Look What I Found!

We arrived Saturday morning - Joan woke up early and caught me off guard.  I'm usually all packed and ready when she gets up.  When we got to the farm  it occurred to me that I didn't have the dog's bag (food, prescriptions, etc). After a little scrambling around we got the prescriptions replaced and other food purchased (the selection in Peebles, OH isn't great).

It's ladybug time of year.  They are swarming everywhere.  They aren't real ladybugs - they're some kind of non-native species that was introduced years ago to control some other bug.

We had extremely high winds on Halloween.  The majority of the remaining apples fell off the trees.  My ground blind also blew away but I recovered and reconstructed it.

I hunted Saturday night in the driveway stand.  The clover is really lush.

Looking down on the scrape.

Looking out toward the gate.

I had 5 does and a spike buck hanging around for about 1/2 hour.  I could hear more deer in the woods behind me but they never came out.

Sunday morning I hunted the ground blind.  I thought all of the apples might attract some attention.  No luck. Might of had something to do with taking the dogs out to pee before hunting.

So I went for a walk and stopped at the hi-rise stand for a look about.

I got busted by some does when I climbed up the stairs.  That alarm honk can make you jump.

It was a nice Fall morning.

I headed down the ridge trail, past the ridge stand, and then went down the hill to the creek bottom.

Right beside the creek I found this - the carcass of a nice buck.  The rack was completely intact - no rodent nibbles. The skull was picked pretty clean - no eyes and just a little hide left.  The spine was there and part of the rib cage - no sign of hoofs or other body parts.  I'm guessing he was a couple days old and the crows and coyotes had been working on him.

I'm guessing it was wounded by a hunter and not recovered.  It was too fresh and intact to be the high 8 that I shot and lost last year.  And it was a 9 point due to a crab claw.

I severed the spine and recovered the skull and rack.

A pretty nice buck that I don't think had showed up on my cameras.

I watched a YouTube video on making a European mount and I decided to boil him up.

The bugs and maggots had already picked him pretty clean. About an 18" spread.

Boiled, picked, and boiled again in Dawn dish soap. Next week I will try to bleach him with peroxide.

This guy was on camera this week - could be a brother.  Also a crab claw 9 point but on the other side.

Not quite as large a rack either.

I had 150 shots on the apple tree camera but they all looked like this - the flash isn't working.  Prime time with all the apples down but no flash.  It's under warranty - we'll see how that goes.

Coyotes still around - this before flash died.

Works fine in daylight.

More coyotes.

Turkeys.

Joan and I toured on Sunday afternoon.  She checked out the view from the new stand in the main field.

The bucks are heating up.  Lots of rubs which kills the trees that I plant.

The brassica over seed in the soybeans worked pretty well in some spots.

Can't believe that these persimmons are still on the tree.  Right beside driveway stand.

Black walnuts on the ground.

I'm not sure what these seeds are - they were on my 200 yard shooting bench.

Poop of the week - coyote again. Seeds and fur.

I got out the muzzleloader.  These two shots were from the 200 yard bench.  We're good.

Elk meat arrived this week.  They forgot to include the sausage so another box will come this week.  About 150 pounds total.

Stopping for an apple when hunting.

Camera checks.

Last week's walk.

I moved the hanging stand this week.  It's now over sort of near this camera.  Only about 3 weeks till gun season.