Chores and Progress

We finally got around to disposing of 20 years of tax returns, bank statements, and other miscellaneous stuff.  It's amazing how hard it is to burn big piles of documents.

I got a lot of bush-hogging done again this week.

Fighting back the encroachment of locust trees and Russian olives. I already let too many cedars get hold.

We've been struggling for two years to get the old John Deere to run well.  Van and his helpers have been thru carb kits, ignition wires, fuel filters, distributor cap and points.  We hauled it into Baxla Tractor and they replaced an ignition coil.  Van got this guy involved last Fall without success but he promised to come back.  He did this week and they found an obstruction in the fuel line ahead of the petcock and fuel filter.

Fingers crossed but they seem to have gotten it this time.  Van disked up three of my food plots and he said that it ran great.

I put Bubba the buffalo out.  I'm going to leave him up until I leave for Africa.  My plan is to just go down and shoot a magazine off at him at random times from random places.

I did 60 yards off sticks with the 300 grain Barnes load.

I can live with that (literally probably).

The next day I shot 4 more from 80 yards.  I got some wood with one of those shots.

And I painted the plate for next time.

I think that this is an Indigo Bunting.

I know that this is a Pileated Woodpecker.

I'm not sure what kind of hawk this is.

Here I am turkey hunting last week.

And on my way in with my gobbler.

After breasting him out, removing the fan, beard and spurs, I dumped the carcass here.

A couple days later, this parade of jakes walked by the carcass.

And the coyotes seem to have found it.

Two hours later, the carcass is gone but coyotes are still checking out the spot.

Over at this camera, there is a lot of bunny activity.

They are always hopping around here.

And that might explain the coyote activity.

But they get around pretty much everywhere.

I was just thinking last week that we hadn't seen a bobcat in awhile.

The turkeys are still active.

I heard gobbles while out with the dogs.

The deer are always nosing around.

Some of the does looking pregnant.

Some not.

Joan and I touring last week.

Warmer this week.

Blind Squirrel Scores!

 Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.

I started the morning walking around and calling.

I had some conversations but nobody came in.  I really have the most success with this idiot-proof friction call.

Eventually, I went in for breakfast and then decided to head out to the driveway stand where I killed a gobbler last year.  I set up my decoy, climbed in the stand, made a few calls, and then went quiet.  After awhile, I looked up and noticed that the wind had blown my decoy over.  The next thing I know, I've got a gobbler in full strut circling my blown over decoy.  He came in silent.

I shot him at 30 yards and he did a lot of flopping around.  I got down and finished him with a boot to the neck. He had flopped quite a few feathers out.

Seems like he lost some of the inside row of his fan.

Decent spurs.

Over 11" beard.

I breasted him out and salted down the beard and the fan.

That was a Sunday morning hunt.  

Joan and I toured Saturday afternoon.

Here she is in front of what we think are wild crabapples.

Joan took photos of most of the blooms.

Several varieties.

The dogwoods are in their glory now.

Most of the redbuds are past prime.

Late edit - I forgot to add these photos of what we typically encounter when driving trails in the spring.

And I managed to not get a saw stuck.

This was me spraying last week.  My on/off switch was flakey and I had to hold it to keep the sprays on.  That meant driving one armed.

The orchard field looks like a field of dead dandelions this week.  I think that there's still clover under there.

The main field looks no worse - some evidence of a few weeds dying.

This field was in between.  The thistle doesn't seem affected yet - hopefully it will be.

I got some bushhogging in to keep the trees from infiltrating.

And I did some shooting with the 375H&H.  This is 220 yards which I was trying for the first time with 250 grain CX bullets.  It was really windy and I was tweaking with scope settings.

The bottom target is 300 grain off sticks at 100 yards.  The top target is the 250 grain at 100 yards after swapping scopes.  And I tried the long shots aiming at the middle and only catching paper 1/2 the time.  More work needed.

Lots of little tadpoles in the pond.

They were strutting everywhere on the trailcams.

I'm not sure what this coyote has this week.  It looks like an apple or a ball.

You can see the pedicles (start of antlers) on these young bucks.

A crowd of does.