It's Cold!

Most of the country is being hit with this cold blast.  It's worse in other places.  Chicago (Eric's house) has a foot of snow and -15F temps.  But it was 15F with 15mph winds here this morning and I chose not to hunt.  This photo gives a bit of flavor of what it's been like.

I've been nursing a tweaked knee since before Christmas.  Joan got me an appointment with her Dr (she has a knee replacement coming up).  At that point my symptoms were manageable, didn't seem like a tear.  Dr advised some PT and said that I could continue normal activities including walking and exercising.

I was kinda proud that I had some cartilage left in there.  So I went ahead and went to the gym on Friday and did the 2 mile camera tour on foot on Saturday.

It was a bit chilly and my knee started feeling worse.

Oh well, time will tell.  It's protesting weight bearing now.  Below is driveway field with brassicas still showing some green.

Main field clover down to the nubs.

This brassica field was a disappointment but there's still some green leaves in there.

The pond is completely full again.  I'm sure the low level in summer was due to additional evaporation due to this style of aerator.

After months of waiting (this clearly isn't a priority for the ATF - 10 months even with new electronic form submittal), we have received our new SilencerCo Hybrid 46M.  It is a little bit modular with different ways to configure it.  I had some trouble and written instructions were useless.  

Brass gizmo wouldn't come out.  Thanks to online AR forums leading me to a YouTube about the Omega model, I finally got it figured out.  That brass gizmo is a wedge and it just takes a little leverage with a screwdriver to break it loose.  Twisting it does not work. The finish on this thing is also surprisingly fragile - the supplied wrenches take it right off.  I haven't fired thru it yet but I got it configured for direct thread.

I did spend a cold Saturday evening in stand with my crossbow.

Nothing moved and I shivered (even with my heated vest).

Sunday morning sunrise from inside with a warm cup of coffee.

I did some chores.  I had an accumulated pile of cardboard to burn.

Most machines are on battery maintainers but the two that I use all the time aren't.  The Kubota barely cranked and I had to charge it to start it.  The big Ranger ran fine.

Lots of does on trailcam.

Not sure how they survive this weather.

I expected to start seeing some buck losing antlers.  This buck only has one but I think he has been that way all season. 

Others were intact.

Turkeys often disappear in the winter - I don't know where they go.  But these Toms showed up.  First turkeys in weeks.

The usual coyotes.

A couple?

The bobcat.

I wish them all luck with this weather.

Muzzleloader Season

I only made it out for one afternoon/evening.  The next morning when I planned to hunt, it was a deluge and wind storm.

I only got to check about 1/2 of the cameras.

And the only deer that I saw were 3 does that I bumped from their bed when I was checking cameras.

Previously I hunted crossbow for New Year (unsuccessfully).

But at least the dogs had a good run that day.

This confab of crows continues to show up.

At multiple locations.

I am no expert but think this is a flicker.

There are plenty of does around.

And a few bucks that I hope will be bigger next season.

Coyotes as usual.

A couple of poor bobcat photos.

Hope to get more time out there soon.

Buckless in Ohio for 2023

Happy New Year!  I spent NYE in stand trying to get my 2023 buck - but I had no luck. I had these two young does bleed out into the field. But when their Mom came out, she winded me and that was the end of it.  She went off honking into the woods announcing my presence to everyone in a one mile radius.

The brassica is still green and still attractive to the deer.

They've eaten a few turnips and radishes but they are mainly still eating the greens.

Snow/frost on the turnips in the morning.

I took both dogs for walks.  This is Daisy.

And she found this predator poop of the week. Notice all of the fur in it.

Later I took Violet for her walk.

And she found this candidate for poop of the week.  Another hairy predator bomb.  I don't know how to tell the difference from coyote to fox to bobcat.

Violet also posed to give some scale to this rub in the pine trees.

Meanwhile, in the barn, I found this in my muck bucket.  She loves to run.  Violet on Walk  More of Violet

I guess that they just climbed in there and couldn't climb out.

Photo from the bonus gun weekend.

I had swarms of these this week - crows?

They flushed out of some pines when I was walking in after dark.  Sounded like a fleet of bats.

Is this a flicker?

I decided to feature some of the young bucks who have made it past gun season.  

These are all ones that I wouldn't shoot and I hope to meet them in future years.

There's still a month of archery and 4 days of black powder season to go.

But they made it thru most of the hunting pressure.

I passed on a small 8 point like this in early archery season.

It was my only really legitimate chance this year.

At least I got my mule deer buck in NM.

We really need to take some more does.

There is no shortage and I see them virtually every outing.

In order to keep the balance and not overtax the environment, some need to be harvested.

I think that there are at least 8 in this shot.

The coyotes are also prospering.

They could use some population control too.

The bobcat(s) were prevalent this week.

One fox.

And a tribe of local canines.

I will still be trying in January but the odds are diminishing.

Welcome to 2024!