Dave's 2009 Buck - Mount Finally Done

 Dave had some taxidermist trouble but he finally got his mount from his 2009 buck.  We were starting to wonder whether he would ever get it back.

Here he is on the day of the harvest.
12/5/09

Dave is so proud of his mount that he's constructing a special man-room to display it.  And besides, Dawn wasn't too keen on animal heads in the living room.  Those other racks are from an exotic species - Michigan Mini-Deer.

Trailcams, Late Season Bucks and Other Stuff

First day of Spring and the mini-daffodils were blooming behind the target stand.

I found this skull down in the woods.  I suspect that it is from a fawn.

The clover is green and looking pretty good.  I sprayed the clover fields with Poast today to control grass.  It might be a little early for this but I probably won't be back for a month or more (Joan's surgery is Wednesday).  I also sprayed the fruit trees.  I'm worried about the cherries - they look bad.

Two losers in fights earlier in the season.  Both of these bucks have broken antlers.

Corn attracts both the deer and the raccoons.

Fox.

Somebody's barn cat out for a stroll?

Looks like more raccoons in the making.

Fox again.

Red fox or dog?

We had one turkey come to the bird feeder yesterday (right outside the dining room window).  This morning there were a dozen or so in the clover at the barn stand.

That's all for now....

Shed Antlers - Got the Backward Buck!

I covered alot of ground this weekend.  I walked deer trails all over the property - several miles for sure.  But I only found two antlers and they were both in sight of the barn.

The backward buck dropped his unique antler in the soybeans right beside the turnips and close to the apple trees.

You can get a good idea where it was from this picture.  This guy was taunting me all season and I guess he's keeping it up even after the season is over.

To give you some idea of the size of this thing, here it is with two other shed antlers that I picked up this year and also a teaspoon (for Joan's grapefruit - she was quite pleased to find these things on the breakfast table).

This is the other one that I picked up today.

This season's collection.

The most impressive thing about the backward buck was its brow tine.  Wider than two of my fingers and 5" tall.  The main beam was about 23" and shaped like a "U".  It had 5 typical points, the backward tine (4 1/2"), and 4 stickers.  At least one of the stickers was score-able.

I'll be looking for him again next year....