Dip and Pack Fail, Foodplot Struggles, Equipment Repairs

In early April of 2025, I hunted in Argentina. This was the post about that hunt Red Stag Hunt - Argentina

This is a photo of the red stag that I took on that hunt.

At the outfitters recommendation, I decided to ship the cape back for taxidermy in the US.  They use a local taxidermist/exporter in Buenos Aires that would preserve the cape, prepare it for shipping, and handle the export.  He was also to do Euro skulls on the blackbuck and fallow deer. I had never done this before - on my Africa hunts, I had the taxidermy done over there.  But the outfitter told me this was the best way to handle it coming from Argentina.

I made arrangements with my taxidermist at home to do the red stag but he was starting to ease toward retirement.  He agreed to take this one on because it looked interesting.  I expected that it would take 6 months for the export - even that seemed ridiculous for salting, crating and shipping a head and hide.

Anyway, after a year had gone by and it still hadn't been exported, my taxidermist informed me that he was now completely retired and accepting no new heads. I started a search for someone to handle it, and with a friend's recommendation, I talked to Mike Lingsch of Summit Taxidermy.  He had recently recovered from cancer, was limiting the amount of work that he was taking, but he thought this would be an interesting project.  He agreed to take it on.

I stayed in touch with Alfredo P Company Alfredo P Company trying to expedite the export.  They just kept saying that they were waiting for export permits from the government.  I expressed concern about the quality of the cape after all this time and they told me it had been inspected and it was perfect. Eventually the permits were issued, the crate flew to Chicago via Houston.  Coppersmith handled the import and arranged for a USDA approved taxidermist to receive/inspect it. Then they arranged for the transport to Summit Taxidermy where it was received on July 1. Almost 15 months.

On July 2, as I was driving to Chicago for the 4th, I got a call from Mike who said "take a look at the videos that I just sent you - we've got a problem".  Mike had videoed the opening of the shipment and you can see the videos here. Mike's Videos Here

The cape was still moist and pliable inside the plastic wrapping.  It was brown and didn't show much typical white from salt. And, it was infested with bugs and was ruined. The hair pulled right out of the hide.

I immediately notified Alfredo P Company and the outfitter.  After 4 days when I didn't get a reply, I sent a "please acknowledge" email and only heard from the outfitter - nothing from Alfredo P.  It's now been a week and still "crickets".

Anyway, Mike did a great job with a bad situation.  He said he's been receiving overseas trophies for 24 years and this is the first time that he's had an insect infestation like this. I met with him yesterday and he's going to salvage 3 good Euro mounts.

Meanwhile, out at the farm, I find myself "behind the curve" as usual. This is supposed to be a sunflower plot that is buckwheat, grass and weeds.

This is supposed to be a cowpea plot with some buckwheat.  I think I can see evidence of both among the weeds.

Some of the clover plots have had a grass and weed explosion.

Some are not too bad.

My bush-hog is down so I decided to do some spraying.  You're supposed to do this when weeds are less than 6" tall.  I'm late.

My apples look ok inside the electric fence but the peaches are showing signs of distress from "wet feet".  Clay soil drains slowly after a lot of rain.

But my cameras showed deer inside the fence for the first time in a year.

I found that the ground wire was off the grounding stake.  I think some of my helpers got a little zealous with the weed-wacker.

I had bush-hogged some of my trails previously and somehow managed to break off the top of a lift cylinder on the three point hitch.

Van arranged for Darren to come out and fix me up while Van worked on the zero turn mower.

The fawns are everywhere now.  We watched one splashing in the pond from up on the porch.

I'm not sure what was so delectable here - I had several photos like this.

I had recently been thinking that the number of coyote photos seemed less this year.

That changed this week.

It seems even the turkey vultures knew that the power was down on the fence.

Lots of turkey activity.

Including at the bird feeders.

And here's a couple shots of the areas where I did the timber stand improvement.

Some of the girdle and spray trees are obviously affected and some aren't showing any sign yet.

Anyway, my equipment should be back in service soon and hopefully I can catch up.