Johnny, a friend, shot a button buck and left it at the house CHRISTMAS EVE.
It was small, so I butchered it myself.
I made sausage out of most of it. I'll post the recipe later. TJ gave me some ducks and geese. I made sausage with them too.
Bill and I shot the wood ducks again Saturday. We got 6- here's my three.
The Jersey hunter's got a buck on Dec 23rd. It had 4 points on one side but a problem with the other side. Ed hunted last Saturday and saw some small bucks and some does. But nothing he wanted to shoot. The snow geese are showing up now- maybe I can get some of them in the freezer.
I got some pictures of an 8 pointer and six pointer on my deer camera. .

snow

Bill and I shot the Woodys Saturday morning at his flood pond.
We got 4: three drakes and a hen. We could have gotten more but we always seemed to shoot at the same duck. The roads were already getting bad,it was a surprise that Bill got there. Muzzle loading season is on now. I've got to get serious about getting a nice doe for the freezer. I scraped some paths to the food plot so I could walk back to them and put a camera up at plot 1. Got some pictures of the doe I want for the freezer.
One of these will do just fine or this one maybe.
I'm getting tired of squirrel, rabbit and duck. I need some real food like a nice fat deer chop.

RABBIT HUNTING

On Saturday Rusty brought his three rabbit dogs over for some rabbit hunting.
John came along with him. We met Bill and his son Scott at the back lane at about 8:45a.m. The dogs had no problem finding rabbits at the cemetery - with all that cover thats where they were staying. We wanted to see and hear the dogs run so we took to the field for the hunt. The first rabbit was a crafty one. After an hour and a half run, I had missed him six times. Moving on, the next rabbit wasn't so lucky. John shot him in his lucky foot. That slowed him down enough for me to get him. By the time we got to the end of the back lane we had bagged a total of three rabbits. We moved on to the thicket at the wet lands. We got two more there. Went to the flood pond area and ended up with three more. The dogs did a great job with only one rabbit getting away (the one I missed six times!). I had my dogs with me working as flushers and retrievers. We ended up finding eight quail during this hunt - but did not shoot. Jay came along and supervised with his side kick grandson Dylan (Rusty's son). Hunt ended at 3:30 p.m. or so.

SOME SD PICTURES

Here's some pictures from my hunting trip.
this is george and katie
This Bill and Jinx
Here's Michael and Cheyenne
Katie loves pheasant.
Marvin blows this one out of the sky.

TWO SQUIRRELS AND A WOOD DUCK

Last Saturday morning the dogs and I found the covey of birds in the thicket by the wetlands. There were about 15 birds in it- Janey made the point. I only had a pistol and didn't shoot a bird - Janey didn't like it.
I caught a possum in the box trap that I set with the grand kids. I used the pheasant heads for bait. Caught a skunk first - then the possum.
In the afternoon went across the road and sat by the stream to wait for the wood ducks.
I sat by a big oak tree with lots of acorns on the ground. I was thinking they would fly in but one came swimming up to the tree. Janey got it up and I shot it. It fell out in the stream and Janey made a nice retrieve. Then the squirrels started working in the beech tree next to me. The first one was a long shot for my 20 with steel #4. I knocked him out to the ground and the dogs were able to catch him. That was exciting! Janey brought me that one. The next squirrel came out closer and he was dead when he hit the ground. Dakota retrieved him.
I cooked both squirrels in the crock pot with rice and gravy - very good meal.
Fried the the wood duck on the wood stove.

ON THE CAM

Found this on my new trail cam.

BACK

I got back from hunting in South Dakota 11-6-09 with lots a birds.
This is day
twos find.

Both dogs did great and I shot ok too. Janey's leg held up just fine.
Dakota stayed awake.
Before I left Ed got a 6 pointer,Ed needs to work on trigger control.
I saw 2 bucks Tuesday morning in the corn at my flood pond. Only a few ducks right now - I'm hoping they start coming in. Taylor next door has lots. We shot them last evening.
It was a blast!

video

Got a video of the buck last nite.

Got a picture of a buck and a doe at the corn on plot #1 last night with my new camera.
This buck still needs a year or so to be a real nice one.

The deer are still safe. Got a picture of a new small buck across the road.
He needs a few years to grow. Ducks haven't started coming in yet - just the usual 10 or so in the wetlands. The quail are coveyed up and you can hear them call @6:40am.
I think I heard 4 coveys this morning. Bob Long, the DNR state quail guy, is coming in the morning for the yearly count.
Saw a Cooper Hawk get a small rabbit on Sunday - I hope he leaves my quail alone!

I can post pictures again. These were across the road. No one has gotten a deer yet.I plan on going hunting after work.
All does and fawns. And some turkeys I put the pipe on the flood pond - now the pond will catch water the next time it rains.

BOW SEASON

9-16-09 The deer won the first day. I sat in a stand at plot 1.
I didn't get in the stand till 6:30 p.m. and some deer were feeding in the clover.
They ran into the woods and around 7:15 a very small fawn came out of the corn.
The deer won with Randy and Ed too.
I'm having trouble up loading pictures to the blog. All I have had on the cams are does and some of the same small bucks.
Dakota found the first brood of wild quail - they looked like about 6 weeks old. May have been 12 or so by plot 2.
9-30-09: I have hunted plot 2 twice from my duck blind and once across the road at Larry's and didn't see anything.
I have hunted plot 1 two times and have seen more deer but they were too far away and too small.
Three times this week I have seen quail in two diffent places: by the wetlands and down the back lane by plot 4. There were about 12 birds in the coveys.
The wood ducks haven't started to show up at Taylors flood ponds yet. He has blocked off the ponds and started flooding them.
I think I'll start catching water in mine soon.

SAVING FOR ED

Im going to catch him and tie him up for maybe another year or two for edClick on the picture and see the other side of his rack.

CAT

This cat may be going to waste some good mouse meat. Hope he's aiming high.
I finished up the outside of the blind. I'm going to cut some cedar trees now and finish bushing it.

LOOKS MEAN

Milton your cam had these picture. That buck looks mean.
I didn't see your stand but I didn't stay around long.
I'm going to put a cam across the road today.

ED'S CAM

Looks like only small bucks like to have their picture taken. Found these pictures on camera at field edge where plots 5&6 are.TThere are some pictures where the deer were too far from the flash - I bet they were the big ones. I cut some lanes through the food plots last evening, the deer seem to like it. There are alot of tracks and I saw a fawn on my lunch break at plot #4.above is at plot 3 and below at plot4

DUCK BLIND

Had 2+ inces of rain to make food plots grow nice.
I got the roof and sides on the duck-deer blind.
Hunters Ed and Milt came down and put up stands and a feeder Saturday. They saw some does. I got this picture near plot #4.
Monday morning on my ride I saw the buck with the extra white and a nice big turkey in the lima beans. Then in the evening there were 4 does and a buck in the clover.
Does anybody know what kind of dog this fine looking animal is?
How about this dragon fly!

BIG EARS

I checked two cams on my usual ride around this morning. Only one picture.
I think the deer are wise to my cam. I saw 6 deer last evening when I was mowing my paths, they were close to the cam at plot 2 but no pictures.

4'' RAIN

Four inches of rain kept me out of the woods and fields on Saturday so I cleaned up the cabin and it's ready for bow season. Sunday I started on a duck-deer blind at the flood pond. I'm making it 8x10. I put it in the edge of the woods and should be able to hide it from the crafty critters. There are lots of oak trees right behind it. I'll clear the low stuff and have a nice spot to watch deer feed on the acorns. The blind should be a nice place to take the grand kids.
There have been lots of deer out in the mornings and evenings. The ducks have been flying too.
These critters got caught at Eds feeder - plot 5(note: camera date is wrong).
I'm sure that coon hound lives at the end of the road.

MUSHROOM FOR SUPPER?

I think this is an oyster mushroom (non poisonous).It felt nice and soft and looked tender.I have wood duck in the freezer that will go perfect with it.
Quite often I see the 6 point bucks on the ride around but not the big guys.
This bird has been along my ride for a couple years now. He drives my dogs nuts when he's in the road.
This weekend I'm going to walk through the fields with best brood cover and try to find some broods of quail. I haven't seen any yet this summer. Want to start building my duck blinds too.