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.