Last Day of Turkey Season

The cameras are still showing alot of strutting but I'm not hearing many gobbles.  These are from my newest camera.

I did some mowing on Saturday afternoon and I think I almost ran over a nest.  A rather disturbed looking hen came busting out of the high grass.

I got some mowing done and one field planted before the thunderstorms rolled in.  I had good intentions of getting up to hunt on Sunday morning.

When the alarm went off, I could still hear the rain on the roof so I went back to sleep until 6:30.

It was wet and foggy so I didn't rush to go out to hunt.  I fed and walked the dogs and finally headed out at 7:30.  The fog was starting to lift.

I hunted until 9:30 and never heard or saw a bird so I decided to come in for breakfast.

This is one of my new fields that I was hoping to get planted.

The clover in the driveway field isn't a lost cause but it also isn't doing great.

I was worried that it was all weeds but there is some clover in there.

This is the orchard field and I think that I'll do soybeans again.

Another new field - probably forage turnips and/or sunflowers.

This is the field that usually has sunflowers.

This is the pumpkin patch.  I had hoped to plant a few early things but the rain got here too soon.

This is my new sunflower field.  I decided to put it right outside the dining room.  I did get it planted and I got the deer barrier up

This week I had the fertilizer delivered and spread.  This is the first time that I've used this spreader service.  Normally Van rents a spreader trailer.

In spite of my spraying, some of the clover fields are over-run with weeds.  I'm hoping that the combination of mowing and time delay effect from spraying works.

Pond stand field looks the best but still has lots of weeds/grass.

The red apple germination looks quite successful.

The green apples don't look quite as dense.

One of the pear trees is great and the other one isn't.

This cherry tree looks about dead - sorry Dad.

Below the hi-rise stand.

Barn stand.

While grilling ribs we got this rainbow in between downpours.

The pond is muddy and full.

Selected camera shots over two weeks.

Red fox.

Coyote.

Raccoon.

Groundhog.

More turkeys.

There seems to be alot of interest developing in this branch.

See what I mean?

This buck is starting on new antlers.

Looking pretty pregnant.

Munching on tree leaves?

Typical doe party.

Twins?

The neighbor's Lab (he's a regular).

Spraying two weeks ago.

Camera tour - two had dead batteries.

I think that it will be two weeks or more until I'm back.  Then it will be time to plant the pumpkins.

Turkeys, Deer and More

This week, we went to Ann Arbor for my niece Sheryl's MBA graduation from U of M.  We got home Saturday evening so I headed to the farm by myself on Sunday.  On Monday I will be in Pittsburgh for a steel conference so the farm is on the way (sort of).

When I pulled in at the farm, The main field was full of turkeys, several of them in full strut.  When I checked the cameras, there were losts of shots.  I decided to just post most of them.

Afternoon.

Evening

Afternoon

Evening

Morning

Afternoon

Evening

This is my decoy set up - a hen and a jake.  I hunted for about 2 hours without any luck.  I guess that I scared them off when I drove up the driveway.  Although when I was filling up an atv with with gas, a hen walked right thru the orchard. After today, there is a new rule allowing afternoon hunting.  Unfortunately, I'll be travelling for a couple of weeks.

I decided to spray the food plots with some weed killer and I had a couple of issues.  First, there was a dead bat on my gas nozzle.  Then, when I put the nozzle in the tank, the pipe fell off of the nozzle into the tank.  I made a pretty wimpy effort at trying to fish it out and then decided to leave it for Van.  He'll have a clever way to retrieve it I'm sure.  It didn't bother anything in there while I sprayed the fields.

 The cameras also had some predators this week.  Coyotes showed up twice. 

 They will be slinking around looking for newly born fawns and also turkey poults.

The fox would like to find those turkey eggs.

I think it's a month or more until the does have their fawns but some of them are looking pregnant.

The ones that were too young to breed last Fall are just looking scrawny after a hard winter.

This is an older looking buck and his pedicles are starting to show signs of growing new antlers.

A younger looking buck.

Here I am spraying the fields with an atv that has an extra pipe in its tank. This is a new trailcam that I picked up on sale at Cabelas in Dundee MI.  I have a couple cameras on their last legs.

I got a few chores done before it started to sprinkle at about 6:00.  Disked plots again in addition to spraying for weeds.