Said Goodbye to Sydney this Week

 She was almost 11 and had been fighting some illness for the last couple months.

 She enjoyed the farm.

She used to play a mean game of fetch with a tennis ball and thrower.

With the pumpkins after a shoulder surgery.

 Not quite a hunting dog but she enjoyed the farm.

 This is the way she liked to drive down the farm driveway.

 This is her older sister Ridley who was the family's first golden doodle.  Our daughter Amy lost Ridley recently too.

 They were pretty good buddies.

 Sydney was always great with the grandkids.

She was pretty chill.

 Joan sometimes tried to make her a girly girl.

Chloe will miss her too.

She liked the snow.

As dog lives go, she lived a pretty good one.

Grant's First Hunt

 Here's Dave and Grant heading to the main field stand.  Grant is carrying his crossbow.  Unfortunately, the deer didn't cooperate.  They didn't see anything and I saw three does.

 The stand that they hunted is the one that had the massive wasp nest.  We knocked it down and checked it out.

 Dave took a look at the carcass that we believe is a coyote kill.  It's still a little ripe but nothing like last week.

 Not much left other than hide and bones.  Nature is doing recycling at its most efficient.

 Dave did a European mount on his Michigan buck.  It came out great.

 I picked up my buck from last year at the taxidermist.  He does a nice job.  Tony's Taxidermy in Monroe.

 I got him to the farm and got him on the wall. 

 It was an appropriate time to reorganize since I hope to have my African mounts soon.  They've gone quiet on me again though.

The local decorating critics think that these could have been aligned better.  I explained that they are different size animals in different poses - didn't matter.

 I think That I have lots of room for 6 mounts from Africa.

 We had a delayed/overdue birthday celebration for Dawn.

Chloe will make herself at home in anyone's lap.

 Candy prefers her own lounger.

 27 degrees for the Sunday morning hunt.

 Very heavy frost.

 John hunted he pond stand last week.  I told him that I hadn't cleaned it yet and there are usually issues with birds.  He said "it wasn't bad".

 I got it cleaned up for his next visit.  I'm sure Laura will notice the difference.

 The pumpkin patch has been bush-hogged.  The boys helped me take the stakes down for the deer tape.

 It's on the early side of the change of colors but these maples are well on their way.

 Poop of the week - a buck bomb in the orchard.

I'm not sure how well it shows in this photo but the sorghum seed heads have all been eaten off on the field edge (left) but the center of the field is still intact.

Yeah, that's a camera.

 Out for the tour.

 Another salt block.

 Stopping for an apple on the way to the stand.

 John last week.

Slower activity on camera this week.  Coyote.

 Coyote

 Fox

Some decent bucks.  No sign of the big boys for a few weeks now.

 This is what Grant wanted to see and where he wanted to see it.  Two days too early.