Beautiful Fall Weekend

The hunting wasn't that great though.

 Our friend Chris had some success at his place about a week ago.  His first archery doe.  It was 122 pounds field dressed. 

 Our big boy made one appearance on camera this week.

 This is one of the "wide 8's" that I've been seeing.

He posed nicely for the camera.

Gave us a number of different angles.

But I especially like this one where he showed up in daylight.

 Poop of the week - a buck bomb from one of those guys.

 Bonus poop of the week - a coyote pile.  As I was photographing this on Sunday morning, a buck ran by me about 15 yards away.  He wasn't spooked and didn't notice me.  He was just on a mission to chase a doe or something.

 I think this was probably the buck that ran by me.  Here he is on another morning in about the same area.

I sat in the main field hi-rise on Saturday night.  I could se 250 yards in three directions covering 5 large food plots.  Not one deer showed up.  I can't explain it.  A couple of mutts ran thru just before sunset and might have been part of the problem.  Dave didn't see anything from the hanging stand either.  Here we are Sunday out on a tour.

 We found lots of rubs.

 Some of them quite large.

 Also several scrapes.

Only a little evidence of eating the turnips.  That field is largely untouched so far.

 I bush-hogged the pumpkin patch and the deer cleaned up some of the remnants.

I was standing about in the shadow of that stand when the buck ran by along that tree line.

Gorgeous sunny clear weekend.  A little too warm for great deer movement but should have been good enough.

Some of the pumpkin decorating at home.

Urns at the front door.

Various pumpkins and gourd varieties.

 Also out in the gardens.

 Fall is here.  The leaves will be gone soon.

Even in the kitchen.

I found these old shots on one camera card - from last month.

 The boys had the flag football Super Bowl this weekend.

Touring with Joan and Dave.

 Still lots of turkeys.

 The mutant is still on the loose.

A few other bucks are about also.

Maybe next week.

Not Quite Prime Time

 We came out Saturday morning, I did some chores, and then I headed to the driveway stand for the evening hunt.  I thought it might be good - it had cooled off to the 50's after a front came thru.

But the wind was blowing 10-15 mph and it rained off and on.  I ended up seeing one little doe.  Disappointed.

Sunday morning was better.  I went to the barn stand.  At about 7:50, a buck ran across the end of the field from one group of pines to the other.  He seemed to be on a mission and grunting didn't stop him. He was about an 18" 8 point with good mass on the main beams.  Later this lone doe came out and kept looking back.

 I moved to the ridge stand and didn't see anything else before I went in for breakfast.

 I did push a few does on my walk up the atv trail.

The clover in the pond field is in good shape.

 I can see a pretty good crop of acorns and persimmon.

 One of the new chicory plots - spotty but good.

 I have 2 acres of oats and turnips that are awesome.

That's a needle-nose pliers for size reference on the turnips.  They haven't been eating them much yet because there are lots of alternatives.  This stuff will be good late into the season.

 As I was walking in at 9:45, I pushed a coyote right down the driveway.  I think he had been feasting on these pears that fell in the driveway.

 There are some rubs but not as many as I've seen some years.

I think they're just warming up.

 They do pick on the pine trees.

 This is a field edge scrape right by the driveway stand.  Licking branch above.

 Hoof scrapes in the ground.

View from the main field toward the barn.  Chicory in front - turnips behind.

 From the pond stand - leaf color change in progress.

I got the camo netting stapled back down in most of the stands.

 360 rotation from pond stand.

Back toward the barn.  The pond aerator has crapped out.

This was the pumpkin patch.  I harvested the last of the good pumpkins and gourds and then bush hogged the field.

 This was the sunflower field.  I mowed it down and scattered those seeds for the birds.

 My one camera was goofed up and its internal memory was full from weeks ago.  This was one of the shots on it.

 Only 5 days on the cameras so not a lot of buck action.

And most of them weren't too impressive.

 Still had lots of coyote action - this one has an apple.

 There were a lot of turkey photos.

They were on this camera every day.

 But they got around to other cameras too.

 My camera run.

I was in Costco and saw a Stealthcam for $99 including battery and card.  This is my test shot with it.  We'll see how it does. I thought that I set the date and time.

A dinky buck in daylight at the ridge stand.