Winter Blast In Process

Probably only the people in Florida will have any sympathy.  The rest of the country is getting it too - maybe even worse.  But this is winter in Ohio - the real deal.

We went wanted to get home before the snow rolled in on Saturday evening.  15" total predicted between Saturday and Sunday.  But what comes after is worse - a long spell of really cold weather.

I hunted Friday night.  Here I am heading to stand at a balmy 20F.

The wind was blowing at about 10 mph and I couldn't take it anymore - so here I am heading in before 6:00 and it's 11F.

In the meantime, I sat in the driveway stand and shivered.

I also got a new phone this week - I replaced my iPhone 14 with a new iPhone 17pro max.  As an example of it's capabilities, here's a view down the atv trail from the stand.

And here's a zoom in down the trail.

I had the "romper room" of spike bucks come out for a visit.

They hung around for awhile before heading up to the main field.

I was freezing so I got down before last light and started to walk in.  I wasn't very quick with the camera but there were at least 8 deer up in the main field and another 6 or so in the barn field.  Even though it was 11F, they knew worse was on the way and they were out feeding while they could.

Here's another example of the new phone.  This shot of the bird feeder is from my spot eating breakfast.  It's typical of what I got with the old phone.

Here's an example of what the new one can do.

I wanted to run the machines so I also did the camera tour.  This is what I was doing for dexterity on the card swaps.

There was some range in the temperature readings from these cameras.

But I can confirm that it was cold.

I used both new Rangers to get them some run time.

I also ran the Kubota.

Everything else had battery maintainers.  It's going to be 10 or 15 degrees colder this week.

This is a pretty spotted bobcat that looks young to me.

I don't think that it is the same one as in these two photos.

The usual coyotes.

This looks like a red fox.  I haven't seen them much in recent years.

I think this is a gray fox - we've had more of them.

Some shots of the turkeys on the move this week.

Big crowds of them.  I'm amazed that this feed block is still around.  It must be frozen too solid to eat or something.

The deer are amazing  to survive in this weather.

The do seem to pile into the fields at times.

A few bucks around.

Antler shedding should start from now thru March.

And here's a couple shots from Joan and I making the tour a week ago - in balmy weather.

We are shut in and bundled up to weather the storm.  15" of snow and below zero low temps for a week.  It's enough to push a guy to go to Florida.