A Buck at Last

Finally a buck has come out of hiding. I moved one of the cameras down along a creek next to a rye field that I had seen deer coming into right before dark last week. And I finally guessed right. Looks like a nice young 8 pointer along with his buddy a small spike. Also got some pics of a couple of big does. Hopefully after the holidays I can get back into some serious camera trapping.

Slump

Man, I feel like I'm in a 1 for 50 batting slump as far as getting any really good camera trap pics. But I did have a little bit of luck last week. I won the monthly drawing over at The Run*A*Round Ranch blogspot. Theresa has a monthly drawing and I was fortunate enough to win a beautiful Wood Duck drawing she had done. So it hasn't been all bad last week.

This is probably my last post before Christmas so I'd like to said thank you all for following my blog and Merry Christmas to you and your families.

Here's the awesome drawing Theresa did. I actually was smiling. My beard kind of covered it up :).

Cobbled together a few of the better pics from last week. Got a glance of a bear and a fox at the mountain pond. A small four point buck at the power line. And another legion of raccoons in the Little Woods. I'm beginning to think we need to start coon hunting instead of deer hunting :).



Masked Bandits

I had put all of my cameras back out last Sunday in hopes of getting some pics of the bucks that had made it through the hunting season. I was very disappointed in not only the number of bucks I got but with the total number of pics I got of deer at all. My farmer buddy saw one of the bigger bucks on the power line about dark one evening last week but unfortunately he didn't go by the camera. I believe the big 8 pointer with the scar across his nose is still out there also. Hopefully better luck next week.

I did get some nice shots of raccoons out foraging. As big as they are they most be finding plenty to eat.

Scavengers

I put one of my cameras in the area that I gutted my deer at to see what would be by to scavenge on the free meal. I got the usual suspects....buzzards, crows, raccoons, and a fox. The fox got there a little late after the more tasty morsels had been eaten. It amazes me how fast the buzzards finds any type of food like this. But when you're as homely as they are I guess you have to be first on the scene.

Back In Civilization

I'm baaack :)! Back where I have to mind my manners...say please and thank you and no belching at the table. Bathing regularly....O.K. I'll admit I have to have a shower at least every other day or I go crazy.

I had an O.K. hunting season so far. We killed a couple of nice buck. I had to settle for a 7 point cull buck. He had a tall spindly rack. Not nearly the type rack a deer of his size and age should have. It did dress out at 155 lbs. so I got a good start on filling the freezer. Just didn't see many shooter bucks this year but still enjoyed the time in the woods and at the cabin.

I pulled two of my cameras before hunting season started so I only have two cameras out. Didn't get a whole lot the last couple of weeks. Below are some I liked from earlier this month and last month. The first three are from the day after the early October snow we got. I liked the background colors in them. And the last three are a reminder that I'm hunting on a working farm. My farmer buddy cleaned out his manure pit the week before the season started. Luckily my camera was in the corner of the field at the gate and didn't get sprayed. Remember the dates are off on this camera as the display has gone bad and I can't chnage anything.

Back to work tomorrow and a normal schedule. Got a couple of more hunting days scheduled and hope to get back to Maryland fishing again before the season goes out up there. Going to try to catch up on all the blogs I regularly follow. I'm sure I've missed some interesting posts.

Thievin' Bears

Couple of pics of the twins and momma at the mountain pond last month. We had an interesting encounter with them Saturday night. Yesterday was the start of our muzzleloader season and a friend of mine killed a nice 7 point buck. We hung him on the hanging pole beside the cabin to let him cool out before we skinned him and processed the meat today. We had just started watching the Alabama/LSU football game when one of us walked out on the porch to get a beer from the cooler. He glanced over at the deer and there was the sow and twins eyeballing the deer. They were probably thinking they at hit the jackpot and dinner was about to be served. To make a long story short after running them off the third time they finally took the hint and gave up on the deer. That is the first time we've ever had a bear try to poach one of our deer.

Be hunting pretty much the rest of the month so I'll be AWOL from blog land.

Snowy Hike

We took our annual fall hike Sunday in some very unexpected ground cover...SNOW. While we occasionally have some snow in October we usually don't have 4 to 6". And it was the first time in over 25 years we had snow to hike through. Most of the top of the mountain had 8 to 10" of snow but it began to melt pretty quickly once the sun came up. Of course that also caused the snow hanging on the trees to fall on us during most of the trip.

The crew wondering what the hell are we doing out here.

The sun just coming up in the east. 

Looking out to the west across the valley. I was a little

disappointed in how hazy it was. 

U.S. survey marker on top of Grubbs Knob.

Log Walkers

The bears seemed to enjoy walking the log at the mountain pond set last week. First a cub tried out it's tight rope walking skills and then two bigger bears decided it would be fun the walk the log. Please excuse the slight blur on the pics. Another bear just had to stick it's muddy nose on the camera lens before these pics were taken.