Perimeter Security Breached - Terrorist Attack!

Although the date is 9/11, it's not Al Qaeda this time - it's the deer.

While we were gone for two weeks, there were several severe storms.  Apparently the wind broke the plotsaver tape that I had up protecting the garden.

It was down in several areas and the deer took advantage.

Their hoofprints were everywhere.

As was the evidence of the dinner party that they had.

They decimated the corn.

Every ear was completely stripped.

To add insult to injury, they bedded down on top of the corn stalks.

Not a single ear of corn left untouched.

They also ate all the leaves off of the bean plants but they didn't eat all of the beans.

I'm really surprised how many pumpkins have been nibbled.  Every year there are always a few but this year there are more.

Doesn't matter whether green or orange, they tried them all.

This is the "prizewinner pumpkin" that I'm growing from Grant's seeds.  It was really slow starting but it seems to be going now.

The watermelons are from seeds given to me by Graham.  They seem to be doing ok.  The cantalopes completely disappeared - not sure who got them - deer? raccoons? 

The good news is that there are still hundreds of untouched pumpkins.  I think some of them will be ready for harvest next week. 

The beer can is simply for size reference.  I just happened to have one with me at the time.

I went back and looked at my seeds to see what worked and what didn't.  I never got any carrots or bell peppers (lost to weeds...).  The cantalopes were looking pretty good but, once again, I lost them right at the end.  The cucumbers grew but were never very good.  We had lots of beans and zucchini and they were both good.  I'm still hopeful on the watermelon.  And the deer truly enjoyed the corn.  I think that I will have more pumpkins than I know what to do with.

Fishing, Food, Funstuff and Foodplots

Saturday evening was beautiful and the pond was looking inviting.  I took the fly rod down and fished poppers for panfish and bass.  I had some success on the panfish until I hooked the little house by the dock - I'm sure that panfish popper is up on that roof somewhere.

Here's the evidence of my success on the panfish.  When I lost that popper, I tied a larger bass popper on.  On the second cast I got a huge hit but I didn't hook him.  I got bold and cast into a brush pile where I promptly hooked a branch.  The bass popper is still on that branch in about 6' of water.  I went in to dinner.

Recently I re-learned how to spell zucchini (not zuchinni).  Anyway, that's what these are.  We've had pretty reliable production of them this year.

After Joan grated off some her fingernail, I was recruited to complete the task (and I did it without injury).  This grated zucchini (notice spelling) was the basis of several important vegetable dishes.  For example;

Cheesey zucchini squares.  Notice missing squares.

Zucchini bread - much of it currently missing.

Transitioning from good food to the following morning.  It was quite cool and nice so I decided to take the dogs out for a game of fetch.  Sydney absolutely loves to chase a thrown ball and I've got a launcher.  Chloe is a little less interested in fetch, she's really fast, and she likes to take off.  I put her on a 50' line and let her run.  She immediately ran away and found this dead possum carcass where she proceeded to roll in it. Lovely.  I then had to chase her down with an atv, catch her, drag her in and rinse her off (she goes to grooming this week).  Not sure who killed the possum.

We had a few storms in the two weeks that we were gone.  The rain gauge had 2" in it.

Although we had an exceptionally hot year, we did manage to get little dribs and drabs of rain throughout the growing season.

It's hard to tell from this picture but this is the soybean field by the orchard.  The deer have been hammering it.  I disked a few strips in it and planted some fall food plots - oats and brassica.  With the recent rain, it's all up pretty well.

Some of the newly emerged brassica.

The oats look like grass.  I didn't really plant these seeds as deep as recommended so I was worried about it but it came up fairly well.

At the driveway stand there are soybeans, brassica and clover.

I'm surprised how many acorns have already dropped.  This is a fall and winter staple for the deer.

Acorns on the ground by the driveway stand.

The storms blew the tape down around the sunflowers and the deer invaded.  There's not one seed head left in the whole field.

Absolutely chomped off.

And also used for bedding.

Shooting for Utah

I leave in 10 days for an elk hunting trip in Utah.  I've been working on my shooting with the 30-06 that I'll be hunting with.  Here's this weeks results

This is 100 yards off of sticks (sitting).  It's really not much more than an inch group vertically but it's 4 plus inches horizontally.  Not sure what that means.  At 100 yards, I'm supposed to be sighted in at 2" high.  That will put me right on at 200 yards.

190 yards, sitting, off sticks.  A couple inches vertically but 6"+ horizontally.  Wonder what's going on with my hold horizontally.


One more weeekend to practice and then it's showtime.

Trailcam 9-11-11

Long legged fox?
Young coyote?

 Faceoff - the buck usually wins.

This appears to be the first one out of velvet.