They have quite the facility and selection.

They bag the fish up and insert oxygen in the bag for the transport.  I can put a couple bags in a cooler and then I haul them down to the pond in the Ranger.  Check out our white crabapple tree.

I float the bags for a little while and gradually add some pond water so that the transition isn't too abrupt.

I also planned to spray some fields this weekend.  I have been experimenting using Imox (or Octavio) on my clover fields.  It's expensive and I'm not sure it's worth it.  To use it, they recommend using a product called Nitro-surf with it.  I ordered both from Keystone Pest Keystone Pest.  I've been getting my Butyrac from them for years. Anyway, The box came, I drove it out to the farm, opened it, and found this instead of Nitro-surf.

I went back to the website and looked to be sure - this is what Nitro-Surf looks like.

So there I was at the farm.  Had the right weather. I wanted to try to get it sprayed earlier this year.  I'd read that timing was important.  So I drove into Rural King in Waverly where I knew I could get some surfactant and nitrogen fertilizer to try to make my own Nitro-surf.  And this was the result.

I did make a tank mix of Imox, nitrogen fertilizer, surfactant and clethodim.   If my clover fields all die, we'll know why.  I measured by eyeball.

It was a little windy for spraying but I did it anyway.  I also hit a couple of fallow (weedy) plots with Roundup (generic).

Work in process.

I found myself having to hold my sprayer on/off switch to keep the spray going which left me driving one armed.  This is why - I need a new switch.

I also got in a decent walk.

Things are starting to green up out there.

It's amazing how many random old dump sites there are in the woods.

The redbuds are starting to look near peak.

I think it could be another week.

These red crabapples are getting there too.

The old orchard is showing it's age. A cherry and an apple are on their last legs.

The coyotes were everywhere this week.

A successful hunter.

Do you think it was one of these?

Turkey season opens next weekend.

They've been gobbling and strutting for weeks already.

And the deer are starting to see some benefit from the green up.

Neighborhood dogs.

Don't think that I'll plant the big pumpkin patch this year.  The Africa trip will get in the way of tending it.