Turkeys 1, Tom 0

It's turkey season.  It opened Monday but I didn't get out to the farm until Saturday.  It was almost noon and raining when we arrrived so hunting had to wait until Sunday morning.

 In preparation for the Sunday hunt, we had fleet (flock) exercises on Saturday.  It drove the dogs nuts.

Since it was raining, I decided to make some jerky.  Joan always appreciates the aroma.

The rain stopped and I went out to set up the turkey blind in a clearing on the ridge trail.  Dave saw some turkeys fly up to the roost near here during deer season one year.

Sunday morning sunrise - I heard one gobble on the walk in but he was pretty far off.

A pretty good thunderstorm came thru at about 8:00 so I walked back to the pond house, sat on the swing, had a cup of coffee and waited for it to pass.

Eventually I went back to the blind, then up to breakfast, then for a walk thru the atv trails calling, but I never heard another gobble.  This plant was in the clearing - is it hairy vetch?

I checked one of the cameras on the walk in.

And I climbed up in the hi-rise stand for a look.  The clover is coming back since I sprayed it for weeds.

Next I sprayed the fruit trees and then I spent the rest of the day bush-hogging.  I try to cut the entire field at least once per year to keep the trees from taking over.  I've been letting a few cedars live.

In the course of this mowing, I ran over this shed antler.  It looks like it was a pretty large 4 point at one time.

The day ended up clearing nicely by the time we left.

 Not alot of action on the trailcams.  A couple of bucks have sprouted about 4" antlers.

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The main thing showing up on camera was me.

Quiet Weekend

The weather turned cold and it was raining on Saturday morning.  I made a spin of the cameras and they were all still there (one stolen last week).  Here's a couple of shots that showed up on camera from last week.

Dave and the boys are out in the plowed field looking for worms (for fishing).  Dawn is obviously supervising the effort.

Here I am turning the field again about an hour later - might have been easier to find the worms then.

I took a walk around the "back 40" on Saturday.  Here's a rotten old beech.  I basically just hand cleared broken branches from the trails.

This iron post (painted orange) is a corner of the property way out from the barn.

There was a very localized "micro-burst" with up-rooted and broken trees.

I did find another turtle shell to add to the collection on the pegboard.

It took some doing, but I got a fire going to burn up some of the pruned fruit tree branches.

It is not recommended to wear synthetic fibers while working around fires.

Elk burgers for dinner.  Yum...

Sydney took watching from the bench to a new level.

In the last couple of weeks, both Dave and I have seen this red fox during daylight hours.

What do you think this is?  Skraggly fox?  Fox puppy?  Coyote puppy?  Neighbor's dog?

A turkey seems to pass by this camera in the evening quite frequently.  I heard a couple of gobbles this week.  The season opens tomorrow morning but I won't give it a try till next weekend.

This picture was interesting - that's a turkey in the middle and I believe that's a deer's ear on the right side.

A couple of coons out for the evening stroll.

And the ever-popular "checking the camera" shots...

Fiesty doe chasing youngsters off the mineral lick.

Dave, Dawn and the twins were planning to come out this weekend after the boys soccer game on Saturday.  The game got rained out so they made to the farm on Saturday afternoon.  Unfortunately, the rain followed them out.  We played cornhole in the barn for awhile and then decided to go for a ride to check the cameras.  Of course the skies opened up on us while we were out and about.

We did get some minerals spread before it started pouring on us.

As you can see, we were pretty wet by the time we got to this camera.

On Sunday morning, Dave had the boys try out their new BB gun. Dave had seen a red fox by the driveway earlier in the morning.

Holding off-hand is pretty tough but they managed to poke some holes in cups and bottles holding pond water.

After mastering the shooting range, the boys moved on to fishing.

There were some difficulties and the fish weren't cooperating - it seemed like they were still asleep.

The best way to wake up the fish is to chuck a few rocks in the pond.

The boys went for a hike in the woods and just as Graham was ready to collapse from exhaustion, I rescued them with the Ranger.  We took a tour and Dawn noticed this garter snake in one of the creeks as we were crossing.

On the tour we stopped to investigate a new crime.  One of the trailcams is missing - this is the spot where it used to live.  I have to assume that some trespasser took it.  It was one of my oldest ones that had been repaired twice - no great loss.  But I really don't like people on the property.

It used to be screwed into the tree right here.

There were lots of wildflowers out in the woods.

The dogwoods were blooming.

We had the first real picnic of the year for lunch.

I plowed a few fields (again).  I seem to be losing the battle with weeds in my clover plots.

Graham found this elm tree where the deer had stripped the bark.

Joan caught a few rays and read a book while I worked in the fields.

Turkey season opens a week from tomorrow.  The weather has been so warm this year I wonder if the mating season came early.  I didn't hear one gobble this weekend.

The bucks are just starting to grow their new antlers.

The does like the minerals too.

The evening parade - 5 out in the field.

Overnight on Saturday, somebody lifted their leg on the grill and left a large pile in the grass.  It appeared to be dogfood fed - probably the neighbor's lab.  We seem to have a real territory marking thing going on at my porch - coyotes, dogs, coons, etc.

I don't know why I included this Japanese maple from home - I just like this tree alot.

I saw this article and it sounded a little like me.  I'm not sure how long this link will work.

WSJ Article