Pumpkins, Food Plots and Pigeon Poop

We were away for two weeks and we finally got some rain.  Van dumped 0.4" out of the rain gauge on Thursday and this is what I found on Saturday.

It has been an extremely hot and dry summer.  I keep meaning to plot this rain trend versus previous years.

When I went to the pumpkin patch, this is the first thing that I saw.  A deer had been inside the plotsaver tape and had eaten this pumpkin.  I was pretty worried about the big Prizewinner pumpkins since they got nibbled last year.

Luckily, they were untouched.  This is the biggest one - I don't know if it's still growing.

This one isn't quite as big.  There are still more growing on these vines.

I didn't see any other deer damage in the plot.  There were pumpkins at all stages of development.  This one was still green.

Some were already orange.

I decided to triple protect the big ones with plotsaver tape. We will be out next weekend but then we will not be back for a couple of weeks.

The ornamental gourds also look good.

There are several varieties.

I'm not sure what we will do with these things but Joan wanted some.

Next I decided to tackle the pigeons that moved into my hunting stands.  They made an absolute mess out of the hi-rise stand.

There had to be 20 pigeons living in here.  Amy says that pigeon poop carries asome nasty stuff that causes lung disease so I was very careful.

All equiped for pigeon poop patrol.

I was taking the stuff out of there with a shovel.

I decided to dispose of the carpet that was in there.

I got it pretty well cleaned up and then I put netting over all of the openings.  I only did the one stand - I'll have to get the others next week.

The soybeans in the orchard field look pretty good.  I used plotsaver tape to let them get established before the deer devour them.

Outside the tape, they eat the leaves and leave the stalks.  I took the tape down and the deer can get in the whole field now.

This is the sunflower field that was a total loss.  I planted some deer food and it looks like it's germinating after the rain.

The lone surviving sunflower did manage one blossom in spite of being eaten by the deer.

The driveway stand soybeans never got established and weeds were taking over.

I decided to plow it under.  I'll try planting clover here next week.  It's getting late for planting but it's worth a try.

I liked my birthday camera so much that I bought myself another one.  Here I am after just setting in up.

I put it on a cherry tree down in the valley near where the main trail crosses the creek in front of the valley stand clearing.

The Ranger is parked at a trail intersection and the camera is on a tree behind the bed.

First customer at the new camera.

While I was out touring, I found this huge oak tree snapped off on the edge of a neighbor's field.

It looks like it was just wind - no lightening signs.

Absolutely splintered the wood.

Nice sunrise Sunday morning.

The woods are starting to look like Fall.

The pond is still really low.

Vitamins for the deer.

On an atv tour of the cameras.

Lots of fawns around - several sets of twins.

Let this be a warning to any pigeons who are considering take up residence in my hunting stands - squatters will be shot on sight!

 On two separate days this camera was covered like this - bug? leaf?