Garden Update

Having some success with beans.

Compared to last year, the zuchinni are puny.

The pumpkin crop looks like a bumper year.

There are a few pumpkin vines that aren't doing quite as well - hopefully it's an isolated incident.

The corn is really pretty sad.  We may get an ear or two.

I'm worried about the cantalope.  They got to about this stage last year and then died.  The vines aren't looking that healthy this year either.

So far, the watermelon is looking pretty good.

Beans.

New Bow, Elk Hunt Prep, and Misc

I picked up my new bow and gave it a try for the first time.  I think that the technology has certainly improved since my last bow.  I was pretty pleased with this first group at 25 yards.

I found this peice of antler in a field that I was disking.  Wonder where the rest of the rack went. 

 On September 21st, I head to Utah for my second attempt at elk hunting.  I've been trying to improve my shooting skills.  I took 15 shots from this spot at the white target on the other side of the pond.  This was 190 yards, sitting, off shooting sticks.

This is the result.  Not great but at least all 15 were on paper.  Six shots were in the black section.  The other nine shots would still have hit an elk but there's no guarentee that we won't have longer shots than this.  I really need to pull that group tighter somehow. 

This target is even worse.  I tried shooting off-hand and/or standing/supported from only 100 yards.
















In order to warm up for this trip, I pulled a few pictures from the last elk hunting trip in Idaho.  It was a little more rustic than this one is supposed to be.  It was a hell of an experience but I sure hope that we have more success this time.

Fall Foodplots and Sunflowers

I planted some fall foodplots this week.  The way that I chose to do it was to put some strips inside existing summer plots.  The fall plots are oats, brassica and clover. My intention is to give the wildlife a buffet where they can find everything that they like.

This is the soybean field at the driveway.  Every plant in this field has been grazed down to a uniform height. 

Here's a closeup of a plant - you can see the chopped off stems.

This is the soybean field by the orchard.  I disked up some strips in the soybeans.  In the outboard strip I planted oats.  In the inboard strip I planted brassica.  These should be a smorgasborg for the deer thru Christmas.

The clover plot below the pond has some strips in it too with oats and brassica.

The clover in the main field was losing a battle with weeds but it has come back pretty well since Dave mowed it for me.

I planted black oil sunflowers this year.  The deer love to eat the leaves of this variety so I had to protect it with plotsaver tape.  Now that the sunflowers have bloomed, I'm going to take the tape down and this field will be used by the deer and the doves.  The sunflowers always face southeast to catch the most sunshine.

Joan and I watched a coyote cross the field outside our dining area on Sunday morning.  It's surprising that we haven't seen a coyote or a fox on camera in a couple of months.  Here's a few other random critters though.

 

Bachelor Party Caught on Trailcam

At this time of year, the bucks are best buddies and they often travel together in "bachelor groups".  Later in the fall, the hormones start to rise as they approach breeding season.  At that point, they become territorial and aggressive often resulting in fights.  But, in late summer while they're still in velvet, they travel in groups.  Some of these bachelor groups showed up on camera this week and it was really difficult weaning the pictures down for this blog post.  Here's some of the highlights.

Looks curious doesn't he?

This is the only time that the Backwards Buck showed up on camera this week.  Apparently he's a loner.

This one is a bit of a mutant.  One side of his rack didn't develop properly.

Sure was a fun week of pictures.  There were hundreds more like these.