Sunday, September 26, 2010

Pumpkins and Twins

Dave, Dawn, Graham and Grant came out this weekend.  It was the archery opener, we had some pumpkins to harvest, and we were planning to relocate some stands.  The boys came straight from a soccer game and couldn't resist a little "king of the hill".


This gravel pile is for the cabin expansion that we hope to start tomorrow (Monday).  But, for the first time in about 6 weeks, they're predicting rain.














 Graham was kind of the farm boss - he supervised the loading.  Grant did most of the legwork.












 Graham was very methodical - there was a specific place for every pumpkin.

















 We had Mommy dressed in camo and she was passing the pumpkins to the farm boss.


















Grant and Dave were doing the hard work out in the pumpkin patch.










Eventually, Grant had to help with the loading strategy too.

And, we did a little touring.....

Archery Opener and Trailcams

This weekend was the opening of the archery season in Ohio.  Dave and I hunted Saturday night and Sunday morning.  Before we could hunt, I had to do my least favorite job - clear the wasps out of the hunting stands.  I used thre cans of wasp spray and only finished 3 of the 5 hunting stands.
This is the bottom of the stool from the one stand - both wasp nest and mud hornets.













Some of the wasp nests that I knocked out of one of the stands.  There were a pile of them.

I hunted in the driveway stand and there was still a pretty strong smell of insecticide.  I didn't think that I'd see any deer because of the smell but one doe came walking downwind and browsed in the soybeans for awhile.  I could see several deer up in the soybeans by the orchard - couldn't tell where they came from.  On the walk in at dark, I could see two bucks locking horns on the driveway under the pear tree.  It was too dark to see how big they were but I think they were pretty young.
Here I am heading out.  I like to stop and pick an apple to eat on the way.

Dave hunted the hanging stand and he saw 5 does and three tom turkeys.  He said the turkeys were huge with big beards and that they flew up to the roost right by the hanging stand.

In the morning, I hunted the ladder stand off the barn and didn't see anything but squirrels.  Dave hunted the box stand on the ridge and saw two does.  I hadn't cleared the wasps out of that stand  but I didn't hear any complaints from Dave.  Dave also saw his first grouse.

Sunday afternoon, Dave and I relocated a ladder stand from near the driveway stand to the opposite side of the field.  I found a nice shed in this area last winter and there's a pretty good deer trail inside the tree line.

We found a few new rubs while we were out and about.


Below are this weeks highlights from the trailcams.  I'm begining to get suspicious about the camera under the apple tree.  There are probably a hundred apples under there and I'm only getting a few shots in a week.  Something isn't right.






















Sunday, September 19, 2010

A Collage of Family and Friends at the Farm




I'm missing digital photos of several gatherings at the farm (Balough visits, Smith family Thanksgiving, etc).  If anybody has any, send them to me and  I'll add them.
Tom